Pop plugin · Text
Speak
Read the selected text aloud with a system voice; use it again while speaking to stop. It can also save the speech as an audio file.
How to use it
Select something, hold the right mouse button, swipe. The animation plays the steps one after another; click a step to see it again.
- Select it on the page
- Hold the right mouse buttonAbout a quarter of a second. A short click still opens the usual menu.
- Swipe to “Speak” and let goIt sits on the ring where you put it, and it’s always in All Actions.
- It reads the text aloudIn a system voice for the text’s language.
- Use it again to stop
- Or save it as audioSave Speech as Audio puts an .m4a in Downloads.
What it does
Select text and Pop reads it aloud in a system voice for its language: Mandarin for Chinese, a Taiwanese voice for Traditional Chinese.
Use Speak again while it’s reading to stop.
Save Speech as Audio, the plugin’s second action, saves the speech as an .m4a file in Downloads named after the first few words, and shows it in Finder with its length: for voice-overs or listening practice.
If a voice can’t be saved (some Siri voices can’t), Pop says so: choose another system voice in Accessibility settings.
Install it
Plugins aren’t part of the Pop download. Install this one when you need it.
1From Settings
In Pop’s Settings › Actions, find “Speak” under Plugins at the top and click Install. It downloads from Pop’s GitHub release in a few seconds and works right away, without a restart.
2Or from the ring
Open All Actions on the ring and search for “Speak”. Plugins that aren’t installed are listed after your actions: click it to install, and it runs right away if it can handle what you selected.
3Then use it your way
Put it on the ring in Settings › Ring, give it a shortcut, or run it from Shortcuts and scripts with its link:
pop://run?plugin=speakUninstall it from the same list when you no longer need it: the plugin and its settings are deleted. After Pop updates, installed plugins are updated with it, and with iCloud sync on, what you install syncs to your other Macs.
More in Text
Translate Screenshot
Select an area of the screen, recognize its text and translate it (offline)
Save Web Page
Save the whole page at the selected URL to Downloads as one long PDF (with selectable, searchable text) or a long image, or save just the article text as Markdown
Text to Image
Lay out the selected text as a long image that reads well on a phone (1080 pixels wide) on a white, cream or dark background; copy it, save it or pin it to the screen
Large Type
Show the selected text across the whole screen, handy for showing someone a phone number, Wi-Fi password or pickup code; click or press any key to close
Font Preview
Show the selected text (or a sample) in every font on your Mac, filter by Chinese, Western, monospaced or favorite fonts and only those that can show all of it; copy the font name or CSS, or copy it as an image; select font files to preview and install them
Clean Up Text
Join lines, remove blank lines and extra spaces, space Chinese and Latin text, full-width to half-width, Simplified ↔ Traditional Chinese, Pinyin, sort and deduplicate lines