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1. eeeeenennm 58 E mail Context usus 9 49 111 Embedded macro 27 Emphasize eeeeeeene 9 49 111 EXCO Med ME 55 64 70 73 75 80 F Melo NETTE 63 FAOS ocio 19 File path retentu 39 132 Files LIOKed ion 132 Menu cccccc ccs eeseeeeereeeeeeeeesseags 108 Paths oi t Da vaa e ra a Cas 47 Preferences eene 101 MILII 71 WICC ui 81 bs NENNT TE 107 HELME 65 79 eld E TTL TELS 31 FormattingToolBar esee 75 Formula bar ceeeeenn mn 75 GBSELUEB iii cc ii 1 32 GestureAt eeeeennn mnn 95 Grid NINES uie ipe vehe io 75 H Headings te ep eere rene nis 75 Hide 10 31 33 95 117 HScrollBar inicio vai p Era pc EU a RC EROS 75 155 Vox Proxy Documentation l Idle animation 10 41 74 95 Enfo file e 134 137 142 IB 71 81 InpDUE aes eoru resta ng v t ex Ra nu RE 60 UO d RTT TIRE 22 109 Interrupt command 34 K Keine iikesa a rkyves RARE carr cada Fa aa 71 81 L Language 34 41 45 49 95 111 Linked files 132 Asta adas 61 Es A tu e niet donne bathe x wa ER nea 61 A IL 35 36 95 Listen Or iii 95 location soninn 32 36 41 75 77 LOOD ion crisis 10 65 66 Looping animations 34 44 50 M Macros 8 27 29 52 59 62 64 69 73 99 104 11
2. 2 Recapture the character either by clicking on the character s name or double clicking on the character itself This character will disappear automatically when you either close the form or select another character 3 Right click on the character itself and select Hide The character will remain active but will disappear from the screen A symbol will appear in your Windows System Tray To re display the character double click on the character s symbol in the system tray 4 If your computer is equipped with a microphone and you have installed Vox Proxy s voice recognition software press the Scroll Lock key wait until you see the message is listening then say the word Hide Selecting characters All available characters are listed by name To show one of those characters click on the character s name The character will be shown in the display panel on the right In order to keep this character on the screen press the Select button The character will move off the form and will remain on the screen even after the Gallery form is closed In order to recapture the character into the Gallery form either click on the character s name or double click on the character itself Character Images 25 Vox Proxy Documentation Characters available at extra cost 26 Macros Introduction to Macros Script Macros are Vox Proxy scripts that are not associated with a PowerPoint slide A Macro script can be sav
3. csse emen nana naar nara na nnn n 50 Timers and TIMING seasea one o Ert ia 50 Wait Options for Script Commands sssssssssssssesesenee e emen nensem nnn 52 Miscellaneous commands eesseeseeeseeh nehmen enin enin asina snae aane aan 52 Background eeina vede A dai 52 BM Ue Ee Nee televisive reli 53 CIOSEBIEMA Pisin PE 54 CloseExcel 2 bu hd tee con ue ux odie A eer cin RE DER Me rcd adea 55 GloseFlasI uci caren ducentes eee et dei wa xe Pese suede aid alas caes desea Aor PE M Fo TL A UTE 55 CloseMedia s 2 dinis aaa Fund dud dei diosa att ba KYad tpa AANA 55 GloseWord ico ice Yit A oa 56 Delay A du uva tie bv otra caudae t Ee A dre use E Yea ce deti t 56 Display Clock CIT a heads 56 DUa MONITO a aorta 58 End MA A da ales 59 GEMA a V CR ec a e ci n 59 Ill TTE 60 LISBOA tef dicen ee ORO RA dr ao ADR RR C e LM d C wad ene ante PR a d ar Rf 61 Ma Gro MOMs ai iret A o eate Sale VOU ac A el ne da X wa De V s eua VM E RN Ka CR 62 Media VOM hula s Der ee adea utr tn exit rae D E League A here d Y Doa e uda hd 63 MESSAGE DOK epu MEN EIS A i 63 onExcelChande A A a Da etu MEER UE 64 PLAY FAS MP TT M 65 ust 66 PIAY WAVE A A UP PEE 68 RandombLineFrorm iii dad E ERR 69 RANG OMMACO miii D TDI IU TERT 70 FeadExcelx att deese O a e d a det e AO 70 ReadFile toe tte edes eco A A UO Rune tM e E RUE 71 MUR CT 72 RUMMAGE O eres re 73 lc EI 73 id uin Rc EET ERU UU I TIME 7
4. Go to the last slide which was actually viewed in the slide show Note that this may not be the same as the PreviousSlide Important notes 1 When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically 84 Reference 2 The LastSlideViewed command will not work when playing the slide show with the PowerPoint Viewer Syntax LastSlideViewed Wizard PowerPoint Commands Notes about Slide Navigation in PowerPoint If you change the relative slide number of a slide by inserting or deleting slides the script will not change automatically You must manually update any GotoSlide command with the correct slide number If you re visit a slide that has custom animations on it PowerPoint will not start with the animations un played In other words the second time the slide is shown the animations will already be done and the first click command will just change slides There is one important exception that allows you to re set custom animations when you do a NextSlide command NextSlide re sets all animations so that they will play the same way they played the first time the slide was shown If therefore you need to navigate directly to slides it is best to insert a duplicate slide with custom animations removed in front of the target slide and navigate to the blank slide The blank slide should contain a scrip
