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To download the latest version of the Windows (7, 8, 10, 11...) edition of Praat, download one of the following zip folders to your desktop:
After downloading, you will see the zip folder as a folder icon with a zipper on it (or as some other icon if you installed a special zip program such as WinZip).
When you double-click the zip folder, a file called Praat or Praat.exe will appear. This is the Praat program. You can drag it out of the zip folder to any location on your hard disk (so that you can use Praat even if your system administrator does not allow you to install other programs!).
All current Windows computers have a 64-bit operating system. If you have an older computer, or chose a 32-bit operating system, the 64-bit edition will not work on it, so you have to install the 32-bit edition instead. If you are in doubt, try the 64-bit edition first, and switch to the 32-bit edition if the 64-bit edition does not work.
To start up the Praat program, just double-click it. If you use Praat for the first time, choose Intro from the Help menu.
For best results with phonetic characters in the TextGrid and Picture windows, you should also download the Charis SIL and/or the Doulos SIL font, which were created by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. To install them, first download their zip-files:
Double-click the zip folders. You will see a folder called CharisSIL-6.200 or DoulosSIL-6.200; drag it out of the zip folder to your desktop. When you open the CharisSIL-6.200 or DoulosSIL-6.200 folders, you will see TrueType font files such as CharisSIL-Regular(.ttf), CharisSIL-Bold(.ttf), CharisSIL-Italic(.ttf), CharisSIL-BoldItalic(.ttf), and DoulosSIL-Regular(.ttf). To install a font, double-click its file and choose Install.
When you use Praat, you will work with many files with the same base name, such as hello.wav, hello.TextGrid, and hello.Pitch. On your computer, these might all look like being just called hello. This is confusing, especially when you open files in Praat with Read from file... or try to save a file with one of the Save commands. Our advice is that you make all extensions (such as .wav, .TextGrid and .Pitch) visible by going to Windows Explorer (not the internet browser, but the file viewer), then File, then Change folder and search options, and then View, and uncheck Hide extensions for known file types under Advanced settings.
To run Praat from a console window (the “command prompt”), write a Praat script and specify that script on the command line, optionally with arguments, e.g.:
Praat.exe --run playsinewave.praat 377 0.9
For details see Calling from the command line in the Scripting manual.
On a modern computer you would use praat6310_win64.zip, as suggested above. If that does not work on your computer, you can probably use praat6310_win32.zip (as suggested above), or try an older version: