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User Manual for Speak-to-Mail 1.0 – Version 1.00.23

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2. Disk Space 100 megs free disk space Software Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine At least one of the following email programs Outlook Outlook Express or Netscape 7 x Hardware A good quality noise cancellation microphone A good quality SoundBlaster compatible sound card User About 15 to 30 minutes of your time to install Speak to Mail install the redistribution of the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine and train your recognition profile to recognize your voice Available by redistribution with Speak to Mail or directly from Microsoft Note The trial version of Speak to Mail does not include the SAPI Speech Recognition Engine To use the trial version of Speak to Mail you must already have SAPI 5 0 available with Office XP SAPI 5 1 available with the full version of Speak to Mail 1 00 23 SpeakToText 2 0 or any other speech recognition program that redistributes the SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine or SAPI 6 0 available with Office 2003 Setting Up the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine NOTE f this is your first time using SAPI speech recognition it s important that you create a personal speech recognition profile configure your microphone and train the speech recognition engine to recognize your voice We cannot over emphasize the importance of these steps This is done in Speech Properties which is part of the SAPI Speech Recognition Engine Speech Prop
3. H Hemena FE Outlook Express fe Outlook Outlook Express We are not currently aware of security features that protect the address book in Outlook Express or Netscape or prevent other programs from sending emails in Netscape but it is possible that such features could be added in future updates If these security features become available you will need to follow similar procedures to those described above We will post updates to this manual and instructions on our website as we learn about these updates 13 Speak to Mail Interface When Speak to Mail is finished loading the Speak to Mail interface will display the names from your contact list on the left and an email template on the right Command buttons a dialog box that lets you see what the speech engine is recognizing and a black box that differentiates dictation and natural language are all located in the lower part of the screen Three different styles of buttons are used in the Speak to Mail interface and its sub screens YELLOW The buttons with yellow text are where you email addresses and text are entered and activated by speech commands i e select NAME to place a contact s name in the To field They do not perform any task when you click on them GREEN The buttons with green text are function buttons that can be activated both by speech commands and by mouse clicks GRAY Gray buttons like the buttons typically used in Window
4. Mail by its nature is dependent on third party software in order for it to function namely the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine and your email program There are certain functionality issues that result from how these third party programs work Known issues at the time of release are discussed in this section Additional issues that are identified after release may be covered in our support pages at www coolsoftllc com 1 Command not Recognized with Highlighted Contact s Name When you place a contact s email address in one of the email fields or ask for the contact s phone number Speak to Mail performs the function and highlights the contact s name Since there is no reason for a contact s email address to appear more than once in a given email if you ask to place a highlighted last selected contact s name in another field or ask for the contact s phone number Speak to Mail will not execute the command There are two solutions The best solution is to ask for another contact s phone number and that contact s name will be highlighted You will now be able to select the contact that was previously highlighted and place their email address in another field or hear their phone number if you are using Outlook An alternative solution is to place another contact s name in one of the email fields and that contact s name will be highlighted You will now be able to select the contact that was previously highlig
5. continuing with the install Table of Contents System REGUITEMENES TESTED D T T EG Setting Up the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine ecce eee eee eee esee eerte eese esee ee ens sse essssseesssseseesss F Technical Support on the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine eese eere esee eerte ee eee en eese eeneseesos D USING SPEAK TO MATLM 1deeeessssxs neca eua euni encounter iuo iiini Tips For Achieving the Best Possible Speech Recognition eese eese eren eene eene ense en sense sens se sns sesnssesssseesss Setting the Correct Default Email Program and Address Book eeeeeee ecce crees eee teens eee ens ese eeeseseeessseeee LO Starting Speak to Mail es LL OPES TER Tolly a o M 2 Speak to Mail Interfaces D LA Important NOLES rc EZ Speech MODES c M L7 Speak to Mail rur 94 1 Microphone Commands eee eee eee e eese seen sette stessa tens s tens tonat esos soto sse toss s tens se Ee se sos sess s esos se eens sess se sessesesseeessseeseeeses OL ID rie niEn EP M Sending Your Email eere eee eee eee eee ee eee eene set
6. equal sign percent sign caret note if this returns the word carrot emphasize the a in your pronunciation kAy ret ampersand underscore asterisk vertical bar 31 Natural Language Modeling Technology Natural Language Modeling technology is used to initiate sending an email by giving a command as you would speak it naturally Our Natural Language Model also uses best match technology to help the computer to recognize names more clearly Using the Natural Language Model To activate the Natural Language Model you need to say the command word Computer You must say Computer each time before making a request in natural language The word Computer is an activation command that tells Speak to Mail that you are about to send an email using the Natural Language Model When the computer responds yes then you can state your request For example You Computer Computer Yes You Send an email to John Doe about next Tuesday s meeting In the above example when you say Computer the message Natural Language Model is Active will appear in the lower center part of the Speak to Mail screen D IU T m CURRO felt E oc Poo ml ce e Next John Doe s email address will appear in the TO field the Subject field will read Next Tuesday s meeting and the cursor will be placed in the Body ready to accept your dictation
7. of the message If you decide to add a recipient after you are done dictating or if the Natural Language Model did not recognize all the names you said you can add names to the email fields by using the individual commands for placing email addresses For example say Select person s name or Copy to person s name or Blind to person s name and their email address will appear in the box where you want it Each time you initiate a new email using the Natural Language Model the previous email message if any is cleared by the new message If you have not yet sent your previous message it will be erased and you will not be able to recover it Alternately if you do want to clear your previous message without sending it you do not need to clear the message first Just initiate a new email using the Natural Language Model and the previous message will automatically be cleared and replaced by the new message The Natural Language Model recognizes various ways of saying things In the above example you could have said Send an email to John Doe regarding instead of about next Tuesday s meeting or Email to John Doe to confirm next Tuesday s meeting The Natural Language Model will also recognize more complex statements For example you can say Send an email to John Doe and Jane Doe with a copy to John Smith about next Tuesday s meeting 32 More on the Natural Language Model The following section contains a more detail
8. Text Bolds the selected highlighted text Italicize Text Italicizes the selected highlighted text Underline Text Underlines the selected highlighted text 29 Numbers and Fractions Number Three 3 34 153 6091 6 891 6 891 525 15 451 183 012 75 75 00 19 95 V 2 1 4 5 8 150 85 Dates and Times Result What To Say three the speech engine default for single numerals between zero and twenty always typed as text by the Microsoft speech engine Forcenum three will return the numeral 3 You may need to train the word forcenum before the speech engine will recognize it See Section Training Words thirty four or three four one fifty three one five three one hundred fifty three or one hundred and fifty three six eight nine one six thousand eight hundred ninety one or six thousand eight hundred and ninety one six thousand eight hundred ninety one point decimal five two five or six thousand eight hundred and ninety one point decimal five two five fifteen thousand four hundred fifty one or fifteen thousand four hundred and fifty one one hundred eighty three thousand twelve or one hundred eighty three thousand and twelve dollar sign seventy five saying dollar sign before the number returns the dollar amount without cents seventy five dollars nineteen dollars and ninety five cents one half two and one quarter five slash eight or five over eight one fifty