5. Wizard Miscellaneous Commands CloseFlash Closes the flash movie file that was displayed by the PlayFlash command Syntax CloseFlash file file should include the full path and file name Takes effect after the active character is finished whatever it is doing Examples CloseFlash c myfiles flash vphome swf Wizard Miscellaneous Commands I CloseFlash command Help Close a running Macromedia Flash movie window Flash file aplVoxProxysmediasmeadow activity swf Browse Insert Cancel CloseMedia Closes a media file that was started using the PlayMedia command Takes effect after the active character is finished whatever it is doing Syntax CloseMedia Wizard 55 Vox Proxy Documentation Miscellaneous Commands CloseWord Closes the Microsoft Word window that was opened by the ShowWord command Takes effect after the active character is finished whatever it is doing Syntax CloseWord Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Delay Syntax Delay S Where S is the number of seconds to delay Causes the script to pause for the specified number of seconds before proceeding This command does NOT wait for any previous character actions before running If you want the delay to start after the previous character s speech or actions it is preferable to use the WaitFor command and just specify the number of seconds to wait Wizard Miscellaneous Commands DisplayClock D
6. Vox Proxy s author Tom Atkins can be reached at Right Seat Software Inc 1110 12th Street Golden CO 80401 1118 303 278 2244 19 Character Gallery Character Gallery Form The character gallery form appears similar to the following Click on hot areas of the form for more information Md Character Gallery Ea Xx File Tools Help Right click a character for more options Select Preview Insert Close All Properties Close Character Description am Paul a PowerPoint presenter for Vox Proxy Created for Right Seat Software Inc ww voxproxy com by La Cantoche productions All Rights reserved Copyright La Cantoche Productions Link to the Web Site for Paul s creator Functions that you can perform on the Character Gallery include Selecting a Character Preview Character Animations Inserting Show Character Command Removing a Character Placing a Character on a Slide Downloading Characters from the WEB Close All 21 Vox Proxy Documentation Press the Close All button to close all visible characters Any time characters are visible there are two other ways to close them Press the Close Characters button on the Script Writer Right click on a character and select Stop Playing If a script is playing it will stop and all characters will be closed Downloading Characters Many Microsoft Agent characters are available on the WEB Once you download and install the charac
7. e g Tutorial or Tutorial t Name is Caption Lance 62 Reference MediaVolume Changes the audio volume for a media file that has been started using the PlayMedia command This com mand can be useful to lower the volume of music or other audio when a character is speaking Notes 1 Be sure that the PlayMedia command does NOT have a hold in it Otherwise the script will wait until the media finishes playing and will never reach the MediaVolume command 2 MediaVolume wi ll not close the media when you adjust the volume to zero If you are fading the volume down make sure you leave enough time for the fade to finish before you close the media with the CloseMedia command For example suppose you want to play at full volume for 15 seconds then fade to zero and close the media file PlayMedia whatever mp3 etc Waitfor Medial MediaVolume 0 Waitfor Medial CloseMedia Syntax MediaVolume level Time 15 5 Time 20 time The level can vary from O to 100 The default volume is 100 the maximum Volume levels below 50 are nearly If the optional time seconds Examples inaudible is specified the volume will fade up or down in the specified number of MediaVolume 60 2 Wizard Miscellaneous Commands WJ Media Volume E Insert Cancel Messagebox 63 Vox Proxy Documentation Display a message dialog box that requires the user to press a button
8. idle animations As time goes on they appear bored and finally go to sleep This option allows you to turn these idle animations on or off Sound Effects Many animations including Show and Hide are accompanied by sounds Those sounds can sometimes interfere with the speech of another character if the animation is being played at the same time the other character is speaking This option allows you to turn those sound effects on or off Timeout This Preference allows you to set the maximum amount of time that any animation will play Its primary use is to prevent looping animations from running forever Looping animations will run until stopped in one of three ways a Stop command an Interrupt command or by timing out Note that if you set this timeout too short it may affect other non looping animations as well Preferences Wait Commands 102 Script Writer a File Locations Timeout This Preference allows you to set the maximum amount of time that any animation will play Its primary use is to prevent looping animations from running forever Looping animations will run until stopped in one of three ways a Stop command an Interrupt command or by timing out Note that if you set this timeout too short it may affect other non looping animations as well Language All characters use the language specified here as their default language You must have a Text To Speech engine for the default language installed
