Practice on your own
Use this page to practice alone. Cloudy Reader reads a question, you answer out loud in the pause, and then the app reads the answer line. The app does not time or score you.
Set up a practice session
Section titled “Set up a practice session”Let the voices download before your first session. See Let the voices download.
- Open Cloudy Reader.
- Select Read answer line. The app then reads the answer after each question.
- Choose a voice in Voice, or choose a mode in Rotation.
- Click the question box and press Command-V to paste your questions.
- Press Command-Return.
The status bar shows “Preparing…”, then “Playing n s.” With a rotation mode, both messages name the voice. You hear the question, a pause, and the answer. The app saves your rotation mode, Read answer line, and Online lookups for the next session. It saves a voice that you choose yourself.
The Options row holds the two checkboxes that matter for practice:
- Read answer line: reads the answer after each question.
- Online lookups: allows name lookups.
Answer before the answer line
Section titled “Answer before the answer line”With Read answer line selected, the app pauses for 5 seconds after the question. Then it says “Answer.” and the answer. Some voices add their own silence around each line, so the pause can run longer. See Voices and voice engines.
- Listen to the question. The status bar shows “Playing n s.” while the sound plays.
- Say your answer out loud when the question ends.
- Listen to the answer line. It starts with “Answer.”
- Press Command-R to hear the whole reading again, or paste the next question.
The app reads the main answer and stops at the first judge note, such as (ACCEPT: or (PROMPT:. An answer in capital letters is read in title case, so the line ANSWER: Y) CARBON DIOXIDE is read as “Answer. Y. Carbon Dioxide.” Deselect Read answer line to hear no answers.
Work through a question set
Section titled “Work through a question set”To go one question at a time, use the keyboard loop:
- Copy one question from your PDF. See Paste questions from a PDF or web page.
- Press Command-Tab to switch to Cloudy Reader.
- Press Command-Shift-V. Speak Clipboard replaces the question box with the clipboard text and reads it.
- Answer out loud, then hear the answer line.
- Press Command-R to hear the question again, or go back to step 1 for the next question.
To read a set in one run, paste all of it and press Speak. The app reads the questions in order and leaves 1.5 seconds between them. You cannot skip ahead: Stop ends the reading, and Repeat starts it again from the first question. Paste a few questions at a time.
Vary the voices
Section titled “Vary the voices”Rotation picks a voice each time a reading starts. Choose a mode in Rotation:
- Round robin goes through the voices in menu order.
- Random shuffle deals the voices in random order, and no voice repeats until all have played.
- US only (random shuffle), Men only, and Women only deal from a smaller group of voices.
Some gender labels are guesses that nobody has checked by ear. See Rotation modes for the groups and the exact rules.
The status bar names the voice: “Preparing with voice…”, then “Playing n s with voice.”
Rotation picks one voice for each reading, so a paste with several questions is read in one voice. Paste one question at a time to hear a different voice for each question. Repeat plays the same audio and keeps the voice.
While the first download runs, the Voice menu lists only the first voice to arrive. Use rotation after the download label and progress bar leave the status bar.
To learn rotation step by step, see Practice with voice rotation.
Practice without a network
Section titled “Practice without a network”After the first launch downloads the voices, reading needs no network.
- Check that the Voice menu lists voices. If the menu is dimmed and empty, see No voice is installed.
- Deselect Online lookups to stop name lookups. The app saves this choice.
- Read as usual.
Name lookups do not change how a question sounds. You hear the same words and pronunciations with Online lookups selected or deselected. To stop lookups and the voice download for one launch, see Work offline.