Read Text Aloud - Improve shortcut for selection, variable reading delay, apply grammar tools always

[YoraiLevi]

Hi! I really hope someone is reading this and this isn't for nothing. I have actually started using edge instead of chrome BECAUSE of a few unique features it provides one of which is the read aloud embedded in the browser. Personally I had been using an autohotkey script that 'copy' the selected text to the clipboard and then using balabolka's cli to read it aloud using a registry edit to enable the cortana's voice.

THIS IS COMBERSOME but it gets the job done.

I have been trying to use the text-aloud feature provided and it's a very good improvement compared to any TTS screen reader I had been using so far though it's not perfect. I really liked the voice collection.

Anyway.

The ctrl+shift+U shortcut always reads from the beginning of the web-page regardless if there is selected text. this is in contradiction to the suggested idea by the right click/context menu that specifically states "Read aloud from here"(which works). No matter the selected text the reading will start from the beginning rather than the selected text. QUITE ANNOYING

Another Improvement I would love to see is adding the grammar tools available in immersive mode everywhere As much as immersive mode clears the page us neatly for quick browsing rather than reading it's adds a bunch of more clicks to enter and exit immersive mode just to read with ease.

I do not know who's responsible for the idea of grammar notation but I LOVE IT THANK YOU if you could also add something similar to SPRITZ Highlighting (not the word flashes just the red letters) into the mix this will ease at least my reading so much.

I would love to see these features enable-able on every page's text rather than just in immersive mode

I would love to see a way to pick the paragraph/heading delay, it's frustrating to wait for it to read a list. it's way too slow because the texts are short and have a huge break in between.

Thanks!

[#2]

@YoraiLevi Welcome to the MSFT Edge Insider community! And yes, there is indeed someone here reading your feedback, so thank you for sharing it with us; we're always looking for ways to improve.

I'm glad to hear that you're liking the Read aloud voices and grammar functionality. I have a couple of clarifying questions about your feedback:

1. In your ideal scenario, would you want the Ctrl+Shift+U shortcut to start reading wherever your highlight was, or would you want another shortcut key to do that?
2. For the team members who aren't familiar with SPRITZ, can you tell us more about what parts of that you like and how it helps your reading experience?
3. If you haven't yet, can you please submit this feedback through our secure in-browser feedback tool too? It helps the feature team keep all of their feedback together. (You can do that by holding down Shift+Alt+I from within Microsoft Edge on a PC, or going to the "..." menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback.)

Fawkes (they/them)
Program Manager & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

[#3]

Sorry that I am replying late.

I had noticed this in my inbox only now.

regarding the shortcut, this is what I currently see happening:

1) if the reading mode isn't active edge will attempt to read from the beginning if the page.

2) if the reading mode is active it will read the selected text

3) if the context menu is used, regardless of if the reading mode is active the selected text will be read.

4) if reading mode is active the context menu doesn't suggest to read the selected text

By reading mode I mean the GUI that shows up on top that has the pause and language options.

Personally in my ahk script I use the alt+q or alt+w shortcuts the pause the already read text and start reading the selected one instead. I would appreciate some form similar to that, that just reads when pressed.

Now, spritz is a reading assistant tool designed for speed reading. the idea of spritz is to improve word recognition speed thus improving speed. to achieve that spritz shows 1 word at a time while highlighting in red 1 key letter of the word.

similar to edge's immersive reading mode that is capable of showing only 1-3 sentences thus decluttering the page spritz's decluttering assists in reading.

the highlighted letter and the decluttering helps a lot with reading. which makes me wonder how effecting just highlighting and shows 1-3 lines is. 

I have searched a little and it seems like there are 2 extensions already capable somewhat both for reading and spritz 
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/read-aloud-a-text-to-spe/nmpoeeoiinfjbokhiglialghh...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speedy-readie/aibmmfofaeipbiaocgabhobgedbfdiih

[#4]

@YoraiLevi Thank you for that detailed response! The Spritz functionality sounds interesting, and I could see the value in that; I'll pass this feedback on to our Accessibility team.

Fawkes (they/them)
Program Manager & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

[#5]

I second this. The new accessibility tools like ReadAloud are what made me start using Edge again. Would be very useful if there was a shortcut for reading from selection.

There is another minor issue: that I have to select a paragraph by dragging the mouse cursor. But if I select a paragraph by triple clicking a word it's in, it would continue reading beyond the selected paragraph.

Another shortcut that would be useful to have is for line focus, and have it not just part of immersive mode. And to be able to move the highlight be clicking text as well as using cursor keys. At the moment, it's a very long winded way to turn line focus off and on.