It started with reading a news article about the horrible flesh-eating disease. Wondering how much info the Mac Dictionary would give I looked up that long word "necrotizing fasciitis" and my curiosity just got started. Would Dictionary read it to me?
Yes, Mac will read aloud to you. You can use this feature in Dictionary, Pages, Word for Mac, even news you highlight from Google, other Internet sites, and . . . get this! You can listen to the PMUG newsblog being read aloud to you.

Go to Apple in the menu bar across the top of the screen. Click System preferences, under System click Speech. On the Text to Speech tab, select the Speak selected text when the key is pressed check box. Click Set Key, then press the combination of keys that you want to use to hear the text read aloud. Then click OK. I decided to use Command + S. Now the fun of trying it out, here and there.

Oh, here's more about that flesh-eating disease. Click on Dictionary, choose Wikipedia and type in "flesh-eating disease." Up it comes with medical explanations, photos, and links to further resources. There's even a list of notable people who have been afflicted with it.

Missed today's PMUG meeting? Here's today's handout:

Make It Easier to Read. You Can Even Listen to It.

Do Command and + to enlarge the screen view of the page you’re looking at. You can do this 7 times to make the type REALLY big. Do Command and - (the minus sign) to reduce the size of the type.

Does some site have white lettering on a dark background? Want to make it easier to read? Do Control and Option and Command and the number 8. You don’t have to touch all four simultaneously. It toggles to the opposite. Toggle the same to go back to the original look.

You’re writing something, and you need to make it easier on your eyes. Enlarge the type as above, maybe even changing the type font. When you’re ready to print it out change the type font and size of type to the look you want in the finished product.

You can print out something from a website in larger type, but notice the preview view of the page. You may need to go to landscape mode, instead of portrait mode, to get the page from margin to margin printed. Print one sample page first and make needed adjustments.

See a nice, big Preview before you print. Do Command + P > PDF > Open PDF in Preview. Click Print at bottom of that page. (Double click on illustrations to enlarge them.)

Using Pages 09 you can click on Inspector, go to T, and put more space between lines, not just space, space-and-a-half, and double space. You can also put additional space between paragraphs, using Inspector.

You can even put more space between the characters you’re writing.

Distracted by all that stuff in the background of your computer window? Do Option and Command and U to Enter Full Screen. Everything blacks out except the page you are writing. Do Esc to return to regular view.

Would VoiceOver help? Find this under Help on the Finder menu. VoiceOver provides an interactive Quick Start tutorial.

Hear your computer speak selected text?

Go to the main Help menu. Type in Speech and there you'll find useful directions.

Go to System Prefs > Speech.
Try the various choices.
Click on the Question Mark for a list of options and some helpful descriptions.

When you’re using Pages do control click on highlighted words to bring up Speech, Start Speaking. The voice speaks those words out loud.

Hear your mail. Go to Mail > Edit > Speech and listen to what you’ve selected.

Whatever . . . Mac makes it easy & fun & productive!