Lin/Linda here. Along the way, I’ve had requests to add audio to Sue’s journal pages to convert the text to speech. I’m working on that, finally. The voices you hear aren’t ours. Through the wonders of technology, you’ll be hearing synthesized voices of Joanna (Sue) and Kendra (me) from the app that I am using.
I wanted to use the word ‘podcast’ to refer to this project of adding audio narration to some of our pages. However, it seems that not everyone knows what that is. The dictionary says “A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening.” The word actually came from combining ‘iPod’ and ‘Broadcast.’ An iPod is an Apple device for listening to music and other audio files. Many podcasts are set up in apps such as Stitcher and Spotify. I may be able to create a podcast channel on one of them but for now, you’ll find audio files on our website that you can listen to and can download as well as see the text on the page as it’s always been.
How to Know a Page Has Audio
There won’t be audio on all the pages. If there is audio on a particular page, you will see what we’ll call the ‘audio bar.’ Look at the top of the page for the audio bar.
If you’ve watched videos or listened to music online, you may recognize the dark triangle pointing to the right at the beginning of this audio bar. This is the ‘play’ button. Select it and the audio will start to play. You will see how long it is. Most of them are under 5 minutes.
If you want to pause the audio, choose this symbol. When you do, you’ll see the ‘play’ symbol again. Every time you choose, you get the previous symbol, so if you choose the symbol 4 times, you will see ‘play’, ‘pause’, ‘play’, ‘pause.’ This is often referred to as ‘toggling.’
Volume
As the audio plays, you will see the symbol of a speaker at the end of the solid bar. Choose it and you can adjust the volume. You will see a solid dot to the left of the speaker symbol. This is called a ‘slider’ because you can slide that dot to the right and left. For full volume, the dot should be all the way on the right. When you slide it to the left, it decreases the volume.
If you choose the speaker again, it will turn to the symbol of a speaker with a slash over it which means the volume has been muted/silenced. Every time you choose the speaker symbol, you’ll toggle between volume and mute.
Download the Audio File
At the very end of the audio bar line you will see 3 dots stacked vertically. Choose it and you will see the word ‘download’ so choose it. Depending on what device you are using, you’ll be asked where to save it.
What Now?
Problems? Comments?
If you have a problem or a comment, you can share it here or send me an email at light2sight5153@gmail.com.