We have integrated with a third party service to provide accurate and fully automated read aloud timestamping for adding read aloud highlights.
We include fifteen timestamps minutes with every Pro credit purchased and extra timestamps can be purchased by the minute by contacting us.
All words from all text frames on the live text layer for the current page to the CircularFLO Read Aloud Panel.
Words are added depending on the position on the page from top to bottom, left to right. For more complex pages, selecting text frames or objects on the page indicates the required reading order.
Quickly prepare multi pages or an entire document by holding the Command (Apple) key when clicking the Prepare Read Aloud button.
Because the content for the read aloud panel is coming directly from the page, there is no need for guess work. Words are always spelt correctly and contain all the correct punctuation from the InDesign text frames.
Change words, alter their reading order or remove words from highlighting then just make those changes within the panel.
Drop highlight swatch here - To change the highlighting colour for the page from the usual red, drop any InDesign swatch colour into the table where indicated.
Start page audio at - The starting time for the audio track will be set to 0.00 seconds. Start times are calculated automatically if using a audio track across multiple pages.
Stop page audio at - The stop time for audio playback comes from the length of the added audio track. Stop times are calculated automatically if using a audio track across pages.
Start and stop times can be altered by editing these number. Times are always in seconds.
EPUB 'Media Overlays', often referred to as read aloud ebooks, link and audio track with visual highlights and can also help with language learning and accessibility.
CircularFLO makes it easy to add audio files to pages and then choose to highlight individual words and even images without coding and without leaving InDesign.
Pre recorded audio is played and words are coloured in time to guide the reader to follow. Playback can be paused and tapping a word on the page skips the audio playback to that position
Either MP3 or M4A audio can be used and a single track can be used for all pages or split by page or spread if required.
Unique CircularFLO tools handle the preparation of the InDesign file and automatic timestamping and previewing.
Working with an InDesign live text layer is recommended.
An intro followed by eight step-by-step videos to show the creation of read aloud story books from start to finish with no-code.
The videos are grouped together in a YouTube playlist linked below. The steps are
These videos use the older interface but they are still a good introduction to the methods used.
For embedded text (InDesign text not on a live text layer) or text on a path, each word will be separated into an individual object on the page and added to the read aloud table.
To add read aloud highlighting to embedded text, first select the frame or path containing the text and then click the Prepare Read Aloud button.
If required these elements should be adjusted to be sure there are no overlapping sections.
To add read aloud highlighting to scanned images, first select the frame or frames containing the images and click the Prepare Read Aloud button to add them to the CircularFLO Read Aloud Panel in turn.
If a single scanned image contains multiple words then by holding down the command key after the confirmation the after when promoted to draw areas within the scan to specify which parts of the frame.
Embedded text should be black and scanned Images should be black and white bitmaps.
Please contact us for instructions on preparing PDFs artwork for use with read aloud.
EPUB 'Media Overlays', often referred to as read aloud ebooks, link and audio track with visual highlights and can also help with language learning and accessibility.
CircularFLO makes it easy to add audio files to pages and then choose to highlight individual words and even images without coding and without leaving InDesign.
Pre recorded audio is played and words are coloured in time to guide the reader to follow. Playback can be paused and tapping a word on the page skips the audio playback to that position
Either MP3 or M4A audio can be used and a single track can be used for all pages or split by page or spread if required.
Unique CircularFLO tools handle the preparation of the InDesign file and automatic timestamping and previewing.
Working with an InDesign live text layer is recommended.
Circular Software has done some experimentation and worked on a short series of ebooks for Faber Music which involved interactive highlighting for teaching piano.
Here is a clip of a similar type of effect.
We developed some semi-automated tools which are not in the public version of Circular Software as part of this project, If this interests you please contact us to find out more and to discuss your requirements.
Adding read aloud media overlays to reflowable EPUBs is possible within the EPUB specification but is not yet supported by many major.
Circular Software has done some test projects to achieve this and also gone some way to automating the process, but these tools are not offered in our public software products.
Please contact us if you are interested to find out more.