9. and enter a support request Support is available only on the full version of Speak to Mail To access the Request for Support page you need the email address you used when you purchased Speak to Mail and your order number and you need to fill out the request for support form If you purchased Speak to Mail from a third party send an email to support coolsoftllc com and we will reply with an email to tell you how to access the request for support page Support is not available on the trial version 37 KNOWN ISSUES Accuracy Even with state of the art equipment like a very high quality microphone and sound card accuracy with today s speech recognition engines usually do not exceed 9896 and such high levels are available only in very high priced specialized software With speech recognition engines like the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine which we find to be an excellent engine and other comparable products accuracy of 90 to 95 is reasonable Over time we anticipate the accuracy of speech recognition technology will improve but today it is not reasonable to expect 10096 accuracy However most users after becoming accustomed to using speech recognition will find that correcting a few errors is still more efficient than typing text by hand Notebook computers Some notebook computers have low quality sound cards and the accuracy of the speech recognition on these computers can be disappointing especially wh
10. as this will allows the speech engine to continue training as you use it Over time and use the background adaptation feature will help improve your level of accuracy If you have more questions about these settings we suggest you contact Microsoft technical support Text To Speech Tab The Text To Speech tab in the Speech Properties dialog box is where you can select the computer s output voice B peech Properties Voice Selection Use the drop down list under Voice Selection to choose a voice and you will hear the selected voice read a sample sentence Preview Voice Click on this button to hear a sample of the voice you have selected Settings We do not recommend that you change the settings under the Settings button Voice Speed You can adjust the speed of the voice and test it again by clicking on Preview Voice button until you find a speed that you like Other Tab Help Microsoft provides complete details about speech recognition in the help section To learn more about the using the Microsoft speech recognition engine go to the Speech Properties dialog box choose the Other tab and select Help You can also find resources in the speech section of the Microsoft website http www microsoft com speech Speech Properties Technical Support on the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine The redistribution of the SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine is a Microsoft produc
11. be given a choice of literature to read aloud to your computer for training Select a title and click on Next gt Read and follow mEEETETTTTEETTENETT S xl the instructions to complete your training session Please select a session For training The more sessions you read the better speech recognition will work You can train the same session more than once Note If it has been sometime since the initial training of this profile we recommend that you use the Introduction to Microsoft Speech Recognition session to familiarize yourself with how training works Bill Gates describes The Road Ahead Second Version jExcerpts from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertranc If you want to take a break click on the Pause button Training will be paused and the Pause button will change to Resume When you are ready to start reading again click the Resume button When Voice Training has finished processing you will have the option to select Finish or to choose More Training IMPORTANT To keep improving your accuracy you should come back to the Speech Properties and do additional training The more you train and use the speech engine the more your accuracy will improve In testing we found a substantial improvement in accuracy between the second and third training After five sessions the accuracy was much greater We suggest you take advantage of the opportunity to re
12. configuration you may encounter errors that may cause your message not to be sent and prevent you from sending additional messages 11 EMAIL Security There are several security features that prevent viruses from sending emails to people in your contact list and prevent the sending of unauthorized emails In order for Speak to Mail to function correctly you must allow it to access you address book and send emails In this section we have provided information which will assist you in maintaining this security while using Speak to Mail Outlook Express Express from an installation of Windows Sr Express from an installation of Windows Outlook ERE 31 xl 2000 or XP and if you have the latest AN 4 program is attempting to send the following e mail Windows security updates the Microsoft message on your behalf security service dialog box may appear when sending emails To or If you have this feature your email will not be sent and the message fields will Subject Tuesday s Meeting not clear until you click on Send If you click on Do Not Send you will not be able to send your email Do Not Send Outlook Would you like to send the message If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2000 XP or 2003 from an installation of Windows 2000 or XP and if you have the latest Windows security updates the Microsoft security service dialog box may appear Check the box labeled Allow access x for use th
13. if they consist of two or more words that are not likely to be spoken in natural speech Examples of function commands are click send email and Speak to Mail will send your message to the outbox of your email program Say Clear Message to clear a message and start over Say Click Close to exit Speak to Mail Using Commands Dictation is used to freely dictate your email subject and text message When you are in the Subject field or in the Body field the dictation mode activates automatically If you want to say a command you need to pause dictation briefly say the command and pause again For example to send an email using dictation you could say the following Select John Doe Select Jane Doe Copy to Jane Smith Blind Copy to John Smith Subject pause Next Tuesday s meeting Body In the example above the email addresses for John Doe and Jane Doe will appear in the To field Jane Smith in the CC field and John Smith in the BCC field Next Tuesday s meeting will appear in the Subject field and the cursor will be at the beginning of the body ready to accept dictation 17 Training Words If the speech recognition engine consistently has a problem recognizing your pronunciation of certain words you can train the Microsoft speech recognition engine to recognize how you say that word To train a word you must be in Speak to Mail Say clic
14. say Go to Sleep or Microphone Off You can also click on the microphone icon to turn the microphone on and off Microphone Off Microphone On 21 Email Commands Screen Navigation To move the cursor to a field Desired Field Commands what to say To To CC CC Copy BCC BCC Blind Blind Copy Subject Subject Email Subject Body Body Text Message Text Email Text Email Body Email Message You can also navigate the fields manually with the mouse NOTE There is really no need to navigate to the TO CC or BCC fields unless you plan to type an email address manually however we have included these commands for your convenience Placing a Contact s Email Address in an Address Field To place a contact s email address in one of the address fields say the following where NAME is the name of the contact you want to select This is similar to navigating the address fields as above but you are saying the name of the field and the contact s name Desired Field What to Say To Select NAME Send to NAME CC Copy to NAME Copy NAME BCC Blind to NAME Blind Copy NAME Left clicking on a contact s name in the list box will place the contact s email address in the TO field or in the last field that was used with a speech command Right clicking on a contact s name will also a
15. signature later return to the update Signature About Speak to Mail To open the About dialog box say click about or click the About button with your mouse The About dialog box displays the user information registration key and the version of the product You can also access the signature and greeting settings by clicking the Settings button in the About screen 26 Speak to Mail Signature Message Speak to Mail includes its own signature message at the end of each email This feature can be disabled in the full version but cannot be disabled in the trial version To disable enable the Speak to Mail signature message say click Update Signature or click on the Update Signature button From the settings dialog box uncheck or check the Enable Speak to Mail banner box according to your preference In the full version you can return to the settings dialog box whenever you want to enable or disable the banner message If you like using Speak to Mail and you think it s a great program like we do we hope you will leave the banner enabled so that your friends and contacts can learn about it Speak to Mail Startup Greeting When you are using Speak to Mail in trial mode the startup splash screen includes a textbox where you can type your name If you leave this blank the program will greet you with Welcome to Speak to Mail If you enter your name in this box then the program will greet you
16. substantially similar b Setting Netscape 7 x to Send Messages As Text Mail amp Newsgroups Account Settings x Email Account Settings Server Settings Copies amp Folders The following information is needed before you can send messages If you do not iow the information requested please contact your system administrator or Addressing Internet Service Provider The default for Netscape 7 x is to compose messages in HTML however Speak to Mail sends messages as text If you do not change this setting then character returns will be ignored and ut Account Name Defaut Emai i i Security Identity you 4 message wi Il a ppear as a s ngle pa rag ra ph Local Folders Each account can have its own identity which is the information that other Outgoing Server SMTP people see when they read your messages Your Name onnes ss Email Address fiotn doecom Reply to Address ongdecom Organization ohn Doe Inc CS without any line breaks To set Netscape 7 x to send messages as text go to Edit Mail amp Newsgroup Account Settings In the center of the bottom of the Mail amp Newsgroups Attach this signature Choose Account Settings dialog box uncheck the box next Add Account ET E m to Compose messages in HTML format tett u a Cancel c Using the Signature File Settings With the Netscape 7 x Edition Both Netscape 7 x and Speak to Mail can in
