ENGAGE
  • The ENGAGE Platform
  • Getting started
    • Installing ENGAGE
      • Installing ENGAGE on a Meta Quest
      • Installing ENGAGE on Microsoft Windows
      • Installing ENGAGE on macOS
      • Installing ENGAGE on Android phones and tablets, iPhones, and iPads
      • Installing ENGAGE on other devices
    • Creating an account
      • Account types
      • Creating an account in the web manager
      • Creating an account in the ENGAGE app
      • Single sign-on (SSO)
    • Creating your avatar
    • The menu screen
    • Starting your first Session
    • Basic controls
      • Keyboard shortcuts
      • Logitech MX Ink
    • Your safety
    • Help with log-in issues
    • Exploring ENGAGE
  • Video tutorials
    • Beginner
    • Intermediate
    • Advanced
  • ENGAGE LINK
    • Accessing ENGAGE LINK
    • ENGAGE LINK plazas
    • Joining other people in LINK
    • Getting assistance in ENGAGE LINK
    • Creating a metaworld
  • Avatars
    • Editing your avatar
    • Creating a new avatar
    • Using My Face
      • Changing My Face skin tone
    • Setting your height
    • Capturing a profile photo
    • Full-body and basic avatars
    • VR tracking modes
    • Realigning your avatar in VR
  • Sessions
    • Joining a Session
      • Joining a listed Session
      • Joining with a Session ID
      • Joining through an invitation
      • Joining through a quick link
      • Requesting to join a connection
    • Creating a Session
      • Creating a private Session
      • Creating a public Session
      • Creating an Enterprise Group Session
      • Creating an unlisted Session
      • Session capacity
    • Inviting others to your Session
    • Leaving a Session
    • Finding a Session ID
    • Persistent and commercial Sessions
      • Creating a persistent or commercial Session
      • Joining a persistent or commercial Session
      • Setting the location for a persistent or commercial Session
    • LITE user limits
  • Essential features
    • Accessing your menu
      • Using hand controllers to interact with your menu
    • Connections
      • Accepting or rejecting an invitation to connect
      • Inviting someone to connect
      • Cancelling an invitation to connect
      • Removing a connection
      • Session invitations
        • Accepting a connection's request to join your Session
    • Audio settings
      • Turning your microphone on and off
      • Resetting your audio
      • Selecting your microphone input on Windows or PC VR
      • Setting the voice recognition language
    • Moving around
    • Teleporting
    • Travelling through a portal
      • Travelling through a password protected portal
    • Wrist controls
    • Using chairs
    • Gestures
      • Using gestures on a phone, tablet, or desktop device
      • Using gestures on a VR headset
    • Emojis
      • Using emojis from your menu
      • Using emojis from your wrist controls
      • Using emojis from keyboard shortcuts
    • Web browser
      • Managing web links
      • Sharing a website
      • Cloud storage connections
        • Connecting to OneDrive
        • Connecting to DropBox
        • Disconnecting a cloud connection
    • Sharing media
      • Managing video links
      • Videos
        • Playing a video
        • Controlling video playback
        • Supported video file types
      • Websites
      • Presentations and other files
        • Sharing a presentation from OneDrive
      • Computer desktop
      • The 360 video room
        • Visiting the 360 video room
        • Switching to the 360 video room from another location
        • Using the 360 video room pedestal
    • Accessing ENGAGE content
      • Controlling the playback of content
    • Using your virtual keyboard
      • Using special characters
      • Changing the language of the virtual keyboard
      • Using shortcuts on the virtual keyboard
      • Moving the virtual keyboard
    • Registering for a PLUS account
  • Advanced features
    • Changing location
    • Taking a picture with the ENGAGE camera
    • Using IFX
      • Adding IFX
      • Saving IFX
      • Web URL Image IFX
      • Session portal IFX
      • Web button IFX
    • Snapshots
      • Saving a snapshot
      • Loading a snapshot
      • Ungrouping a snapshot
    • Drawpad and whiteboards
      • Opening your Drawpad
      • Using your Drawpad
        • Anchoring your Drawpad to a physical surface
      • Adding a whiteboard IFX
      • Drawing on whiteboards on desktop devices
      • Drawing on whiteboards on VR headsets
      • Connecting your Drawpad to a whiteboard
      • Copying drawings between Drawpads and whiteboards
      • Linking whiteboards
      • Locking a whiteboard
    • 3D pen
    • Sticky notes
      • Creating a sticky note from the Notes page
      • Creating a sticky note from the wrist control
      • Creating a sticky note from a keyboard shortcut
      • Moving a sticky note
