Save with text to speech

You can save your tour's location scripts with text to speech using a button labelled – you guessed it – Save with Text to Speech. You'll find it below the location title in the Your Script tab. This creates an audio file with an impressively realistic robot voice using Amazon Polly.

You can choose from four different voices. There's male or female, each with British or American accents. To do this, in the Your Script tab, expand the list of tour locations on the left, then click the plus (+) icon to the right of Settings. Choose your preferred voice, then click Save Settings.

These audio files are available for download immediately in the VoiceMap audio tour apps, allowing you to go straight from writing your script in Mapmaker to on-the-ground tests.

If you make changes to the script, you'll need to click on Save with Text to Speech again to update the audio file. If you've already downloaded the tour, you'll need to delete the tour on the phone and download it again. There is no auto-update for tours.

How to test your tour

Once you've saved with text to speech:

1. Download the VoiceMap app on your phone
2. Log in with the same account you use for Mapmaker
3. Find your tour and download it
4. Go to the starting location and begin walking the route
5. The audio will play automatically as you enter each location's radius

This is the fastest way to test your tour's route, locations, and directions before recording your final audio.