Mac OS localization and French, or other european languages

timuche

Since Mac OS X Tiger, you can listen to your computer with VoiceOver's help.



Basically, you define trigger key strokes in the Preferences Pane and the system generate an utterance of the text you've selected in your document.







Well, only if you're interested in hearing English.



For the rest of us, because of the localisation, Mac OS X does not come up with the same polish.



Similarly, the Dictionary.app displays a fine New Oxford American Dictionary. Even when you purchased your mac in a non-English speaking European country, like France.







So what ?



What is necessary ? and that Apple misses ? in order to have Macs with French dictionary in Dictionary.app and French voice synthesis in VoiceOver?



This a mystery for me o_O

s.metcalf

I agree. Apple could do better. Apple's "Universal Access" is not quite universal. If you're vision impaired and don't speak English you pretty much have to buy a text-to-speach voice, and they can be quite expensive for the quality ones.



It's unreasonable to satisfy everyone and ship dozens or even hundreds of languages, but they could cover the main ones, with Spanish and French probably topping the list.



Plus I'm sure there are plenty of English speakers that could use the foreign voices to practice our pronounciation in an effort to impress our girl/boy friends!