1.2

29 MacSpeech DictateChapter 6 — Controlling Your Mac
• TextMacro:Atextmacrotypesapredenedblock
of text when you speak its name. The text can be
a whole form letter or just an address; in fact it
can be any amount of text.
• AutomatorWorkow:Thiscommandwillrunthe
referencedAutomatorWorkowwhenitsnameis
spoken.
Creating and Modifying Commands
Most commands are written in AppleScript, Apple’s
system-wide scripting language. An AppleScript tutorial
is beyond the scope of this manual. You can learn more
about how to write AppleScripts from Apple’s web site, at
http://www.apple.com/applescript/ .
All the commands built-in to MacSpeech Dictate are open
source, which means their source code is available for you to
view, copy, or modify. Commands can be Automatically or
Manually Created. When you create or modify a command,
MacSpeech Dictate automatically saves it for you, and it ap-
pears in the Command list for the Command set in which it
was created.
Creating Commands Automatically
To create an Automatic command, follow these steps:
Turn off MacSpeech Dictate’s microphone.
1. Switch to MacSpeech Dictate by clicking the
MacSpeech Dictate icon in the Status window, or
using the Dock.
2. Choose “Commands…” from the Tools menu. The
Commands window opens (Figure 6-3). Individual
command sets are listed in the left sidebar. For
this example, we will create a new global com-
mand in the Global command set.
3. In the Commands window, select the command
set into which you want the command to be
stored from the “Context” menu.
4. Click the Plus Sign, or select “New Command”
from the File menu. A new command is created
and is ready to be edited, as shown in Figure 6-4.
Figure 6-4
6. Drag an existing AppleScriptle,bookmark,
textortextclipping,leorfolder,orAutomator
Workowintotheeditingareaforthenew
command. (Note: when creating an automatic
Bookmark command, you can also drag the ad-
dressfromtheaddresseldinmostbrowsers
directly into the Automatic area of MacSpeech
Dictate’s command window.
7. A suggested name will be entered in the
Command Name Field. Leave it as is or enter a
new name. This will be the command you say, so
make sure the command name is speakable, not
an unpronounceable abbreviation.