Category Archives: Utter Command

Tip: Help on the NaturallySpeaking utilities


A few weeks ago the folks at Nuance posted a Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 user workbook. It’s an excellent resource. It includes detailed instructions on NaturallySpeaking speech engine utilities that will make your speech experience better.

Here are my favorite parts:

The instructions for creating a user profile (page 1) explain important concepts like choosing the right dictation source. If you accidentally choose the wrong dictation source, your accuracy will not be as good.

The Vocabulary dialog box (page 8) allows you to add custom vocabulary including phrases, and import custom vocabulary from existing documents. I make sure my users have “Utter Command” and “Redstart Systems” as phrases. I have a usability complaint about the Vocabulary dialog box, however. It’s difficult to find in the menus because the menu name doesn’t match the dialog box name: NaturallySpeaking/Words/View-Edit. I think the label should be Vocabulary Editor instead.

The Formatting dialog box (page 23) allows you to control automatic formatting of special text like numbers. This section explains what you can control and how to control it.

The My Commands dialog box (page 44) allows you to create Text and Graphics commands. These boilerplate commands are relatively easy to create and can save you a lot of time. You can assign a command like “My Address” to a larger block of text, complete with line breaks and formatting.

The improving accuracy section (page 50) includes instructions for the Train Words, Acoustic Settings and Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer dialog boxes.

Here are some resources that have to do with using NatSpeak utilities with Utter Command:

In the Utter Command manual we touch on how Utter Command dovetails with NatSpeak Correction, Vocabulary, Recognition and Train Words utilities in UC Lesson 1 (1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.11). Also see the “Dragon NaturallySpeaking” section on UC Exchange.

Tip: Taking the named Touch commands to the next level


Once you get used to naming a mouse click, you might want a little more. Take a look at UC Lesson 10.24 and you’ll find you can combine named mouse touches with other keys in a couple of useful ways.

Here’s a good use of combining a named mouse touch with a letter key. When you’re in an e-mail message in Thunderbird*, you can click on the Sender’s address to drop down a menu that includes Copy e-mail Address and Add to Address Book.

To enable copying the sender e-mail address or adding it to the address book in a single speech step, name a mouse Touch to click on the sender address:

1. Position the mouse on the Sender’s address using a command like “20 By 11”

2. say “Add Touch” to bring up the Touch dialog box

3. name the touch something like “Sender”

4. say “Enter” to put the touch on your Touch list

5. say “Window Close · Yes” to close the UC List dialog box and save changes

6. If necessary, say “Restart NatSpeak” to restart the speech engine.

Now try the command and some combinations.

With an open email in Thunderbird you can say “Sender Touch” and it will click the Sender address to drop down the menu.

Better yet, you can say “Sender Touch c” (or “Sender Touch Charlie”) to copy the address to your clipboard, or “Sender Touch b” (or “Sender Touch Bravo”) to bring up the New Card dialog box with the address entered into it.

Have you found a good application for advanced Touch commands? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

*Thunderbird is a free, open-source, full-featured e-mail program from Mozilla. It’s included in the UsefulFreeSoftware list on the UC Exchange Wiki (say “UC Exchange”).

Tip: Use TinyURLs to tame long Web addresses

Long URLs are awkward in many situations, most especially on Twitter, where character count is paramount. The Firefox Tiny URL Creator add-on gives you more room by reducing any URL to just a few characters.

Tiny URL creator also solves an occasional issue with the Utter Command Site List. The Site List — the list of websites you can get to using a single speech command — handles URLs of up to 100 characters. The Tiny URL Creator eliminates this limitation.

To set up the Tiny URL Creator, download it. It will add a menu item to the Firefox Tools menu. To create a URL from the current URL in Firefox say “Under t t c” to click Tools/Tiny URLCreator/From Current URL. Creating a tiny URL puts it in your system clipboard. Say “This Paste” to paste it anywhere.

