Q: How do I turn the volume down on spoken alerts?
In System Preferences' Dictation & Speech pane, I have turned on "Announce when alerts are displayed". I love this feature since I am not always sitting in front of my Mac. However, there is no volume setting for this feature. Alerts will boom over iTunes, and boom loudly all day which is a no-no in my apartment complex. I've already created an iCal event via Automator to quiet my Mac's overall volume at 10pm, but this still doesn't solve the volume issue throughout the rest of the day. The alert speech volume is clearly set at 11.
I've experimented with VoiceOver Utility to modify the speech volume, but to no avail. The "Announce when alerts are displayed" setting is separate. Does anybody know of a way to adjust this particular volume setting? Know where it is located? Know of a "defaults write" command I can fire off to take this down to 60%?
Let's see if I can anticipate some helpful suggestions:
Yes, I know I can lower my system volume. I want to adjust alert volume separately.
Yes, I know I can check spoken alerts off. I want to keep this feature on, but not at its current volume level.
Yes, I know I can adjust the clock voice volume, but alert volume is not affected.
I'm assuming that Apple has inexplicably not included volume adjustment for this particular feature since I have spent a great deal of time hunting for it and have come up empty. But maybe somebody out there knows of a fix. Maybe the solution is staring me in the face.
Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), My macs work via brain waves…
Posted on Jul 4, 2013 5:20 PM

