Follow-up to this thread - this is way more specific, so hopefully worthy of its own thread. I think wildcards are the best option for my skill level (basically none), and have gotten a good chunk of what I wanted to accomplish done with those.
An issue I've run into and can't seem to google my way out is making TTS pronounce acronyms in a sensible way. For example "PACU" (post-anesthesia care unit) is usually vocalized as "pack-you" but my TTS software likes to say things like "pace-uh". Or "PO" (latin abbreviation for 'by mouth') is vocalized by just saying the letters, but TTS says "Poe". Stuff like that.
When the TTS comes across a capitol letter with a space on either side, it just pronounces the letter, so I'd still lose things like "pack-you" but at least hearing it spell out "pee ay see you" would make sense, vs "pace-uh" which is gibberish and confusing at high playback speeds.
Best I've come up with so far is <([A-Z]{2})> on the Find side, but that's only spotting the two character terms like PO, and ignoring the longer ones... I'd hoped it would see PACU and detect PA, AC, and CU as three distinct sets of two that could cobbled into "P A C U".
Nothing I've done on the Replace side comes close to working. It either does nothing at all, or it'll do something like turn "PO" into <([A- Z]{2})>. Not sure if preserving the original characters is something A-Z is actually capable of - seems not, but I'm kind of an idiot with stuff like this, so any tips would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Maybe replace the acronym with the closest word phonetically?
Since PACU sounds like "pack you", just do a search and replace - at least in the doc that's going to be read out by TTS.
This may not solve all acronyms, but it'll get some, and quickly, leaving more time for working on the more difficult things.
Is there any way to modify your TTS utility? (Does it accept a user dictionary?)
That'd work for smaller documents - I'm planning on hitting entire text books in one go, and there are hundreds of these acronyms. Time is an insanely valulable resource once the semester gets into full swing, so being able to tackle huge chunks of prep in a few clicks gives me that much more time to read/listen to the actual content.
The TTS I'm using is "Speechify" - it sounds pretty good on its own most of the time, but acronyms are hit and miss. ~~It doesn't offer much customizeability beyond selecting a voice and speed - no user dictionary that I'm aware of.~~ (apparently it does to some extent - I'll need to play around with that)