• Individual letters to speech

    From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 09:46:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse
    Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Alan B@alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 10:36:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 2026-01-05, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?

    You might be able to do this by adjusting the Accessibility, Speak
    typing feedback settings in System Settings but I've never been able
    to get that to work. Good luck with learning morse. I did a 12wpm test
    at Portishead many years ago and much to my amazement passed!

    Happy New Year :)
    --
    Cheers, Alan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From nospam@nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 18:22:03 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?

    Inserting the required spaces automatically is not difficult,
    using ABFR for example, if you can copy/paste the text,

    Jan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 17:43:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?

    Inserting the required spaces automatically is not difficult,
    using ABFR for example, if you can copy/paste the text,

    What is ABFR?
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mark@captain.black@gmail.com to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 18:55:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 5 Jan 2026 at 9:46:54rC>AM GMT, "Liz Tuddenham" <Liz Tuddenham> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?

    OT: did you know there used to be a software application for classic that was supposed to be able to convert Morse Code to english text on the fly. I could never get it to work though.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Alan B@alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 19:14:29 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 2026-01-05, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 5 Jan 2026 at 9:46:54rC>AM GMT, "Liz Tuddenham" <Liz Tuddenham> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse
    Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?

    OT: did you know there used to be a software application for classic that was supposed to be able to convert Morse Code to english text on the fly. I could never get it to work though.

    There seems to be several apps advertised in the App Store claiming to
    be able to convert morse audio to text. GGMorse seems to be one of the
    better ones but I can't recommend it from personal experience.
    --
    Cheers, Alan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bruce@07.013@scorecrow.com to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 19:15:21 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 05/01/2026 09:46, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?



    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run.

    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat
    --
    Bruce Horrocks
    Hampshire, England
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From nospam@nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Mon Jan 5 22:38:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the letters individually?

    Inserting the required spaces automatically is not difficult,
    using ABFR for example, if you can copy/paste the text,

    What is ABFR?

    A Better Finder Rename.
    It is ancient, it may even have existed for your pre-OSX Macs.

    It can do really complicated transformations on file names,
    hence on any not too long text string, [1]w

    Jan

    [1] Unfortunately the developer has allowed himself
    to fall into Apple's forced obsolescence trap,
    and he can no longer supply older versions.
    They may be found elsewhere perhaps.
    Later versions work fine, but they are more cumbersome to use.

    FYA, I have used it, on request of a friend,
    to make a (completely useless of course) ROT13 app for file names.
    (it also does ROT5 on the digits)
    Just to show that it can easily be done.



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Alan B@alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid to uk.comp.sys.mac on Tue Jan 6 18:30:21 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 2026-01-05, Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:

    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run.

    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat

    It certainly works when using my Mac OS 9.2.2 setup with UTM :)
    --
    Cheers, Alan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 09:46:25 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:

    On 05/01/2026 09:46, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?



    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run.

    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat

    Mac Mini - OS 10.15.7

    I have searched for "Applescript" on this machine and cannot find
    anything with that name.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Alan B@alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 09:51:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 2026-01-07, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:

    On 05/01/2026 09:46, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse
    Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily
    check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?



    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards
    compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run.

    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat

    Mac Mini - OS 10.15.7

    I have searched for "Applescript" on this machine and cannot find
    anything with that name.

    /Applications -> Utilities -> Script Editor on my Mac running 26.2.
    --
    Cheers, Alan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 10:25:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

    On 2026-01-07, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:

    On 05/01/2026 09:46, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check >> > my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had >> > been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse >> > Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text
    when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily >> > check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software >> > tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable >> > than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?



    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards
    compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run.

    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat

    Mac Mini - OS 10.15.7

    I have searched for "Applescript" on this machine and cannot find
    anything with that name.

    /Applications -> Utilities -> Script Editor on my Mac running 26.2.

    Thanks. The script sort-of worked but it says "Capital M, Capital O,
    Capital R, Capital S, Capital E" As the random characters from Morse
    Mania are all capitals (upper case), how do I write the script to just
    read the letters?

