Vocola Information Pages   by Rick Mohr (this page updated January 15, 2005)
 
 Introduction
 Using Vocola
 Language Tutorial
    Keystroke Commands ->
    Quotes And Whitespace
    Using Alternatives
    Defining Variables
    Substituting Actions
    Capturing Dictation
    Optional Words
    Function Calls
    Built-in Functions
    Defining Functions
    Contextual Commands
    Include Statements
    Comments
    Example File
 Command Sequences
 Install Vocola
 Vocola Versions
 Converting DVC Files
 Troubleshooting
 Support
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 My RSI Story
 Voice Resources
 

Keystroke Commands

Keystroke Commands

Most of the everyday commands you will need are simple -- "When I say this, send these keystrokes." For example, the following command types the word "Greetings" when you say "Hello World": 

 Vocola: Hello World = Greetings; 
 Say: Hello World  Sent: Greetings 

In most cases the keystrokes you want to send will use modifier key sequences to control a particular application. For example, most Windows applications perform a "Copy" operation when you hold down the "Control" key and type the letter "c". The next command uses the phrase "Copy That" to invoke such a "Copy" operation:

 Vocola: Copy That = {Ctrl+c}; 
 Say: Copy That  Sent: {Ctrl+c}

The Vocola syntax for specifying modifier key sequences such as {Ctrl+c} is borrowed from the Dragon Macro Language, which describes the syntax. (See the discussion on pp. 13-14 and the table on pp. 116-117, or just absorb it from the Vocola examples.)

Each Vocola command contains a series of terms (indicating what is said) and a series of actions (indicating what is done), separated by "=" and terminated by ";". In this section the terms are words and the actions are keystrokes; later sections introduce other possibilities.

Because Windows applications allow keyboard control of almost everything, you can usually write a keystroke command to do what you want. The next example tells the Netscape 4 mail program to use its HTML editor (rather than the plain text editor) for composing messages:

 Vocola: HTML Editor = "{Alt+e}e{Shift+Tab}{Down 8}{Tab}{Up}{Enter}"; 
 Say: HTML Editor  Sent: {Alt+e}e{Shift+Tab}{Down 8}{Tab}{Up}{Enter}

Here's how it works:

 {Alt+e}Open the "Edit" menu

eChoose the "Preferences..." menu item, raising the Preferences panel

{Shift+Tab} Move back one field in the panel, to the "Category" list

{Down 8}Move down 8 lines, to the "Formatting" category

{Tab}Move forward one field in the panel, to "Message formatting"

uChoose the top radio button ("Use the HTML editor to compose messages")

{Enter}Hit the "OK" button

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