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YouTube clip of Orato

Orato is a free text reader which can be installed on your PC or run from a USB Pen Drive for portable use.

It can read text from:

  • Microsoft Word,
  • PDFs,
  • emails,
  • the internet.

You can download Orato directly from:

How do I use Orato?

  1. Select some text;
  2. Press Ctrl-C to copy it;
  3. Click the Speak button in the Orato window.

If you'd prefer not to have the text displayed in the Orato window, untick Show text when reading in the Options. 


Reading a PDF file

When reading a PDF (such as a Digital Exam paper) we recommend changing one of the settings.

  1. Click on the Options button,
  2. untick Automatically start reading clipboard.

If you leave this option selected, Orato will read out the text and then repeat the first few characters, which is disconcerting.


Using different voices

  1. Click on the Options button,
  2. Click Set Voice in the Voice section,
  3. A pop-up Speech Properties will appear,
  4. Select your preferred voice from the Voice selection list,
  5. Press OK.