    Can I remove the "Capital" each time or can they be translated into
    lower case (I haven't found anything on the Web to suggest that
    Applescript will do this)?
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 10:38:45 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

    On 2026-01-07, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:

    On 05/01/2026 09:46, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check
    my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had
    been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse
    Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text >> > when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily >> > check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software
    tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable
    than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is
    there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the
    letters individually?



    You could try AppleScript - I think the following should be backwards
    compatible with Mac Classic. Just paste it into Script Editor and run. >>
    set theCharacters to "MORSE"
    repeat with aLetter in theCharacters
    say aLetter
    end repeat

    Mac Mini - OS 10.15.7

    I have searched for "Applescript" on this machine and cannot find anything with that name.

    /Applications -> Utilities -> Script Editor on my Mac running 26.2.

    Thanks. The script sort-of worked but it says "Capital M, Capital O,
    Capital R, Capital S, Capital E" As the random characters from Morse
    Mania are all capitals (upper case), how do I write the script to just
    read the letters?

    Can I remove the "Capital" each time or can they be translated into
    lower case (I haven't found anything on the Web to suggest that
    Applescript will do this)?

    Sorry for replying to my own post - but I have found a way of invoking a
    shell script from Applescript to change the case of the letters.

    Problem solved! Thanks to all who helped.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Alan B@alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 10:52:26 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 2026-01-07, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    [snip]
    Sorry for replying to my own post - but I have found a way of invoking a shell script from Applescript to change the case of the letters.

    Problem solved! Thanks to all who helped.

    Ah yes 'do shell script' Glad you're sorted :)
    --
    Cheers, Alan
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 11:07:38 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

    On 2026-01-07, Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    [snip]
    Sorry for replying to my own post - but I have found a way of invoking a shell script from Applescript to change the case of the letters.

    Problem solved! Thanks to all who helped.

    Ah yes 'do shell script' Glad you're sorted :)

    I haven't a clue what a shell script is or what it does but I just
    copied one off the Web and tried it - and it worked.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Chris Ridd@chrisridd@mac.com to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 18:24:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    On 07/01/2026 10:25, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    Thanks. The script sort-of worked but it says "Capital M, Capital O,
    Capital R, Capital S, Capital E" As the random characters from Morse
    Mania are all capitals (upper case), how do I write the script to just
    read the letters?

    Apple's speech synthesis framework supports the use of "ssml" (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) and also the International Phonetic Alphabet
    (IPA, no not that kind).

    The manual page for 'say' (type 'man say' in the Terminal) has one
    example that appears to show a way to override the default pronunciation
    for something. Though it didn't say anything when I tried it.

    I don't know if that helps or whether it just gives you a couple more
    rabbit holes to go down.
    --
    Chris
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From nospam@nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) to uk.comp.sys.mac on Wed Jan 7 22:13:58 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    OS 10.15.7

    I am learning Morse Code and it would be helpful if I could cross-check my written results with the string of about 100 random letters that had been sent. The letters are displayed as a string in a window of "Morse Mania", so highlighting the string and choosing: "Speak selected text when key is pressed" should give me a spoken version that I can easily check against my text.

    Unfortunately, instead of speaking the individual letters, the software tries to make a word from them - the result is even less understandable than that famous Welsh place name!

    Other than editing the string to put spaces between each letter, is there any other way of forcing the speech software to spell out the letters individually?

    Inserting the required spaces automatically is not difficult,
    using ABFR for example, if you can copy/paste the text,

    What is ABFR?

    A Better Finder Rename.
    It is ancient, it may even have existed for your pre-OSX Macs.

    It can do really complicated transformations on file names,
    hence on any not too long text string, [1]w

    Jan

    [1] Unfortunately the developer has allowed himself
    to fall into Apple's forced obsolescence trap,
    and he can no longer supply older versions.
    They may be found elsewhere perhaps.
    Later versions work fine, but they are more cumbersome to use.

    FYA, I have used it, on request of a friend,
    to make a (completely useless of course) ROT13 app for file names.
    (it also does ROT5 on the digits)
    Just to show that it can easily be done.

    Couldn't resist, just for my own amusement,
    of no use whatsoever,

    Jan
    (Morse droplet, may still have some errors)
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2