Ferna TTS User Manual

1Quick start

Ferna TTS lives in the system tray, beside the Windows clock. While it's running, it can read text from any app: Word, PDFs, web pages, email or chat.

1. Select some text with the mouse, from a single word up to a whole document.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + S, or click the speak bubble next to your pointer.
3. Listen. Use the control bar or the one-key shortcuts to pause, go back or skip.

Ferna TTS reads the whole selection from top to bottom, one sentence after another, without stopping between sentences.

2The speak bubble

After you select text, a small speak bubble appears at your mouse pointer. Click it without moving the mouse and Ferna TTS starts reading. You don't need the keyboard at all.

• The bubble ignores quick double- and triple-clicks, so selecting a word or paragraph by clicking won't start reading by mistake.
• If you'd rather it appeared below the selection instead of at the pointer, change it on the General tab.
• Just carry on working if you don't need it. The bubble disappears by itself.

3The control bar

While Ferna TTS is reading, a small control bar floats on screen:

Drag the bar by its handle (⋮⋮) to put it wherever you like. On the Appearance tab you can choose from five high-contrast colour themes.

4Keyboard shortcuts

Start reading

Ctrl + Shift + S reads the selected text. You can change this on the Hotkeys tab.

One-key shortcuts while reading

While a reading is in progress and the control bar is visible, single keys control playback:

• These keys are captured by Ferna TTS, so they don't also type into, or trigger shortcuts in, the app you're using.
• Shortcuts with Ctrl, Alt or Windows still pass through to your app as normal.
• If you start typing somewhere else while Ferna TTS is reading, the one-key shortcuts switch off automatically so your typing isn't interrupted.
• You can change or turn off these keys on the Hotkeys tab.

Hotkey options

• Block hotkeys from reaching the active app. Tick this if Ctrl+Shift+S also opens Save As in programs like Word.
• Capture hotkey adds to the queue when already reading. When ticked, selecting more text and pressing the hotkey adds it to the end of the queue. When it's off, the new text replaces the current reading.

5Long text and the reading queue

You can select pages of text at once. Ferna TTS splits it into sentences and reads them continuously, so you can move back and forward a sentence at a time.

To listen to several passages in a row, turn on Capture hotkey adds to the queue (Hotkeys tab). Then select each passage and press Ctrl+Shift+S, and they're read one after another.

6Voices, speed and sound

• Voice. Ferna TTS uses the voices installed in Windows. To add more, open Settings → Time & language → Speech → Manage voices, then choose the new voice in Ferna TTS.
• Speed. Change it from the control bar or in the Control Panel; quick presets make it easy to switch.
• Output device (Audio tab). Pick which speakers or headphones to use, independently of the Windows default.
• Pause at end of sentence (Audio tab, on by default). Pausing waits until the current sentence finishes. Turn it off for an instant pause.
• Bluetooth headphones. Some devices miss the first word while they wake up. Ferna TTS adds a short silent lead-in (default 400 ms) and keeps the device awake for a while between readings (default 30 s). Increase these on the Audio tab if the first word is still cut off.

7Sinhala and mixed text සිංහල

Ferna TTS understands Sinhala script, and text that mixes Sinhala and English. Choose how Sinhala is spoken in the Control Panel:

• Singlish transliteration. Sinhala words are converted to their Latin-letter sounds and read by your Windows voice. It works with no extra software.
• eSpeak NG Sinhala voice. A native Sinhala voice. If it isn't available, see Sinhala voices in the Installation Guide.

English words inside Sinhala text are read in English.

8Pronunciation rules

Open the Pronunciation tab to control how particular words, names and abbreviations are said.

Built-in rules

About 130 common English abbreviations are expanded automatically, for example Dr. → "Doctor", e.g. → "for example", etc. → "et cetera". These rules are context-aware: some apply only next to numbers or in the middle of a sentence, so they don't misfire.

Your own rules

1. On the Pronunciation tab, click Add.
2. Type the text as written (for example USJ) and how it should be said (for example University of Sri Jayewardenepura).
3. Save. The rule applies straight away, including to audio you save as a file.

Your rules always take priority over the built-in ones. Advanced users can write regular-expression rules for patterns such as reference numbers.

Import and export

• Import rule lists from other apps: Balabolka dictionaries (.bxd, .rex, .dic), W3C pronunciation lexicons (.pls), or plain .txt, .csv and .json files, including a .zip of several.
• Export your rules to .json or .dic to back them up or share them.
• Your rules are stored in %APPDATA%\FernaTTS\pronunciation.json.

9Saving speech as an audio file

Ferna TTS can save a reading as a WAV file instead of playing it, which is useful for listening later on a phone or adding narration to a presentation. Choose the WAV export option, select where to save the file, and Ferna TTS writes the audio using your current voice, speed and pronunciation rules.

10Control Panel reference

11Privacy

Ferna TTS works entirely offline. The text you select is read by voices on your own computer and is never uploaded, stored online or shared. There are no accounts, ads or tracking.

12Questions and answers

Does it work in PDFs and web pages?

Yes. If you can select the text, Ferna TTS can read it, including in Word, browsers, PDF readers such as Ferna PDF Reader, and email.

Pressing P in my app paused the reading instead of typing

One-key shortcuts are active only while a reading is running. Stop the reading (S) or simply start typing; the typing guard turns the shortcuts off.

How do I make Ferna TTS start with Windows?

Press Windows + R, type shell:startup and press Enter. Copy the Ferna TTS shortcut from your desktop or Start menu into the folder that opens.

Something isn't working

See Troubleshooting in the Installation Guide, or email tgi.fernando@gmail.com.