17. 1 00 23 There are some important differences between Version 1 00 23 and the previous version 1 00 22 formerly released by Yellow Tiger LLC e The full version of Speak to Mail 1 00 23 no longer requires a registration key and can be obtained only by purchasing a license from www coolsoftllc com e Speak to Mail now comes in a single install that includes the speech engine and lets you choose which edition you want to install There are three editions for Outlook Express Outlook and Netscape 7 x e Editions for Netscape 4 x 6 x Eudora and AOL have been discontinued e Bug fixes to some known issues identified in version 1 00 22 have been made e SpeakPad has been discontinued and replaced by SpeakToText 2 0 a more robust and feature packed speech program which can be purchased at www coolsoftllc com e Support for version 1 00 22 and all previous versions has been discontinued e The trial version of Speak to Mail remains at version 1 00 22 It does not include speech recognition and to use the trial version you must already have Microsoft SAPI speech recognition installed on your computer e The trial version of Speak to Mail will run only for 60 days and registration keys to upgrade the trial version to the full version are no longer available To run the full version of Speak to Mail the trial version must be uninstalled e The install of the full version gives you the option to uninstall of the trial version before
18. Speak Eo fnaiL CoolSoft LLC Making it FUN and EASY to use SPEECH with your COMPUTER User Manual for Speak to Mail 10 Version 100 23 INTRODUCTION Speak to Mail is a simple low cost email program that is fun and easy to use It lets you send email by speech using your favorite email program and state of the art speech recognition technology from Microsoft Corporation Now with Speak to Mail you can send emails simply by speaking to your computer How does Speak to Mail work Easy it is a interface for writing an email with speech and passes your message to your email program where it is sent according to how your email program is configured to send email Messages sent with Speak to Mail are kept in the sent folder of your default email client just like any other message you send Speak to Mail comes in three editions to support Microsoft Outlook Express Microsoft Outlook and Netscape 7 x Speak to Mail is user friendly and very easy to use It displays the contents of the address book from your email program and when you say the recipient s name it places their email address in the desired field TO CC BCC You can even sort your contacts by first or last name You can then dictate the subject and body and insert attachments entirely by speech Note CoolSoft LLC acquired the rights to Speak to Mail 1 0 and other assets of Yellow Tiger LLC in December 2003 CoolSoft is re releasing Speak to Mail Version
19. Speak to Mail to activate buttons on the screen in place of clicking on them with your mouse Speech Commands are also used within Speak to Mail for navigating the screen and placing email addresses in the desired fields These do not appear on the screen as buttons Dictation Commands Both Speak to Mail and the Microsoft speech recognition engine use dictation commands An example of a dictation command used by Speak to Mail is scratch that which will erase the last word you said Another example of a dictation command is the forcenum command Saying forcenum with a number between zero and twenty will cause that number to by typed as a numeral instead of being spelled out as a word which is the default for the speech engine In speech recognition commands work best if they consist of two or more words that would not normally be said in a sentence together Because of this commands for example send email require you to say click before the command so to send an email you have to say click send email IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT PAUSE BETWEEN WORDS IN A COMMAND OR THE SPEECH RECOGNITION ENGINE MAY RECOGNIZE THEM AS TEXT INSTEAD OF A COMMAND If this happens simply repeat your command without pausing between words To help you remember what you have to say we have included Tool Tips for each button in Speak to Mail When you place the arrow over a button the tool tips show you what you need to say to activ
20. To BCC Clear BCC Clear Blind Clear Blind Copy Clear Blind Copy To Subject Clear Subject Attachment Clear Attachment Selected Text Delete Selection Body Clear Text Clear Message Clear Body xj Are you sure you want to clear the text message w O A dialog box appears asking you if you are sure you want to clear the message You have to use your mouse to choose Yes or No Once a message is cleared there is no way to recover it All Fields Clear Email Clear All j Speak To Mail xj Are you sure you want to clear all fields O A dialog box appears asking you if you are sure you want to clear the email You have to use your mouse to choose Yes or No Once a message is cleared there is no way to recover it Sorting Contacts When Speak to Mail first opens your contact list is sorted by first name so you can say a contact s first and last name as you would in natural speech You can alternate sorting between first and last name simply by saying click sort You can also use your mouse to click on the Sort Contacts by First Last Name button Note that when your contact list is sorted by last name in order to select a name you have to say the contact s last name then his or her first name For example to place John Doe s email address in the TO field If contacts are sorted by first name you have to say select John Doe If contacts are sorted by last na
21. acing an attachment but after selecting your attachment or closing the Attachment dialog box you will return to Speak to Mail where speech recognition is again fully active If you have more than one attachment they have to be entered one at a time We recommend that you zip multiple attachments into one file 24 Sending Your Email To send your email say Click Send Email and your email will be sent Sending an email will clear all the message fields in Speak to Mail and the program will be ready to accept your next message Closing Speak to Mail To close Speak to Mail say Click Close or click on the Close button Speak to Mail will display a dialog box asking you if you are sure you want to exit Speak to Mail Click on Yes to exit Speak to Mail or on No if you do not want to exit This confirmation feature prevents you from losing your email by accidentally clicking on the close button Note that the default for this box is set to Yes so you can also press enter on your keyboard to exit the program When you close Speak to Mail if Speak to Mail opened your email program Speak to Mail will also close it If it was already open then it will remain open Replying to Emails from Your Email Program Many people like to reply to their messages instead of originating a new message The process for doing this with Speak to Mail is simple and easy Just use Speak to Mail to dicta
22. ad all of the available selections to your computer Other Settings under the Speech Recognition Tab Language The language must be set to Microsoft English Recognizer v5 1 in order for Speak to Mail to work properly Do not change the speech recognition engine except to select Microsoft English Recognizer v5 1 if that is not the default Do not change the Settings to the right of the drop down box either If you change these Speak to Mail will not work properly Recognition Profiles New Click on the New button to create a new recognition profile Delete Click on the Delete button to delete the profile that is highlighted Selecting Profile Put a check mark next to the profile you want to use If more than one user will be using Speak to Mail on this computer each user should go to Speech Properties and check to make certain his or her profile is selected each time before using the program Settings We do not recommend that you change the Settings for your profile In most cases the default settings will give you the best recognition If after several trainings and insuring your microphone is configured properly you still difficulty with the accuracy of your recognition you may want to adjust the Accuracy vs Recognition Response Time setting or the Pronunciation Sensitivity to see if this will give you improved accuracy Leave the Background Adaptation enabled checked
23. ate the command for that button Since Dictation Commands do not have buttons those commands do not have Tool Tips When beginning to use Speak to Mail we recommend that you keep a copy of the Speak to Mail documentation handy to help you with dictation commands 15 Address Book Speak to Mail uses the address book of the email program for the edition of Speak to Mail you are using In order for Speak to Mail to work properly you need to have your contact s first name last name and email address entered into the address book of the email program you are using with Speak to Mail While you can type any email address into any of the address fields in Speak to Mail it is best to have each of your contacts entered into the address book so the contact s name will appear in the Speak to Mail list box on the left You will then be able to speak a contact s name and their email address will be placed in the field where you want it to go Starting Speak to Mail if your contact list is empty may generate errors You will still be able to continue and use Speak to Mail but you will have to use the keyboard to enter email addresses If you have phone numbers in your contact list Speak to Mail can also find phone numbers for your contacts Resetting the names list Each time start Speak to Mail the program reads the address book from the email client you are using and builds the list box you see on the left If yo
