1. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2014
    Messages:
    2,780
    Likes Received:
    1,424
    Location:
    England

    Hey! I'm back! This is software related, I promise!

    Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by cutecat22, Mar 15, 2016.

    Sorry I've been away for so long - had some stuff to deal with (kids/schools/colleges/work) as well as the usual car breaking down, deciding to replace it, and then all the writing thrown into the mix.

    But, the good news, is that book two is finished and currently with the editor/betas and I'm thinking about the next one. (as in, the next book, not necessarily the third in a series. Anyway, as usual, I digress ...

    Software.
    I like to listen to what I write as I edit, mainly because our brains mess with our eyes when editing what we ourselves have written - our brain knows what *should* be on the page because our own hands type it, but that doesn't me that what we see on the page, is actually on the page.

    As an example, I often type out, instead of our. Form instead of from. Though instead of thought. And none of these will be picked up by the spell checker.

    So, windows has a narrator, but it's actually pretty shit. You can only high light a section at a time, and if you want to stop and edit, you have to start all over again.

    And then I found Capti Narrator ...

    Now, I've probably gone about this slightly the wrong way around but, I have a lappy, and an iphone/ipad. So I wanted to turn the ipad into a word processor to enable me to edit stuff. I did this by downloading the free app called OfficeSuite. This enables me to copy a file on my lappy and stick that copy into a file in Onedrive. It automatically syncs that onedrive so that (once I'm logged on via password to my iphone/ipad) I can pick up the doc in Onedrive and edit it in OfficeSuite, save, and send back to the lappy via Onedrive. (with me so far?)

    So, the next step, I found and downloaded the free app, Capti Narrator. It's essentially a web narrator which enables you to listen to an audio version of websites and any documents you want to import into a playlist. Like, spotify for documents, rather than songs.

    So, I simply drop an up-to-date version of my word doc (which happens to be 200k words long) into Onedrive, give it a minute to sync, open up Capti, hit Onedrive, click on the file of my doc and drop it into the playlist. Plug my earphones into my iphone and press play ...

    18 hours of manuscript there, seamlessly read back to me in a voice and speed of my choosing, with a pause button, so I can read along on the lappy and edit as I go, I can replace all the misspelled words, I can add commas, change sentences around, I can hear mistakes in spelling and syntax that my eyes have missed, because my brain cannot fool me where hearing is concerned like it can with my eyes.

    It's simply, fabulous.
     
    tonguetied likes this.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice