Working in Pretoria, South Africa, missionary Pieter Schutte needed a Text to Speech program to convert sermons and other missionary teachings for those with poor reading skills or impaired vision. After a Google search on the terms "text to voice program" for the right software to meet his needs, he quickly settled on TextAloud Text to Speech (http://www.Nextup.com). TextAloud proved to be the right choice for Schutte, who found the program easy to install and use, with excellent voice quality as well, even without the purchase of Premium voices. "I really wanted to present the Gospel in sound to those with access to modern technology," Schutte comments. "And TextAloud was the perfect solution."
The retired director of a school of Chemical Engineering at a local Technical University, Schutte found his calling for missionary work in the 1980s, when he spent time preaching in mission and prison ministries. Twenty years later, the missionary work remains the primary focus of his life, with TextAloud a new and unexpected tool in his endeavors. A Text to Speech program that installs in seconds on most PCs, TextAloud is priced at just $29.95 and converts text into spoken audio files for listening on a PC, Laptop, or other portable device.
Through his missionary work, Schutte soon found he was able to offer theological training via distance education using the Mt. Zion course. "It involves the beautiful Puritan writings of previous centuries, and presents the Gospel from a truly Scriptural perspective," comments Schutte. "And since I had found that many native African people understand English yet are not always able to read it, I began converting text files of the course into WAV and MP3 files so that they could listen as an alternative resource." In his search for a useful Text to Speech program, "I examined every possible text to voice program available on the internet by downloading and testing each, and ultimately chose TextAloud as the best solution."
To bring the Gospel in Africa to those with access to technology, Schutte explains, there are mission organizations offering facilities to converts where they can undergo Bible training from easy listening via CD. Here, listeners could also use these facilities for the Mt. Zion course.
In addition to its excellent voice quality and ease of use, the aspect of TextAloud that most impressed Schutte was the program's ability to bring a course or book into speech whether the source was in text, HTML, or even PDF format. "It's invaluable that these formats can be converted to sound files for the poorly sighted or for those who cannot read well, as is the case with many in prison," he comments.
Schutte doesn't just use TextAloud in his missionary work, but also to read his mail, as well as any articles he finds on the Internet. "I collect and play them while I'm performing my normal daily duties," he comments. "It's so useful to have my hands free and my eyes saved when listening to readings." Schutte was also pleased to find that the Scriptures were already available in MP3 files for free download.
About TextAloud
A highly useful program that enables people from all walks of life to maximize their time through Text to Speech, TextAloud has been featured in The New York Times, PC Magazine, Writer's Digest, on CNN, and more. TextAloud has been hailed by critics and users alike, and is priced at just $29.95. The program is compatible with systems using Windows (R) 98, NT, 2000, XP and Vista, and is available for fast, safe and secure purchase via http://www.NextUp.com.
About NextUp.com
NextUp.com, a division of NextUp Technologies, LLC, provides award-winning Text to Speech software for consumers, professionals, businesses, educators, and those with visual or vocal impairment, or learning disabilities.
In addition to TextAloud, NextUp.com markets other innovative Windows software designed to save time and deliver vital information. NewsAloud (TM) is a talking personal "news agent" that finds the stories users want, and then reads them aloud or to portable audio files. WeatherAloud (TM) is a weather application that lets users select and listen to personalized weather forecasts, while StocksAloud (TM) reads stock updates and related news headlines aloud for specific companies of interest. NextUp Talker is an easy and affordable program that allows people who have lost their voices to use the latest in high-quality computer voices to communicate with others. Most recently, NextUp introduced a new text reader, AbleReader, available with the AT&T Natural Voices (TM) for use on Mac computers. Information on AbleReader is available at http://www.AbleReader.com.
NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices (TM), NeoSpeech (R), Nuance (R), Acapela (R) and Cepstral (R) for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include U.S. English, U.K. English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, French, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian (European) Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, and Arabic.
Evaluation copies of TextAloud are available upon request. For more information on NextUp.com or TextAloud, or for other case studies involving users ranging from writers, firefighters, doctors and lawyers, to truck drivers, musicians, and more, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043 or via Admitchell @ Nextup.com.
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