Herbi Writer with Speech
The Herbi Writer program has been updated so that it can make sounds whenever a student's letter is evaluated. For example, it might say "Great job!" or make an applause sound when the letter is considered correct, or "Try again" when it is considered incorrect.
If you'd like to set up some text to be spoken or a sound to be played, click on the "Settings" button, and then click on the "Evaluation" tab in the Settings window that appears. You'll then see the following window:
If you'd like a sound to be played, then click one of the "Select file" buttons. You can then browse to the folder on your computer containing the sound file to be played. The sound file must be in the ".wav" format. Once you have selected the file, its location and name will appear in the text box next to the button. (Depending on the location of the file that you selected, you might not see the full text in the text box.)
Note: If the sound file cannot be found on the computer later when Herbi Writer tries to play the sound, the location of the file and its file name will actually be spoken instead.
If you'd like text to be spoken when the letter is evaluated, type the desired text into the appropriate text box.
Note: When you first write a letter after Herbi Writer is run there may be a noticeable delay between when the letter is evaluated and when you hear the text being spoken. The speech should be much more responsive after that. So before your students work with Herbi Writer, you may want to write a sample letter yourself after running the program.
You can leave either of the fields blank if you like. Once you've added the text that you want spoken or the sound file to be played, the fields might look something list this:
The voice used for the speech is whatever the default voice is for the computer.
If you'd like to personalize the voice heard to be that of someone that the student is familiar with, then you might consider making a sound file of that person talking, and then have Herbi Writer play that .wav file when the letter is evaluated.
If you want to check the current Speech settings for the computer, click the "Show Speech Settings" button. This will show the computer's Speech Control Panel. Note that if you change a setting in the computer's Speech Control Panel, (for example the computer's default voice,) and you find that your changes are not reflected in the Herbi Writer program, then you may need to restart the Herbi Writer program.