Read Aloud Voices in WORD (they disappeared)

Anonymous

After upgrading my laptop to Windows 11, I tried Read Aloud in Word. To my surprise there were several voice options that were not there when I was using Windows 10. Then, after a week of using it to proofread my manuscript, I rebooted my laptop (something I do regularly to ensure updates) and the Read Aloud was ****. I tried to change back to the good voice and there were only the standard three voices (David, Zira, Mark). I worked with Microsoft support, who reinstall my Office 19 twice before finally saying there were only the three voices and I had to live with it.

Was I in some weird twilight zone for a week and not in the real world? What happened to my good Read Aloud voice? and how can I get it back?

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Anonymous

2021-11-30T03:56:40+00:00

My laptop is fairly new Dell (much less than a year). I bought it with Windows 10 and Office 2019 pre-installed. I have never loaded third party voices or any software that should have affected the sound system in any way (that I am aware of). When I got the new machine, I tried Read Aloud (with the three standard voices). It was too irritating to use. When I upgraded (a week ago) to Windows 11, I got the wild notion to try Read aloud again. To my surprise, there were other choices for voices. I found both a male and female voice that were quite good (not perfect, but they sounded much closer to real speech than anything I've heard). For several days, I enjoyed using Read Aloud to help with proofreading my current manuscript. After chapter 39 (of 71) I rebooted the laptop (something I do regularly to ensure updates are installed). When I started my next round of proofreading, it hurt my ears. I assumed the reboot reset my Read Aloud voice so I went to changed it to the one I was using and could not find it. Only the three standard ones were available.

I played with every setup feature I could think of. I search the web for a solution. I contacted Microsoft support and spent quite a bit of time as the tech reinstalled my office suite (twice). The end result was there are only three voices--the ones you mentioned above and I still have them.)

So... where did my good voices come from and why are they not there now? And why doesn't anybody else know about them?

One caveat on the attached screen shot. The Microsoft tech remotely reinstalled my office twice---I don't know if this destroyed anything you may have been looking for.

I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.......
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Anonymous

2021-11-30T01:44:40+00:00

Hi

Thank you for your question in this community, according to your description of the problem,

I know that you have put in a lot of effort into this issue, and I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you, let me try to help you solve this problem:

The sound of this voice in Word may be related to the sound settings on your computer.

The standard three voices (David, Zira, Mark) is the default US. As shown in the screenshot, other regions have different voices.

Did you lose these voices? If so, you can try the following methods to add voice to your computer to try to solve this problem:

If it is not correct, have you ever added a third-party plug-in on Word to get these sounds?

And, can you provide your version information and your subscription information to help us better test this issue, because the settings of different versions may be different:

You can provide a complete screenshot through file>accont to help us analyze, pay attention to hiding personal information!

Once again, sorry for the inconvenience, your understanding and support are greatly appreciated!

Best 　 Regards
Ethan
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