User manual NUANCE VIAVOICE 10 - PERSONAL EDITION

IBM® ViaVoice® for Windows® Personal Edition User's Guide Release 10 IBM® ViaVoice® for Windows® Personal Edition User's Guide Release 10 Note Before using this information and the product it supports, be sure to read the information in Appendix C, "Notices" on page 103. First Edition (August 2002) This edition applies to version 1, release 10, modification 0 of IBM ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition US English (program number 5724-C96) and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Readers may address comments on this publication to: IBM Austria, Department 00/558, Lassallestrasse 1, A-1020 Vienna, Austria. If you prefer to send your comments by fax, use the following number: Your international access code + 43 + 1 + 21145 6177. You may also send comments on this publication as an electronic mail (e-mail) to the following user ID: pub_comments@at.ibm.com When you send information to IBM, you grant IBM a nonexclusive right to use or distribute the information in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. 30 Day Money Back Guarantee: If you have purchased this product directly from IBM or an IBM Authorized Business Partner and are not completely satisfied, you may return the entire undamaged product for a refund within 30 days. In the United States, you can return unopened product to your place of purchase, or opened and undamaged product directly to us for a refund. Product purchased from IBM Direct (800-426-2255) or IBM PSG Sales (800-426-7235) should be returned directly to them. To receive your refund directly from us, you will need to first obtain a Return Authorization Form. The form is available by calling #1-800-825-5263, e-mail: talk2me@us.ibm.com or by writing to us: IBM Voice Systems Returns -3rd Floor, 8051 Congress Avenue, Boca Raton, Florida 33487. Send the Return Authorization Form, your dated original sales receipt and the ViaVoice product box and its contents back to us at the above address. We must have the Return Authorization Form in order to process the refund. The refund includes purchase price and taxes, but not shipping costs. IBM is not responsible for lost mail. In Canada, you can return unopened product to your place of purchase or call #1-800-825-5263 and request to speak with someone in the Rebates and Returns Department. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1998, 2002. All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights ­ Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Welcome to ViaVoice . . . . . . . . . v Conventions in this book . . . . . . . vii Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system . 1 Installing the ViaVoice software . . . . . . 2 Setting up your microphone and audio system 6 Creating a voice model. . . . . . . . . 8 Analyzing your voice . . . . . . . . . 10 Analyzing your documents . . . . . . . 12 Troubleshooting setup problems . . . . . 13 Unable to install ViaVoice . . . . . . 13 Problems with audio setup . . . . . . 13 Poor recognition . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 2. The magic of dictating with ViaVoice . . . . . . . . . . . . . Practice dictating . . . . . . . . . . Finding recognition errors . . . . . . . Correcting errors . . . . . . . . . . Try re-dictating your text before correction Correcting misrecognized words . . . . Removing inserted words . . . . . . Correcting capitalization errors. . . . . Next steps after correction . . . . . . . Analyzing My Documents . . . . . . . Troubleshooting dictation problems . . . . Saying commands while dictating. . Inline dictation commands . . . "Scratch that" command . . . . Text-editing commands . . . . Bullet lists. . . . . . . . . Commands recognized as text . . Dictating e-mail user IDs and URLs . Transferring your dictation to another application . . . . . . . . . Saving your dictation in SpeakPad . Saving a speech session . . . . Saving your dictation as text . . Finding new words in your document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 36 36 37 37 37 39 40 41 41 41 42 43 43 44 45 47 48 49 49 49 50 50 50 50 50 50 51 51 51 51 52 52 54 55 55 55 56 17 18 19 20 20 20 21 21 21 22 23 Chapter 3. Introducing VoiceCenter . . . 25 VoiceCenter components . . . . . . . . 26 ViaVoice menu . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Chapter 4. Dictating into SpeakPad . . SpeakPad menus and buttons . . . . . General hints and tips. . . . . . . . Dictating numbers in the US English version of ViaVoice . . . . . . . . . . . Currency . . . . . . . . . . . Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . Decimals . . . . . . . . . . . Ordinals . . . . . . . . . . . Long numbers . . . . . . . . . Time of day . . . . . . . . . . Dictating numbers in number mode . . . Spelling words in spell mode . . . . . . 31 . 32 . 34 . . . . . . . . . 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 36 Chapter 5. Dictating into Microsoft Word Installing Word Program Support . . . . Try your first dictation into Word . . . . ViaVoice menus and buttons in Word . . Using natural commands . . . . . . General hints and tips. . . . . . . . Dictating numbers in the US English version of ViaVoice . . . . . . . . . . . Currency . . . . . . . . . . . Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . Decimals . . . . . . . . . . . Ordinals . . . . . . . . . . . Long numbers . . . . . . . . . Time of day . . . . . . . . . . Dictating numbers in number mode . . . Spelling words in spell mode . . . . . Saying commands while dictating. . . . Inline dictation commands . . . . . "Scratch that" command . . . . . . Text-editing commands . . . . . . Bullet lists. . . . . . . . . . . Commands recognized as text . . . . Dictating e-mail user IDs and URLs . . . Saving your dictation . . . . . . . . Saving a speech session . . . . . . Saving your dictation as text . . . . Finding new words in your document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 6. Correcting your dictation . . . 