24. ation Required for Support We will need the following information when you submit your request for technical support Having this all of this information will enable us to help you more quickly and efficiently Edition of Speak to Mail you are using Your Current Email Address Your Phone Number Computer Brand Computer Model Operating System Processor Type Processor Speed System Memory MB Hard Drive Size Hard Drive Free Space Microphone Brand Microphone Model Sound Card Brand Sound Card Model The following are of particular importance Description of the Problem Exact Steps We Can Take to Reproduce the Problem our support staff cannot solve a problem that they cannot reproduce List Any Error Messages Steps You Have Taken to Solve the Problem 42 C Support on Third Party Software used with Speak to Mail If you need help with the Microsoft speech recognition engine or issues caused by the Microsoft engine you can use the help resources in the Speech Properties dialog box under the Help tab start2 settings control panel speech other tab gt help or you can visit the speech section of the Microsoft website at http www microsoft com speech or you can contact Microsoft technical support directly If you need support with your email program or issues caused by your email program use the help feature in that program or contact the manufacturer s technical support directly 43
25. e default of 1 minute and click on Yes This will allow Speak to 4 program is trying to access e mail addresses you have TM stored in Outlook Do you want to allow this Mail to access the address book and read your contact list Speak to Mail If this is unexpected it may be a virus and you should will not finish loading until you have choose No made a selection When sending an email with Outlook you may receive this message Microsoft Outlook x message displayed in the Section AN A program is trying to automatically send e mail on your This feature is similar to the security behalf Starting Speak to Mail except in Dd dd werk to alow Col this instance instead of asking for permission to access the address book If this is unexpected it may be a virus and you should you are being asked if you want to allow choose No Outlook or Outlook Express to send an P BEBERBBHEEEBEESEBHESHHEREZSHERHENHEH email Click on Yes to allow your email to be sent Yes Help 12 More on Email Security If you do not see one of the security dialog boxes described above you either do not have the latest security updates or the security dialog box is minimized in the toolbar at the bottom of your desktop To see if it is minimized look in the toolbar at the bottom of your desktop see below A left mouse click will bring it to the foreground and display the security dialog box as shown above
26. ed explanation of the technical aspects of this feature To get the most out of using our Natural Language Modeling you need to understand how it functions When you say computer it activates the natural language model and the program waits for a command There are three parts to the command for sending an email 1 The first part indicates that you are sending an email and sets the natural language model to listen for fields in the email and names in the contact list 2 The second part is speaking the fields and names in the contact list You can select multiple names and place them in multiple fields 3 The third part indicates the dictation to follow will be the subject of the email For example You Computer Computer Yes You 1 Send an email 2 to John Doe and Alice J ohnson with a copy to Jane Smith 3 about Tuesday s meeting Computer Your email for Jane Smith Alice Johnson J ohn Doe is ready for dictation When the natural language model detects the first part of the command in this example the words Send an email it will start to listen for names in the contact list and fields in the email the second part of the command When it recognizes a name it will place it in the appropriate field that preceded the name To Copy to or Blind Copy to When the natural language model detects the third part of the command in this example about it will place all the text that follows into the subject line When you are done wi
27. ed name as part of the subject Say clear subject and re enter the subject either by dictation or with your keyboard or highlight and delete the incorrect text with your mouse and keyboard 35 SpeakPad and the SpeakPad Button SpeakPad was discontinued when CoolSoft LLC acquired the assets of Yellow Tiger LLC the creator of Speak to Mail and SpeakPad SpeakPad has been replaced by SpeakToText 2 0 SpeakToText 2 0 is a much more robust and feature packed speech recognition program You can learn more about SpeakToText 2 0 and get your copy by going to www coolsoftlic com main asp product 9 The SpeakPad button in Speak to Mail opens a dialog that will take you to our website where you can get your license and copy of SpeakToText 2 0 36 TROUBLESHOOTING SOLUTI ONS FOR POOR RECOGNITION If you are experiencing lower than normal accuracy in your speech recognition possible solutions include Check your microphone settings Go to the speech properties in control panel and check your microphone settings Make sure your microphone is positioned correctly and that the position is consistent with the position of the microphone when you trained your recognition profile Minimize background noise and try again If recognition was good when you started using Speak to Mail and it starts to deteriorate closing and restarting Speak to Mail will often restore good recognition If that d
28. efault email program or said differently you need to use the edition of Speak to Mail that corresponds with your default email program In most cases you will not be required to changes theses settings but if you have more than one email program you will need to verify theses settings For example If you are using the Outlook Express edition of Speak to Mail and you also have Outlook installed on your computer then Speak to Mail will use the default email program and address book To set your email program and address book as defaults you need to do the following Go to Internet Options in the Control Panel Start Settings Control Panel SF D Oo r F Keyboard Mouse Network and Dial up Co Configures your Internet display and connections settings i Internet Properties d xl General Security Content Connections Programs advanced Internet programs _ fi You can specify which program Windows automatically uses for each Internet service HTML editor Notepad 7 Double click on the Internet Options icon Then select the Programs tab Email Outlook Express zl Newsgroups OutlookExpress o From the Programs tab in the E mail C CE section drop down list select the email Medi program you want to set as default Calendar Microsoft Outlook 7 Contact list address Book If you have both Outlook and Outlook Express Address Book installed on you
29. ell m you what you can say to activate the command function Say Subject or Email Subject for that button Control Commands Speak to Mail uses spoken commands Command amp Control to activate the functions of buttons on the Speak to Mail screen and place email addresses in desired fields You can either say the command or click on the button In order to help the speech recognition engine differentiate between dictation and control commands and to prevent text words from being recognized as commands most commands generally consist of two or more words that would not normally be used together in a sentence For example to close Speak to Mail you have to say click close Combining the words click and close minimizes the likelihood that that the program will be closed by accident In order to make commands work best do not pause in the middle of a command For example if the command is click close do not pause between the words click and close A pause may cause the command to be recognized as text If you are dictating text and you want to say a command pause briefly so the speech engine knows that the next thing you say may be a command You do not need to pause before or during a Dictation Command just speak it as part of your sentence See Section Dictation Commands Microphone Commands To turn on the microphone say Wake Up or Microphone On To turn off the microphone
30. en you are getting good recognition on your desktop computer Issues Unique to Speech Recognition Learning to use speech recognition is much like learning any new skill It can be compared to learning to use a computer learning to type or learning to use any software application training yourself to use speech recognition requires time and commitment on your part Pointers Speech recognition unlike using a keyboard requires that there be little or no background noise and that other people not be talking while you are dictating It also helps to keep volume on your TV or stereo turned down so your microphone does not pick up these sounds System Resources Speech recognition uses a lot of system resources Having a faster processor more memory and ample free space on your hard disk certainly help Most of the time you should not encounter problems with system resources but there are times when excessive use of system resources will cause the speech recognition engine and Speak to Mail not to function properly If you notice degraded performance in recognition here are some possible solutions Close programs that you are not using in order to free up system resources Disable your screen saver Screen savers use a lot of system resources and can interfere with the performance of other programs Close and restart your email program and Speak to Mail 38 Known Issues With Speak to Mail Shared Functionality S peak to
31. enta seasons sett ens stessa eset SEE ro Eo raSo Sr enses se sens esee E SESSE Sae sarisi DO Closing Speak to MaillM LLee eee ee eee ee esee etes ee eee esent etae sett tn sss tna esset enses etes esteso sesso tense see ess sse sns esee enses ee eesseseeeess see eess DO Replying to Emails from Your Email Program eeeeeee sees esee seen seen neenon sets etna stesse tenes esos sess se ssseeessseensseees LO Speak to Mail Settings 14 eere esee creen ee eee eene eee en aestas sees ens esee ees asset en sesso sens esee ess ese essss see sose see essseseseessesesssseeees 20 Natural Language Modeling Technology cerne eee ee esee ette ee eee en eee eene en esee sens stesse sse sens esee sss esee enses se esesesees OD SpeakPad and the SpeakPad Button ecce eee eee eee eene eene JO SOLUTIONS FOR POOR RECOGNITION sississssssssscsccisivsnisusisssivisbvssasttioosisbosbusisentsssieassievieestsdolenansisisiseaasinsinns OT TECHNICAL SUPPORT oehstoitebedendep tocca tud ua eodera aene ber eu ha eps rin i Ae GETTI NG STARTED System Requirements System requirements for Speak to Mail are Operating System Windows 98se Me 2000 or XP Home or Professional Memory At least 128 Megs RAM 256 or better preferred System Processor A PC with a 500mhz or greater Pentium III Pentium IV or Pentium compatible processor
