FAQ Voice Reader Studio 15 – Frequently Asked Questions

Voice Reader Studio 15 is a discontinued software version.
Support and new activations are not supported anymore.
For clients with Voice Reader Studio 15 we offer an Update to Voice Reader Studio 22 for a reduced price.

Order Update:  Download Shop Linguatec Text to Speech

System requirements Voice Reader Studio 15:

Answers to the system requirements

1. System requirements, supported applications and file formats

  • Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 (32- and 64-bit)
  • Available disk space: Up to 2 GB for each language
  • 2 GB RAM
  • Internet access for product activation

Plugins are available for the following MS Office programs:

  • Microsoft Word (Version 2007, 2010 and 2013)
  • Microsoft Outlook (Version 2007, 2010 and 2013)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (Version 2007, 2010 and 2013)

The following file formats are supported by Voice Reader Studio 15 and can be opened directly in the editor via File – Open:

  • Text files (*.txt )
  • RTF files (*.rtf )
  • Word files (*.docx, *.doc )
  • HTML files (*.htm, *.html )
  • MHT files (*.mht )
  • Epub files (*.epub )
  • PDF files (*.pdf )
  • ODT files (*.odt )

Answers to usability

11. The pronunciation of a word can be different if it is standing alone or in a sentence context.
It can occur in particular cases that the pronunciation of a word is different if it is read out alone as a single word or on the other hand in a sentence context. This is related to the Voice Reader Studio text to speech technology. We have specified it here. In general it may help to create a dictionary entry for the word with an orthographic or phonetic transcription

12. Distortions and interruptions occur when using the voice output

If distortions or interruptions occur during voice output, the processing speed of the hard disk is not fast enough. The voice output implemented in Voice Reader Studio 15 is based on dynamic processing. No more than 200 MB can be loaded into the memory at once. No more than this can be processed dynamically. The data for voice output are however very large. If the hard disk does not have the corresponding resources to be able to process the data fast enough, a possible consequence is “stuttering” of the voice output. This behavior is rectified by a faster hard disk.

  1. This can often be achieved by regular defragmentation of the hard disk. Fragmented areas of memory are then put back together. This makes data processing faster again.
  2. Please ensure that the Voice Reader Studio 15 program directory has been selected as a trusted directory in your antivirus software. Otherwise antivirus processes will regularly access it and also slow down data processing.
  3. As a test, close all other applications apart from Voice Reader Studio 15 and compare the behavior.
  4. Ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for Voice Reader Studio 15.

13. The graphical user interface is not displayed as usual anymore or reading aloud is not possible anymore (but worked before)

Perhaps you obtain the message “Voice Reader Studio 15 Edit is not working anymore”.

Please delete the xml files of ‘Voice Reader Studio 15’. They will be regenerated by the application within its next start.
The folder under which they can be found depends which installation options you had chosen.

If you installed for all users: C:\ProgramData\Linguatec\VoiceReaderStudio15\Data\Layout
If you installed for the current user: C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Linguatec\VoiceReaderStudio15\Data\Layout

If you can’t find the folder ProgramData, please ensure that in the folder “Options” of your Explorer (on the tab “View“) the setting for hiding files and folders is set to “Off“.

Please check further on in the Task Manager, that no process of ‘Voice Reader Studio 15’ is still running. If yes, please close the processes manually and restart the application.

14. Automatically reading of multi-lingual vocabulary lists with the help of Voice Reader Studio 15

What you need: Voice Reader Studio 15 German with the multi-lingual voice Anna-ML.
(Or: Voice Reader Studio 15 French with the multi-language voice Audrey-ML or Voice Reader Studio 15 Italian with the voice Alice-ML)
The multi-language voices have knowledge in German, British English, French, Spanish and Italian. )

Follow these instructions:

Please open Voice Reader Studio 15 and enter a term in the required language, e.g. English. Then select the German multi-language voice Anna-ML. Mark the English term and select “Insert Voice Markup ” > “Language (only for ML- voice ) ” > “English ( British ) ” > “OK” .
The voice markup consists of two parts. There is a start tag, which is followed by the term and it ends with an end tag behind it.
Example: <Lang=eng/>English vocabulary<Lang=END_eng/>

Please open your multi-lingual vocabulary spreadsheet in Microsoft Word. We assume you have a two-column table with column 1 (= English text) and column 2 (= German Text).

first course Vorspeise
aromatic fish chowder Fischsuppe mit Gewürzen
asparagus omelette Omelette mit Spargelspitzen
assorted cheese gemischte Käseplatte

Now insert in Word

  1. a new, blank column on the left (right mouse button > insert > insert left) and
  2. a new, empty column on the right (right mouse button > insert > insert right) of the desired column (in this case the column with the English terms).
  3. Select and mark the entire column on the left and paste into it automatically the start tag of the voice markup – which you created previously in the editor of Voice Reader Studio 15. (e.g. for British English: <Lang=eng/> )
  4. Select and mark the column on the right and paste into it automatically the end tag of the voice markup (e.g. for British English: <Lang=END_eng/>)

