“My In-Depth Natural Readers Review”

In this Natural Readers review – I will fully review this text to speech software I have used every day since downloading it on September 25, 2008.

I will answer the following important questions – which should concern you as a potential purchaser of this product:

1) Is Natural Readers an effective product ?

2) What are the benefits of Natural Readers ?

3) Is Natural Readers Easy to use ?

4) Does Natural Readers have any faults ?

5) Is Natural Readers good value for money ?

6) Is Natural Readers the best text to speech software on the market ?

 

Question: “What Exactly Is Natural Readers?”

Answer – Natural Readers is software that converts all your computer text into spoken words using natural human voices.

Natural Readers reads out loud all the words on your computer screen – so you don’t have to.

As I discovered after not taking care of my eyes for many years and suffering permanent partial sight-loss – not only does your time imperceptably slip through your fingers – but so can your perfect eyesight.

Natural Readers frees you and your eyes from the daily punishment and eye-strain you get from staring at a brightly lit computer screen.

It also frees up your time (as I will explain in a moment) allowing you to get away from your computer and get on with more enjoyable and productive ways to spend the hours in your day.

If you need to relax or move away from your computer to stretch, exercise, or complete other tasks – Natural Readers makes that possible.

While the information you need to absorb is read aloud to you by natural human voices in the accents or languages you choose – you are free to move about – go jogging – iron a shirt – water the flowers – drive your car – bake a cake (I’ll stop now – but the list is endless!).

This Is How Natural Readers Works

As well as reading to you directly from your computer – with a couple of clicks, Natural Readers can also convert ALL your web text, emails, documents, eBooks etc. into mp3 audio files.

With these mp3 files on your mp3 player you’re now free to sit in the sun, stroll by the river or go for a drive.

Listening to your emails, documents, reports, fiction and non-fiction in this way – you are now free from the confines and restrictions of your computer.

[I do my research while walking in the park now and also while travelling to see clients]

So – for you – no more sitting in Starbucks dependent on their wi-fi to feed your notebook or laptop.

Now you can take your coffee to go.

So whether you read sttuff for your business or want to have a book read to you on vacation – Natural Readers human voices will effortlessly read it all to you.

“Why I Decided to Buy Natural Readers”

Back in 2008 working as a commercial writer I was spending a lot of my time reading research material from the Internet and then writing and editing large chunks of text on my computer screen.

As a consequence – I was suffering from tiredness, eye strain and headaches. (My partial sight-loss came later)

I realized that Natural Readers would allow me to listen to all my research documents, emails and reports without having to wear my eyes out staring into that bright light on my screen for hours and hours.

Furthermore, I figured Natural Readers would free me from the office so I could still keep up-to-date on projects and client requirements while far away from my computer. And I could do this while walking in the park or driving to meetings.

In short – It would save lots of my time and stop my eye strain.

This seemed to me a very fair return for the reasonable cost of the software.

“Which English Accents and Foreign Languages Does Natural Readers Offer?”

Last time I looked at the Natural Readers website . . . they had both male and female voices in the following range of accents and languages that work with the software:

• • English (with US voices)
  • English (with British voices)
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Swedish
  • Arabic

All accents and languages come with both male and female voices.

“What Is the Quality of the Voices?”

Before taking out my credit card I tested a good number of Text to Speech (TTS) software products.

The first thing I realized is that the free TTS versions are clunky to operate and robotic sounding.

As I was planning to use this TTS software daily, I wanted to use one that would be pleasant to listen to.

I found the free versions are all pretty irritating to listen to for more than a minute or two.

On the other hand – Natural Reader voices “shocked” me (no other word for it). The quality is extremely high as they use real voices, and you can listen quite happily for hours.