32. erties can be accessed from the Control Panel or by the Speech Properties menu item Start Speech Properties Go to the control panel Start2Settings Control Panel Find and double click the Speech icon a The Speech Properties dialog box will appear Speech Properties Microsoft English Recognizer v5 1 Setup your Recognition Profile You can use the Default Speech Profile but we recommend you create a speech profile with a unique name especially if there will be others using speech with this computer To create a new profile click on New and follow the prompts When have completed creating your new profile click Next to configure your microphone and train your profile do not click finish The next two sections are extremely important in achieving good speech recognition and the highest possible level of accuracy Setup your Microphone Microphone quality In selecting the correct microphone headset for your use you need to consider 1 Sound in the environment A noise canceling microphone is required 2 Fit and style Will you be comfortable Cost is usually not a factor A less expensive one may fit your needs better than the more costly There are many suppliers of high quality speech recognition microphones Please check our website to see which ones we recommend Configure Microphone You should establish a habit of configuring your microphone in the same way each time y
33. erwritten Cut Copy and Paste Commands You can copy all of the text to the clipboard by saying copy to clipboard You can cut and copy selected text to the clipboard by highlighting the text with the selection commands above or with the mouse and using the right mouse key to cut or copy selected text You can paste text from the clipboard by placing the cursor where you want to insert the text and using the right mouse key to paste text from the clipboard Important If you say something other than a command while text is highlighted what you say will replace the highlighted text and you will not be able to recover it If you are going to talk while text is highlighted or if there is a lot of background noise we suggest that you not leave the text highlighted for a long period of time or that you turn the microphone off 28 Correcting Text As noted throughout this manual today s speech recognition technology although the best it has ever been is not 10096 accurate Even though you may be speaking clearly from a quiet room and are using a well trained recognition profile and a high quality microphone and sound card you cannot expect accuracy to exceed 9096 to 9596 You can use the mouse and keyboard to correct recognition errors in your text To erase the last word you said say scratch that or no no Each time you say this the last word in the text will be deleted Say scratch last to erase the last string of text
34. ext Remember if you are cutting or copying text your selection must be highlighted first To paste text you must use the mouse to place the cursor in the location where you want to paste the text Additional Mouse Functions When Speak to Mail opens the default setting for a single left mouse click on a contact s name places the contact s email address in the To field Whenever you use speech to place a contact s email address in another field or ask for a phone number the setting for a single left mouse click will change to that command For example saying copy to contact name will change the setting for a left mouse click to the Cc field and after that whenever you left click on a contacts name their email address will be placed in the Cc field The same applies to the Bcc field requesting phone numbers or returning the setting to the To field Using one of those speech commands will change the setting for a single left mouse click on a contact s name to the last email command or phone number command that was executed by speech 20 Speak to Mail Commands This section gives an overview of all commands that can be used with Speak to Mail Tool Tips To help you with commands Tool Tips are included with each button that is speech enabled While using Speak to Mail if you are not sure what to say or have forgotten place the arrow over a button and it will t
35. hted and place their email address in another field or hear their phone number if you are using Outlook 2 Dictation is not Being Recognized a You are saying a phrase and the speech engine does not recognize or mis recognizes what you are saying One solution is to try saying the same thing in a different way For example instead of saying Mondays Meeting try saying Our Meeting on Monday instead b If the cursor disappears from the screen while you are dictating or if you are dictating and your speech is not being recognized most likely the speech engine recognized something as a command to move to another field Possible solutions include The best solution is to say body to return the cursor to the body The Ready to accept dictation message in the black box at the bottom of the screen should come on If that does not work try moving the cursor to another field like the subject field say subject and then back to the body say body The Ready to accept dictation message in the black box at the bottom of the screen should come on If you manually place the cursor in the Subject or Body fields with your mouse dictation may not be recognized The proper way to move to the subject or body field is by speech Say body to go to the Body field Say subject to navigate to the Subject field 39 If the above solutions do not work then you may have an issue with system resources Try closing and restarting yo
36. k train word or click on the train word button with your mouse and the Train Word dialog box will open Type in the correct spelling of the word you want to train in x the Word box then click on the Record pronunciation Word button and say the word After the computer recognizes your eee pronunciation of the word it will be added to a custom peak totam dictionary for your recognition profile This will improve the speech engine s recognition of that word when you say it DE You can train words from both Speak to Mail and the trained words will be saved to a library within your recognition profile These trained words can be recognized from both programs but remember training is particular to each individual recognition profile Each person that uses speech recognition on your computer needs to have their own recognition profile and needs to train their own library of words Speak to M ail trn SpeakPad tm Delete Close If there are words that are particular to your usage or occupation it is a good idea to train these words We suggest you train the forcenum command If you want to have numbers zero to twenty appear as numerals then you will need to say forcenum numeral For example forcenum two will return the number 2 The SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine is programmed to spell out numbers from zero to twenty and we have found in testing that with most people it has difficul
37. limited Send this email address as anonymous FTP password se performance X c _ Hep TECHNI CAL SUPPORT We have designed Speak to Mail to be simple and easy to use Answers to most of the questions can be found in this User Manual Additional resources may be available on the support pages of our website at www coolsoftllc com Typically these self help resources have all the answers you need and are a faster and more efficient way for you to solve your problem You should request support only after you have tried to resolve an issue with the available resources and have not succeeded A Technical Support Policy CoolSoft LLC provides technical support on Speak to Mail only on a best efforts basis and only to users who have purchased the full version of Speak to Mail We will not respond to requests for support on the following How to questions or technical issues that are already covered in the User Manual or in the support section of our website Issues related to the Microsoft speech recognition engine or issues with Speak to Mail that are caused by the Microsoft speech recognition engine Issues related to your email program or issues with Speak to Mail that are caused by your email program Requests for support on the trial version Requests for support that do not have complete information as indicated under Information Required for Support below B Inform
38. ling is dependent on the accuracy of speech recognition itself and therefore just like speech recognition it is not a perfect technology In our programming and testing we found that the Speak to Mail Natural Language Model works very well when the recognized text is 10096 accurate but errors in recognition can degrade its performance Speech recognition engines have a particularly difficult time recognizing names especially names that are not typical Long sentences combined with names are particularly prone to a higher level of misrecognition which cause the Natural Language Model to malfunction 34 Pointers for using the Natural Language Model In testing we have succeeded in sending emails to multiple recipients and recipient types when all the names are recognized If you are having difficulty with certain names you might want to train them in your speech recognition profile see Section Training Words It will also help for you to think about what you want to say before you start speaking Do not pause in the middle of the request This will cause the Natural Language Model to think you are finished making your request Try to use shorter less complex sentences to make your requests The longer and more complex your sentence the more it is prone to speech recognition inaccuracy which can result in errors in the Natural Language Model Given this you can expect the Natural Language Model in Speak to Mail to func
