How can I speed up the "start speaking" feature in iBooks? (System Preferences Dictation and speech does not do anything to the speech speed.) The rate is a bit to slow.

Hi there,

Go to System Preferences>Dictation and Speech>Text to speech. In there is a slider to adjust the speaking rate.

Hope this helps

No worries.

Hi, I had the same problem you described, and I noticed that there are two ways of activating text to speech on iBook for Mac, with different speed results (at least on my MacBook Pro Retina display)
On your iBook you can select the text and and then click on > More> Start speaking, and you will get a certain speed, which tends to be too slow.

But you will get the speed you had selected with "Go to System Preferences>Dictation and Speech>Text to speech. In there is a slider to adjust the speaking rate." if you use the TOP MENU (next to the black apple) under Edit>Speech>Start Speaking. I also learned that under System Preferences>Dictation and Speech>Text to speech, there is an option for a shortcut which is very helpful. And you can change Key. Hope this was helpful.