Text-to-Speech voice changed overnight, how can I get the old voices back?

Question

Hello dear community!

For as long as I can remember I have used Microsoft George for all my Text-to-Speech work in Word. Today, all of a sudden, his voice is gone from Word and when I try to use the Text-to-Speech option, it only lets me choose between two undefined voices only called "Male" and "Female". I want George back to read for me, the others I find highly irritating now.

How can I get him back into Word? I have him still selected in the overall settings of my Laptop. My Word is the newest version, Version 2201 it says.

How can I get the old voices back?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi JohannaEcker,

I understand voice Microsoft George is replaced by Female/Male in Office apps. Apart from Microsoft George, I believe you might also have voices like Microsoft Hazel and Susan and your Office and Windows language is set to English (UK), right?

Based on your post, I tested on my end, I saw the same thing, even though Windows and Microsoft Office language is set to English (UK), Word still shows Male and Female in Read aloud.

In earlier Office build, the voices were set to ‘Hazel', 'Susan' and 'George' in English (UK) (in US English they were David, Mark and Zira). Recently, there were many reports in the forum where many customers reported they prefer Male/Female voices. Here’s the thread like for reference:

How to restore Word Read Aloud original voice - Microsoft Community

And based on my test and comments from the customers in the above post, seems like voices are changed back to Male/Female.

In this case, I will request you send the feedback to the product team from the Word application itself (click File>Feedback or **** click Help on the ribbon and select Feedback.). This is the quickest route to get your comments to the developers’ ears, this way the related team will know about your requirement.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

With sincerest regards,

Neha