39. llow you to use the mouse to place the contact s email address in the desired field see Section Using the Mouse and Keyboard NOTE In order to make sure you are always using the most up to date contact information each time you start Speak to Mail the program imports a fresh copy of the contact list from your email program for the edition of Speak to Mail you are using Speak to Mail is cannot write contact information back to your email program If you want to do that you must add or change the contact information in your email program The new modified contact will not appear in Speak to Mail until the next time you start Speak to Mail If any of your contacts do not have an email address in your email program s address book Speak to Mail will tell you that your Contact Name gt does not have an email address To temporarily solve this problem you can type in your contact s email address in the field where you want to place it If you are typing more than one email address in a field you must separate them by a semi colon and a space To permanently solve this problem you need to enter the first and last name and email address of all your contacts into the contact list in your email program 22 Clearing Fields If you make a mistake and want to clear a field say the following Desired Field Commands what to say To Clear To Clear Send To CC Clear CC Clear Copy Clear Copy
40. me you have to say select Doe John 23 Scrolling Up and Down the Contact List To scroll down the contact list say contacts page down To scroll up the contact list say contacts page up You can also scroll up and down the contact list by using your mouse on the arrows to the right side of the contact listbox Finding a Contact s Phone Number If your contact list includes phone numbers Speak to Mail can retrieve a contact s phone number for you when you say Phone Number the contact s name The Home Business and Mobile phone numbers will be displayed in a text box on your screen and the phone numbers will be read aloud If your contact does not have any phone numbers you will get a message that your contact doesn t have any phone numbers Note In version 1 0 phone numbers only work in Outlook and Eudora we are working to add this feature to future releases Attachments To open the Attachment Window say Click Attachment Once the Attachment Window is active you have to manually select the files you want to attach and click the Save or Cancel button to return to the Speak to Mail main screen Once you return to the main screen speech recognition is again active You can also click on the Attachment button with your mouse to open the Attachment Window The Attachment dialog box in Speak to Mail functions the same way as it does in any other email program You cannot use speech while pl
41. nd card how clearly you speak and even the name itself 33 Our natural language model like any other can only work with what it receives from the speech recognition engine If the speech recognition engine has difficulty recognizing a name the natural language model will not be able to use it If your are consistently having trouble recognizing a particular name try training the speech recognition engine to recognize that name using the Train word function or try sending the email using the standard approach of selecting the names and dictating the subject and body separately If you are using the Natural PETENTE Language Model to send an email and the speech engine encounters similar names and is not sure which contact you want to use Speak to Mail will display a dialog box with the possible selections from your contact listbox numbered in ascending order In this example the statement was Computer pause to wait for reply send an email to J ohn The best match technology gt gt gt 7 displayed all John s in the send an e mail to John contact list pgs When you see the dialog box to select the name you want say choose or select and the contact s name For example say choose John Doe or select John Doe to select the first name in the list You can also choose the desired contact with a left mouse click Known Issues With Natural Language and Speech Recognition Natural Language Mode
42. o Mail buffer will be cleared and the program will be ready start dictation from scratch NOTE Clearing the buffer in Speak to Mail will not clear any unrecognized text that is already being processed by the speech recognition engine You may still need to wait a few moments while the speech recognition engine completes the recognition already in process NOTE If Speak to Mail is open and you try to use the Esc key in another application this can cause an error in Speak to Mail If you are going to use the Esc key in another application it is best to close Speak to Mail first 19 Using the Mouse and Keyboard If you are having trouble with recognition or do not have your microphone handy you can use the mouse and keyboard to send an email with Speak to Mail Use the mouse to navigate to the fields and to click buttons on the Speak to Mail screen Right click on a contact s name and a menu pops up that enables you to place that contacts name in the desired field Use the keyboard to type in email addresses that are not in your contact list or are not being recognized Sally Smith Locate Sally Smith in TO box Locate Sally Smith in CC box Locate Sally Smith in BCC box Use the keyboard to type the subject and text of your message In the Subject or Body fields you can use the mouse to highlight the desired text and then you can use the right mouse button to cut copy or paste t
43. oesn t work it may be necessary to reboot your computer to restore the best recognition Using the Train Word function in Speak to Mail to train words that are consistently being miss recognized will greatly improve recognition of those words TODAY MY VOICE IS NOT AS CLEAR If you are experiencing poor recognition Speak to Mail is a fully Mouse and Keyboard compliant Windows application Just point to any of your contacts right click on that contact s name and a pop up menu will appear allowing you to place the contact s email address in the desired field Click on any button to perform the corresponding function Click on any field and you can type in email addresses or text If you are typing more than one email address remember to separate them by a semi colon and a space Another solution for poor recognition when your voice is not clear is to spend a few minutes creating and training another speech recognition profile For information on how to create and train a new speech recognition profile See Section Recognition Profiles SUPPORT RESOURCES Speak to Mail is designed to be simple and easy to use and in most cases you should not encounter any issues that are not covered in this User Manual or in the support section of our website If you do encounter an issue you need help with support is available on our website To get support you need to go to the support section of our website at www coolsoftllc com
44. ou start a speech recognition session Use the Configure Microphone button on in Speech Properties as often as you need Microphone Wizard Test Microphone Select Audio Input The Audio Input should be set to your system s default audio device If your system has more than one audio card you can use this button to select a new audio input device If you are not sure which is the correct device please see the user manual for your computer or contact technical support for the manufacturer of your computer Train the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 Speech Recognition Engine Training Overview Although the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine is much better than previous speech engines it still needs a sample of each users speech to correctly convert sound into written words Each speaker and each computer audio system have unique characteristics which must be sampled and used to adjust the engine This process is called training the engine The initial training of your profile will take about 15 minutes and each user must train their own profile During this process you should speak in a normal tone of voice and insure that you have configured your microphone properly Training To start training click on the Train Profile button from the Speech Recognition tab and follow the instructions When you first establish your profile the training session is chosen for you If this is not the first time you have trained this profile you will
45. over eighty five What To Say November 3 1981 November 03 1981 24 April 1959 04 24 59 24 04 59 4 16 AM 4 16 PM 5 00 November three comma nineteen eighty one November three nineteen eighty one or three November nineteen eighty one omitting the comma returns a two digit date twenty four April comma nineteen fifty nine zero four slash twenty four slash fifty nine twenty four slash zero four slash fifty nine four sixteen a m four sixteen p m five o clock whole hours only 30 Phone Numbers Result What To Say 954 555 7700 1 800 555 1212 nine five four five five five seventy seven zero zero one eight hundred five five five one two one two Note The speech engine places area codes in parentheses Punctuation Marks Result What To Say LIA v AO O g I period dot point say when using numbers semicolon comma hyphen dash question mark double dash exclamation point exclamation mark ellipsis colon apostrophe slash back slash quote open quote quote end quote close quote single quote open single quote single quote end single quote close single quote left paren open paren right paren close paren left bracket open bracket right bracket close bracket left angle open angle less than right angle close angle greater than open brace left brace close brace right brace at sign pound sign hyphen use for minus sign plus sign dollar sign