      • Locking a sticky note
      • Deleting a sticky note
    • Recordings
      • Spatial recordings
        • Creating a spatial recording
        • Loading a spatial recording
        • Controlling the playback of spatial recordings
        • Advanced playback settings
        • Editing a spatial recording
      • Video recording
        • Creating a video recording
        • Sharing a recorded video in a Session
        • Adding a video camera
    • Modifying objects
      • Finding an object bubble
      • Accessing the control menu
      • Moving an object by selecting
        • Moving by selection in VR
        • Moving by selection on a desktop device
      • Transforming an object
      • Sharing an object
      • Cloning an object
      • Locking an object
      • Deleting an object
    • The gizmo
      • Interacting with the gizmo on a desktop device
      • Interacting with the gizmo on a VR headset
    • Forms
      • Creating and managing forms in the ENGAGE app
      • Creating a form in the web manager
      • Editing settings for a form in the web manager
      • Questions
        • Adding a multiple-choice question
        • Adding a questionnaire question
        • Adding a paragraph question
        • Adding an information slide
        • Configuring which questions are enabled
        • Reordering questions
      • Testing a form
      • Delivering a form
      • Viewing results
    • Accessing files on your device
    • Mixed Reality
      • Room setup
      • Mixed reality Location Anchor
      • Hidden IFX
      • Mixed reality settings
      • Changing your menu screen environment
      • Mixed reality passthrough window
      • Turning on spatial data permission
  • Host controls
    • User search and sort options
    • Adding a co-host
    • Removing a co-host
    • Controlling permissions
      • Setting permissions for all users
      • Setting permissions for an individual user
    • Controlling microphones
      • Managing the microphones of all users
      • Managing the microphone of an individual user
    • Seating
      • Seating all users
      • Seating an individual user
    • Summoning users
      • Summoning all users
      • Summoning a single user
    • Removing or banning a user
    • Deleting IFX
      • Deleting all user IFX in a Session
      • Deleting all shared IFX in a Session
      • Deleting IFX associated with an individual user
    • Assigning full-body avatars
    • Personal boundaries
    • Realigning a user's avatar
    • Locking a Session or Event
    • Restricting a Session to group members
    • User status icons
  • Events
    • Viewing the Events list
    • Event registration options
    • Joining an Event
    • Password protected Events
    • Withdrawing from an Event
  • Configuring the ENGAGE app
    • Choosing a language in the ENGAGE app
    • User preferences
    • Pausing notifications
    • Turning menu screen music on and off
    • Reporting a bug
    • Accessibility
      • Microsoft Windows
        • Using text-to-speech on PC
        • Adding hotkey controls to turn your avatar
      • Meta Quest
  • Managing your account
    • Managing your password
      • Changing your password in the ENGAGE app
      • Changing your password in the web manager
      • Resetting your password in the ENGAGE app
      • Resetting your password in the web manager
    • Managing your profile
      • Updating your profile details in the ENGAGE app
      • Updating your profile details in the web manager
      • Changing your email address
    • Managing a PLUS subscription
      • Viewing your subscription history
      • Changing your billing details
      • Viewing your payment history
      • Cancelling your PLUS subscription
    • Deleting your account
    • Reviewing your SSO status
    • Two-factor authentication
      • Reviewing your 2FA status
      • Turning on 2FA
      • Turning off 2FA
      • Retrieving your recovery codes
      • Using a recovery code to log in
  • Web manager
    • Choosing a language in the web manager
    • Managing your group membership
    • Uploading a profile image
    • Managing notes in the web manager
      • Creating notes in the web manager
      • Editing notes in the web manager
    • Media
      • Creating a web link in the web manager
      • Creating a video link in the web manager
      • Setting up a cloud storage connection in the web manager
    • Managing your cookie settings
    • Reviewing your activity log
  • Experience Editor
    • Overview
      • Accessing the Experience Editor
      • Terminology
      • Design patterns
      • FAQ
    • User interface
      • Controls
        • Controls on a desktop device
        • Controls on a VR headset
      • The editor panel
        • Interacting with the editor panel
        • Moving the editor panel on a VR headset
        • Resizing the editor
        • Timeline
        • Dope sheets
