When using the Microsoft Edge read aloud feature in a pop-up window to view eLearning courses, it's not functioning correctly. Although the read aloud icon appears and the Voice Options toolbar displays, pressing the play icon only reads the first slide repeatedly, regardless of the current slide. Sometimes, it even reads irrelevant information like 'Main Slide' or 'Menu' instead of the actual slide content. Is this issue specific to eLearning pop-up windows? If so, how can I disable this feature in these windows to avoid confusing learners?
Hi there,
I understand your frustration with the Read Aloud feature in Microsoft Edge, especially when viewing eLearning courses in a pop-up window. Unfortunately, it appears to be a known issue that the feature doesn’t work correctly in these windows.
When you try to use Read Aloud, it only reads the first slide repeatedly and sometimes even irrelevant information like ‘Main Slide’ or ‘Menu’. I’ve gathered that this is not exclusive to your setup but a problem faced by many users.
Disabling the feature in these specific windows is not directly possible using standard settings. However, here are a few workarounds that might help you:
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Accessing Read Aloud
- Select the right mouse button and choose Read Aloud in the menu.
- Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U.
- Select the Immersive Reader icon in the browser address bar.
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Disabling or Modifying through Flags
- If you’re using an older version of Edge, you might have seen the flags in “edge://flags” that allowed disabling Read Aloud. Unfortunately, these flags no longer appear in the latest versions.
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Using a Command Line Option
- Previous versions used a command line option to disable the Read Aloud button: “–disable-features=msShowReadAloudIconInAddressBar”. Sadly, this no longer works.
Considering the lack of straightforward methods, you have two alternative approaches:
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Submitting Feedback to Microsoft
- Inside Edge, press Alt+Shift+I and give detailed feedback about the issue. This may help the developers fix or provide a settings option to disable the Read Aloud feature in eLearning pop-ups.
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Altering the Read Aloud Button’s Behavior
- Until a better solution is available, you can try to reduce accidental activations by using the Ctrl+D shortcut to add favorites, which can avoid clicking the Read Aloud button by mistake.
Hope this information helps. If you need further assistance, feel free to ask.