This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
How To: Let Your Mac Speak To You Via The Terminal
Do you struggle with real world communications? Would prefer to talk to yourself, your computer, or simply someone only on Twitter?
On a more serious note, you may for one reason or another be unable to speak and this option allows you to communicate verbally with others.
Well, if this is you then you may be interested to know you can have a conversation using your computer with a simple Terminal command.
Simply navigate to Applications>Utilities>Terminal. Then launch the Terminal application.
Then type:
say Hello World
Upon pressing return on your keyboard you computer will say Hello World. Simply change Hello World to whatever you would like your computer to tell you and it will repeat your command.
Please note your words do not need to be case sensitive. I have simply used capitals to separate the command from the words I want spoken.
Warning: Terminal commands have the ability to change the running operation of your Mac. Please copy and paste the Terminal command as shown directly from the article. Mistakes in keystokes can cause your Mac to perform differently and may in-fact result in a loss of data. It is advised that you only use the Terminal if you feel comfortable with the command line interface. If you are ever unsure please consult your local tech support person.
