Vocola Information Pages   by Rick Mohr   (last modified January 13, 2002)

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Using Vocola

Using Vocola

How to Create and Load Voice Commands

The easiest way to create Vocola commands is by voice. You can use Vocola's built-in commands to open the right files for defining commands which control the current application or all applications.

What you say
What happens How it works
"Edit Voice Commands"
or
"Edit Commands"
Opens the Vocola file defining commands for the currently running application (using your favorite editor). If app.exe is the currently running application, opens the file app.vcl (using the application associated with the ".vcl" extension).
"Edit Global Voice Commands"
or
"Edit Global Commands"
Opens the Vocola file defining commands for all applications (using your favorite editor). Opens the file _vocola.vcl (using the application associated with the ".vcl" extension).

After editing a command file you can load it using this built-in Vocola command:
 
What you say
What happens How it works
"Load Voice Commands"
or
"Load Commands"
Activates all commands in the Vocola command files you have created. (Displays any errors using your favorite editor.) Converts each Vocola file (.vcl) in the NatLink/Vocola/Commands directory to a NatLink Python file (.py) in the NatLink/MacroSystem directory (by running vcl2py.pl). If errors are encountered, the error log file (vcl2py_log.txt) is opened (using the application associated with the ".txt" extension).

Machine-Specific Commands

If you need to control more than one computer by voice (for example at work and at home) you can define commands which will only be enabled on a particular computer:

What you say
What happens How it works
"Edit Machine Voice Commands"
or
"Edit Machine Commands"
Opens the Vocola file defining commands for the currently running application on the current computer (using your favorite editor). If app.exe is the currently running application and machine is the current computer name, opens the file app@machine.vcl (using the application associated with the ".vcl" extension).
"Edit Global Machine Voice Commands"
or
"Edit Global Machine Commands"
Opens the Vocola file defining commands for all applications on the current computer (using your favorite editor). If machine is the current computer name, opens the file _vocola@machine.vcl (using the application associated with the ".vcl" extension).

File Organization and Naming

If you don't want to use the built-in commands, or if you want to understand the underlying organization they depend on, here are the relevant conventions:
  • Put all Vocola source files in the folder NatLink/Vocola/Commands.
  • Put global commands in the file _vocola.vcl.
  • Put application-specific commands in the .vcl file matching the executable name -- for example, commands specific to Netscape.exe go in netscape.vcl.
  • You can create additional files for a category of commands by extending the filename.  For example, an additional global command file could be called _vocola_text.vcl; or, an additional Netscape command file could be called netscape_addresses.vcl.
  • If you want commands to be active only on a certain computer, put them in a file containing @ followed by the computer name.  For example, commands in the file natspeak@venus.vcl would be valid only on the computer named "venus" with natspeak.exe running.

This page is (c) Copyright 2002 by Rick Mohr, and was last modified on January 13, 2002.