46. r computer and you are using the Outlook Express edition of Speak to Mail then from the drop down list in Contact list select the address book you want to use as the default Click Apply or Ok to apply the settings E me You can reset Internet Explorer deraults ror home and search page Reset Web Settings Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default 10 Starting Speak to Mail To start Speak to Mail either click the Speak to Mail icon on your desktop or use the program menu Start2 Programs Speak to Mail S peak to Mail for Edition Note The trial version of Speak to Mail is version 1 00 22 and will display the startup splash screen which enables a 60 day trial period The trial version cannot be registered or upgraded to the full version and must be uninstalled before you can install the full version 1 00 23 When you purchase the full version of Speak to Mail the install will give you the option to uninstall the trial version before continuing Aside from these differences and some bug fixes the trial version 1 00 22 and the full version 1 00 23 are substantially the same Using The Default Email Program As Speak to Mail is opening the program reads the address book from your email program for the edition of Speak to Mail that you are using You must have the correct email program and address book set as the default under Internet Options See Setting
47. re your microphone is setup properly in the Speech Properties is essential Training the engine to recognize your voice at least several times when you first start using it will greatly improve your recognition If you consistently get incorrect recognition of certain words using the Train Word function in Speak to Mail will greatly enhance recognition of those words The more you use speech with your computer the more your recognition will improve Being in a quiet room helps Having a faster processor and ample memory 256k sufficient 512k or more is desirable allows the speech engine to process speech more quickly and efficiently Having a high quality SoundBlaster compatible audio input is also an important factor to good recognition Uses must invest the necessary time at the beginning to set up and train their personal speech recognition profile at least several times We cannot over emphasize the importance of training your recognition profile When using Speak to Mail speak clearly and into the microphone Make certain your microphone position is consistent both in training and in use Following these tips will help you get the most out of speech recognition and will help make the process more rewarding Setting the Correct Default Email Program and Address Book In order for Speak to Mail to function properly the email program for the edition of Speak to Mail that you are using must be set as the d
48. s applications are used in S peak to Mail sub screens where speech recognition is not active Examples are the attachments and signature file settings dialog boxes A gray button indicates that speech recognition will not work with that button and that you must use your mouse to Click on it Speak to Mail Netscape 4x Edition o x I think you said 14 Important Notes IMPORTANT ITEMS TO NOTE BEFORE YOU START USING Speak to Mail Microphone On Off Speak to Mail opens with the microphone in the off position to prevent Speak to Mail from picking up background noise or recognizing your speech before you are ready to dictate To start using Speak to Mail you must activate the microphone by saying Wake Up or Microphone On You can also click on the microphone icon in the lower part of the screen to activate the microphone When you return to Speak to Mail after going into About or Update Signature the microphone will be turned off You need to turn the microphone on again Turn the microphone off when you are done sending messages You can leave Speak to Mail running in the background with the microphone turned off But it is important to turn the microphone off before Speak to Mail goes into the background Otherwise the program will continue to recognize any background noise or speech To turn off the microphone say Go to sleep or Microphone off Speech Commands Speech commands are used in
49. sert a signature file Therefore you should enable the signature file in one or the other If you use the signature file from both programs you will end up with two signatures in your email d ISSUES UNIQUE TO THE NETSCAPE 7 X EDITION 40 If Netscape 7 x is open when you start Speak to Mail the address book will be locked and Speak to Mail will be prevented from reading the contact list In order for Speak to Mail to read the Netscape 7 x contact list when it starts Netscape must not be running and the Netscape Quick Launch Icon in the lower right hand corner of your taskbar must be closed After Speak to Mail has started then Netscape can be opened To disable the Netscape Quick Launch go to Edit Preferences and in the Preferences dialog box highlight the Advanced category In the lower left hand side of the dialog box uncheck the Enable Quick Launch box 41 Ej Appearance Fonts Colors Themes Languages Co E Navigator History Languages Helper Applica Smart Browsing Internet Search Tabbed Browsing E Composer New Page Set E Mail amp Newsgroups E Privacy amp Security E Advanced Scripts amp Wind Cache Proxies HTTP Metiinrkina zl xi Enable features that help interpret web pages V Enable Java Iv xs Checked items are automatically enabled when you visit web pages that use them If you uncheck an item pages may load faster but some Functionality will be
50. speech engine to catch up will solve the problem If pausing does not improve recognition then see Section Known Issues for other possible solutions Recognition Accuracy The accuracy of speech recognition should continue to improve each time you train the speech recognition engine Time invested in training is well worth the return in improved accuracy Finally it is important that you are in a quiet environment with minimal background noise and that you always speak clearly into the microphone in order to achieve the most accurate possible recognition 16 Speech Modes Speak to Mail uses three speech modes Command amp Control gt Dictation gt Natural Language Modeling These modes for the most part are transparent to the user and are discussed briefly below to give you an overview of how they function Try experimenting with different ways of sending an email to see what works best for you Command amp Control Command amp Control is used to navigate the fields and perform functions For example to navigate fields you can say to and the cursor will appear in the To line Say select contact name and the contact s email address will appear in the TO field Say subject and the cursor will appear in the Subject field Say body and the cursor will go to the Body of the message Command Accuracy In speech recognition technology function commands are best recognized
51. t that we do not support The Microsoft speech recognition is designed to enable you to use speech recognition with certain Microsoft programs and other third party software like Speak to Mail and in most cases should not require technical support However if you do need technical support on issues with the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine go to the speech section of the Microsoft website http www microsoft com speech Or Contact Microsoft technical support USING SPEAK TO MAIL Tips For Achieving the Best Possible Speech Recognition While speech recognition technology has advanced dramatically over the past few years the technology is still far from perfect Even the best and most expensive speech recognition systems rarely achieve accuracy greater than 9896 Although the Microsoft speech engine performs well it is not reasonable to expect accuracy greater than 90 to 9596 This is not a flaw in Speak to Mail or the SAPI 5 1 speech engine but rather is inherent to the current state of speech technology We believe that the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech engine delivers comparable performance to that of its counterparts that are available commercially Here are some tips on getting the best possible speech recognition Microphone Training Training Words Use Environment Hardware Commitment Speak clearly Using a high quality noise canceling microphone is very important Making su
52. te your reply When you are done dictating copy your message to the clipboard then go to your email program Start a reply to your message paste your dictated text into the message body in your email program and send your reply 25 Speak to Mail Settings Embedding a Signature File in Your Emails Speak to Mail lets you embed a text signature at the end of each email You can do this globally for all of your emails or with individual emails Before you can embed a signature in your email you must first setup a signature file To do this say click update signature or click on the Update Signature button and the Settings screen will open Speech recognition is not active in this dialog box Use the keyboard to enter your signature file as you would like it to appear and click on Save You can choose to have your signature in every email by checking the Enable Signature in every email checkbox The default setting is unchecked Click on Save to save your settings and return to Speak to Mail Click on Close to discard your changes Remember to turn the microphone on again after updating the signature settings If you want to individually select which emails will have your signature leave the Enable signature in every email box unchecked When you want to include your signature in an email say click insert signature and your signature will be added to that email only If you want to change your
53. th your statement the program will fill in the fields with the email addresses of the names you spoke place the cursor in the body of the email and prompt you that the email is ready for dictation Examples of the command words that can be spoken to compose an email in natural language are shown in the following table The first and third parts of the command can be used in any combination First Part optional Second Part Third Part Send an email To Contact Name About Sending this message Optional Regarding Write this email Copy To Concerning Mail Blind Copy To Subject Create Blind To Subject Text Compose Blind copy Regarding Make Regards to Email Reference to Deliver Respect to String modifiers With a And And a are used between names in the second part of the command names only when you are sending an email to more than one person The words with or in can precede these parts of the command The Contact Name s must be spoken based on the way you have sorted the contact list When using our natural language model it is best to have your contact list sorted by first name so you can speak the person s name naturally When the contact list is sorted by last name saying the names can be awkward Your success in using our natural language model will depend on many factors that are related to good speech recognition These include adequate training of the speech engine quality of your microphone and sou
54. that was recognized NOTE Scratch last can only be used once After you use the scratch last command you have to say something new before the command can be used again To delete selected highlighted text say delete selection Use the copy to clipboard cut to clipboard or paste from clipboard commands to copy cut or paste highlighted text to and from other applications You can also use the right mouse button while in the Subject or Body fields of Speak to Mail to cut or copy highlighted text so it can be copied into other applications or to paste text that has been cut or copied from other applications See Using the Mouse and Keyboard above To insert text before a specific word place the cursor before that word and begin speaking or use the keyboard To insert text after a specific word place the cursor after that word and begin speaking or use the keyboard Moving Within Dictated Text Command What To Say RESULT Go to Bottom move the cursor to the end of your document Go to Top move the cursor to the beginning of your document Formatting Text Command What To Say RESULT New Paragraph Presses enter key twice New Line Presses enter key once Backspace Presses the backspace key once Space Bar Presses space bar once Cap Text Capitalize the first letter of each word in the selected highlighted text Cap All Text Capitalize all the letters the selected highlighted text Bold
55. the Correct Default Email Program and Address Book above for specific details All emails must have a recipient and subject in order for Speak to Mail to send the message and your messages will be sent according to the settings of your email program If your email program is not configured to send messages immediately you will have to go to your email program to send your emails as you normally do If your email program is configured to send messages immediately the message will be sent and a copy placed in the sent folder of your email program Sending an email will clear all the message fields in Speak to Mail and the program will be ready to accept your next message Outlook and Outlook Express When you start Speak to Mail for Outlook and Outlook Express the email program is automatically opened and must remain open for the program to function properly See Email Security below Netscape 7 x With the Netscape 7 x edition the browser is opened when you start Speak to Mail When sending an email Netscape Messenger and a compose window are opened and your message is placed in the Compose Window You can send the message now or later and the message will be placed in your default Sent Messages or Unsent Messages folder depend on your selection Note that with Netscape 7 x you MUST be connected to the Internet to send your message from Speak to Mail If you are not connected to the Internet then depending on your system
56. tion relatively well with simple statements but you may have some difficulty in more complex unusual names multiple recipients and recipient types statements due to the failures in recognition from the speech engine Since the quality of speech recognition is dependent on many variables each user will likely have different results We recommend experimenting with the Natural Language Model and different ways of sending an email in order to find out what works best for you and your computer When you are using the Natural Language Model to send emails and the speech engine Did not recognize a name correctly and placed the wrong person s email address in the email Solution Use the mouse and keyboard to highlight and delete the incorrect email address and either type the correct email address or select it individually from the listbox on the left side of the screen by saying the person s name or right clicking on their name with the mouse Does not recognize a name at all and their email address is not in the email Solution Either select the correct email address using speech as you would to select names individually or by right clicking on the person s name with your mouse You can also type the person s email address in the desired field Does not correctly recognize the subject of your email Solution This occurs when the speech engine miss recognizes a name for one that is not in your listbox and includes the miss recogniz
57. ty recognizing this command unless it has been trained first To further demonstrate the power of training words try training the following word Speak to Mail tm Then go into Speak to Mail and try saying speak to mail to see the result The phrase speak to mail should now be recognized as Speak to Mail tm NOTE Custom training of words is a function controlled by the SAPI speech recognition engine outside of Speak to Mail You have to use the mouse and keyboard while you are in this dialog box Speech recognition resumes when you close the Train Word dialog box to return to Speak to Mail 18 Clearing the Speak to Mail Speech Buffer At times the accuracy of your speech recognition may appear to stall when there is too much speech in the buffer The delay results while the speech recognition engine is processing all the data it has received This delay can be caused by talking too much too fast or when the computer picks up background noise or conversations of other people This should not occur frequently especially with faster computers that have a lot of RAM Usually if you pause for a few moments the speech engine will catch up and you may not need to clear the buffer If you want to clear the speech buffer immediately you can by pressing x the escape Esc key You will be asked to confirm that you want to clear the buffer Click ok and all unrecognized speech within the Clear Buffer Speak t
58. u add a contact into your email client or make any other changes after you have opened Speak to Mail any new contacts or changes will not appear in the list box until you close and restart Speak to Mail All the names in your address book must be unique If Speak to Mail finds more than one entry for a name when it is reading your address book it will load only the first occurrence of that name For example if you have two John Doe s in your address book only the first one will appear in the Speak to Mail list box If you have duplicate names in your address book you need to make them all unique so none of the contacts are missing from the Speak to Mail list box Examples John Doe John Doe Home J Doe John Doe John Doe Home John Doe Work John J Doe John Doe John Doe Sr John Doe Jr You can use these examples or come up with combinations of your own provided there are no duplicate names The names in your address book must contain letters only Speak to Mail cannot recognize contact names that contain characters other than letters When Speak to Mail loads your contact list it removes all extra characters and displays only the letters For example an entry like John Doe work will appear as John Doe work and has to be spoken that way Getting ahead of the speech engine If you are dictating an email and the recognition starts to deteriorate sometimes pausing for a short while to allow the
59. ur email program and Speak to Mail If that doesn t work try closing the programs with the Task Manager After this if you are still having difficulty with recognition save your work and restart your computer See Section System Resources above for more details The Cursor Has Disappeared If it appears that you have lost the cursor even though Speak to Mail is still accepting dictation You can say the command free cheese to bring back the cursor Installing and Using Multiple Editions of Speak to Mail You can install multiple editions of Speak to Mail on your computer however you must purchase a license and obtain a valid registration code for each edition and you should not have more than one edition running at a time NOTE You should only use one edition of Speak to Mail at a time The use of multiple editions of Speak to Mail running at the same time is not supported and may produce undesired results NETSCAPE 7 x EDITION SETTINGS a Incompatibilities With Speak to Mail when Netscape 7 x and Mozilla Are Installed on the Same Computer If you are using the Netscape 7 x edition of Speak to Mail Netscape 7 x and Mozilla should not be installed on the same computer at the same time If both of these programs are installed on the same computer then the system may cause the Netscape 7 x Edition of Speak to Mail to read the contact list from Mozilla This is because Netscape 7 x and Mozilla are
60. with Welcome your Name You can disable the greeting or change the name from the signature settings dialog box Just say Click Update Signature or click on the Update Signature button to open the signature dialog box and check or uncheck the greeting checkbox according to your preference You can also change the name or enter a different name here 27 Dictation Commands When you enter the Subject or Body fields of your email Speak to Mail is ready for dictation and you will receive a message in the lower center part of the Speak to Mail screen The following sections give details on dictation commands that are used by Speak to Mail and the Microsoft SAPI 5 1 speech recognition engine Selecting Sentences and Paragraphs To select the last sentence in a text message say select last sentence and the text up to the last period will be highlighted To select the last paragraph in a text message say select last paragraph and the last paragraph will be highlighted To select all the text say select all and all the text in your message will be highlighted You can also select text using the mouse by placing the cursor at the beginning or end of the text you want to select and dragging the mouse Once a selection is highlighted if you say delete selection the selected text will be deleted and you can continue your dictation Or you can simply dictate new text and the highlighted text will be ov

User Manual for Speak-to-Mail 1.0 – Version 1.00.23

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User Manual for Speak-to-Mail 1.0 – Version 1.00.23