To stop speech, press the Ctrl key, press F7, or click the Stop button on the Readable toolbar. Any of these will stop speech immediately.
The four ways to stop speech
- 1. Press Ctrl
- The standard keyboard shortcut. Tapping the Ctrl key alone stops speech immediately from anywhere in Windows.
- 2. Press F7
- F7 is a toggle — it starts speech if Readable is silent, and stops speech if Readable is currently speaking. So pressing F7 a second time after starting speech will stop it.
- 3. Click the Stop button on the toolbar
- The red square button next to Play. Same effect as the keyboard shortcuts.
- 4. Click the mouse (if Click Stops Speech is enabled)
- If Click Stops Speech is enabled (the default), clicking the mouse anywhere stops speech — the same effect as Ctrl, F7, or the Stop button. Disable it from Settings if you want speech to continue while you click into other windows.
Which method to use
All four methods stop speech immediately and have the same effect — use whichever feels most natural in the moment. Ctrl is the simplest universal stop and works regardless of how speech started.
Click Stops Speech is on by default, which is why clicking the mouse stops speech. Turn it off from Settings if you want to listen to one application while clicking and typing in another — see Click Stops Speech for the full description.
What happens after you stop
Stopping speech only silences the audio — nothing in your document, the active window or anywhere else is changed. You can stop and start as often as you like with no side effects.
Readable does not remember where it stopped speaking. The next time you start speech (Play, F7, or hover), it starts from wherever the cursor or mouse pointer is at that moment — there is no pause-and-resume.