9. Controlling PowerPoint Vox Proxy contains a number of commands specifically designed to allow you to control slide shows from within your scripts PowerPoint commands fall into three categories Navigation You can change slides from within your script using the following PowerPoint navigation commands NextSlide PreviousSlide FirstSlide LastSlide LastSlideViewed GotoSlide When preparing a self narrated presentation you should almost always navigate using one of these commands Only in the case of specific pauses might you want the user to change slides manually For self narrated presentations see notes about navigating in PowerPoint Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Running or Waiting For PowerPoint Custom Animations Custom Animations are slide objects that move when clicked on during a slide show A common example is bulletted text where lines or paragraphs appear in response to mouse clicks In self narrated presentations you can invoke these custom animations using the Click command which simulated the user clicking the mouse In live presentations you can cause 13 Vox Proxy Documentation the script to stop and wait for you or the user to click the mouse using the WaitForClick command This is commonly used to simulate an interactive conversat
10. It can be used with a user defined variable to display text that has been read from a file or worksheet Important note This command will not work when playing a slide show with the PowerPoint Viewer Syntax WriteShapeText shape S position P text T Options are S is the name of the shape into which the text will be displayed P is the position at which to insert the text Position 1 will insert at the beginning of any existing text T is the text to insert Examples WriteShapeText shape Rectangle 1 position 1 text Tom Atkins WriteShapeText shape Rectangle 1 position 1 text amp name Wizard PowerPoint Commands P WriteSha peText command Help Write text to a slide object Click in a text object at the position where the text should be inserted Text object Rectangle 2 Position n amn Text to be inserted ee ___ _____ Programming commands 87 Vox Proxy Documentation BookMark A Bookmark is a single word which creates a place holder in the script at this point The name must consist only of alphanumeric characters no spaces no symbols The only purpose for a bookmark is to branch to it using the GOTO command Syntax Bookmark name Examples See Script Programming Examples Wizard Miscellaneous Commands I Bookmark Help Bookmark Name End used Bookmarks are place markers which can be branched to using the Goto command Use only alphanumeric characters no
11. See above for documentation in other languages This documentation explains pronunciation issues such as numbers abbreviations and so on according to the selected speech context Tips of the Day Displays the Tips form with a random tip which also allows you to turn on or off the tips feature About Vox Proxy Contains version copyright and registration information about the Vox Proxy software Insert menu Insert displays the Power Scripting Menu also available by right clicking in the edit window of the Script Writer In either case the menu is context sensitive to the position of the cursor in the edit window The menu appears similar to the following 109 Vox Proxy Documentation Script Commands id Character commands Characters EA Endshow Animations Far P aul k Other commands o Firstslide Variables k Goto Slide Speech Tags k LastSlide Help for command Say LastSlide viewed Click Test speech Previous lide RunSlides how WaitForclick Script Commands Displays a cascading list of all script commands in three categories Character commands PowerPoint commands and Other commands Characters Displays a list of all characters If you select a character already used in your script it will just insert the character s name For characters not yet in your script it will display the New Character wizard Animations for character Displays a list of all animations for the character that
12. amp Response IS yes Compares a variable to text or another variable If they are the same the script continues The comparison is not case sensitive ISNOT IF amp Response ISNOT yes Compares a variable to text or another variable If they are not the same the script continues The comparison is not case sensitive LT less than IF amp count LT 10 Compares a numeric variable to a number or another numeric variable If the first is less than the second the script continues LE less than or equal to IF amp count LE 10 Compares a numeric variable to a number or another numeric variable If the first is less than or equal to the second the script continues GT greater than IF amp count GT 10 Compares a numeric variable to a number or another numeric variable If the first is greater than the second the script continues GE greater than or equal to IF amp count GE 10 Compares a numeric variable to a number or another numeric variable If the first is greater than or equal to the second the script continues EQ equals IF amp count EQ 10 Compares a variable to a value or another variable If they are equal the script continues If the values are text EQ is the same as IS 89 Vox Proxy Documentation NE not equal IF amp count NE 10 Compares a variable to a value or another variable If they are not equal the script continues If the values are text NE is the same as ISNOT N
