Cleverkeys for Howjsay

howjsay.com
A pronouncing dictionary with Instant Sound

(1) Cleverkeys for Howjsay

Hear words pronounced by Howjsay from most Windows or Mac programs, including Word, Excel, pdf format, OE, IE and Firefox, simply by selecting the word and hitting Ctrl+L. You can also use it to look up definitions in Dictionary.com, synonyms at Thesaurus.com, and facts at Reference.com.

This free software is called Cleverkeys and is provided courtesy of Lexico. It contains no spyware as of 28/12/07, and uninstallation is easy. You can download Cleverkeys here (671kb). Sorry, but the current version does not work with Windows Vista.

After downloading, Cleverkeys will launch automatically (leave "Launch Cleverkeys Now" checked). You should now see an icon in the shape of an open book in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Double-click on this icon.

Click on the tab "Web Links".
Click on "Add".
In the box marked "Description", enter: howjsay
In the box marked "URL Before", enter: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=
Now click on the tab marked "Hot Keys" and under "Web URL", select "howjsay".
Click on "OK".

You're done. Test it by selecting any word on the page in front of you and hitting Ctrl+L.

(2) IE7 and Firefox Toolbars

Here are some Howjsay toolbars developed by MozDev. Hopefully more will follow.

(3) Firefox Add-on

Howjsay works well with the Firefox add-on Research Word 1.3.6, which you can download at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3803. After downloading, go to Tools, Add-ons and click on Research Word Options. In the Title column type Howjsay. In the URL column type http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word= . In the Suffix column type &submit=Submit . Ignore the shortcuts column. After restarting Firefox, highlight any English word, right click, go down to "Research Words With..." and click on "HowJSay" to hear your highlighted word.

(4) Plugins for IE8 and Google Chrome

Thanks to Adam Rakaska for these plugins for IE and Chrome. And here's another Chrome extension.

Please note that any tools developed for howjsay must open in the original howjsay page concerned - embedding sound files within any such tool is a breach of copyright, and will be taken down.