Here's the scenario I keep running into. When I use slack, I often times need to switch to another application for reference in the middle of the dictation/message, and then back to slack. Slack is not a particularly Dragon friendly application and definitely does not implement Select-and-Say. So when I go back to the message, I usually end up getting terse anduncapitalized or possiblyCapitalized words and of course it doesn't really do punctuation properly. I was hoping a tool like DragonCapture might help here, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to(I just installed the trial). I'm not really sure what the difference is when I use DragonCapture, but maybe I'm just using it wrong?

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.(I'm using DPG 15.3 on this particular system, as well as a fair size number of Vocola scripts and Natlink a huge thank you and shout out to those who maintain those systems!)

 

Alexander, you are not using it wrong, but you may be getting it wrong. :-)

First off, DragonCapture doesn't add Select-and-Say to the target application, which like any other integration tool it couldn't do anyway. Basically, DragonCapture is unaware of the situation in the nonsupported target application just like any other integration tool, such as the Dragon dictation box or its pimped up replacements.

The behaviour you are experiencing and reporting actually is by design. When implementing the workflow into DragonCapture I had to make some really hard design decisions indeed. One of them was to reset the internal dictation buffer whenever the users switch focus, based on deciding that if they do so, they will want the follow-up dictation starting with no space and capitalised by default. Implementing this wasn't really as easy, because, how do you really know about focus changing in windows you don't own, but there you go. For the least, I think I succeeded in this.

On the other hand, if users expect their dictation and follow-up dictation going on in the target application after switching focus, how could an integration tool continually keep track of each one specifically, I wonder. Dragon does that, but only if they are Select-and-Say.,


Bottom line: Try using DragonCapture as is, and keep the above in mind, and if it helps, be my guest.

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The scenario you described here is exactly how I use the SP dictation box. It keeps track of the proper punctuation within the dictation box. It allows you to jump back and forth to any other application, and upon returning to the dictation box it picks up exactly where you left off. 

 

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Tom

 

programmer for: http://speechproductivity.eu/

Tom, nice to meet you anyway. It is a matter of the implementation details. You can always decide to either to make box go on, or reset it, and the choice is up to you, as the designer. But how to tell which one the user would expect, given the particular situation?

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hello to you as well !

By default, our box starts off a new session with a capitalization to start the dictation. That of course is not always desired, so we have a "lowercase" command built-in which will convert everything to lowercase. Of course they would need to use that statement with only the first sentence (or fragment) dictated. From that point onward, all normal punctuation rules are followed.

 

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Tom

 

programmer for: http://speechproductivity.eu/

You probably wouldn't want it to lowercase everything, to begin with, and I am almost sure that that isn't you what had in mind, but there you go. Sure you can always manipulate the start of the first dictation no matter which dictation box you use by preceding it with built in formatting command such as "no caps" and the likes of it, and it really doesn't take implementing any more than this. Are you perhaps replicating a little too much of already existing technology, although pimped up in many ways, I wonder. That at least has always been my impression right from the start.

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No, definitely I don't do a lowercase by default to start with. It would only be in the rare case that you start using the dictation with an already existing sentence fragment, for example.

Yes, there are lots of tools out there. That's the trick, finding the tool that works for you in the right time. All I was saying, is for the scenario that started off this thread, our box works tremendously well. I don't need a box for everything, there are just certain applications that you know that don't work well with Dragon. It's nice to have the option as needed.

For example, Outlook messages – the number of times that I've sent out a message before it was ready because I said the wrong word when outlook thought I said send. Or when a long dictation crashes in any box, friendly or not, and everything is lost. That's a great thing about our tool, I know the dictation is captured automatically in the clipboard. There's an option to write it to a file as well. So, there are safeguards built in which can be extremely helpful. 

Your box works tremendously well for many scenarios as well. We just have differences in approach and priorities. it does not necessarily make one approach better than the other. There are distinct advantages to each.

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Tom

 

programmer for: http://speechproductivity.eu/

That's just what I thought, and you can always do that with any kind of dictation box around, using the built in formatting commands, if this is required and you are aware of it.



That much is true.

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Alexander, another option in this scenario is to turn off AutoPaste, which will put the box into "continuous mode". This way, you can switch back and forth between "foreign" applications, and the dictation will go on in the DragonCapture box, without resetting it, thus keeping the formatting aligned, until you say "Paste Box". Of yourse, you give up the AutoPaste (no trigger requiring) feature, but you probably wouldn't want it in the first place when working like that.

 

In addition to this, when in "continuous mode" (by turning off AutoPaste, just say "AutoPaste" which works as a toggle), you can also switch to the DragonCapture boy anytime, for editing, and, when saying "Paste Box" from within the box, the text will go to the previously active target application, without having to go back to it first.

 

Just give it a try. It should be a lot easier to operate than to explain.

 

Actually, what I refer to as "continuous mode" here has been the initial design, AutoPaste came as an afterthought, and has then become the default.

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