        • Curves
        • Parameter colors
        • Playhead
        • Zooming and panning
      • Keyframe interpolation modes
    • Experience management
      • Creating a new experience
      • Loading a saved experience
      • Loading an autosave
      • Saving a experience
      • Finding a experience on your device
      • Changing the length of your experience
      • Changing the location of your experience
    • Working with objects
      • Selecting objects
      • Effect options
      • Setting a custom name
      • Adjusting start and end times
      • Replacing an object
      • Recordings
      • IFX
        • Animation overrides
        • Audio IFX
        • Portals
        • IFX with colliders
        • Special function IFX
      • Triggers
        • Button trigger
        • Player body trigger
        • Interactive object trigger
      • Interactive IFX
      • Snapshots
      • Forms
    • Creating animations
      • Keyframe animation
        • Creating a keyframe animation
      • Puppet animation
        • Creating a puppet animation
    • Videos and screens
      • Shared media screens
      • Playing shared media
      • External URL screens
      • 360 screens
      • Chroma key screens
    • Playback events
      • Adding a fade transition
      • Transporting all users
      • Locking all users in place
      • Creating a loop
    • Testing your experience locally
    • Tutorials
      • Introductory: Animal race
        • Set-up
        • Start and finish lines
        • Add the animals
        • Basic animation
        • Give the wolf a head start
        • Add animation overrides
        • Add another animal
        • Smooth the flight path
      • Introductory: Presentation
        • Adding files to your lesson folder
        • Viewing the completed experience
        • Opening the experience in the Experience Editor
        • Experience overview
        • Audience management
          • Adding an IFX to seat attendees
        • Playing shared media
          • Adding an IFX to play shared media
          • Configuring the shared media IFX
        • Playing videos on IFX screens
          • External URL screens
          • Adding an IFX screen for the presentation
          • Configuring the screen for the presentation
        • Creating a video from a slide deck
        • Adding other IFX
          • Adding the ENGAGE LINK map
          • Animating the ENGAGE LINK map
        • Closing the presentation
          • Adding a color fade transition
          • Adjusting the timing of the transition
          • Adjusting the end times
        • Testing your experience
      • Intermediate: Undersea educational content
        • Record content
        • Create a new experience
        • Set the starting point
        • Add triggers
        • Create a menu loop
        • The first recording
        • Clown fish school
        • Add a jump back to the menu
        • Add the second recording
        • The orca
        • Smooth the orca's motion
        • Refine the orca's rotation
        • Add a jump back to the menu
        • Further additions
      • Intermediate: Fire extinguisher training
        • Create a new experience
        • Save your experience
        • Create the fires
          • Create the electrical fire
          • Create the paper fire
          • Create the gas pipe
          • Create the gas fire
          • Save the experience
        • Create user feedback
          • Close the Experience Editor
          • Choose an appropriate avatar
          • Start a Session
          • Create responses
          • Creating more dramatic responses
        • Add responses to the experience
          • Return to the Experience Editor
          • Save the experience with a different filename
          • Loop the experience
        • Gas fire
          • Add options for the gas fire
          • Extend objects on the timeline
          • Add the feedback recordings for the gas fire
        • Paper fire
          • Add options for the paper fire
          • Add images
          • Add the feedback recordings for the paper fire
          • Add a special effect for the CO2 option
          • Improve the explosion
        • Electrical fire
          • Add options for the electrical fire
          • Upload 3D models to Cloud File Manager
          • Load 3D models into the experience
          • Add buttons that load response recordings
          • Add special effects for water on an electrical fire
        • Add sound effects
        • Limitations and alternative approach
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On this page
  • Setting up Microsoft Word for text-to-speech
  • Using Speak in Microsoft Word
  • Using Speech in Microsoft Word
  • Sending voice output to the virtual audio cable
  • Receiving voice input from the virtual audio cable
  1. Configuring the ENGAGE app
  2. Accessibility
  3. Microsoft Windows

