Setting Narrator Voice Options

Narrator is a text-to-speech utility for people who are blind or have low vision. Narrator reads what is displayed on the screen—the contents of the active window, menu options, or text that has been typed. You can select from a number of Narrator options. This tutorial shows you how to set Narrator voice options to make the Narrator voice easier to hear and understand.

Note: Narrator is designed to work with Notepad, WordPad, Control Panel programs, Internet Explorer, the Windows desktop, and some parts of Windows Setup. Narrator may not read words aloud correctly in other programs. Narrator has a number of options that allow you to customize the way screen elements are read.

Step	Mouse actions	Keyboard actions
1	On the Start menu: Point to Programs. Point to Accessories. Point to Accessibility. Select Narrator. Note: A message box with a link to more information about Narrator may appear. To close the box, select OK.	Display the Start menu by pressing CTRL+ESC (or the Windows logo key). Move to Programs by pressing P. Move to Accessories by pressing the UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW key. Press ENTER. Move to Accessibility, and then press ENTER. Move to Narrator, and then press ENTER. Note: A message box with a link to more information about Narrator may appear. To close the box, press ENTER.
2	Select the Voice button.	Press V to open Voice Settings.
3	In the Voice Settings dialog box: Select the voice options you want to change.	In the Voice Settings dialog box: Select the voice options you want to change by typing the appropriate access keys. To select values, use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys.
4	Select OK. Note: To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, select the Minimize button. If you select Exit, Narrator turns off.	Press ENTER. Note: To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, press ALT+SPACEBAR, N. To turn off Narrator, press ALT+X, and then press Y.