Writing Excel Macros with VBA, 2nd Edition

Name

Speech Object

Synopsis

Path: Application - Speech

Object	Methods	Properties
Speech	Speak(Text As String, [SpeakAsync] As Variant, [SpeakXML] As Variant, [Purge] As Variant)	Direction( ) As XlSpeakDirection SpeakCellOnEnter( ) As Boolean

The Speech object is a very simple object that is used to implement speech in Excel XP. To obtain a Speech object, use the Speech property of the Application object. The Speech object has only two properties, Direction and SpeakCellOnEnter, and one method, Speak.

The Direction property sets the speech direction to one of the constants in the following enum:

Enum XlSpeakDirection
	xlSpeakByRows = 0
	xlSpeakByColumns = 1
End Enum

This sets the speech direction when using the Speak property of the Range object. For instance, if the activesheet has content:

A1 = 1, B1 = 2
A2 = 3, B2 = 4

Then the code:

Range("A1:B2").Speak xlSpeakByRows

will speak “1, 2, 3, 4”

whereas the code:

Range("A1:B2").Speak xlSpeakByColumns

will speak “1, 3, 2, 4”

The SpeakCellOnEnter property is a Boolean property that specifies whether or not Excel will speak the contents of the active cell when the Enter key is struck or when the focus moves to another cell after editing of that cell. (The cell contents are not spoken just because focus is lost—it only happens when the cell has been edited and focus is lost.)

The Speak method speaks text, as in:

Application.Speech.Speak "To be or not to be"

or:

Application.Speech.Speak ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Value