Windows 7: Adding TTS Voices

That really didn't answer the question.  Options other than Anna need to be included - not everyone likes her.  Not everyone can hear her properly.  Options really are needed.  For folks with disabilities like I work with - she doesn't cut it for most of them.  We've used other SAPI 5 compliant voices in previous versions of Windows - but in 7 but they don't seem to load or work no matter what we do.  And I can't tell my students they can't upgrade to newer versions of Windows or they won't be able to use their computer - that seems kinda silly.  It's all about accessibility, folks.

This may sound utterly ignorant of me, but why is there a drop down box when there is only one option. This means either Microsoft intended to bring out more speech options (probably at a price) or that at some time in the development process of the OS, someone specifically decided against putting other voices in. The other quarrel I have is that microsoft shouldn't advertise 7 as more accessible, when it has specifically had options taken out, as you cannot compare the difference of the removal of one to the addition of any number of options (i.e. removing the ability to change the voice on the narrator programme may not be outweighed by having 6 new ways to have your computer peel a banana, i know this isn't true its just an example)  I therefore suggest that when developing and going through the testing phases of windows 8 or whatever it happens to be called you not only consider adding in other voices, but also that you consider your marketing strategies, and how they can or may be percieved as misleading from certain viewpoints (kind of breaking the Sale of Goods act in Britain). Accessibility is a very subjective measure, and should not be presented as a fact. However amount of options is objective (factual from any viewpoint) and can be used as a marketing standpoint.

I too have been searching for an answer to this. After spending a load of cash on Windows 7 Ultimate, once again Microsoft has NO answers! In Windows 7, there is only one voice in Narrator. This is what we get for our money? I expect more from Microsoft! I am tired of wasting my money on products that are substandard and having Microsoft engineers tell me to go buy a third party product to do what I was promised that the product I already purchased would do.

I'll skip just how much i hate miscrosoft anna because it would probably get me banned or my message deleted. I have a reading disability and i can't understand ms anna. So when i got a new computer with anna as my only option i wanted to break it violently. Instead i used my head and looked for months until i figured out a fix for this problem. It's a third party program called TextALoud can read books to me in a different voice then ms anna. it seems that all the voices i had bought in the past and installed on my old computer work. This is because TextALoud has an "in program" drop down box to choose a different voice and all the extra voices i install are listed there and mostly work. I do have to say, 1 of them (my favorite voice to use) crashes my computer when i use it, but all the rest work.

This isn't quite the whole story.

From what I have experienced, Office 2010 uses a different TTS voice than Narrator's Microsoft Anna and it all depends on what language the document or program is set to.

For example, by default, Outlook will read my emails in a more natural British Male voice.

However, I downloaded a female voice (Hazel) that reads out anything that is set to American.

There deosn't seem to be a control panel to manage these Office TTS voices.

You can read more about it on my blog article, Getting Outlook 2010 to read your emails out loud including links to download new voices for different languages.

Please note, this will only change the voice in Office programs on Vista and above. You also, strangely, can't choose them as a voice for the Narrator program.