Make Your Clock Audibly Announce the Time in Mac OS X Yosemite

Edited by Grimm, Amanda, Eng

You're watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we will show you how to set your clock so that it will audibly announce the time every hour, every half hour, or every fifteen minutes, when using a Mac running OS X Yosemite.

Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas148 218667.jpg

Steps

  1. 1
    Navigate up to the clock and click one time
    .
    A menu with four options pops up.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas22 459.jpg
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  2. 2
    Scroll to the bottom and click to select "Open Date & Time Preferences..."
    .
    One click will open the "Date & Time" preferences panel. At the bottom, we will see the option to check or uncheck a box next to "Announce the time".
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas31 859.jpg
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  3. 3
    If checked, click the box to remove the checkmark, which will turn off audible time announcements
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas46 538.jpg
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  4. 4
    If unchecked, click the box to add a checkmark
    .
    This turns audible time announcements on, and enables the settings.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas50 699.jpg
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  5. 5
    Click the blue arrows to select the frequency of announcements
    .
    It defaults to "On the hour". However, we may also select "On the half hour" or "On the quarter hour", which is every 15 minutes.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas61 139.jpg
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  6. 6
    Click "Customize Voice..."
    .
    This opens a new menu, where we are able to customize the voice.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas79 539.jpg
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  7. 7
    Click "Play" to hear the selected voice play
    .
    Ours is currently set to "Use System Voice", which is the default.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas85 499.jpg
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  8. 8
    Click the arrows next to the selected voice to see more options
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas89 48.jpg
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  9. 9
    Click to choose a different voice
    .
    The voices are labeled with names, and sorted by gender. Let's go with "Vicki".
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas94 72.jpg
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  10. 10
    Click "Play" to preview the selection
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas96 74.jpg
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  11. 11
    Click the arrows next to the selected voice again
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas103 218.jpg
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  12. 12
    Click another name to try it, or click "Customize..." to see even more options
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas105 978.jpg
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  13. 13
    Click additional boxes next to names to add them to the voices available for selection
    .
    We could add "Agnes", "Alison", "Ava", "Princess", and so on. We have United States voices, Arabic voices, Chinese voices, Danish, Dutch, and others available.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas111 68.jpg
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  14. 14
    Click "OK" when ready, or "Cancel" to go back
    .
    We will click on "Cancel" for this demonstration. As we can see, there are quite a few voices available.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas124 401.jpg
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  15. 15
    Make sure that "Use custom volume" has a checkmark next to it, and drag the slider to adjust the volume, if desired
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas132 639.jpg
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  16. 16
    Click the box next to "Use custom rate" and drag the slider to adjust how fast the voice speaks
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas139 839.jpg
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  17. 17
    After each change, click "Play" to preview it
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas144 74.jpg
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  18. 18
    Click "OK" when done
    .
    Make sure that "Announce the time" still has a checkbox.
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas147 78.jpg
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  19. 19
    Close the "Date & Time" preferences panel by going to the top left and clicking the red circle with the black x
    .
    Make your clock audibly announce the time on Mac OS X Yosemite.mp4-canvas154 14.jpg
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  20. 20
    With the closure of that window, our tutorial on setting your clock to announce the time has concluded
    .
    If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this tutorial, or any of our other tutorials, please let us know in the section below.
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Video: Make Your Clock Audibly Announce the Time in Mac OS X Yosemite

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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Article Info

Categories : Macintosh

Recent edits by: Amanda, Grimm

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