57 Using the Correction window . . . . . . 58 Correcting by voice . . . . . . . . . 60 © Copyright IBM Corp. 1998, 2002 iii Correcting words by typing . Delayed correction . . . . Delegated correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 . 62 . 63 . . . . . . . . . 65 66 67 67 67 67 68 68 68 69 Chapter 10. Creating macros . . . . . . 87 Creating a dictation macro . . . . . . . 87 Chapter 11. Getting help . . . . . . . 89 Information Central . . . . . . . . . 89 Getting context-sensitive help . . . . . . 90 Question Button Help . . . . . . . . 90 What's This Help . . . . . . . . . 90 Printing help . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Using Teach Me commands . . . . . . . 90 How do I troubleshoot a problem? . . . . 91 Appendix A. Getting technical support Frequently Asked Questions Database . Information required before you contact Support for Use Pack users .... Microphone support . . . . . . . Related services. . . . . . . . . . . 93 . . 93 . . 94 . . 94 . . 94 Chapter 7. What Can I Say . . . . . Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interacting with What Can I Say . . . . Expanding or collapsing a view . . . Commands with words in angle brackets Changing views. . . . . . . . . Creating notes for What Can I Say . . Printing the commands in a view . . . Using an Attention word with commands . Training a command . . . . . . . . Chapter 8. Using the Internet. . . . . . 71 Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . 71 Chapter 9. Customizing ViaVoice . . . . 73 Changing VoiceCenter's appearance . . . . 73 Appearance tab . . . . . . . . . . 73 General tab . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Taskbar tab . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Docked tab . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Agent tab . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Floating tab . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Changing the microphone's startup state . . 75 Creating additional voice models . . . . . 76 Selecting a vocabulary or topic . . . . . . 76 Adding a user . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Making a user name the current user . . . 78 Backing up and restoring user data . . . . 79 Deleting a user name or voice model. . . . 79 Setting dictation options . . . . . . . . 80 Changing the appearance of the Correction window . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Enabling command sets . . . . . . . . 83 Setting Text-To-Speech options . . . . . . 84 Adjusting recognition sensitivity . . . . . 85 Appendix B. Frequently used commands in dictation . . . . . . . . . . . . . Formatting and spacing . . . . . . . . Punctuation in dictation . . . . . . . . Symbols and characters in dictation . . . . Symbols and characters in number mode . . Symbols and characters in spell mode . . . 97 97 97 98 99 99 Appendix C. Notices . . . . . . . . 103 Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Other attributions . . . . . . . . . . 105 Glossary . Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 . 109 iv ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Welcome to ViaVoice IBM ViaVoice will change the way you use your computer. You can now dictate text and control your computer by voice. Imagine yourself sitting at your computer, composing a letter to a friend. Say "Dictate to SpeakPad". ViaVoice's word processor opens, and you dictate the letter using normal speech. You can do this with ViaVoice--you talk, it types! The computer translates your words and phrases into actions that carry out commands or create text. Imagine the simplicity of working at your computer just by speaking. With ViaVoice, say goodbye to the drudgery of typing. ViaVoice is probably not like any software you have ever used! To get the most from ViaVoice and become a great user--even if you have already used a speech-recognition product--we recommend that you go through this book following these sign posts. Install the software and set up your speech system. Start by following the instructions in Chapter 1 to install ViaVoice and prepare your sound system so that ViaVoice can understand you. You must set up your speech system as described in Chapter 1 before you can work satisfactorily with ViaVoice. Get comfortable by practicing dictation. Having installed ViaVoice and set up your speech system, you will then probably want to practice dictating. Chapter 2 shows you how to dictate into SpeakPad. We recommend that you practice with the material in this chapter, and become comfortable speaking to SpeakPad, before exploring other parts of ViaVoice. Learn how to use the VoiceCenter. Once you are comfortable with speaking to your computer, familiarize yourself with VoiceCenter, the heart of your speech system. VoiceCenter controls your spoken interactions with your computer. Chapter 3 describes the functions available through VoiceCenter. Once you have mastered the material in the first three chapters, explore the other ViaVoice functions to become even more productive: © Copyright IBM Corp. 1998, 2002 v v Use SpeakPad, described in Chapter 4, to dictate your documents and letters. A word of advice: make sure you've gone through Chapter 2, mentioned above, before turning to this chapter. v Do you prefer using Microsoft® Word? Chapter 5 gives you the complete picture on dictating into Word 97, Word 2000, or Word 2002. v Your dictation is not finished until you have corrected the recognition errors in the text. Correcting these errors is one of the most important ways to help ViaVoice