look, mum, no hands!: Vocola mini-dictionary

Category: Natlink/Vocola for beginners

Read Vocola quick-start guide first.

View/edit commands for applications "Edit voice commands"
Say "edit voice commands" to open the voice command list file for the application that you're working in. Say it twice to view the voice commands for Vocola macros.

View/edit global voice commands "Edit global voice commands"
Opens the voice command file for global commands.

Macro syntax say "runs the command" after the macro name
Macro name = ;

{ } "New keystroke"
Allows you to incorporate one or more keyboard keys as part of your macros. You can include letters, numbers, and characters, as well as the following special keys: Esc, F1 to F12, SysReq, PrtSc, ScrollLock, Pause, Break, Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, Alt, Space, BackSpace, Enter, Home, Up, PgUp, Left, Centre, Right, End, Down, PgDn, Ins, Del.

[ ] No voice shortcuts apply
Square brackets make part of a command optionally silent. I use this to provide shortcuts for commands that make more sense when they are a bit longer (and are therefore easier to remember!).

e.g. context [menu] = {shift + F10} ;

You can execute this command by saying either "context" or "context menu".

| “Or”
Use a vertical line to provide a choice of commands for the same action.

e.g. (Switch | Next) View = {Ctrl+Tab};

Raw text
To feed a fixed phrase into a command as if you were typing it, just insert the text at the point where you would type it.

For example, you could open a commonly visited web site in Firefox without dictating the URL each time.

e.g. Open Melissa's blog = {Ctrl+l} www.blogspot.com/mefre/ {enter};

Execute Dragon commands “ Insert HeardWord"
Vocola also understands native Dragon commands. To incorporate Dragon commands into Vocola macros, use the function HeardWord. You must separate each word of the command, as shown below.

e.g. Capitalise first word = HeardWord("go","to","beginning","of","sentence")
HeardWord("select","word")
HeardWord("\Cap","that")
HeardWord("Go","Back") ;

<_anything> and $1 No voice shortcuts apply
Use this special variable if you want to dictate different phrases into a command without defining a variable. One of the most useful commands in my Vocola files uses this variable to perform a Google search for any text that I dictate.

[search] Google for <_anything> = AppBringUp("Firefox") Wait(1000) {Ctrl+k}$1 {enter};

This command opens Mozilla Firefox, pauses, places the cursor inside the Google search bar, inserts the text you have dictated and presses the enter key.

I originally thought that it was okay to put any words inside the angle brackets and wondered why <_filename>, <_webpage>, etc didn't work. Trust me, you have to use <_anything>.

<a> := 1..50 “New list insert”
To improve accuracy, you can predefine a variable's range (and call that variable by a name of your choosing!). In this case, we're saying that <a> can be any number from 1 to 50.

Define the variable, and then write one or more commands using it directly underneath.

e.g. <a> := 1..50 ;
go <a> screens down = {PgDn_$1} ;
go <a> screens up = {PgUp_$1} ;

<b> := (choice one | choice two etc) "New list insert"
Here we’re assigning a list of phrases to the variable instead of a range of numbers. I use this construction in opening my favourite web sites.

e.g.
<Websites> := (hotmail="www.hotmail.com" | forum1="http://www.speechcomputing.com/tracker" |forum2="http://www.voicerecognition.com/board/index.php?s=e12e2cdc1e9a9654026b21e236427b5b&showforum=5" | forum3="http://forum.knowbrainer.com/list.php?f=2"?);

go to <Websites>= {ctrl+l}$1{enter} ;

AppBringUp "Insert AppBringUp"
Start an application with this command. You must provide the name of the application's .exe file. For example, AppBringUp(Internet Explorer) won't do anything. To start Internet Explorer, you'd have to use AppBringUp(iexplore).

Find out the name of the application's .exe file by looking inside the programs folder on your hard disk and the specific program's subfolders.

Wait (eg 100 miliseconds) "Insert wait 100”
Pauses before executing the next command.

SetMousePosition (n, x, y) “Insert SetMousePosition 1..99 by 1..10”
Moves the mouse to a position of your choice.
x = pixels across
y = pixels down
If n is 0, coordinates are relative to the top left of the screen.
If n is 1, coordinates are relative to the top left of the active window.

e.g. SetMousePosition (1, 300, 200)

Other functions
Vocola allows you to use all Dragon macro language functions.

See also:
Rick Mohr's Vocola language tutorial
Vocola macros for Vocola macros

// posted by Melissa @ 4:14 pm

look, mum, no hands!

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December 31, 2005

Vocola mini-dictionary