Anyone else use this feature to check their writing?
It was suggested to me, and lord knows I need the help, so I tried it. I didn't realize it right away, but the computer voice is the same voice I heard when watching Stephen Hawkings documentaries. Now I can't get him and his chair out of my head when I hear the Read Aloud feature.
I do use it. It is exceedingly helpful. I use Word 2019/Windows 10. You can add languages to Windows and have them available in Word/Read Aloud. I like to have all the English varieties available: AUS, UK, and US. However, it is clunky to do. Once installed in Win10, you have to select text in Word, then select the language. Only then will you have the related language voices. Microsoft being Microsoft. Sigh.
I use Voice Aloud. I think it can take Word files, but I usually output my work as an epub and feed it that. It does help catch things.
I also use it as my reader for SOL stories, downloading them as an epub, then switching seamlessly between reading and listening. Very convenient! The ability to download long stories as epubs had made me reluctant to even start stories on the one other site I really monitor. I'm spoiled.
I'm not overly impressed with M$'s choice of voices, but luckily, the Mac's voice offerings are generally better, but I've used a variety of different 'read aloud' options, as M$'s is more difficult to change the pace of. It's definitely intended to be read VERY slowly, which makes using it to proof an extended novel incredibly difficult.
The technical suggestion for reading aloud is to read your story aloud, to yourself, reading an entire chapter backwards, reading the last sentence to the first, so the error stands out from the story, which is what usually obscures your more obvious typos.