Start with Installation if Emacsvox is not yet installed. It explains the supported installation routes, takes you to a clean speaking session, and provides recovery instructions when speech does not start. Once speech works, Learn the audio desktop teaches reading, editing, Help, structure, and speech adjustments through six connected lessons and a disposable document. Return to Basic Usage, Using Online Help, and Audio Desktop as everyday references.
If Emacs itself is new to you, C-h t opens its interactive tutorial. Emacsvox speaks the tutorial and your navigation while you follow it. At any point, C-h m describes the active modes and C-h k followed by a key explains its current command.
Using this manual offers separate reading routes for new and experienced Emacs users, with a short exercise in finding a topic and returning to work. For one question, Find a task links everyday goals to their instructions. Use Terms used in this manual when a name such as palette or profile is unfamiliar. Detailed backend configuration comes later; it is not a prerequisite for everyday use once speech works.
At an idle startup, after speech is ready, Emacsvox offers a short welcome screen. Its actions test speech, adjust rate and output volumes, choose voices and engines, open the tutorial or manual, and start normal use. Move between actions with TAB and S-TAB, activate one with RET, and use q to return. Arrow keys read the instructions normally.
Toggle Show this welcome screen at startup to stop showing it automatically. The choice is saved in this Emacs profile and survives application upgrades. Open the screen again through Help’s Emacsvox welcome entry, C-h W, or M-x emacsvox-welcome. Startup leaves explicitly opened files and sessions already in use alone.
Emacsvox combines several forms of feedback. Speech reads text, prompts, results, and status. Voice changes make syntax and document structure audible. Short auditory icons and tones identify events such as opening a file or completing an action. Pauses and spatial cues help separate related information.
Begin with the supplied settings and adjust them as you learn what helps your work. From the buffer you are using, C-e H opens the Emacsvox settings menu. Press s for speech controls, v for voices and engines, or o for sounds and output. C-e S opens focused settings for the current integration, falling back to general buffer settings when no focused menu is available. To understand a particular item’s feedback, leave point on it and press C-e E.
In a settings menu, up/down selects an item, left/right changes sections, and RET activates the selection. ? followed by an item’s key explains that item; ? ? explains the menu. q returns one level and C-q closes the menu sequence. Leaving a menu does not reverse adjustments already applied. Settings and editors have distinct saving rules, explained alongside each task in Aural Presentation.
Use C-e H a to find an action, or C-e H / to find a setting. Both select the matching menu control before you activate it. Dedicated editors retain their own navigation, preview, and saving commands; ? explains each view.
Emacsvox sends speech through a speech server. New GNU/Linux, macOS, and WSL2 installations use Omnivox; established direct servers remain available for compatible existing setups. Installation introduces what you need for first speech. Speech Backends provides the platform and compatibility details.
The maintained chapters teach current setup and everyday tasks. Each explains what you do, what feedback to expect, and how to inspect or recover the result. The separate generated reference records commands, options, and keymaps from the source. The heritage manual preserves Emacspeak essays and application guides for their historical and design value; it is not a current setup guide.
Rapidly changing features are also documented in README.org, etc/NEWS,
and the generated Aural Presentation reference. When a copied binding differs
from your running Emacs, consult C-h k, C-h m, or C-h b for the
commands and bindings available in that session.