Clip Reader

Reading is not as popular as once was, especially since we've come up with new ways of enjoying books or text. Audiobooks are one example of such a way, but reading doesn't always involve a book. Pieces of text, paragraphs, or any other short composition fall under this process. Because nobody is going to create an audio file for a rudimentary text, applications such as ClipReader fill that gap. This tool lets you listen to any text you throw at it, allowing you to close your eyes and absorb information by the way of hearing.

After the brief installation works, a red, empty window pops up. It might seem unusable at first, but that red background acts as a cover only. Right-click it and select Show from the context menu to reveal the text input area.

You can paste in whatever piece of text you want, from documents, websites, or other sources. If you want to type it yourself, you can easily do that. From the same context menu, click on Speak All, or Speak Selection to make the app read it out loud. Microsoft David and Zira are the voices included in the package, but if you have other voice configuration files, you can use those.

ClipReader comes with a recorder for those who wish to create audio files from text. The recorder can be found under the Start menu on the toolbar and can be switched on or off. Moreover, a WAV to MP3 converter is also included. Despite feeling a bit out of place, the converter might come in handy to users who prefer to execute this specific conversion job without deploying an additional utility.

In short, ClipReader is a simple text reader equipped with a recorder and a conversion ability. The app is stable enough, but some stutters were observed here and there, however, nothing serious can break it while working.