look, mum, no hands!

1Category: Natlink/Vocola for beginners

This quick-start guide is intended to supplement Rick Mohr's excellent Vocola tutorials. After installing Natlink/Vocola I recommend doing the below simply to save time in getting Vocola up and running.

PART ONE: COPY & PASTE EXISTING MACROS

1. Navigate to this collection of Vocola macros: http://speechwiki.org/NL/VocolaMacros.html


2. Choose application-specific commands (e.g. Adobe Reader commands) that look useful to you.


3. Copy one set of commands from the web site to the clipboard.


4. Start the application (e.g. Adobe Reader) and say "edit voice commands".


5. A text window should come up -- paste your copied commands into the window, underneath the header.


6. Say "refresh macros" to save your new voice commands and refresh the microphone, preventing Dragon from crashing


7. Try out your brand-new voice commands!


8. Once you're comfortable with the process, go ahead and import any other macros from Speech Wiki's Vocola macro list that you thought looked useful. Don't worry about importing Vocola macros for Vocola macros -- they're already there.

To import any global macros, say "edit global voice commands" to access that file.

If you are inclined to write your own macros, go on to part two.


PART TWO: WRITE A SIMPLE MACRO
One macro I use a lot is a command to bring up a context menu, the kind of menu you see when you right click the mouse, or press Shift + F10.

The Vocola macro looks like this: context menu = {shift + F10} ;
The left half is the voice command, the right half represents the keyboard shortcut.

Write this macro by voice
The beauty of Vocola is that you can dictate parts of the macro by voice. Here's how:

1. Say "edit global voice commands". Insert the cursor onto a blank line.


2. Say these commands in order:
"context menu"
"runs the command"
"new keystroke"
"shift"
"plus-sign"
"spell f one zero"
The command should read context menu = {shift + F10 } ;

3. Say "refresh macros" to save the macro and prevent Dragon from crashing.


4. Try bringing up a context menus in an application or on the desktop.

Too easy! Now I'll go through the process of writing macros which perform more than one action in part 3.

PART 3: WRITE A LONGER MACRO
After creating a document in most Windows applications, you can use this command to save your new documents in a fixed location (for easy access, I save my documents on the desktop).

Save file as <_anything> = {Ctrl + s} Wait(1000) "C:\Documents and Settings\Mel\Desktop\"$1 {enter} ;

DECIPHERING THE PARTS OF THIS MACRO

Save file as <_anything> These are the words you say to execute the macro. <_anything> represents the name you would like to give the file. For example, if I create a new word document and say "save file as lists", the file will be saved as lists.doc.

{Ctrl + s} These keystrokes bring up the 'save as' dialog box.

Wait(1000) "C:\Documents and Settings\Mel\Desktop\" Pauses and then pastes the fixed file path you have chosen.

$1 Represents the file name you dictated.

{enter} Equivalent to clicking OK on the 'save as' dialog box

; You must end each macro with a semicolon.

Here are the voice commands I used to write the macro:
"save file as"
"new list"
"press underscore" "anything" "press right"
"new keystroke"
"spell c...t...r...l" "plus-sign" "press sierra"
"insert wait one thousand"
"open quotes dictate or paste the file path where you want to save files here close quotes"
"dollar one"
"new keystroke" "enter"

Don't forget to say "refresh macros" after you have entered your macro.


But wait there's more...
If you're able to dictate this command, you're able to automate any task requiring key combinations and text input. Vocola macros can also include mouse actions and Dragon commands.

I've drawn up a Vocola mini-dictionary39 describing the main Vocola commands and when you'd use them.

See also: Scott Weinstein's overview of Vocola40