13. default folder Allows two parameters 1 Program options or parameters 2 Default directory Examples Open a text file with Notepad Run notepad readme txt Special cases allow you to invoke Windows Explorer Internet Explorer or your E mail client Start the default mail client Run mailto tomatkins voxproxy com Start the default browser on a web page Run http www voxproxy com Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 72 Reference Program Run command Help Program Notepad Parameters c program files vox proxy4helpilicense t Default Folder Press Help for information on invoking E mail Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer Help Insert Cancel RunMacro During the execution of the current script when it encounters a RunMacro command it loads and runs that macro When that macro is complete the remainder of the current script continues to run Note that this is functionally different than a GetMacro command which is essentially a cut and paste operation that takes place just before the current script is executed One of the key differences is that RunMacro allows local copies of Variables and Pronunciation Dictionary entries which may be different from those in the current script Syntax RunMacro file The specified macro file name is not case sensitive Examples Show Peedy at Right Center Say Merlin give us a pearl of wisdom RunMacro Merlin Pearl of Wisdom Peedy say
14. 2003 Viewer Other minimum requirements Disk space In addition to your PowerPoint files at least 8MB plus the size of any characters you include plus any media or other files you use Recommended RAM 128MB CPU 500MHz P III or faster How the CD will Run When the end user inserts the CD in a drive and assuming that the user has not turned off the auto start feature of their drive in Windows the CD will autostart and perform the following operations First a window will be displayed giving the user an opportunity to continue or abort and quit the CD CD Startup This disk will start a presentation or offer a menu of presentations It will install any features it needs then run from the CD Windows NT 2000 and XP users may require administrator rights IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICES Uses Vox Proxy 2001 2004 Right Seat Software Inc Uses Microsoft Agent Technology 1996 2001 Microsoft Corporation Uses APL WIN 2000 APL2000 Inc Author OK TO CONTINUE Info d No At this point no installation information has been checked The user may display your optional Author and Info files where you can explain what s on the CD and provide contact information instructions or other materials If the user clicks No the program will terminate If the user clicks Yes Vox Proxy will start and run from the CD It will first check the user s computer for the following items install if necessary and copy
15. C No C Yes C No Default Default L m Idle Animations Sound Effects Con Cot C Yes C No Default Default 1 m Character Size p Language Voice Default Default Default Insert C Size 1 C US Engish M Select Cancel Size Specifies the relative size of the active character N should be a number greater than zero A size of one 1 specifies the character s default size NOTE This command is functional but obsolete with Version 2 Use the size N option in the Show command Syntax Size N Examples Show Merlin at 50 50 Size 2 Greet Wizard Other Agent Commands 42 Reference Character Size SoundEffects Temporarily turn on or off a the sound effects which are played by some of a character s animations If the word all appears after on or off it will apply to all characters which are visible at the time the command is encountered in the script Otherwise it applies only to the currently active character This over rides the default which is a preference item See Tools Preferences on the Script Writer and also see help for the SetPrefs command Sounds may also be turned on or off as part of the Show command See the Show command This command is useful in some situations to avoid suppressing the speech for a subsequent character The command will remain in effect only until the character is closed Syntax SoundEffects on off Exampl
