too silent

[dgp...@gmail.com]

Hello fellow NVDA emissaries.

I am Relatively New to this program, and freshly new to this forum.

In my work I frequently use characters to denote passages or highlight sections of my writing for editorial purposes.

Some of these are spokenk when typed in front of a letter or number like a /1 or +a

However many do not like a ~1 or a `2

Is there any way to selectively customize and turn the speaking of these silent characters off or on in nvda?

I stress selectively and would be turning them off in normal reading or writing.

Any tips, tricks techniques or otherly construed suggestions in this forum would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much in advance

[David Griffith]

If I understand your request properly I think you can do what you want using different NVDA Configurations with different settings for the Punctuation  / symbol  settings, though I have never done this specifically.

You can bring up the configuration profile manager with NVDA Control and P.

Here I would set up a configuration to launch with a keystroke of your choice rather than automatically launching.

Then I would go to the symbol / punctuation Manager. 

The Symbol/Punctuation Manager can be found under the third sub-menu of NVDA Preferences.

Here you would search for the desired punctuation symbol and, if you do not want that symbol announced,  edit it in the dialogue to replace what is announced with a space. 

I have to stress I have not personally done this but I think, in theory, this is how you can achieve what you want.

Someone else may contribute with more details if they have actually done it.

David Griffith

David Griffith

 

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From: nvda-...@nvaccess.org <nvda-...@nvaccess.org> on behalf of dgp...@gmail.com <dgp...@gmail.com>
Sent: 13 March 2026 20:33
To: nvda-...@nvaccess.org <nvda-...@nvaccess.org>
Subject: [NVDA] too silent

 

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[James AUSTIN]

Hi, welcome to the group.

The every way I can think of at the moment is to go into the symbol pronunciation menu which I think is in the preferences menu and remove the spoken form of whichever characters you would like removed. However, I would suggest that you create a specific profile for this so that you can switch it on and off as needed as if this works, deleting the spoken form of the symbols from the default profile will affect reading for everything.

Warmest wishes,

JAMES.

Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Mar 2026, at 8:33 pm, dgp...@gmail.com wrote:



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[Andrew Downie]

I am guessing that you are not adjusting punctuation level.  Doing that will, to some extent resolve your issue.  You can change that in speech settings under Settings.  But a more convenient option is to use NVDA (Insert or Capslock) and p.  That will cycle through levels from none to all.

All of the symbols you mentioned are spoken when punctuation is set to all but some are, by default, spoken at lower levels.

But now we come to symbol pronunciation under Preferences.  There you can change how a symbol is pronounced.  But you can also adjust at what level it is spoken, ranging from character (only when you arrow over it) to all.

While others have mentioned profiles, unfortunately moving - say - the slash character to all is a global setting unless I have missed a trick.

But you could set the characters you don't want to hear most of the time to all and turn on all punctuation when you want to read them.

Also, as others have mentioned, you could set the mostly unwanted symbols not to be spoken.  That would mean going into Symbol Pronunciation each time you want to hear them, which could get a bit tedious.  On the other hand, changing punctuation level with NVDA+p is quick and easy.

Andrew

 

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[dgp...@gmail.com]

 

A big thanks to all yee fellow listers for your concise and spot on response to my query.

I hadn't explored the NVDA P command as a workable option.

This is a helpful list and I am all in  and will interact with it when I can, where I can, if I can.

Dave

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/nvaccess.org/d/msgid/nvda-users/CALBhsT6ZwEixmmU-S1D1adQ9d9ODHs701ugfM_NoMxyW2JwEsw%40mail.gmail.com.