IBM® ViaVoice® for Windows® Standard Edition User's Guide Release 10 Note Before using this information and the product it supports, be sure to read the information in Appendix B, "Notices" on page 105. First Edition (August 2003) This edition applies to version 1, release 10, modification 0 of IBM ViaVoice for Windows Standard Edition US/UK English (program number 5724-C96) and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. SSFT PART NUMBER: 50-H11A-10095 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. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1998, 2003. 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 US English and UK English are both described in this book . . . . . . . . vii Conventions in this book . . . . . . . viii 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 . . . . Dictating numbers in the UK 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 . . . 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 . . 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 the UK English version of ViaVoice . . . . . . . . . . . Currency . . . . . . . . . . . Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . Decimals . . . . . . . . . . . Ordinals . . . . . . . . . . . Long numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 37 37 38 38 38 38 38 38 39 39 39 40 40 40 42 43 44 44 44 45 47 47 48 50 52 53 54 54 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 56 17 18 20 21 21 21 22 22 23 24 24 Chapter 3. Introducing VoiceCenter . . . 27 VoiceCenter components . . . . . . . . 28 ViaVoice menu . . . . . . . . . . . 30 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 . . . . . . . . . . . 33 . 34 . 36 . . . . . . . 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . © Copyright IBM Corp. 1998, 2002 iii 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 Using the Correction window . . . Correcting by voice . . . . . . Correcting words by typing . . . . Delayed correction . . . . . . . Delegated correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 56 56 57 57 57 57 58 58 60 61 61 61 62 Changing the microphone's startup state . Creating additional voice models . . . . Selecting a vocabulary or topic . . . . . Changing the active vocabulary to improve performance (UK English version only) . . Adding a user . . . . . . . . . . Making a user name the current user . . Backing up and restoring user data . . . Deleting a user name or voice model. . . Setting dictation options . . . . . . . Changing the appearance of the Correction window . . . . . . . . . . . . Enabling command sets . . . . . . . Setting Text-To-Speech options . . . . . Adjusting recognition sensitivity . . . . . 81 . 82 . 82 . . . . . . . . . . 84 85 85 86 87 87 89 90 91 92 . . . 63 . . . 64 . . . 66 . . . 67 . . . 68 . . . 69 . . . . . . . . . 71 72 73 73 73 73 74 74 74 75 Chapter 10. Creating macros . . . . . . 93 Creating a dictation macro . . . . . . . 93 Chapter 11. Getting help . . . . . . . 95 Information Central . . . . . . . . . 95 Getting context-sensitive help . . . . . . 96 Question Button Help . . . . . . . . 96 What's This Help . . . . . . . . . 96 Printing help . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Using Teach Me commands . . . . . . . 96 How do I troubleshoot a problem? . . . . 97 Appendix A. Frequently used commands in dictation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Formatting and spacing . . . . . . . . 99 Punctuation in dictation . . . . . . . . 99 Symbols and characters in dictation . . . . 100 Symbols and characters in number mode 101 Symbols and characters in spell mode . . . 102 Appendix B. Notices . . . . . . . . 105 Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Other attributions . . . . . . . . . . 107 Glossary . Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 . 111 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. . . . . . 77 Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . 77 Chapter 9. Customizing ViaVoice Changing VoiceCenter's appearance Appearance tab . . . . . . General tab . . . . . . . Taskbar tab . . . . . . . Docked tab . . . . . . . Agent tab . . . . . . . . Floating tab . . . . . . . . . . . 79 . . . . 79 . . . . 79 . . . . 80 . . . . 80 . . . . 80 . . . . 80 . . . . 80 iv ViaVoice for Windows Standard 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. vi ViaVoice for Windows Standard Edition US English and UK English are both described in this book This book contains information on using ViaVoice in both UK English and US English. You will select one of these languages to install on your computer. Make sure you use the appropriate information in this book for the installed language. Keep in mind that these languages have many differences, and each language version of ViaVoice is specifically tailored to understand what speakers of that language will probably say. For example, if you are using US English and say 'analyze my voice' during a dictation, that is what you will see in your text. However, the same words spoken for UK English will result in 'analyse my voice'. Other differences include the following: v The words for some punctuation marks and symbols differ between the two languages. In US English, the words "pound sign" result in "#"; in UK English, the same words result in "£". The punctuation at the end of a normal declarative sentence is "period" in US English and "full stop" in UK English. See Appendix A, "Frequently used commands in dictation" on page 99, where these differences are highlighted. v Numbers and number formatting are handled differently between the two languages. See "Dictating numbers in the US English version of ViaVoice" on page 37 and "Dictating numbers in the UK English version of ViaVoice" on page 37 for usage and examples. v Folder names, window titles, program components and voice commands are referred to using their US English names throughout this book. In the UK English language version of ViaVoice some of these items appear in a slightly different form, e.g.: VoiceCenter/VoiceCentre, Capitalize this/Capitalise this, IBM ViaVoice/IBM ViaVoice UK English. The text in this book uses the US English orthography. All pictures of windows and panels are taken from the US English language version. Welcome to ViaVoice vii 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 ...