16. C Specifies the foreground text color Same color options as background Default colors are the windows defaults normally black on white 12 hold yes or no Specifies whether the script should hold and wait while the clock is visible The hold will be released either when the clock display is closed or after the Timer time if action release is specified 13 action release or delete Specifies the action to be taken when the timer time elapses If release is specified you must also include hold yes If delete is specified the clock display will disappear when the timer fires Examples DisplayClock DisplayClock at 50 25 style countdown size 12 timer 15 00 alarm c Amy music alarm wav bgcolor black fgcolor cyan hold no DisplayClock at 50 25 style clock hh mm ss am size 12 timer 15 00 alarm c my music alarm wav bgcolor black fgcolor cyan hold yes action release Some of the clock appearance options are illustrated below Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 57 Vox Proxy Documentation WJ Display Clock Help Type gt _ gt Style r Center location Clock M show seconds 50 C Timer show am pm y Countdown timer Military z b Timer Turn on timer Time Ed Ter C Black Red C Green Cyan Gray C White Blue C Yellow Magenta Background Black C Red C Green Cyan Gray ed s C White Blue C Yellow Magenta Stop hold script while c
17. Finish on the final page of the CD Prep Wizard you will be ready to create the actual CD Image files First if you have not yet named the CD layout you will be asked to provide a name The program will then proceed to create the CD Image and copy all of your relevant files to the appropriate folders Remember where your CD Image folder is It is shown on the finish page to remind you When you burn the CD remember to burn the contents of the CD Image folder not the folder itself lid co Prep Wizard Menu File View Tools Help Congratulations You are now ready to create the files needed for the CD image 795 The CD image directory will be c program files vox pro yscdimage menu If this directory does not exist it will be created hen creating the CD do not copy the image directory itself but copy all files and folders WITHIN this directory With this option the CD will always play on the embedded PowerPoint Viewer even if the user has PowerPoint Click Finish now to complete this process or Cancel to cancel it Talk to me lt Back Finish Cancel Burning the CD After finishing the CD Prep process you will have a directory called the CD Image Folder containing all of the files and folders needed to create the auto starting CD Use your CD writer software to copy the entire contents of this folder including its sub folders to the CD R When done check the contents of the CD using Windows E
18. Leave the file name blank to display a new empty worksheet Open file as Read only m Size and location Location Center X 50 Y 50 Move on Slide Size W 50 H 50 Display Options Menu bar Formula bar Standard toolbar Formatting toolbar Row and Column headings Workbook tabs Vertical scroll bar Horizontal scroll bar Grid lines quvaquaudqusg Show Excel Insert Cancel ShowWord Display a Microsoft Word document in a window A timer will start automatically when the Word window opens You may access the timer using WordTime with the WaitFor command Use the CloseWord command to close the Word window Note When you show a Wordl window the new window is placed on top of all others and it can cover up any visible character making the character seem to disappear The solution is to HIDE the character immediately prior to displaying the Word window and then SHOW the character again immediately afterward so that it appears on top This behavior is Windows version dependent Syntax ShowWord file at X Y size readonly commandbars Options 1 file file name doc Default an empty document 77 Vox Proxy Documentation 2 at location as screen 9o Default 50 50 Location is at the CENTER of the Word form 3 size X Y as screen Default 50 50 4 readonly If not specified read write unless commandbars are off then readonly 5 commandbars on or off Default on This inc
19. Note that this change remains in effect for all future sessions of Vox Proxy If your need for these changes is temporary you should set the preferences back at the end of the script Syntax SetPrefs idle on off sound on off timeout T Options idle on or off turns idle animations on or off sound on or off turns sound effects associated with various animations on or off timeout T sets the time in seconds after which known looping animations will be stopped Examples 74 Reference SetPrefs idle off sounds off timeout 15 Wizard Miscellaneous Commands weed Timeout 110 PPY Seconds Help Insert Cancel ShowExcel Display an Excel worksheet in a window Use the Wizard form to resize and drag and drop the Excel window on the slide The file name can refer to a file on the web If you leave off the file option it will display a new blank worksheet A timer will start automatically when the Excel window opens You may access the timer using ExcelTime with the WaitFor command Use the CloseExcel command to close the Excel window Note When you show an Excel window the new window is placed on top of all others and it can cover up any visible character making the character seem to disappear The solution is to HIDE the character immediately prior to displaying the Excel window and then SHOW the character again immediately afterward so that it appears on top This behavior is Windows version depe