The table now might look like this:

<Lang=eng/> first course <Lang=END_eng/> Vorspeise
<Lang=eng/> aromatic fish chowder <Lang=END_eng/> Fischsuppe mit Gewürzen
<Lang=eng/> asparagus omelette <Lang=END_eng/> Omelette mit Spargelspitzen
<Lang=eng/> assorted cheese <Lang=END_eng/> gemischte Käseplatte

Copy and paste the table from Word into the editor of Voice Reader Studio 15 and let it be read out for you. Make sure to have selected a multi-language voice.

15. End of line is end of sentence

Voice Reader Studio 15 has a versatile editor with formatting options and therefore the use of line brakes has influence on the reading segmentation of Voice Reader Studio 15.
A line break can be initiated by a hard line return or a soft return / line feed.

    1. A soft return / line feed is generated when pressing the Shift key simultaneously with the Enter key. If the displaying of the formatting characters in the text is active, the soft return is visualized by the symbol ¬ .
      A soft return will be interpreted as end of sentence (and will therefore cause a pause) when the reading segmentation is set to: “by sentence” (“Reading” tab – group “Settings” – button “Options ” – Section “Reading Options” – Read and highlight text: by sentence)
      Soft returns / line feeds won’t influence the reading, when the reading option “by paragraph” is active.
    2. A hard line return is generated when pressing simply the Enter key. It is displayed as: ¶
      A hard line return is interpreted in Voice Reader Studio 15 generally as end of sentence.

16. How can line breaks be removed automatically in a text document?
If you want to have read out a text document in which hard line returns are used at the end of the lines and you want to avoid that the end of the line is interpreted as end of sentence (see also FAQ “end of line is end of sentence”) you can remove them automatically with the following steps.
Please select the whole text (CTRL+A), copy it with CTRL+C into the clipboard and paste it into the Editor of Windows (Start – All Programs – Accessories – Notepad) via Ctrl+V.
Please save your text as HTML document (File – Save As – Save as type: All Files – File Name:. <*Filename>.html). Now open the HTML document in Voice Reader Studio 15 (“File” tab – button: “Open”) and let it be read out to you.

Phonetic Alphabet

17. Tipps & Tricks for creating lexicon entries by using orthographic or phonetic transcriptions
Please click  here, to download the pdf.

18. Phonetic Alphabet overview for all Voice Reader Studio 15 languages

Click onto the desired language and open the related Phonetic Alphabet for this language as PDF.
Detailed information concerning the creation of dictionary entries via phonetic transcription can be found in the manual chapter 2.7.2.

Detailed information how to insert a phonetic transcription in the text editor via Voice Markups can be found in the  manual chapter 2.6.6.

Danish Greek Swedish
German Italian Spanish
English (American) Catalan Spanish (Argentine)
English (Australian) Dutch Spanish (Mexican)
English (British) Norwegian Czech
English (Scottisch) Polish Turkish
Finnish Portuguese Hungarian
French Portuguese (Brazilian)
French (Canadian) Russian

Answers to the Microsoft Office Integration of Voice Reader Studio 15

19. Which office-versions are supported
Voice Reader Studio 15 contains plugins for the following MS-Office Applications:

  • Microsoft Word (2007, 2010 and 2013)
  • Microsoft Outlook (2007, 2010 and 2013)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (2007, 2010 and 2013)

20. The MS Office-integration of Voice Reader Studio 15 is not available in MS Word, MS Outlook or MS Power Point
Please be sure that the desired Office application is activated in the Integration Manager. Please start the Integration Manager with full administrative rights (right click on its icon and choose “run as administrator” from the context menu) and activate either “for current user” or “for all users” (depends on the setting which you have chosen during the installation), or activate both. Then restart the Office application.

Please be sure that the processes of Voice Reader Studio 15 are not blocked from Firewall or Antivirus or any other security setting. E.g.

  • Be sure that your firewall settings allow the access to Voice Reader Studio 15 and its processes.
  • Does your Antivirus contain an Office-Macro-Protection? Be sure that it doesn’t block the loading of the Voice Reader Studio 15 Plug-in.
  • Please be sure that the Voice Reader Studio 15 program folders are set free in your Antivirus.

In the event that the add-in has been deactivated in the respective Office application (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint), you can activate it as follows:
Go to the Options section of the File tab in Word, Outlook or PowerPoint. Please select the display of deactivated elements in the Add-Ins area. This is done by selecting the option Deactivated Elements in the Manage section and then clicking Go to…
In the Deactivated Elements window, select the deactivated Voice Reader Studio 15 add-in (if available) and click on Activate.
Afterwards, restart Word, or Outlook, or PowerPoint.