Hi you guys!! Before I started running into computer problems, I stumbled across this program that can help us authors edit our stories! Sometimes finding a beta is difficult, and as we all know, an extra set of eyes can help a lot in the way of catching stupid mistakes.

Well, I found this program called Natural Reader There is a paid version, but I have been using the Free version. Once you download it, open the program and minimize it. A small mini bar will appear at the top of your screen. There is a play button, stop button, and an MP3 button on the small floating bar.

Then, simply open the document you want to edit, hightlight the text and press the play button and the program will read what you wrote back to you. It may not catch a lot of grammar mistakes, but it can catch those stupid little mistakes we sometimes make, like an extra word left by changing a sentence. It can also let you hear how well your sentences flow and allow you to make changes so that your readers will have a better understanding of what is happening.

It's a pretty helpful program if you ask me. Hope some of you find it helpful as well!

I'm bumping this cause I don't think many people saw it.

Sounds nifty I'll have to try it sometime.

Sianna Thanks for the Natural reader program i used it on one of my stories, which im never post, it was great, pick up some of my grammar mistakes thanks for the program again

This was a definite help. I was worried that I had too many commas and using the Natural Reader program, I was able to help pick up where they weren't necessary. Thank you.

Wow, this is an old thread...

But this Natural Reader program sounds pretty useful! I'll check it out.

Thanks for posting!

The current best text to speech software is Text Speaker. It has customizable pronunciation, reads anything on your screen, and it even has talking reminders. It is great for learning as it highlights the words as they are being read. The bundled voices are well priced and sound very human. Voices are available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and more. Easily converts blogs, email, e-books, and more to MP3 or for listening instantly.

You can actually download and install a freeware text to speech plugin called Read Text that does the same thing in the freeware LibreOffice and OpenOffice suites.

I use it all the time. There is no limit on the amount of words or text it will read, and you can change the voice over, especially of you use Windows which has this feature already installed, usually in the Speech Recognition or Ease of Use options in your Control Panel.

I use it all the time to read back pieces of my fictions before I edit, and for personal entertainment.

~ Pyre