The Play button is the simplest way to start Sensory Readable speaking. Place your cursor in a document or web page, click Play, and Readable starts reading from the cursor position. If you have selected text first, Readable speaks just that selection instead.

The Sensory Readable Play button — a play-triangle icon on a teal background, the leftmost button on the colour-mode Readable toolbar.
The Play button as it appears on the Readable toolbar (colour mode) — the leftmost button.

Starting from the cursor position

  1. Open the document, web page or email you want read aloud
  2. Click once at the position where you want speech to start
  3. Click the green Play button on the Readable toolbar — or press F7
  4. Readable starts speaking from the cursor and continues to the end of the document
  5. To stop, press Ctrl, press F7, or click the Stop button on the Readable toolbar

The F7 keyboard shortcut

Pressing F7 anywhere in Windows is equivalent to clicking the Play button. F7 is a global shortcut and works without needing the toolbar to be visible — useful when the toolbar is on a different monitor, or when you prefer not to take your hands off the keyboard.

F7 also stops speech. If Readable is currently speaking, pressing F7 stops it. So F7 functions as a one-key toggle — press to start, press again to stop. This makes it the simplest single-key control if you only want to remember one shortcut.

Other ways to start speech

Play is the most direct method, but Readable offers several alternatives:

  • Hover Read Modes — hold Ctrl and hover the mouse to read text
  • Ctrl+Space — read from the mouse pointer position to the end of the document
  • Ctrl+Shift hover — speak a single word and show its definition
  • Speak on Select — automatically speak any text the moment you select it
  • 6-button mouse — use the side buttons of a gaming mouse to control speech without the keyboard