Start a narration

Start Narrator from selected text in any Mac app, or open Narrator → New narration to bring in something else. Playback starts after Epilude extracts the text.

Read selected text

Select text in the app in front of you and press ⌥⌘N. Narrator begins reading without opening the main Epilude window.

The same command pauses or resumes when that exact selection is already playing. You can also Control-click the selection and choose Services → Narrate with Epilude, which reads without opening the main window.

Add a selection to Up Next

Press ⌥⇧⌘N to add the selected text to Up Next instead of reading it now. The narration you're listening to keeps playing, and the floating player shows Added to Up Next for a moment. Control-click the selection and choose Services → Add to Up Next in Epilude to do the same with the mouse.

⌥⇧⌘N is set for you. It is your Narrate selection shortcut with ⇧, it works in every app, and it changes when you change that shortcut. While Epilude is running, an app's own ⌥⇧⌘N doesn't reach that app; to free it, give Narrate selection a different shortcut in Settings → Hotkeys → Features → Narrator. The line under Narrate selection shows the ⇧ version in use. If your shortcut is a single key such as Right ⌥, or a mouse button, hold ⇧ as you press it.

⌥⇧⌘N and the Services item add the selection to Up Next in these cases:

• A narration is playing or paused. A paused one stays paused.
• Up Next is waiting for you to press Play. The text goes to the end of the list, and nothing starts.
• You're dictating, even with nothing loaded. The dictation carries on. With nothing loaded the floating player stays hidden, so look for the text on the Up Next card on the Narrator page.

Otherwise they read the selection now, as ⌥⌘N does. Selecting the text you're listening to shows You're listening to this one. and changes nothing. With nothing selected, ⌥⇧⌘N does what ⌥⌘N does.

Read the page you're on

With nothing selected, press ⌥⌘N while a web page is open in your browser, and Narrator reads the page's article, leaving out menus, comments, and ads. The player shows Reading the page… while the page loads. The page joins your library and reads the same way as a pasted link.

This works in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and other browsers built on Chrome's engine, such as Vivaldi and Opera. Firefox doesn't always tell Narrator which page is open; when it doesn't, Narrator asks you to select some text first. If a narration is playing or paused, the hotkey pauses or resumes it instead, so stop it first to read the page.

Narrator learns the page's address through the Accessibility permission it already uses for selections, so there is no new permission to grant and it never asks to control your browser. It then loads the page again from that address, without your browser's sign-in. A page behind a sign-in, such as your email or a paywalled article, can't be read this way; select its text instead.

Your Mac loads the page itself, whichever voice you use. With the EP-1 voice the address never leaves your Mac. With a cloud voice, if your Mac can't load the page, Epilude's server loads it instead and receives its address, except when the address contains a ? or points to your own network. What leaves your Mac has the details.

Pages in private and Incognito windows are read too. A page you read from one joins your library and Continue listening like any other, and with a cloud voice and Automatically keep cloud narrations on the web turned on, it is kept on the web when it plays to the end.

Add a file

Open Narrator → New narration → Upload file, then choose a PDF, EPUB, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML, or RTF file. You can also drag the file onto the Narrator page.

Epilude adds the document to your library and starts reading. Headings become chapters when the document has at least two of them; an EPUB book takes its chapters from its table of contents.

A long book or PDF takes a moment to come in. The top of the Narrator page shows how far it has got, such as Reading page 12 of 150…. Choose Cancel beside it to stop the import, and nothing is added to your library. You can switch to another page while it runs; an import that finishes while you are away is added to your library without starting to play.

PDFs

PDFs are cleaned as they come in. Running headers, footers, and page numbers are left out, lines are joined back into paragraphs, and words split across two lines are put back together. Pages set in two columns read one column after the other, and a page turned sideways or upside down reads the way it displays. Headings become chapters, including bold numbered headings such as “1. Introduction”.

Footnotes and a reference list stay in the text, but Narrator skips them while Skip footnotes and Skip reference lists are on in Settings → Narrator → Reading.

A scanned PDF holds pictures of its pages rather than text, so Narrator recognizes the words on your Mac, page by page. It reads them in the language the PDF names, or the language of its typed pages, along with the languages set in System Settings → General → Language & Region, and detects other languages on its own. The top of the Narrator page counts the pages as it goes.

Narrator imports up to 1,500 pages of a PDF and spends up to 10 minutes reading one. Past either limit, or past the most text one narration can hold, the pages before that point import, and a notice on the Narrator page says where the import stopped. A page that can't be read is left out, and the notice counts it.

A PDF that needs a password has to be unlocked in Preview first. A PDF whose owner blocks copying its text, even for screen readers, can't be imported. One that blocks only copying imports as normal.

EPUB books

An EPUB book starts where the book says its text begins, so the cover and front matter are not read first; a book that names no start begins at the top. The cover and front matter stay in the text above the start, and you can click a word there to read from it. Replaying a finished book starts from the same place again.

