Change Text-To-Speech By Using Automator

Mac OS X has a nice feature: Text-To-Speech. You can select a text and let Mac OS to read the text. Since OS X 10.8, Apple added Chinese speech support. For me, English and Chinese are two voices I used most of time. This can be set in System Preferences->Dictation & Speech, where a default voice can be set.

One thing bothers me is that it is so inconvenient to switch between voices. What I would like is a convenient way, such as short-cut-keys, to make change of voices. For me, I would like to switch between Alex to read English and Ting-Ting for Chinese quickly.

Finally, I found a way to do it. It is actually very easy to do it. This can be done by using Automator. Here are steps.

First, launch Automator from Spotlight (pressing command+space, and type Automator). Select Service  type documentation.

Create Services

Within workflow, only two items are needed: Service receives selected text, and Speak Text:

Save the service as "SpeechByAlex".

Repeat the same step to create another service with Ting-Ting as voice, and save it as "SpeechByTingTing".

Note: the services are saved in the local user's Library->Services folder.

Define Shortcut Keys

The next step is to define shortcut keys for those two services.

Open System Preferences->Keyboard. Select Keyboard Shortcuts tab. On the left panel, select Services. Find two services under Text group.

I used Control+Shift+Command+A for Alex, and Control+Shift+Command+T for Ting-Ting.

Update: iTunes 11.0.2 & Java for OS X 2003-001 1.0

Today there are two updates. One is for security reason: Java for OS X 2003-001 1.0 and another one is for iTunes 11.0.2. My iPhone also got update to iOS 6.1.2

Here is the space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...31,516
After	...18,616
Difference (A-B)	-12,900
Capacity	45%

Update: Digital Camera RAW and AirPort

Today I noticed two Apple updates, I did update immediately. By the way, today I also got Skethbook Express app version 6.0.1 from App Store. This is a free version by Autodesk.

Unfortunately, I overwrote the update file when I got disk space by using df command. The previous disk space was lost.

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...n/a
After	431,654,812
Difference (A-B)	n/a
Capacity	45%

Update: Xcode 4.6

This update happened when I got back from my 3-week vacation. This update is for Xcode 4.6. Right at the time I am going back to work on my app.

The following is the comparison of spaces used before and after of the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...1,445,896
After	...233,616
Difference (A-B)	-1,212,280
Capacity	44%

iMac 27 Power Supply Failure

I found my iMac 27 dead after I came back from my 3 week trip to China. I turned power off before I left. When I tried to turn on my iMac 27 as I came back, the screen stays black, nothing happening. I made an appointment with Apple Help Desk. I had to leave my Mac there since a support staff could not tell what's wrong at that time. He told me two possibilities: one is power supply and another is logic board.

Fortunately, after three days I got email from Apple store my Mad ready for pick up. It was power supply issue. I told them if it is the logic board issue, contact me first. To repair or replay logic board, it would cost me about $500 or more. I was lucky. The part of PS is $69.00, and the labour is $39.00. I was told that the labour cost was reduced recently. It was $100+ before.

I am planning to update my iMac 27 so that I will get at least one year warranty. This time, I think, I'll get extended warranty with three year coverage and phone support.

Reinstall iWork 09

I purchased iWork more than 2 years ago. I still have the original box and CD. However, I could not find its serial number. The reason I need SN is that I could not use iWork on my two MacBook Pros. Today I got the issue resolve. Actually, I don't need SN since I have to original box and CD.

Here is the background story. My daughter has used those two MacBook Pros. I think that she may installed iWork trial version from web. The trial version has only 30 day limit. After the limit, it requires SN to activate. Now I take my daughter's old MacBook Pro for my personal use. I gave her another one last year. Since she used both and she used Time Machine to restore her account, both have the same issue: SN for iWork activation.

Today, I spent some time to investigate and I got it resolved. What I need is to remove the iWork from Applications folder first. I have to remove its library folder from /Library/Applicaction Support. There is are two iWorks folders there, one for 08 and one for 09. The 09 folder should be removed.

After cleanup of the iWork, I inserted CD and installed it. There is no requirement for SN. After installation, the iWork works fine. There is option to update iWork when either Numbers or Pages is launched first time. I found this update is not from Apple's software update.

By the way, iWork 09 is good for up to 5 personal computers, according to Apple's information from web. I have not tried it over 5 yet. I doubt if can install it over more than 5. I have another 3 MacBook laptops (one MacBook, two MacBook Air) I sent to my relatives. I am going to visit them in my coming vacation. I will verify if they still have iWork or not. I'll try to install it if they don't have or they have same SN requirement issue.

iPhoto and Photo Book

It is Christmas holiday season and close to year end of 2012. It is time to share gifts with family members and best of friends. I have used my iOS devices in the past years to take many photos. Those photos bring wonderful memory of our past. I decided to use iPhoto app to create photo books as Christmas and New Year gifts. I think this is a great idea and it will be a big surprise for people who will receive my photo books.

It is very easy to create a photo book. Here are some of my experiences.

Context Driven Process

I only started to use iPhoto to create books three weeks ago. Therefore, my limited experience may not explore all the features of how to create photo books. I must miss something I don't know. However, it is very easy to create a photo book in iPhoto app. There is Create button on the bottom right side in most cases. From there Book is one of options.

Depending on where you are, the book will bring in photos depending on the context. For example, if you open an event from Events in Library, the photos in this even will be placed in pages in your new book. If you open a person from Faces, the book will initialize pages based on photos for this person.

iPhoto's book comes with many different templates, and those templates make book design much easy. You have to open a page to change page layout from a list of choices such one photo, two photos and so on; however, there is a limitation to change page layout design. For example, you cannot change photo page size, delete text box or change text box size.

Choose Photo from Events

Most likely, you will want to choose photos from different events. To do that, you have to select an event first, then go back to your book to select photos from that event. This is a very tedious process if you have a lots of photos, such as thousands of photos across hundreds of events. There is no way to create a collection of photos as a template place. Another enhancement would be nice if search photo by key words/tags assigned to photo is available.

Output Options

There are many options you can output the book into different formats, such as web pages, JEG photos, slide movie, PDF book and physical book from Apple print shop. I think the last three options are the most popular ones.

To create slideshow movie, it can be done by Export from File menu. To generate PDF, you can choose Print or press Command + P keys.

As Christmas gift, I choose Buy Book in iPhoto. I notice one problem when I buy a book. If you use iPhoto to edit your book for some period of time, you may get crash when you buy your book. It is quite annoying after you go through steps to type in mailing address and credit information. Fortunately, you would not get charged if you fail to submit your request.

To avoid this problem, quit iPhoto if you edit your book. Re-open it just for Buy Book. This will be very smooth process without any trouble.

Another critical tip to create book should be done always if your photos are not processed or optimized.   In the final step, go through all your photos and use the Enhance feature to get enhanced photo quality from Photo Edit.

The first book I submitted was on Sunday. The next day I got an email notification about my order. The third day I got a notification about shipment and on Thursday I received my order. The package is very nice packaged with Apple logo. The print quality is well done, almost as same as I see from my iMac screen.

After my first success try, I designed two more books for my best friends. The books are on the way to my friend's homes. They will be very surprised to receive my Christmas gifts. I think that those colorful and wonderful photos will be best gifts for them. They will remember this gift for long time.