Have any article read out to you (turn any article into a podcast/audio book)

Sometimes I read stuff because I just find it interesting and sometimes it's essential information that I need to stay abreast of; like for CPD (Continuing Professional Development). Either way, it takes time to read. Not least of all because while I can scan text fairly quickly, I'm a relatively slow reader - if it's something that I need to absorb.

A helpful process that I use is to have that article read out. So I wanted to share with you the process I use. To make this work you'll need one of the following -

  • A friend/relative/colleague (a child will suffice, but ensure they have a reading age great than 12 years) with nothing else to do

    or

  • A laptop/desktop with a Chromium-based browser (for example, Google Chrome).
Either jump straight to the Reader View extension I use, or, if you really want to make it slightly harder because you're one of those people that has to do everything the slow way -

  1. Go to the Chrome Web Store
  2. Search for "Reader View" (Offered by: yokris.dev)
  3. Click "Add to Chrome"
  4. Read and agree to the permissions
Head to any article - here's one that I wrote about Tech tips for working from home - try with that one, and click on the "Reader View" icon that you'll see in your extension bar (the upper right-hand corner of your browser) (the icon is a square with three horizontal lines representing text).

🛈 If you don't see the icon in your extensions bar, click the "Extensions" icon (the icon is a jigsaw piece), scroll to locate "Reader View" and click the 'pin' icon to pin it to your extensions bar.

After activating Reader View, you'll notice that it takes the content of the article, removes a lot of clutter and is prepared for reading. You can start the process by selecting the speaker (🔊) icon on the left-hand side.

If you would like to change any of the settings (language/accent, volume, speed or pitch), you'll find this in the upper-right hand corner of the screen once you've started playing.

I use "en-GB KateV3 (female, enhanced dnn) (Watson)", but you do you.

I personally find that I'm able to absorb more of the information this way, I can even perform some basic tasks alongside listening to an article.

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