Enable Text-to-Speech: TomTom or Garmin
Quite a a few new Garmin and TomTom owners have written in this week to say they had just picked up new devices, but feared they got the wrong device since their device didn’t (apparently) have text to speech. Some of them have even gone so far as to return the device for another, only to find the same issue– or return the device and purchased a different model. Chances are, their device did have text to speech, but it wasn’t enabled on their device. Here are some generic instructions on how to enable TTS on Garmin and TomTom devices.
Note: These instructions will vary a little bit from model to model, however they should still show you enough information to get you going.
TomTom
Tap on the map to access the Main Menu, then select ‘Change Preferences’ on the Main Menu.
Find and select ‘Voice Preferences’.
Select ‘Change Voice’.
Use the left/right arrows to browse through the list of voices until you find a voice that reads ‘Female Computer’ or ‘Male Computer’. If the voice is not labeled as ‘Computer’ it will not speak street names. After picking the voice, click ‘Select’.
Ensure that ‘Read aloud street names’ is checked, and click Done a few times to accept your new preferences.
Garmin
From the Main menu, select ‘Tools’.
From the tools menu, select ‘Settings’.
From the Settings menu select ‘Language’
From the Language menu, click on the button under the ‘Voice’ label.
Select a voice where the name ends in ‘(TTS)’. If the voice is not labeled as ‘TTS’ it will not speak street names. Click OK a few times to accept your new preferences.
