Hi all!
I would like to use the Speak Screen for reading books in the standard Apple Books application. But there are several issues that interfere with the comfortable use of this functionality:
1) As far as I know, after iOS 16 Apple Books application was redesigned, which is why the number of pages left in the chapter is displayed in the top bar. The issue is that Speak Screen also pronounces this number before each page. I tried to hide the controls, but then Speak Screen pronounces the book title before each page.
2) There is a problem when Speak Screen stops at the end of each chapter, its controls, which is displayed on top of the current window, also disappears. To continue reading, it is necessary to unlock the iPhone and re -run Speak Screen. Also, reading does not stop if you do not turn off the screen at all.
I also would like to note that when I read books on the iPhone SE with iOS 14 (or so), not one of these issues was in principle observed, i.e. All of them appeared with some of the updates. Now I am using iPhone 16 with iOS 18.4.1.
So far, I do not want to consider alternative applications for reading books, since I am impressed by the convenience of using Apple Books with Voiceover. Therefore, there are several questions dictated by the problems described above:
1) Is it possible in the pronunciation rules added to Voiceover to use Placeholders in any form (Regex, WildCarts, et Cetera)? I would like to add a replacement like *** pages left in chapter -> . At the moment, it was possible to add a replacement only for pages left in chapter, but the number itself continues to be pronounced. Or, as a less accurate solution, whether it is possible to add such rules by some script, or to import them from an external file - then it would be possible to generate the replacements, say, for the first thousand numbers, hoping that longer chapters would not meet.
2) Do you have a problem with a reading stop at the end of each chapter? It is not always convenient to restart Speak Screen manually; however, it seems that keeping screen constantly turned on not the best solution. Also, perhaps, you have already met with this issue and managed to find any Workaround.