Choose Create Welcome Project from welcome or the Explorer's Projects + menu. This imports a real sample project with manuscripts and files, not a static walkthrough. Open the sample manuscript in your language; the guided first preview uses xAI Orion and checks your account's included narration allowance.
Follow Open sample, Review excerpt, then Listen in the excerpt dialog. Audio starts automatically when it is ready. Use Stop to end playback. If your browser blocks automatic playback, choose Play to start it manually. Nothing is submitted just by reading the sample. Reopen Create Welcome Project to resume the recorded project. Narration depends on current service availability, account allowance, and permissions; sample content is not a guarantee of provider output.
Explore the sample's expressive directions and vocal cues, then open Project library to inspect uploaded images and audio. These files are separate from the voice's performance annotations.
Open Project Settings immediately above Project library in the Explorer. It starts collapsed. Choose General, Typography, Headings & contents, or Voices to edit in the main workspace. Switching sections keeps your drafts and scroll position. Save changes saves all changed sections and keeps the page open. In nested editors, Apply changes adds edits to the project draft; save the project afterward. Leaving with unsaved edits offers keep or discard. Book and manuscript settings remain in their own dialogs; they can override inherited project defaults where supported. Provider secrets are never retained after leaving the project settings session.
Provider keys appears only for users approved to use their own provider keys (BYOK). Silence at the edges of synthesized speech is trimmed automatically; there is no toggle. Authored pauses and heading/block timing are unchanged.
General contains only the project chat toggle. Put project background and author guidance in Project library > Reference and Guidance, not a description field. Existing description metadata is preserved; saving settings neither migrates it nor overwrites the reference document.
Expand Project library in the Explorer. Reference and Guidance comes first, then Pronunciations, Images, Audio, Files, and Effects. Pronunciations apply to the entire project and save directly. Its overview offers Upload but no file lists. Choose Images, Audio, or Files beneath Project library to browse files in the work area. Actions depend on your permissions.
Expressive directions shape selected prose: select text and use Expressive directions in the selection toolbar. Bold and italics alone do not direct the voice. Vocal cues add a voice performance such as a laugh or pause: place the caret and choose Insert > Vocal Cue in the block actions menu. Select a cue and press Enter or double-click to edit or remove it.
Preview auditions a copied draft without saving annotations or changing the selected voice or payment source. Apply directions or Insert cue saves your choice. Support depends on the narration engine. If support is missing, partial, or unavailable, the preview warns you; annotations are retained and the voice is not switched automatically.
Vocal cues are not uploaded sound effects. Use an audio file for a recorded sound and a silence sound cue for an exact duration; a performed vocal pause is not exact silence.