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28 MacSpeech DictateChapter 6 — Controlling Your Mac
NOTE: You can’t launch MacSpeech Dictate by voice, because
it has to be running before it can interpret your speech. If you
want it to launch when you start your Macintosh, do one of
the following:
- Launch MacSpeech Dictate. Move the mouse over
the MacSpeech Dictate icon in the Dock. Press
and hold the mouse button until a menu appears.
Select “Open at Login” from the menu.
- Drag the MacSpeech Dictate icon into the Login
Items section of the Accounts panel in System
Preferences.
Controlling Buttons
MacSpeech Dictate can operate most buttons that appear in
dialog boxes regardless of the mode it is in. You can verbally
press a button by saying:
Press [button name]
For example, if a dialog box appears on the screen asking if
you want to save a document, the choices are usually “Don’t
Save,” “Cancel,” and “Save.” You can press these buttons us-
ing your voice by saying Press Don’t Save, Press Cancel,
or Press Save.
MacSpeech Dictate only knows about buttons that were
programmed in accordance with Apple’s programming
guidelines. If you try to press a button by voice and it doesn’t
respond, it is probably because the program you are using
has not told Mac OS X about its buttons.
Managing Commands and Command
Sets
MacSpeech Dictate manages a number of different files
that have commands, words, and text macros. These files
are known as command sets. Some of these sets contain
commands that work everywhere on your Mac; these are
global commands. Others are only active while in a particular
application, and are called application-specific commands.
To access these commands, choose Commands… from the
Tools menu. The Command List window opens, as shown in
Figure 6-3.
Figure 6-3
By default, all commands are active when you start MacSpeech
Dictate. A particular command can be deactivated by clearing
the check mark in the Active column next to the set.
Global Commands
MacSpeech Dictate’s Global commands are available in any
application, whenever the microphone is active.
Dictation Commands
MacSpeech Dictate’s Dictation commands are available
when MacSpeech Dictate is in Dictation Mode. These are
general commands for positioning the insertion point, con-
trolling capitalization, and deleting the last spoken word or
phrase.
Types of Commands
There are several types of vocabulary items in MacSpeech
Dictate:
• AppleScript: AppleScript items are the most
common.Ascripttypedintothecontenteldis
executed when you speak its name. MacSpeech
Dictate has a built-in script editor for editing and
testing scripts.
• Application: These are commands that open a
specicapplication.Youwouldonlyneedtouse
this if there is an application on your hard drive
stored outside the Applications folder that you
would like to open by voice.
• Bookmark: A Bookmark command opens a web
page when it is spoken.
• File or Folder: A File or Folder command will open
a File or Folder when it is spoken.
• Shell Script: You use this to run Shell Scripts by
voice. Shell Scripts are scripts created to run in
Mac OS X’s Terminal application.