One of the handiest of features that got left behind during the transition of Edge from its own engine to the Chromium codebase, is Read Aloud for PDF files.
This much-loved feature from the old version of Edge allowed uses to read out the contents of the PDF files that they had open in the web browser. You know, when you have a lengthy document, magazine or ebook open, and want the browser to narrate its content to you.
One of the more used capabilities of the Legacy Edge is now available in the Chromium based one.
Microsoft has been on quest to improve the read aloud feature of its new browser for some time now, and the company has finally managed to add support for Read Aloud for PDFs.
Albeit, the feature is hidden behind a flag right now.
You need to be on Edge Canary for this.
Launch the web browser, and type edge://flags/#edge-read-aloud-pdf in the address bar. Click on the dropdown menu, and select Enabled to turn this feature on. You will need to restart your browser for it to be activated.
Now, all you need to do is open any PDF file in Edge, and click on the Read Aloud in the toolbar in the top corner of the screen.
You will find the usual settings that let you control the speed and voice here.
The PDF Read Aloud feature is currently available in Microsoft Edge Canary 84.0.512.0 and later. It should be one of the highlight feature of Edge version 84, when it eventually becomes available for everyone.