If part of a book can't be read, Narrator imports the rest, and a notice on the Narrator page names the part it left out. Narrator spends up to 2 minutes reading a book. A book too long to import in full, or still reading after 2 minutes, stops at the end of a chapter, and the notice says which one. A book with copy protection (DRM) can't be imported.

Paste a web link

Choose New narration → Paste link, enter the page address, and select Import & Play. The page must be reachable without a sign-in for Epilude to read it.

Narrator finds the page's article and reads it from the headline down, with its subheadings, lists, and links. Menus, share buttons, related stories, comments, and ads are left out, and so are images and videos, though a picture's caption stays. The library entry takes the article's title, or the site's address, such as www.example.com, when the page has none.

With the EP-1 voice your Mac loads the page and finds the article itself, so the address never leaves your Mac. With a cloud voice Epilude's server loads the page for you and receives its address; if the server can't, your Mac tries. A link to your own network, such as localhost, a .local name, or an address starting with 192.168., is always read by your Mac. Either way, nothing the page points to, such as its images, scripts, or fonts, is loaded.

A page over 5 MB can't be imported, and Narrator stops waiting for a page that hasn't loaded within 30 seconds. A link to something other than a web page, such as a PDF or a video, shows That link isn't a web page. Download a PDF and add it as a file instead.

Use copied or typed text

Choose Narrate clipboard to read the text currently on your clipboard. Narrator adds it to your library, so you can resume or share it later.

Choose Create text when you want to paste or type something and keep it in the library. Select Add & Play when the text is ready.

Read text from an image

Choose Import image to open an image file, or choose Capture screen and drag over the part of the screen you want. Narrator recognizes the visible text on your Mac, adds it to the library, and starts reading. Text recognition starts with the languages set in System Settings → General → Language & Region and detects other languages on its own.

A clean, high-resolution image produces better text. Crop out columns or labels that should not be read.

Narrate a meeting note or a dictation

In a meeting note, choose Narrate summary, Narrate transcript or Narrate whole note from the note's More menu. The … menu on a meeting in the Notetaker list, or under Recent meetings on Home, has the same items. The Listen buttons in a note still play the recording.

A note offers only the parts it has, and Narrate whole note appears when it has at least two of a summary, your notes and a transcript. The whole note gets a chapter for each part, and each transcript paragraph starts with who spoke when the speaker changes. While a meeting is still recording, its Narrate items are dimmed.

On a dictation, choose Narrate from its More menu under Recent dictations on Home, or in All dictations. Narrator reads the text the entry shows, so after Undo AI edit it reads the raw transcript.

Each one becomes a library entry with a Notetaker or Dictation badge, so choosing Narrate again picks up where you stopped. After you edit the note or regenerate its summary, Narrate reads the new text and removes the old narration, unless you shared it or kept it on the web, or it's loaded in the player or in Up Next. If you're dictating, Narrate adds the narration to Up Next instead of starting it, and the player shows Added to Up Next.

Deleting the note or the dictation doesn't delete its narration; delete that in Narrator too. Meeting notes and dictations are never uploaded by Automatically keep cloud narrations on the web.

Notes and dictations that stayed on your Mac

A note or dictation that stayed on your Mac is read with the EP-1 voice, even if you chose a cloud voice, and it plays on in Up Next like any narration with that voice. Your chosen voice stays as it is for everything else.

If the EP-1 voice can't read it, Narrator asks once for that narration whether to use your cloud voice. In Up Next it waits until you press Play. How Narrator works explains which notes and dictations count and what each answer does.

Troubleshooting

• Narrator says it can't read your selection? Epilude needs Accessibility permission. Choose Open Accessibility Settings on the notice, turn on Epilude, then press ⌥⌘N again.
• The hotkey says no text is selected? Select the text again, then press ⌥⌘N while the app you selected it in is still in front.
• Add to Up Next in Epilude is missing from the Services menu? Check that it is ticked in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services → Text. If it isn't listed there yet after an update, log out of your Mac and back in.
• ⌥⇧⌘N doesn't add to Up Next? Read the line under Narrate selection in Settings → Hotkeys → Features → Narrator. If your shortcut already uses ⇧, or its ⇧ version belongs to another shortcut or to macOS, it has no Up Next version, and the line says so. Choose a different shortcut for Narrate selection.
• A file has no readable text? A very faint or skewed scan can come out empty; try a cleaner copy.
• A book or PDF will not import? The message says why: copy protection, a password, a damaged file, or a file too large. Troubleshoot Narrator explains each message.
• A web page will not import? Open the address in a browser and confirm it is public. Pages behind a sign-in cannot be imported. Troubleshoot Narrator explains each message.
• The hotkey says it couldn't read the page? A page that needs a sign-in, or loads its article only after scripts run, can't be read this way. Select the text you want and press ⌥⌘N again.
• The Narrate items in a meeting note are dimmed? The meeting is still recording. Stop the recording, then choose Narrate again.

Next steps

• Choose a voice
• Control playback
• Troubleshoot Narrator