Keystroke Commands
Most commands you need to control a computer by voice are simple keystroke commands—"When I say this,
send these keystrokes." These are easy to write in Vocola. For example, the following command types the word "Greetings"
when you say "Hello World":
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Vocola: Hello World = Greetings;
Say: Hello World
Sent: Greetings
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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:
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Vocola: Copy That = {Ctrl+c};
Say: Copy That
Sent: {Ctrl+c}
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You can use multiple modifier keys for a keystroke, and also specify a repeat count. For example:
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Vocola: Select Two Words = {Ctrl+Shift+Right_2};
Say: Select Two Words
Sent: {Ctrl+Shift+Right_2}
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This holds down both the "Control" and "Shift" keys and presses the right arrow key twice to select the two words
following the insertion point.
Finally, you can specify that a key be held down and later specify that it be released. For example:
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Touch Hold = {LeftButton_Hold};
Touch Release = {LeftButton_Release};
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Saying "Touch Hold" presses and holds the left pointer button, and saying "Touch Release" releases it. In
between saying these commands you would move the pointer to the desired location, but would not need to hold
down the button yourself.
Note that when creating commands by voice you can use built-in commands
to insert keystrokes in the proper syntax. Saying "Insert Control
Shift Right Two" works for the above example and saying "Insert Control c" works for the example before
that.
The Keystroke Syntax page describes formally how to specify Vocola keystrokes,
including tables of key names.
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.
More examples
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 Windows Explorer to copy the name of the currently-selected file:
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Vocola: Copy Filename = {F2}{Shift+End}{Ctrl+c}{Esc};
Say: Copy Filename
Sent: {F2}{Shift+End}{Ctrl+c}{Esc}
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Here's how it works:
| {F2} | Enter "rename" mode, which opens a small edit field on the file name |
| {Shift+End} | Select the entire file name |
| {Ctrl+c} | Copy the selection |
| {Esc} | Cancel "rename" mode |
Some useful commands can be written concisely using special keystrokes, for example:
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Show Desktop = {Win+d};
Volume Mute = {VolumeMute};
Go Back = {BrowserBack};
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The first command clears or restores the desktop by holding down the Windows key and
pressing d. The second command turns the volume mute on or off by pressing
the VolumeMute key. (This and the next command work regardless of whether your
keyboard actually has the key in question.) The third command is equivalent to hitting a Web browser's "Back"
button, with the advantage of working on non-HTML pages like PDFs which swallow up the standard
shortcut {Alt+Left}.
You may find it helpful to browse Microsoft's pages
of Keyboard Shortcuts.
Special keystrokes like VolumeMute are listed in the tables of Vocola Key Names.