🔊 Read Aloud

Guide for Read Aloud . It updates with the app, so it always matches the buttons you see.

1. Which Read Aloud to use

• Mac: the Read Aloud app on your Desktop / Dock (its window title says "Read Aloud — Mac app"). One click on the green button pastes and reads.
• iPhone: the Read Aloud icon on your Home Screen. Tap the green button, then tap the small Paste bubble.
• In a web browser tab it works too, but pasting needs ⌘V.

2. The top

• 🌐 Web: type a web address (or words to search) and see the page inside Read Aloud. On the Mac, 🔊 Read it pulls the page's words in and reads them.
• 🔄 Refresh: saves, syncs your list and loads the newest version.
• 📚 Saved (phone): opens your saved notes. On a computer they're always on the right.
• The small line under the buttons shows the version, and latest ✓ when you're up to date.

3. The big green 📋 Paste & Read

Copy anything, touch the green button, and it pastes and starts reading. Web links come along and stay clickable.

4. First row of buttons

• ▶︎ Read: read from the start, or from where the cursor is.
• ⏸ Pause / ⏹ Stop: Stop puts the words back in the box so you can change them.
• ✏️ Edit / 👁 Read view: switch between typing and tap-a-sentence-to-read.
• 📝 New: a clean empty page. What was there is kept in 📚 Saved.
• 💬 Text: Messages opens with the words filled in. Pick who it's for, press Return.

5. Second row of buttons

• 🎤 Talk: say it instead of typing.
• ✨ Clean Up: AI fixes spelling, punctuation and misheard words (↩︎ Undo if you don't like it).
• ✦ Claude: ask Claude what's in the box; the answer comes back into the box and is read out loud.
• 📄 Copy All: copy everything to paste anywhere.
• 📨 Send: 💬 Text it · ✉️ Email it · 🖨 Print it (with a preview) · 📄 Copy it · 📋 Make an errand / to-do list with map links.
• 🇪🇸 Español: puts the Spanish version right below the English and reads it in a Spanish voice.

6. The box

• Tap any sentence to read from there.
• Above the box: ☐ To-do marks the note you're on as a to-do, 🖨 Print prints what's in the box (preview first), and 📖 How it works opens this guide.

7. 📚 Saved: your notes

• 🔍 Search bar (top of the main screen): type a topic or words and your matching notes appear right under it. Tap one to open and read it. No need to open 📚 Saved first.
• Everything you paste, talk, type or clean up is kept here. Search by topic or words.
• Each note shows 📅 Created, ✏️ Modified and 👁 Reviewed (how many times you opened or read it).
• ▶︎ Open & read puts it back in the box · 🏷 Topic renames it · 🗑 deletes it (tap twice).
• Sign in to share (once per device) keeps the same list on your Mac and iPhone.
• ⬇︎ Backup saves a copy of everything to a file.

8. ✅ To-do list: step by step

1. Put the note in the box (paste, type or open it from 📚 Saved).
2. Tick ☐ To-do above the box, or tick ☐ To-do on its card in 📚 Saved.
3. See them all: 📚 Saved → ✅ To-do tab.
4. New one from scratch: ✅ To-do tab → ＋ Add a to-do → type or 🎤 Talk it.
5. Finished? Tick ☐ Done. It's crossed out and moves to the ✔ Done tab.

9. ⚙️ Voice, speed & skip list (bottom)

• Tap the ▸ to open it: pick the voice, set the speed, and list words or symbols not to say out loud (like =====).
• ❓ How to install on a phone or computer is in there too.

10. 📥 Drag an email, file or picture in

• Pictures go right in the note (v31): put the cursor where you want it, then drag a picture (or several) onto Read Aloud, or copy a screenshot and press ⌘V. A small numbered picture appears there — the words show [📷 1] and the picture sits beside that line. Type your notes about it right after [📷 1]. In 👁 Read view the picture shows inside the words (it's not read out loud); printouts and saved web pages show it there too. An older picture that's only under the box: tap it → 📝 Put it in the words. Removing a picture leaves your notes.
• Pictures (more): they're kept with the note you're on. Tap a picture to see it big or remove it. ＋ Picture adds more. Pictures print with the note. (They stay on the device you added them on; the words sync everywhere.)
• Drag an email (from Mail, or a saved .eml on your Desktop) onto Read Aloud. The whole email goes in the box: Subject, From, To, Date and the message. Then it reads.
• Works for text files (.txt, .md, .csv) and saved web pages (.html) too. For PDFs and Word files: open them, select the words, ⌘C, then 📋 Paste & Read.

