Listening to a Document

Whenever the Listen icon is present, you can have the content on that page read out loud. You will find the Listen icon on these pages:

You will be able to listen to all or part of the document read aloud by a computer-generated voice. You can also download an audio version of the document as an MP3 file.

Note: The read-aloud feature is not available for the Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography database collection.

Listening to the Entire Document

  1. If you want to hear the audio version of the whole document, click the Listen icon
  2. The player dashboard will appear (as shown above) and automatically begin playback
  3. Click Close window when you have finished listening

Note that if you have any part of the document selected on the page, you will hear just that highlighted text. Refresh the page and then click the Play button -- with no text selected -- to hear the entire document.

To listen to the same text read again, click the Stop button and then click Play button. You may also click anywhere on the playback indicator bar to start the playback from that point.

Note: Refreshing the page or selecting text on the page will cause the audio playback to stop. Double-clicking the mouse button will also stop the audio.

The audio player will read aloud the first 190,000 characters when you are listening to the entire document. Any text beyond this limit will not be read aloud. A pop-up message will warn you if you have exceeded the audio playback limit.

Listening to a Highlighted Portion of the Document

  1. If you want to listen to just part of the document, use the mouse to select text from the document (the words you select will be highlighted)
  2. Click the Listen icon
  3. The player dashboard will appear (as shown above) and automatically begin playback
  4. Click Close window when you have finished listening

The amount of selected text the player dashboard will read aloud depends on your web browser and operating system:

If you try to select too much text, a pop-up message will appear. You must then select a smaller part of the document.

Once you use the mouse to select words on the page, the player dashboard will be ready to read only a part of the document. To listen to the same text read again, just click the Play button (or click directly on the playback indicator bar to rewind). If you want to hear a different selection of text or the entire document, you must first refresh the page using your browser's refresh page control.

Note: Refreshing the page or selecting text on the page will cause the audio playback to stop. Double-clicking the mouse button will also stop the audio.

Downloading an MP3 File

In addition to listening to the document, you may also download an audio version of the document, Help page or dictionary definition. The system will create an MP3 file that you can save on your computer or to a disk or portable USB drive.

Download an Audio File of the Entire Document

  1. Without selecting any part of the document, click the Listen icon
  2. The player dashboard window will appear and playback will begin (you may pause or stop the audio playback if you desire)
  3. Click the Download MP3 link
  4. You will be prompted to agree to the disclaimer that downloaded material is for your educational, noncommercial use only
  5. Your browser will display a pop-up window so you can save the MP3 file
  6. You may change the name of the file to be saved, but keep the .mp3 extension

A Download MP3 tool is also available in the document Tools box.

Download an Audio File of Part of the Document

  1. Use the mouse to select text from the document (the words you select will be highlighted)
  2. Click the Listen icon
  3. The player dashboard window will appear and playback will begin (you may pause or stop the audio playback if you desire)
  4. Click the Download audio of selected text link
  5. You will be prompted to agree to the disclaimer that downloaded material is for your educational, noncommercial use only
  6. Your browser will display a pop-up window so you can save the MP3 file
  7. You may change the name of the file to be saved, but keep the .mp3 extension

When downloading selected text to an MP3 file, you may select up to 1000 characters at a time. If you try to select too much text, a pop-up message will appear. You must then select a smaller part of the document.

FAQs

What types of content can be read aloud?

Full-text documents. Citation-only or abstract-only documents will not display the Listen icon. You will also be able to listen to Help pages and Dictionary definitions.

The audio player may not read aloud all links within the document. In addition, it will ignore image captions.

Do I have to select all the text to hear the whole document read? Do I have to press Ctrl-A?

No. If you have pressed Ctrl-A, the system will display a message asking you to deselect the text and click the Play button.

Can I listen to a translated document?

No, listening to a translated document is not available at this time.

How does the system read aloud special characters?

Every attempt has been made to have the audio player read special characters appropriately. For example, the ampersand sign (&) will be read aloud as "and." Due to the wide variety of content that can exist in Gale databases, you may come across a few special characters and/or abbreviations that are not read aloud properly.

How does the system name the downloaded MP3 file?

The downloaded MP3 file will be labeled with the article title (limited to 63 characters). Any spaces and special characters will be replaced by the underscore character (_).

What should I do if I am having trouble downloading the MP3 file?

Please contact your library if you are unable download the document as an MP3 file.