Using text-to-speech on PC

PreviousMicrosoft WindowsNextAdding hotkey controls to turn your avatar

Last updated 2 days ago

Text-to-speech is not natively supported in Windows or ENGAGE. The following solution uses third-party software which is not verified or endorsed by ENGAGE XR.

If you have software on your computer that can convert text to speech, which includes Microsoft Word, then you can feed that computer generated voice into the ENGAGE application to speak on your behalf. To do this, you use a piece of software called a virtual audio cable. Example software includes the following:

  • VB-CABLE:

  • Virtual Audio Cable (VAC):

  • JACK Audio Connection Kit:

The following instructions use Microsoft Word and VB-CABLE.

Setting up Microsoft Word for text-to-speech

There are two methods that you can use to generate speech in Microsoft Word. You can use the following instructions to enable both, and then decide which you prefer.

  1. Open Microsoft Word and create a blank document.

  2. On the ribbon, select File.

  3. In the bottom-left corner of the files page, select Options.

  4. In the Word Options window, select Quick Access Toolbar.

  5. From the Choose commands from list, select All Commands.

  6. From the list of commands on the left, select Speak, and then select the Add button between the two lists.

  7. From the list of commands on the left, select Speech, and then select the Add button between the two lists.

  8. Select OK.

Two icons are added to the Quick Access Toolbar, as shown in the following image:

If you don't see the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click on the ribbon, and then select Show Quick Access Toolbar.

Using Speak in Microsoft Word

The Speak tool has an unnatural voice, but produces the audio quickly.

  1. Enter text in the document, and then highlight that text.

Using Speech in Microsoft Word

The Speech tool has a more natural voice, but is slower.

  1. To change the voice gender, select Settings on the Read Aloud toolbar, and then choose a gender from the Voice Selection list.

  2. When you want to generate speech from text, highlight the text, and then select the Play button on the Read Aloud toolbar.

If you don't highlight any text, the Speech tool reads from the current cursor position to the end of the document.

Sending voice output to the virtual audio cable

The following instructions assume that you have VB-CABLE installed. The steps for other virtual audio cable software will be similar.

After you send audio output to the virtual audio cable, it will no longer be sent to your headphones or speakers. Because of this, you will not be able to hear any audio from the source application. If you want to undo the change, repeat the steps but select Default as the Output device.

  1. Choose one of the following options:

  2. In the Search bar, enter sound mixer, and then select Sound mixer options in the Best match section of the search results.

  3. On the Volume mixer page, in the Apps section, expand the application that will generate your speech. In this example, Microsoft Word.

  4. From the Output device list, select the virtual audio cable.

You don't need to configure the Input device for the ENGAGE application. You do that in the ENGAGE application instead.

Receiving voice input from the virtual audio cable

To use the output from the text-to-speech application in ENGAGE, complete the following steps:

  1. In a session, press Esc on your keyboard to open your menu.

  2. From the right-hand menu, select the cog icon.

  3. On the Settings page, select User Preferences.

  4. On the User Preferences page, from the Microphone list, select the virtual audio cable.

When you generate voice from text in the source application, you will see the microphone indicator move in ENGAGE. However, you will not hear the spoken audio.

If your software provides multiple virtual audio cables, ensure that you choose the same cable in both the volume mixer and in ENGAGE.

In the Quick Access Toolbar, select Speak selected text.

In the Quick Access Toolbar, select Speech, and then select Read Aloud from the menu that appears. The Read Aloud toolbar appears.

Press the Windows key on your keyboard.

On the taskbar, select the Windows Start button.

https://vb-audio.com/Cable/
https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/download.htm
https://jackaudio.org/
Speak and Speech options on the Quick Access Toolbar
Virtual cable configured as an output device
Option to select a microphone input in ENGAGE