11. 🌐 Save as a web page

📨 Send → 🌐 Save as a web page makes one .html file of what's in the box: title, date and time, your words, clickable links and pictures, all inside the one file (Form RA-103). On the Mac app you pick the folder (it starts in Documents → Read Aloud Pages). Double-click it to open it in a browser, or attach it to an email or text.

12. 🗂 Pages: your saved web pages (Mac app)

The 🗂 Pages button (above the box) opens Documents → Read Aloud Pages right inside Read Aloud. For each page: 🔊 Read it (reads it out loud), 👁 View (opens it in the Read Aloud web window), ✏️ Put in the box (to change it, then save it again), 🏷 Rename, 📂 Show in Finder and 🗑 (moves it to the Trash; tap twice). 📂 Open the folder opens it in Finder. You can also drag any .html page onto Read Aloud to read it.

13. Printing

🖨 Print (above the box) or 📨 Send → 🖨 Print it shows a preview first (title, date and time). Printed notes are Form RA-101; errand lists are Form RA-102. On the print screen you can pick Save as PDF.

📜 Teleprompter

📜 Teleprompter (above the box) shows what's in the box in big words on a black screen. Press ▶︎ Start: it counts 3-2-1, then the words scroll up slowly past the red reading line. 🐢 − / + 🐇 change the speed, A− / A+ the size of the words. ↔ Mirror flips the words for teleprompter glass. 🎤 Follow my voice listens to you and moves the words along as you say them, then waits when you stop (works best in Chrome and on the iPhone). On a computer: Space bar starts and pauses, ↑ ↓ change speed, Esc closes. Tap the words to pause; drag or scroll to move by hand. 📷 Camera shows your face so you can check how you look: tap once for a small picture in the corner, again for full screen behind the words (dimmed so the words stay easy to read), again to turn it off. When the camera is on, the 🎥 list next to it picks which camera to use (the Mac's own camera, a USB webcam, your iPhone); it remembers your choice. 🌫 Blur blurs the room behind you and keeps you sharp; tap it again to turn it off. When it is on, the 🌫 list next to it sets how much: Light, Some, Medium, Strong (the starting setting), Very strong or Max; you can change it any time, even while recording, and it is remembered. The first time it takes a few seconds to get ready. The blur is in your recordings too. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere unless you press ⏺ Record.

⏺ Record makes a video of you (camera and microphone) while the words scroll. It turns the camera on if it is off, counts 3-2-1, and starts the words and the recording together; a red ⏺ REC clock shows in the top corner. Press ⏹ Stop recording when you finish. In the Mac app (v11) the video goes into Movies → Read Aloud Recordings and Finder opens to it. In Safari or Chrome it goes to your Downloads folder. On the iPhone a share sheet opens: tap Save Video to put it in Photos. The file name has the date and time. You can pause the scrolling while it records; the recording keeps going until you stop it. A big red ⏺ REC clock in the top corner shows how long you have been recording, and the Stop button shows the time too.

📝 Transcript: while it records, Read Aloud also writes down what you say, with the time of each part, like [0:42]. The last words heard show at the bottom of the screen so you know it is working. When you stop, the transcript is saved next to the video as a text file named like the video with "— Transcript" on the end (Form RA-104 at the top). Tap 📝 Transcript in the bottom bar to put it in the Read Aloud box, where you can ▶︎ Read it, ✨ Clean Up the wording, or 🖨 Print it. In the Mac app, turn on Speech Recognition for Read Aloud if it asks. The first time, say Allow when it asks to use the camera (in the Mac app this needs Read Aloud Mac app v10). Your speed, size, mirror and camera choice are remembered. To change the words, ✕ Close, fix them in the box, and open it again.

📄 PDFs

Drag a PDF onto Read Aloud. Its words go into the note where the cursor is (so you can search them, ▶︎ Read them and they sync to your phone), and the PDF itself is kept with the note: a 📄 tile under the box opens it. A scanned PDF with no typed words comes in as pictures of its pages. The PDF file stays on the device you added it on; its words are everywhere.

⭐ Wish list (coming later)

• Share a page online with a code: put a saved web page on an outside web page and send the link; it asks for a code, opens once, then disappears. (Added 28 Oct 2026.)
• Pictures on every device: pictures added to a note show on the phone and laptop too, not just the device they were added on.
• A real iPhone app: one-touch Paste & Read and every site in 🌐 Web on the phone (needs an Apple Developer account).