Support

How to get help

Email info@tombstonedash.com with a description of what happened, which edition of PointSpeak you are using (Mac App Store or direct-download), and your macOS version.

System requirements

PointSpeak requires macOS 14 or later on an Apple silicon or Intel Mac.

Using the Reader with the keyboard

The Mac App Store edition (PointSpeak Reader) is built for keyboard-only use:

• Tab and Shift-Tab move focus forward and back through the controls in this order: Open File, Paste, Capture Window, Dictate, Cancel Dictation, Apple voice, Speech speed, the text editor, Read Aloud, Pause or Resume, Stop, and, during a Services request, Replace Selection or Insert at Cursor, then Cancel Replacement or Cancel Insertion. Controls that cannot be used at that moment, such as Cancel Dictation when you are not dictating, are skipped. The Services return action is skipped while dictation starts or runs, or when there is no text to return; its cancellation action remains reachable.
• Command-O opens a file.
• Command-Return starts Read Aloud.

If Tab does not move focus into the Reader's controls, open System Settings → Keyboard and turn on "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls."

Downloading more Apple voices

PointSpeak speaks with whichever Apple voices are already installed on your Mac. To add more:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Choose Accessibility, then Spoken Content.
3. Open the System Voice menu and choose Manage Voices…
4. Download any additional voices you would like, then pick one in PointSpeak.

What the permission prompts are for

• Screen Recording lets PointSpeak take a picture of one window you choose, so it can recognize and read aloud the text in it. The picture is not saved.
• Microphone lets PointSpeak hear you while you are dictating, so it can turn your speech into text. It only listens after you press Dictate.
• Speech Recognition lets PointSpeak use Apple's on-device Speech Recognition to turn your speech into text. This also only runs after you press Dictate, and it does not send your audio anywhere.
• Personal Voice lets PointSpeak read aloud in the Personal Voice you made in System Settings. It is asked only when you choose Allow Personal Voice, and the voice stays on this Mac.

Turning a permission back on

If you chose Don't Allow, or turned a permission off later, PointSpeak cannot ask again. Turn it back on in System Settings:

• Screen Recording: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Screen Recording (called Screen & System Audio Recording on macOS 15 and later). Turn on PointSpeak, then quit and reopen the app.
• Microphone: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone. Turn on PointSpeak, then choose Dictate again.
• Speech Recognition: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Speech Recognition. Turn on PointSpeak, then choose Dictate again.
• Personal Voice: the Allow Personal Voice button appears only until you answer the prompt once. To change your answer, open System Settings, Accessibility, Personal Voice, and allow PointSpeak.

If Dictate says on-device dictation is not ready

The Mac App Store edition only uses Apple's on-device Speech Recognition, so it needs the speech model for your language on this Mac. Open System Settings, Keyboard, and turn on Dictation. When macOS has downloaded the model, choose Dictate again. PointSpeak sends nothing to a server. If your language has no on-device model, Dictate stays unavailable, and you can still type or paste text to read.

Using PointSpeak from other apps

The Mac App Store edition adds three items to the Services menu, found in an app's menu under Services or by Control-clicking selected text:

• Read Selection with PointSpeak reads the text you selected aloud.
• Dictate into Selection with PointSpeak lets you dictate new text, then choose Replace Selection to put it in place of the selected text.
• Dictate at Cursor with PointSpeak lets you dictate text, then choose Insert at Cursor to put it where the cursor is.

If an item is missing, open System Settings, choose Keyboard, choose Keyboard Shortcuts, choose Services, and turn the item on under Text.

The Help menu

In the Mac App Store edition, the Help menu has three items:

• Show Welcome Again replays the short welcome you saw the first time you opened PointSpeak.
• PointSpeak Privacy Policy opens the privacy policy in your web browser.
• PointSpeak Support opens this support page in your web browser.

Reporting an accessibility problem

If VoiceOver, keyboard navigation, or any other assistive technology does not work the way you expect in PointSpeak, email info@tombstonedash.com with the assistive technology you were using, what you expected, and what happened instead.