Learn how to use text to speech on Lenovo laptop with Windows using the built-in Narrator, Speechify, and other third-party software.

Text to speech on Lenovo laptop

Lenovo is one of the world’s most popular laptop and desktop manufacturers. Like Intel, most Lenovo laptops come with Windows 10, meaning you can use them for anything. Nothing can limit you aside from resources and parts.

As a Windows configuration, a Lenovo laptop comes with full accessibility features, especially for people with a visual impairment or reading difficulties. Text to speech is the best way to unlock full access and improve quality of life.

What is text to speech?

Text to speech, TTS, or read-aloud technology can process digital text from multiple files and mediums and turn it into speech. Depending on the software, TTS readers can use computer-generated synthesized speech or machine learning and AI-generated natural speech.

Primarily used as assistive technology for the visually impaired, dyslexic users, ADHD students, and others with reading difficulties, TTS software can have many other applications, including:

• It can function as a literacy support tool and improve language recognition skills.
• It can help people read faster and better.
• It can help children improve their writing skills.
• It can help people learn foreign languages faster and improve social communication skills.
• It can enable multitasking to boost productivity while studying or working.

If you want to use text to speech on a Lenovo laptop, a couple of options are worth considering.

Narrator – the default text to speech app on Lenovo laptops

You can buy a Lenovo laptop with or without an operating system. While some come clean or with Ubuntu installed, most Lenovo laptops have Windows 10 already installed. Remember that Lenovo laptops can serve as productivity workstations or gaming systems. Therefore, Windows makes the perfect companion OS.

For this reason, Lenovo users can access a built-in TTS reader called Narrator. It’s a default Windows service that can process on-screen information and read it aloud for the visually impaired, dyslexic users, people recovering from eye surgery, etc.

Here’s how to use a Lenovo laptop’s default text to speech app:

• Type “Settings” in the Windows Search text box and hit “Enter” or click the “Settings” icon in the “Start Menu.”
• Navigate to the “Ease of Access” tab to access the accessibility options.
• Go to the “Narrator” tab and switch the toggle to the “On” position.
• Select your preferred start-up options.
• Click “OK.”

These actions will bring up a new window, the Narrator control panel. It’s best to configure the app to your liking as the default settings don’t make for the smoothest experience.

The following four options may need changing:

• Narrator’s voice
• Voice pitch
• Voice volume
• The volume of other apps while the Narrator app is active

Naturally, you can make even more changes after enabling the Narrator app to customize the narration for various tasks like reading documents, folders, the screen, capitalized headings, etc.

Narrator pairs well with the built-in Windows voice recognition software and voice commands. It allows voice typing and reading your text back to you.

It’s worth noting that you can control Narrator using the keyboard, on-screen keyboard, dialog, and braille interfaces.

Alternatives to Narrator for Lenovo laptops

Although the built-in Narrator app for Lenovo laptops does a decent job and is customizable, it lacks the pronunciation accuracy and realistic qualities of third-party TTS screen readers.

Consider the following alternatives if you want a better multisensory reading experience with natural-sounding voices.

Read Aloud

Read Aloud is a popular Google Chrome extension you can easily use on a Lenovo laptop. It doesn’t drain many resources and offers support for many languages and voices.

The software provides accent diversity between its virtual male and female voice actors and supports multiple digital text file formats. While the app does complex tasks, it has one of the most straightforward user interfaces, a simple text field, and an intuitive toolbar.

Murf.ai

Murf.ai specializes in creating voiceovers for digital text and enabling users to customize the speech. The text to speech program has over 100 AI-generated voices and supports 19 languages. It allows users to control the playback speed, pitch, and style. You can even add cool effects.

In addition, Murf.ai has a grammar assistant, which is great for ensuring articles, documents, and other texts don’t have errors that may confuse the reader or result in incorrect pronunciation.

However, Murf.ai is a complex platform. While it can serve as text to speech software for Lenovo laptops, its main benefits apply to content creators. Still, Murf.ai can be a reliable solution for many applications if you’re a content creator using Lenovo laptops.

NaturalReader

NaturalReader is a TTS app for Microsoft Windows and other platforms focusing on personal use, leisure, and study. It can help dyslexic readers develop their reading and writing skills and other users learn a new language like Portuguese.

The text to speech tool has many features like different interfaces, a built-in browser, dyslexia fonts, and OCR technology. That means you can use NaturalReader to extract digital text from locked files like PDFs, screenshots, scanned images, etc.

Speechify

Speechify can convert digital text from PDFs, emails, web pages, TXT files, Word docs, Google Docs, and images into speech. In addition, the text to speech software program offers many AI-generated high-quality voices that make narrations sound more human and realistic.

You can use Speechify on your laptop using the Chrome browser extension or the Safari browser extension. In addition, the app lets you save narrations in multiple audio file formats, which is great for listening to articles and documents offline.

Try Speechify for free on your Lenovo laptop

If you want a well-rounded text to speech experience on a Lenovo laptop, Speechify doesn’t disappoint. It offers scanning, up to 5x playback speeds, audio skipping, highlighting and note-taking tools, and other customization options.

With Speechify, one license is enough to use the app on iOS devices like iPads, iPhones, Android mobile devices, and Apple Macbooks.

Check out everything Speechify has to offer with the free trial and install the Google Chrome extension within seconds.

FAQ

What is the text to speech key?

To activate the Narrator app on your Windows 10 Lenovo laptop, you can press the “Windows Logo Key + Ctrl + Enter” keyboard shortcut to bring up the Narrator home screen window. Alternatively, you can ask Cortana to turn on Narrator.

Can I activate speech recognition on my Lenovo laptop?

To activate the built-in Windows speech recognition feature, you can press the “Windows Key + Ctrl + S” keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, you can type “Speech Recognition” in the Windows Search box and go to the feature’s dedicated accessibility tab.