Vocola Information Pages   by Rick Mohr (this page updated May 31, 2003)
 
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Using Vocola

Using Vocola

The easiest way to create and manage Vocola commands is by voice, using Vocola's built-in commands. Beginning and intermediate users should only need to learn the two commands described in the first subsection. The remaining subsections discuss commands for advanced features.

In the command descriptions below, words in square brackets are optional. For example, "Edit [Voice] Commands" means you can say either "Edit Voice Commands" or "Edit Commands".

How to Create and Load Voice Commands

With Vocola you can define commands for a specific application program, or define global commands which are active for all applications. You can use the following built-in commands to open the right command files:

When you say Vocola will
"Edit [Voice] Commands" Open the Vocola file defining commands for the currently running application (using your favorite editor).
"Edit Global [Voice] Commands" Open the Vocola file defining commands for all applications (using your favorite editor).

After creating or modifying commands and saving the file, your commands will be loaded automatically and usable immediately. Any errors will be displayed in a pop-up window titled "Messages from Python Macros".

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:

When you say Vocola will
"Edit Machine [Voice] Commands" Open the Vocola file defining commands for the currently running application on the current computer.
"Edit Global Machine [Voice] Commands" Open the Vocola file defining commands for all applications on the current computer.

Machine-specific command files are also reloaded automatically.

Direct Loading

Sometimes it's useful to reload your command files explicitly. For example, if you modify an include file, Vocola doesn't know enough to reload all command files which use that include file. You can do it yourself using the following commands:

When you say Vocola will
"Load All [Voice] Commands" Reload all commands you have defined.
"Load [Voice] Commands" Reload commands for the currently running application.
"Load Global [Voice] Commands" Reload global commands.

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.
  • Vocola files are translated into Python files and loaded by NatLink. For example, the Vocola command file NatLink/Vocola/Commands/Netscape.vcl would be translated to the Python file NatLink/MacroSystem/Netscape_vcl.py.

This page (c) Copyright 2002-2005 by Rick Mohr.