learn what you say. Do not close your dictation sessions until you have corrected them as described in Chapter 6. v What do you want to do? You can see all the commands for controlling your computer in the What Can I Say window, described in Chapter 7. If you are primarily interested in dictating documents rather than speaking commands, you can skip this chapter. v Once you are comfortable with your system, personalize ViaVoice. Chapter 9 describes the features for extending the usefulness of your system and gives you suggestions for tailoring it for your needs. v ViaVoice is loaded with information like online help and printable online material. Chapter 11 describes all the information available at your fingertips. v Appendix A contains the details for getting support when things go wrong. You can find more information about ViaVoice on the Internet, and the Technical Support Center is as close as a telephone call or an e-mail. Look at this appendix when you need answers to your questions. vi ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Conventions in this book Please note the following textual and graphical conventions used in this book. Commands and words that you say to your computer are shown in bold within double quotation marks. Say "Capitalize this". Say "What Can I Say for Desktop". NEWPARAGRAPH Some multiple-word commands are shown NEWLINE as joined words or hyphenated words. NO-SPACE Spelling a word is shown with a hyphen separating each letter in the word. The names of buttons, fields and check boxes appear in bold. Dictate "r-e-c-o-g-n-i-t-i-o-n". Click OK to accept the name in the User Name field. A series of items that you click with the mouse to start a function appear in bold Select Start > Programs > IBM ViaVoice > and are separated by angle brackets. In VoiceCenter. this example, the first item to click is the Start button, and the last is the function to open VoiceCenter. This symbol identifies information that is particularly important. In addition, navigation and some commands are available only when ViaVoice is installed on Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, or Windows XP Home Edition. This symbol alerts you to information about this limitation. Woodrow, the ViaVoice agent, points out a helpful hint or tip. Welcome to ViaVoice vii viii ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system This chapter describes how to install ViaVoice on your computer and then set up your sound system. You should allow 30­45 minutes to complete the procedures in this chapter: v Install ViaVoice from the CD-ROM that comes in your package. v Set up your audio system. The User Wizard will assist you! v Record a story and let ViaVoice create a model of your voice. v Optionally, if you already have documents that reflect the style and words (lexicon) that you plan to dictate, you can have ViaVoice analyze those documents. The computer on which you will set up your speech system should be in the location where you plan to dictate. During setup, background noises should be like those you will hear during future dictation sessions. If there is unusual background noise (for example, street repairs being done outside an open window) or if you plan to dictate in a noisy location which is now quiet, wait until the acoustics return to normal before setting up your speech system. First check the following points before installing this program. 1. Refer to the side of the box to ensure your computer meets the minimum requirements for installing this program. 2. If you are installing ViaVoice over an existing IBM speech product or have IBM speech products in more than one language, read the information in the Readme file on the ViaVoice distribution CD before installing ViaVoice. 3. Ensure that the disk drive where you plan to install ViaVoice has not been compressed with disk-compression utilities. 4. If you are installing on Windows XP, your user ID must have administrator authority. © Copyright IBM Corp. 1998, 2002 1 Installing the ViaVoice software 1. Insert the ViaVoice CD in your CD-ROM drive to start the installation program. If it does not start automatically, do the following: a. Click Start > Run from the Windows taskbar. b. Type d:\setup (where d is your CD-ROM drive). c. Click OK. 2. Follow the instructions on the screen. During installation you will see the following windows. (This section does not show all windows you will see.) User Information--Type your name and company name, if appropriate. Click Next when you have finished. 2 ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Installation Options--Select the Installation Options. To clear an option, click on the tick mark in the box. Select to install ViaVoice support for Microsoft Word 97 or above. This option is only available if you have Microsoft Word 97 or above installed on your computer. This option includes support for dictation into Word and natural commands1 for Word. If you choose not to install this support now, you can install it later. Adobe® Acrobat® Reader--If Adobe Acrobat Reader is not already installed on your computer, you can select this option to have ViaVoice automatically start the Adobe Acrobat Reader installation program. Adobe Acrobat Reader enables you to view the ViaVoice Command Reference and this book. We recommend that you leave a tick mark next to Run product registration so that we can send you important information about future upgrades and options as they become available. Click Next when you have finished. 1. Natural commands are commands that use a flexible, natural speaking style like "Make the next paragraph bold" and "Select from here to the top". Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system 3 Product Registration--If you chose to register your software now, you will see this window at the end of installation. Type all registration information and follow the on-screen instructions. 4 ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Setup Complete--This window indicates that you have successfully installed the software. Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system 5 Setting up your microphone and audio system Woodrow appears if you placed VoiceCenter in your StartUp folder. If Woodrow does not appear, start VoiceCenter by clicking Start > Programs > IBM ViaVoice VoiceCenter. Woodrow gives you a short presentation. (To skip this presentation, right-click on Woodrow and then select Hide.) Then, the Audio Setup Wizard starts to help you set up the microphone and audio system so you can get started with ViaVoice. The name in the User Name field is probably the one you typed earlier. Leave it as it is, or type a name by which you want ViaVoice to know you. As you use ViaVoice, words you add and other enhancements you make go into your personal speech files. These files are associated with your user name. You can use any name that contains the letters a to z in both uppercase and lowercase as well as numbers, but it must not contain typographic symbols (like " or /). If other people will use your speech system, add their user names later but before they start ViaVoice for themselves. ("Adding a user" on page 78 describes how to do this.) People using your speech system must have their own user names. 'Sharing' your user name with others will corrupt your personal speech files and cause recognition problems. For now, ignore the other three fields and click Next. 6 ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition Audio Setup Wizard--This wizard presents several windows to help you set up your microphone. We recommend that you use the microphone that comes with ViaVoice until you are thoroughly comfortable with your speech system. 1. If you have not already done so, remove the microphone and its equipment from the package: v The microphone itself v One or more plugs and USB adapters2 v Warranty and other material from the manufacturer. The Audio Setup Wizard will prompt you to identify the type of microphone and components you have. 2. With the microphone on, complete all audio tests that the Audio Setup Wizard presents to you. At the window shown below, for example, click Start and then read aloud the text inside the box. Speak the text clearly in your normal voice, pausing naturally between phrases or after punctuation marks. (Imagine you are speaking to someone for whom English is not the native language.) After you have read the sentences, ViaVoice will display the quality of your audio. Should ViaVoice find that the audio quality is poor, click Fixing Poor Audio Quality to learn how to take corrective action. 2. If you are using a USB microphone and do not have the USB port installed, the Windows program for adding this new hardware begins. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the USB device driver. After installing the new hardware and restarting your computer, run VoiceCenter and complete the Audio Setup Wizard. Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system 7 During these tests, the Audio Setup Wizard might display information windows or even start your Web browser to display a ViaVoice-related Web page. Use the information proposed by the wizard to solve any difficulty you might encounter during Audio Setup. ViaVoice needs these tests to be completed successfully to set up your system properly. If you have difficulty completing any test successfully in the Audio Setup Wizard, see "Troubleshooting setup problems" on page 13. Creating a voice model You must give ViaVoice a sample of your voice so that it can understand you. The User Wizard makes it easy for you to do this. When you see this window, click Start, then read aloud the text in the box, speaking in a normal style. As ViaVoice recognizes you, some text will become gray. In the window below, the first sentence and all but the last word of the next sentence have been recognized. If ViaVoice does not recognize what you say, simply say the text again until it is grayed. 8 ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition When you have finished reading this text aloud, ViaVoice displays the Analyzing My Voice window. Here you can choose what to do next. Record my voice This is the recommended choice. Recording your voice requires about 10 to 30 minutes and significantly increases the recognition accuracy of ViaVoice. I prefer to do this later If you select this option, the User Wizard presents the Analyze My Documents panel. (See "Analyzing your documents" on page 12 for details.) However, your speech recognition accuracy might not be optimal. To improve your recognition accuracy you can relaunch the User Wizard at any time by selecting Tools > Analyze My Voice from the ViaVoice menu. Chapter 1. Setting up your speech system 9 Analyzing your voice After selecting Record my voice and clicking Next, ViaVoice displays the Choosing a Story window. Select the story that you want to read aloud for analyzing your voice. If the story you want has two Parts, select Part 1 first. Read the story aloud using your normal speaking voice. When ViaVoice has enough recorded data, you will see the Story Finished window. Click Analyze to have ViaVoice create your voice model. However, if you have a strong regional accent, we recommend that you click Continue Reading so that you can record more sentences, giving ViaVoice more data for analysis. Doing everything you can to give ViaVoice as much information about your voice as possible is one of the best ways to ensure excellent recognition accuracy. 10 ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition