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Balabolka

Balabolka (the Russian word for "chatterer") is a free text reader which can be installed on your PC or run from a USB Pen Drive for portable use.

The program highlights the text as it's read back to you.

It can read text from:

Balabolka removes any formatting or images so it's not good if you want to see the original format while it reads, but it's superb for reading books that are mainly text.

You can download directly from:

MyStudyBar provides a whole set of literacy tools, so if you only want Balabolka by itself:

How do I use Balabolka?

  1. Open your file (file > open);
  2. Click where you want it to start speaking from;
  3. Click the Speak button in the toolbar.

As well as opening files, you can cut and paste text (Press Ctrl-C) directly into Balabolka.

Clipboard Watch

Another nice feature is having Balabolka automatically speak any text you copy into the clipboard.

  1. Click on Options > Settings in the top menu;
  2. Click on the Clipboard tab;
  3. Check the Clipboard Watch box.

When you now copy text in a document (Press Ctrl-C), Balabolka will automatically speak it back to you.

Background colour and font

If you would like to change the background colour or adjust the font size or type:

  1. Click on View in the top menu;
  2. Click on Background color to adjust the background colour;
  3. Click on Font to adjust the type and size of font.

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