I was looking for a free text to speech software over the weekend so I could catch up on some reading and I found a really good one that is also portable! It’s called DSpeech and you can download it from here:

http://dimio.altervista.org/eng

DSpeech can use Window’s integrated voices but if you prefer to get something better, it will integrate with commercial voices as well. You can download a free PDF plug-in from the website to read your PDF ebooks. It also allows you to make your own MP3 (or WAV if you prefer) audio books.

It doesn’t integrate with OpenOffice, unfortunately – if you want to read a .doc file, the program requires you have Microsoft Word. This isn’t really a big deal though, as you can cut and paste your OpenOffice document into the reader’s window or save it as a text file or even convert it to PDF to be read with the free plug-in tool. It also lacks a bookmark feature, so if you are reading a large file, you’ll have to note where you left off.

All in all, it’s a great little software – completely portable, very small and free (but the author welcomes donations if you find the program useful)!