Here are some of the voice benefits I discovered:

1. You can change speaking voices whenever you want. and switching from male to female or from language to language takes a second or two.
2. You can download additional voices and languages as required.
3. All the human voices have adjustable speeds. You can speed them up or slow them right down to suit your ear. Fast – if you want to skim through to get the general meaning of something – or slow right down – if you need to carefully absorb information. There are a good number of speed settings to suit all situations.
4. Natural Readers has an editor capability that allows you to alter pronunciation. You can also add new acronyms – or add new or unusual words or jargon, and the edit controls are really simple and intuitive to use.

“Here’s Another Really Useful Benefit with Natural Readers”

 

One additional advantage I discovered (that they don’t talk about on their website) is the ability to use Natural Reader to check your written work before you send it out.

I don’t know about you – but I find it difficult to spot every typo and silly error when typing on my computer.

Because the natural voices are so clear – it’s easy to play back your own emails and other written work and simply hear the errors and mistakes in your writing that aren’t picked up by your eyes or a spellchecker.

e.g

“We can offer you a good rat on your loan.” (Yep – pretty silly error but your spellchecker won’t find it)

Also – listening to your own writing is a really good way to discover whether your words flow naturally, and will therefore be easy to read by your target audience.

“Are there Different Versions of Natural Readers?”

There are a number of different versions of Natural Readers which are designed to suit people and groups with variable needs:

Natural Readers FREE
After downloading the free version I was not impressed. Yes – it shows you how text-to-speech actually works – but the voices are not “natural”. The clunky and robotic voices supplied with the free version are (to me) irritating and I would be unable to use them for anything other than basic curiosity.

Also – the free version lacks any useful functionality in my opinion and is probably only given away to attract you towards the paid version.

Natural Readers PERSONAL (PC and MAC Versions)

• 2 Natural Voices included.
• Reads ANY text aloud including Web Pages, Word Docs, Open Office, Emails, PDF Docs, E-Books and all other text files.
• Auto installs user toolbars for MS Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Floating toolbar (always visible) for all other programs and text.
• Change reading speed and human reading voice.
• Converts written text to audio files for listening while out-and-about (can create very large audio files – up to 4 million characters).
• Pronunciation Editor to change how individual words sound – and to add new words and acronyms.

Natural Readers PROFESSIONAL

• 4 Natural Voices included and comes with all the same features as the Personal version plus:
• Audio File Editor & Recorder & Audio File Merger.
• WAV/MP3 Converter.
• Batch File Converter.
• Conversation control.

Natural Readers ULTIMATE (Pro OCR)

• Includes 6 Natural Voices and incorporates all features of Pro Version Plus:
• Converts scanned text documents and printed books into the spoken voice.
• Also readily converts text images from digital cameras and cell phones (mobiles) to the spoken word.

There are also Natural Readers versions specifically designed for:

• Software Developers where the voice reading capabilities can be integrated into software programs.
• Educational Purposes with many special features to enhance learning in the classroom. Comes in Silver, Gold and Platinum capability levels.

All versions come with both male and female voices.

Additional voices (which can all be previewed on the Natural Readers website) can be easily downloaded at any time.

For further details, prices and to purchase your copy – visit > > > Natural Readers Home Page

 

Natural Readers Is Very Simple to Use

As you install the software you will be asked whether you want simple user toolbars set up in Microsoft Office modules such as Word and PowerPoint.

It will also create toolbars in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

For example – here’s the toolbar for MS Word:

 

 

And here’s the floating toolbar – that is always in view and can be used to turn any text instantly into spoken voices:

 

 

 

“Is Natural Readers REALLY Worth the Money?”

When I bought Natural Readers back in 2008 I was more concerned with my eyesight than the price of the software.

Since buying this product I have added other voices – because I like to change now and then – and I have also updated my copy to the latest version.

This is the ONLY piece of software I bought that I sincerely use every single day that my computer is switched on.

To be perfectly honest – if they doubled the price – or even trippled it – I would still buy a copy.

For the sake of your eyesight now and in the future, I hope you pick up a copy. Regardless of the sheer pleasure and ease of use I believe this product will help spare your eyes from the sort of damage you can only appreciate when it’s too late.

Whatever you decide to do – I wish you the very best of health.