In 9.0.3, I believe the only hotkey is cltr+alt+R/cmd+opt+R -- that seems unlikely to be something you'd trigger by accident? Where exactly are you typing when that happens?
The betas have a trigger using the R key, but that still shouldn't trigger when you're in any writeable field.
But still not totally clear how you'd trigger this accidentally. Various things throughout Zotero trigger on unmodified keys (e.g., find-as-you-type navigation in the collections and items lists), so it's not ever really safe to assume that you can press keys outside of a text field without something happening (and, obviously, you're already presumably losing whatever you're trying to type).
If it's starting when you're in a text field, that would be a bug.
I'm having the same problem with 9.0.3. Selecting the text (say to highlight or copy and paste) suddenly results in having the selection read to me. It also takes over my audio controls, so if I'm trying to play music, it plays the audio instead.
I REALLY don't want text to speech in Zotero and just like the OP, I want to turn this feature off. Is there a setting somewhere that allows me to do this or, if not, can this be added somehow so this doesn't keep happening?
@richarddunks: I think there's some sort of confusion here.
Selecting text alone should never start Read Aloud. It's only started by 1) clicking the Read Aloud button in the toolbar, 2) pressing R or L on the keyboard outside of a text field, or 3) selecting some text and choosing "Read Aloud from Here" from the context menu.
Once you've started Read Aloud and the Read Aloud controller is actually open (reading or paused), a headphones icon will appear when you hover over a paragraph, and if you click on the left margin, it will start reading there.
If you're saying it takes over your audio controls, it sounds like you have the Read Aloud panel already open, and you should just close it. It won't come back unless you do one of the things above.
If you think you're seeing something different, provide some screenshots of what you're seeing and provide exact steps to reproduce the problem.
I would like to add my name to the OP and richarddunks request.
On macOS 26.3.1 and 9.0.3 I do not need to have clicked on the toolbar Read Aloud nor selected text. With nothing selected, having opened a new PDF to read (visually), if I press "r" the Read Aloud starts, i.e. the headphone icon gets darkened and the panel appears, and the audio of the reading aloud begins.
It also seems like a good idea to be able to definitively turn off something that potentially has a time limit. If someone were saving their available minutes for a particular purpose accidentally activating Read Aloud could be a waste of those minutes.
@slo_hand: You're misreading the above. As I say, pressing R or L will start and stop Read Aloud if you don't have a text field selected — that's the expected behavior. (It was the other claims made above that were incorrect.) But why are you randomly pressing R? Various actions in Zotero and other programs can obviously happen if you press just start pressing keys on the keyboard.
It's possible we'll make all shortcuts in Zotero configurable in a future version, but unless many people are somehow doing this accidentally, I don't think we'd treat this one in any special way. You can just press R again to stop it. A rare case of playing one sentence of audio isn't going to meaningfully affect one's quota.
Ah, I see. One case where I am unintentionally activating the Read Aloud is when I fail to change the focus from Zotero back to my writing app, which happens too frequently I'll admit.
Yes, it didn't seem too likely that lots of wasted minutes could happen, but possible.
I'm not saying this useful for others, but I don't see why there can't be an option to disable or change the hotkey.
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Where exactly are you typing when that happens?
The betas have a trigger using the R key, but that still shouldn't trigger when you're in any writeable field.
If it's starting when you're in a text field, that would be a bug.
I REALLY don't want text to speech in Zotero and just like the OP, I want to turn this feature off. Is there a setting somewhere that allows me to do this or, if not, can this be added somehow so this doesn't keep happening?
Selecting text alone should never start Read Aloud. It's only started by 1) clicking the Read Aloud button in the toolbar, 2) pressing R or L on the keyboard outside of a text field, or 3) selecting some text and choosing "Read Aloud from Here" from the context menu.
Once you've started Read Aloud and the Read Aloud controller is actually open (reading or paused), a headphones icon will appear when you hover over a paragraph, and if you click on the left margin, it will start reading there.
If you're saying it takes over your audio controls, it sounds like you have the Read Aloud panel already open, and you should just close it. It won't come back unless you do one of the things above.
If you think you're seeing something different, provide some screenshots of what you're seeing and provide exact steps to reproduce the problem.
On macOS 26.3.1 and 9.0.3 I do not need to have clicked on the toolbar Read Aloud nor selected text. With nothing selected, having opened a new PDF to read (visually), if I press "r" the Read Aloud starts, i.e. the headphone icon gets darkened and the panel appears, and the audio of the reading aloud begins.
It also seems like a good idea to be able to definitively turn off something that potentially has a time limit. If someone were saving their available minutes for a particular purpose accidentally activating Read Aloud could be a waste of those minutes.
It's possible we'll make all shortcuts in Zotero configurable in a future version, but unless many people are somehow doing this accidentally, I don't think we'd treat this one in any special way. You can just press R again to stop it. A rare case of playing one sentence of audio isn't going to meaningfully affect one's quota.
Yes, it didn't seem too likely that lots of wasted minutes could happen, but possible.
I'm not saying this useful for others, but I don't see why there can't be an option to disable or change the hotkey.