See the UC Exchange page UCandFirefox  for more details.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Rudolf Noe’s Customize Your Web

Rudolf Noe, creator of the Mouseless Browsing add-on, is beta testing a new add-on that gives nonprogrammers extensive control of the Web.Noe’s Customize Your Web Firefox add-on allows you to specify that certain things happen every time a given webpage comes up. You can control where the focus is, click a button automatically, change how webpage elements look, and even change how they’re arranged on the page. Customize Your Web also contains a macro facility that allows you to attach keystrokes to elements on a given webpage. The key thing about the extension is it provides extensive control without having to program.Two of the simplest abilities — controlling where the focus is and clicking buttons, are fairly easy to implement. The focus ability lets you, for instance, open the Google Documents Site with the focus in the search bar. The click ability allows you to automatically login to any site.

To set up a focus change or button click on a webpage you go to that webpage, click the tiny Configure Your Web button in the bottom right corner of the screen right above the toolbar, click the element you want to affect, choose an action, then save what you have done.

You can name a Mouse Touch to click the Customize your Web button (see UC Lesson 10.24).

With just a little more effort you can specify keystrokes to do things like going down one search result, or click “Previous” or “Next” at the bottom of a search page.

If you assign the up and down arrows to go up and down by search result in a Google search, and Enter to click a selected result, you can then use the Utter Command speech command “3 Down · Enter”, for instance, to open the third search result down.

Noe’s video shows you how to use the extension in detail.

Also see UC Exchange page UCandFirefox.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Rudolf Noe’s Customize Your Web



Rudolf Noe, creator of the Mouseless Browsing add-on, is beta testing a new add-on that gives nonprogrammers extensive control of the Web.Noe’s Customize Your Web Firefox add-on allows you to specify that certain things happen every time a given webpage comes up. You can control where the focus is, click a button automatically, change how webpage elements look, and even change how they’re arranged on the page. Customize Your Web also contains a macro facility that allows you to attach keystrokes to elements on a given webpage. The key thing about the extension is it provides extensive control without having to program.Two of the simplest abilities — controlling where the focus is and clicking buttons, are fairly easy to implement. The focus ability lets you, for instance, open the Google Documents Site with the focus in the search bar. The click ability allows you to automatically login to any site.

To set up a focus change or button click on a webpage you go to that webpage, click the tiny Configure Your Web button in the bottom right corner of the screen right above the toolbar, click the element you want to affect, choose an action, then save what you have done.

You can name a Mouse Touch to click the Customize your Web button (see UC Lesson 10.24).

With just a little more effort you can specify keystrokes to do things like going down one search result, or click “Previous” or “Next” at the bottom of a search page.

If you assign the up and down arrows to go up and down by search result in a Google search, and Enter to click a selected result, you can then use the Utter Command speech command “3 Down · Enter”, for instance, to open the third search result down.

Noe’s video shows you how to use the extension in detail.

Also see UC Exchange page UCandFirefox.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Undo for closing a webpage


Ever close a webpage, then wish you hadn’t? In Firefox there’s a shortcut that undoes a tab close: “Shift Control t”.

Ever close several webpages in a row and wish you hadn’t? You can use the same shortcut to get back the last few pages you closed at once, e.g. “Shift Control t Times 3”. Here are some related commands: use “Document Close Times 3” to close tabs and “Control t Times 3” to open blank tabs.

Rulers right

I’ve changed the way I position the mouse rulers, and it’s changed my behavior.

I used to leave Rulers in the default position of top and left. But lately I’ve been using them on the right and bottom, and and I’m liking this better for a couple reasons. I tend to notice them less when they’re tucked above the Taskbar and off to the right. So I tend to leave them on whether I’m using them or not. More important, they don’t change the position of windows, and so don’t affect named mouse touches.

(To change Rulers so they’re just on the right and bottom say “Rulers On”, “Rulers Right Bottom”)

Where do you like Rulers? Let me know here or e-mail at info at this Web address.

Check out NatSpeak Preferred to Pro upgrade

If you’re thinking about upgrading from Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard or Preferred to Professional now’s the time to do it (Utter Command runs on the NaturallySpeaking Professional engine).

There’s a Dragon NaturallySpeaking pricing special in conjunction with the 10.1 upgrade — for $300 you can upgrade to NaturallySpeaking Professional 10.1 (retail $899) from  the much less expensive Standard or Preferred versions of Dragon 7-9. Dragon resellers are offering the special — here’s a link to one of them: http://www.1st-dragon.com/drupsa.html.

The special pricing is scheduled to last until June 30.