Software for speaking slowly

February 14, 2016 2:26 PM

I'm looking for teleprompter or speaking notes software that offer some particular features. Does it exist?

I've been searching through online, android, and iOS options for teleprompters and speaking notes, but I'm not finding anything that does quite what I want.

It must scroll like a teleprompter or otherwise prompt me to speak at a given speed, rather than leaving speed up to me.

I want to be able to adjust the speed control based on words per minute or some approximation of that. Most of the apps I've looked at have you set scroll faster or slower, but how fast and slow it actually is depends a bunch of other settings like the font size, width of the window, etc.

I want to see the total length of my text given the speed I've set it to scroll at.

I would prefer it to be $10 or less for the app.

I don't care about things like screen mirroring, font size or other technical aspects of a teleprompter, since I don't plan to use the application while speaking live -- I just want to be able to practice with the text and get timing and speed down. Not that it's a problem if the app has these things, I expect it will. I just don't care about them.

posted by jacquilynne to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: I have heard good things about PromptSmart. It is a teleprompter that purportedly uses the sound of your voice to determine the scrolling speed.
posted by 4ster at 6:20 PM on February 14, 2016

Response by poster: That is, unfortunately, basically the opposite of what I need it to do. I need the software to train me to speak more slowly, which means setting it at a particular speed and following it.

It seems nifty, though. If it wasn't so pricy, I'd buy it just to play with it.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:15 PM on February 14, 2016

Does it have to be visual? What about a metronome that vibrates? (E.g., but I haven't tried this.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:33 PM on February 14, 2016

Response by poster: How would that work, cotton dress sock?
posted by jacquilynne at 9:51 PM on February 14, 2016

Best answer: Oooh, poking at the PromptSmart a little more, it does have words-per-minute as an option. I'm going to try that, even though it's a bit more than I'd hoped to spend.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:53 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oooh, and there's a Lite Version that's a quarter of the price.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:56 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

You could try an app or website that incorporates Spritz, and lets you use your own text. It's usually used by people who want to speed up their reading, but the ones I tried let you set the WPM down as far as 5. (e.g. the preview here). They don't tell you the total length automatically, but if you know the wordcount and the WPM, you can work it out. This online version gives you your text length and progress at the bottom (you need to login to get the lower speeds)
posted by rollick at 10:13 PM on February 14, 2016

Sorry! I thought you could have it somewhere on your person and try to speak to a felt beat.
posted by cotton dress sock at 4:21 AM on February 15, 2016