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DigitalNinja1980's avatar
DigitalNinja1980
Copper Contributor
Jul 14, 2023

Word 365 Read Aloud Natural Voices Not Available

Weird Login Error when click ReadAloudI've spent days scouring the Internet, desperately trying to find a way to add modern natural voices to Read Aloud in Word 365 on my Windows 11. There used to be a pleasant voice available for months, but it suddenly disappeared, leaving me with the awful robotic voices like David, Mark, and Zira. As a book author who heavily relies on the read aloud feature for proofreading, this is a significant issue for me.

To add to my frustration, I'm encountering a strange error message when I click on read aloud, stating that I need to log in to hear a voice, despite already being logged in. I've read numerous posts and articles on this topic, but unfortunately, I haven't found a solution anywhere.

It's frustrating to see that voices like Aria in Edge and Narrator are fantastic, but they don't appear in Word 365 Read Aloud, where I need them the most. Microsoft seems to make this basic function needlessly complex and elusive, and what is going on with the login message? I would greatly appreciate any assistance or guidance in resolving this matter. Thank you!

  • riversofbelief's avatar
    riversofbelief
    Copper Contributor
    9-22-2023, mid listening to a document I'm writing, it gave me the same need to login message the original thread author posted. I too am already logged in?!

    Not sure how to resolve.
  • J_Pearce's avatar
    J_Pearce
    Copper Contributor
    As someone who heavily relies on this feature for proofing translations, I am feeling this frustration as well. I've reinstalled 365 multiple times now, to no avail. I hope someone will provide an answer soon.
    • DigitalNinja1980's avatar
      DigitalNinja1980
      Copper Contributor

      J_Pearce 

       

      A Microsoft tech told me yesterday that developers were aware of this issue and they will have it fixed in a day or so.

      • J_Pearce's avatar
        J_Pearce
        Copper Contributor
        Great news! Thanks so much for sharing.

        I've just gone through 10,000 words of text in the last few days with the robotic voice, and it hurts my ears.

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