TomTom Voices, downloading and installing., IMPORTANT! Back Up you data First, here is how to do it. Rating Options

[Noele]

TomTom is just one of the many satellite Navigation Systems available which you can customise in several ways. In this short section I will detail how to install your custom files.

Voices:
There are many voices available for TomTom, some require purchasing whilst other are free. The TomTom voices that are available from Softwar4me Downloads section are all free, although free registration is required.

Creating a back up:
It is important that you create a backup copy of your Maps, most people don't realise how easy it is to accidentally delete data. The importance of backing up your files is that if anything goes wrong, or if you delete anything by accident, you'd just replace the files from your PC.

As with updating on any PC, it is always wise to create a new backup. Okay it can take several minutes but... sending your memory card back to the Netherlands to be re-flashed may take several weeks and... you will lose all your customisations!

TomTom Home will enable you to create a backup by simply clicking on the backup button.

Alternatively... you can do it manually.

Creating a new folder;

1. Right-Click in an empty space on your computer desktop.
2. On the popup menu, move your mouse to the word 'New', the menu will expand, click on 'folder'.
3. A new folder will be created, name it 'TomTom Backup' or any name you will remember.

Copying the maps into the new folder;

1. Connect your tomtom via the USB cable and switch it on. Make sure that the original SD card is inserted.
2. On the Windows taskbar Click on 'Start' then 'My Computer'.
3. A list of drives will appear, amongst them is the tomtom, Double click to open it.

For example:

• While the tomtom diirectory is open, on the menu bar click 'Edit' then 'Select all' Or press 'ctrl' + 'A'. this should select all the files on the SD card/harddrive
• On the main menu, Click on 'Edit' then 'Copy'.
• Open the folder you created earlier i.e. 'TomTom Backup'.
• Right-click in an empty space, from the popup menu click on 'paste'.

• You should see a window similar to the above, once the file are copied your backup is created.

You should now have an up-to-date backup. Should anything go wrong, you can always restore your backup.

Next... installing TomTom Voices...

[Noele]

Having backed up our current data - I trust you have and not skipped to the exciting part - Humm

Okay, we can now add our new voice.

Introduction
Each TomTom voice is made of either 2 or 3 files, they have the extensions; '.chk', '.vif' and optionally '.bmp'. e.g. ‘data88.chk’, ‘data88.vif’ and ‘data88.bmp’ all make up the voice of Andy Siddell.

The '.bmp' file is the image displayed to help you in the selection screen, if it is left out the voice will still work.
The other 2 parts ('chk' and 'vif') must both be installed.

Download the voice you intend to install before proceeding to the next step.

How to install a voice:

1. Connect your tomtom to your pc via the USB Cable and switch on the TomTom.
2. On the Windows menu click: Start/My computer, you should see your TomTom device amongst the list of devices.
   
   
   
   
3. Double click to Open, this is where your TomTom data is stored either SD card or harddrive.
4. Locate a folder named 'voices'. [as shown in the picture below.]
5. Copy the 3 parts of the voice (e.g. ‘data88.chk’, ‘data88.vif’, ‘data88.bmp’) into the 'voices' folder [highlighted below].
   
   
   
   
6. Turn off your TomTom and disconnect.
7. Switch on your TomTom and check for the the new voice.

My apologies to Mac users. (I do not own a Mac Please contact me if you have an old one which you would like to donate / recycle one; I am eager to give one a good home.)
The above instructions are based on Windows sytems however, they should be easy enough to interpret for Mac systems. [they say 'Mac users are usually smarter']

Enjoy...

[Linda_mt]

Like most devices with text to speech, it comes with some voices that are TTS enabled, and some that are recorded voices because some people still prefer those. You can find more voices within TomTom HOME.

[jiaknjks]

I love it,Excellent article.I am decide to put this into use one of these days.Thank you for sharing this.To Your Success!