OFF98: Alert Text Is Not Spoken

• Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When an error message appears, the text of the message is not spoken even though you have selected Talking Alerts and Speak The Alert Text in the Speech control panel.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, select Speak Alert Text in the Office Assistant dialog box. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start one of the Office programs, such as Microsoft Excel.

2. If the Office Assistant is not visible, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. Click Options in the Office Assistant.

3. In the Office Assistant dialog box, click the Options tab, click the Speak Alert Text, and then click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

The ability to speak the text of error messages is available in Macintosh System 7.6 or later. The Speech Manager system extension and the Speech control panel device provide this functionality. Note that the Speech control panel device is not required; only the Speech Manager extension is actually required. The Office Assistant Speak Alert Text setting overrides the setting in the Speech control panel.

In the Speech control panel, some of the settings are used and some are ignored. The settings that are used or ignored are listed in the following table.

   Setting                              Status
   --------------------------------------------

   Voice                                Used
   Rate                                 Used
   Speak the phrase                     Ignored
   Wait before speaking (in seconds)    Ignored