dallas moore

I figured I would put the AppleScripts and information on how to build the macros for MacSpeech Dictate to switch between the different sound output options.

First up, here’s an image of all my sound output preference panel looks like. Most importantly to note on this is the name of the devices. In my case, I have two devices “Internal Speakers” and “Plantronics Headset”. These two names will need to be edited into the AppleScripts.

Make sure you have MacSpeech Dictate running and it is the active application. Go to the Tools menu and select Commands. This will bring up a list of all the scripts in the “Available Commands” box that MacSpeech Dictate shows as a tool. You’ll want to locate Globals for a list of all global scripts. Once you’ve clicked on Globals, click on the “+” symbol to create a new script.

In the command field, type what you want to say to start the script. Make sure the type is set to AppleScript. Cut and paste the following into the source:

tell application “System Preferences” to activate
tell application “System Events”
get properties
tell process “System Preferences”
tell application “System Preferences” to reveal anchor “output” of pane id “com.apple.preference.sound”
delay 2
set theRows to every row of table 1 of scroll area 1 of ¬
tab group 1 of window “sound”
set theOutputs to {} as list
repeat with aRow in theRows
if (value of text field 1 of aRow as text) ¬
is equal to “Internal Speakers” then
set selected of aRow to true
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
tell application “System Preferences” to quit

Please note the words “Internal Speakers”. This is where you will replace with the device name you want the script to switch to when it runs.

You’ll want to create a separate script for each output device that you have. I hope this helps, if a figure out how to program a script that will toggle through the various output devices I’ll be sure to post it.

Well, I’ve spent a couple days trying to get used to using MacSpeech Dictate and I have to say things are going swimmingly. For the most part, the accuracy rate is pretty high. I haven’t really gone through training it by having it scan my writing. I’m sure this would increase the accuracy rate.

One of the features that I’m hearing about Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the capability to correct misunderstood words and phrases using a learning process. This learning process figures out where it made a mistake, thus making the mistake less likely to happen in the future. Part of it even allows someone to spell out a word. This would fully eliminate the need to touch the keyboard at all.

Right now MacSpeech Dictate is at version 1.0. Rumor on the street is that version 1.1 will start implementing this active learning process. I hope so, the paradigm of speaking and watching the words appear on the screen gets broken when I have to actively moved to the keyboard or mouse.

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One of the features that I didn’t pay much attention to at first was the incorporation of AppleScript. In fact, I discovered that the commands that are available for you to control the computer itself are all Applescripts. I went through them and eliminated many that I felt wouldn’t be necessary. This included launching a lot of seldomly used applications but also scripts that I felt were odd (such as “microphone on”; useless if the microphone is off since Dictate would not be able to hear you say it). After a quick bit of tinkering, I was able to get a script set up to switch the sound output from the headset to the internal speakers and vice versa.

This inclusion — that I had initially overlooked — is really important because the AppleScript programming language allows a lot of control over the functionality of the most operations in the Mac operating system and applications on the Mac.

Well, so far I have found MacSpeech Dictate great purchase!

Something I’ve always wanted since I was a kid was the ability to talk to a computer and have it type saying. I’ve seen the speech recognition software since its early stages on the Windows environment.  I also remember speakable phrases for the Macintosh environment. Based upon what I experienced, I just didn’t believe that it would be very accurate.  Cost was also a prohibitive point when considering buying speech recognition software.  I didn’t want to pay a large amount of money for something that didn’t work that well. So, I decided to sit this one out until I knew the technology had gotten better. It has.

I had heard about Dictate winning an award earlier this year. It reminded me to get an update on what was out there with regard to speech recognition software. Basically, on the Windows front things had matured but there was one standout program. That program is Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Unfortunately, it is not available for the Macintosh operating system. That changed, when the company MacSpeech licensed the software engine behind Dragon NaturallySpeaking for their Dictate software. Obviously, Dictate is a program written for the Macintosh operating system.

As typical with most software when it’s first released, there will be bugs. So I decided to sit this one out for just a couple months until the release bugs were ironed out. Well, I just got it tonight.

The package comes with a Plantronics microphone headset that easily hooked into a USB port on my iMac.   The installation process was fairly easy. After a little bit of training, I’ve jumped right into trying to use the software is much is possible.  Guessing at my accuracy rate right now I probably need to do some more training so that it can understand me better. But I am very VERY impressed. This entire blog entry was done with minimal editing involving a keyboard. If you’ve always wanted to talk to your computer and have it type what you’re saying the software is out there to do it.

I am seriously beside myself that this actually works.