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16 Verifying Entries
with Text to Speech

Technique

xcel includes a powerful feature known as Text to Speech that can
Save Time By help you through the drudgery of checking and verifying the accu-
Eracy of your data entries. By using Text to Speech, you can have
Using Speak on Enter as
you make data entries your computer read out loud your data entries either as you make them
or afterwards. As you listen to the computer read the data entries, you
Having the computer read can check the hard copy from which they came to ensure that you
back entries in a cell haven’t made any typos. If you notice a discrepancy between a spoken
range
data entry and what’s on the paper copy, you can stop Text to Speech
Selecting the perfect and make the necessary corrections before continuing with the reading.
voice and speed
To use the Text to Speech feature, your computer must be equipped with
a sound card and have access to speakers or headphones (minimal
requirements that I’ll bet every computer that can run Excel 2003 can
easily meet). Note that you can use Text to Speech without having
installed and set up Excel’s Speech Recognition feature for entering data
entries by voice and issuing voice commands.

“Can You Hear Me Now?”

To use the Text to Speech feature, choose Tools➪Speech➪Show Text to
Speech Toolbar. If the Text to Speech feature isn’t already installed on
your computer, Excel asks if you want to install this feature. You then
follow the prompts to install this feature. (Make sure that you have the
Office 11 CD-ROM handy when you do this or make sure that you can
provide the Windows Installer with the path to the Office program files
on your network.) When Text to Speech is installed, Excel displays the
Text to Speech toolbar, shown in Figure 16-1.