I'm trying to adjust how the IVONA TTS voice pronounces a few words.  I've found instructions to do so HERE and they work, however, if I put any text BEFORE the code to change the pronunciation, the voice reads all the code.  If I put text only AFTER the code, it works fine.  TTS.Speaksync does the same thing too.

If that sounds confusing, make a new action of TTS.Speak, try entering each of these and play them.  You'll see (hear) what I mean

Works fine:
<w role="ivona:VBD">read</w> the book yesterday

Preceding word breaks things:
I <w role="ivona:VBD">read</w> the book yesterday

Do I have to put a character after my text but before the code, to let VC know not to pronounce the code possibly??

I think it needs to start with a tag for it to know you are using SSML so to get around it you can probably get away with using an empty tag like this:

<W/>

Or if that doesn't work

<W></W>

You may have to play around with it a bit.

you can use it in this way:

<w role="ivona:VBD">I read</w> the book yesterday


this work too:


<w role="ivona:VBD">I read the book yesterday</w>

I just tested with an empty tag at the beginning, and that also seemed to work:

e.g.
<>Rain expected tomorrow, <w role="ivona:NN">winds</w> at 35km/h, from the northeast.

Thanks everyone!  I'll experiment with it tonight and let you know how it turns out.  I knew there had to be a way to get around it!

<>

Putting that before the first bit of text works perfectly!  Thanks everyone.

Now, even though that works, I'm still having an issue getting the pronunciation the way I want it. The phrase that I'm working with is: "I've turned on the light for you."  The voice says "turned on" as if they used to be friends who turned on each other instead of turned ON.  Does anyone have a clue how to get the voice to emphasize "turned on" the correct way?

Depending on what TTS voice you have (and what version) this may work for you:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<!--VoxCommando 2.2.2.0-->
<command id="667" name="I turned on the sexy lights" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
  <action>
    <cmdType>TTS.Speak</cmdType>
    <params>
      <param>&lt;emphasis level="reduced"&gt;I turned&lt;/emphasis&gt; awn  the lights.</param>
    </params>
    <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
  </action>
  <phrase>Talk funny to me</phrase>
</command>

Thanks, I'll give that a shot and let you know!