20. PowerPoint to run the slide show For self narrated slides follow these rules n PowerPoint Custom Animation Start on click not with previous or after previous in the timing option set to start on click and not after a specified time In PowerPoint Slide Show Set up show check the box to advance slides manually Do not use timings Make sure you have the same number of Click or WaitForClick commands as you have PowerPoint custom animations on slide objects If you are unsure or if the slide does not play properly use the Diagnose button on the Script writer Click supports the nowait option allowing you to start the slide animation while a character is speaking or performing an animation 82 Reference Synonym NextAnimation Syntax Click or NextAnimation Examples Show Paul at left center balloons off Point45 Clack Say Good morning The first topic Id like to talk about is Wizard PowerPoint Commands EndShow End the current slide show Close any characters which may be visible Syntax EndShow Wizard PowerPoint Commands FirstSlide Go to the first slide in the presentation Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Syntax FirstSlide Wizard PowerPoint Commands GotoSlide Go to the specified slide number The s
21. Syntax MessageBox text title buttons symbol Options 1 Text to be displayed in the Message Box 2 Message Box Title 3 Buttons Options are OK OC OK Cancel ARI Abort Retry Ignore RC Retry Cancel YN Yes No YNC Yes No cancel 4 Symbol Symbols may be Question a I Exclamation a i Information S Stop Sign Examples MessageBox Your voice input was not understood Listening OK S Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Message Box Help Message text Insert Test Message Title Cancel Buttons Yes No 7 Symbol Question Exclamation Info Stop Sign onExcelChange onExcelChange allows you to specify a script macro to execute when the system detects that the user has changed the value of a cell in a visible Excel window It provides you with a 64 Reference facility to react interactively to user changes in the Excel worksheet The only available action is to run a Script Macro which can either be a Macro File or an embedded Macro When a change is detected Vox Proxy assigns two variables 1 amp excelChangeCell is assigned the cell reference of the cell changed 2 amp excelChangeValue is assigned the new value in the cell You may also use ReadExcel to assign the cell value into a user defined variable There is a difference between the data assigned to the amp excelChangeValue and the data assigned by the ReadExcel co
22. Thank you Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Ill Macro Selection Macros break OK embed pearl of wisdom epearls1 Cancel Job losers Language test Media test merlin pearl of wisdom LI 73 Vox Proxy Documentation Defines a Variable Variable names must contain only alphanumeric characters case sensitive no spaces and no symbols except underline _ These variables will persist as long as the current PowerPoint session remains open and will disappear when closed Syntax Set amp varname value amp varname is any valid variable name Value is an alphanumeric or numeric string For value you may also use ReadExcel or ReadFile to assign values from an Excel worksheet or an ini style text file Examples Set amp name Tom Set amp place Orlando Set amp greet Good tod name Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Set command Help Variable Swhere Value Golder Colorado Assign a value to a variable The amp character will automatically be added to the beginning of the variable name Help Insert Cancel SetPrefs Set one or more preference items This sets the preferences that apply to all characters as the default when the character is shown It has the same effect as changing the corresponding item from Tools Preferences in the Script Writer The command takes effect when it is encountered in the script Also see help for the temporary commands IdleAnimations and SoundEffects
23. a new Tile Untile button Tiling works much like the help window in PowerPoint 2002 2003 It will tile itself on the left side of PowerPoint Character animation pull down lists now include a Print menu item so you can print a list of animations for that character The search path has been enhanced for media and macro files so that the presentation file location will always be in the search path When specifying files in commands like PlayMedia and RunMacro you can now leave the path off altogether if the files are located in EITHER their default folder like vox proxy media OR wherever the presentation file is located For example PlayMedia entertainr mid RunMacro Merlin Pearl of Wisdom Waitfor media now uses the actual media position instead of the computer clock so that if the user pauses and restarts the script stays in synch Introduction There is now an online registration for new users For existing users upgrading to version 3 you can access the online registration on the Script Writer s Help menu The Vox Proxy Player Purpose The Vox Proxy Player is a set of software which allows other users to play Vox Proxy enhanced PowerPoint presentations without having to purchase Vox Proxy itself The Player software can be installed on any computers running on Windows 95 or newer Remember however that the Player is designed for people who do not have Vox Proxy Do not attempt to install it on a computer that already has Vo
24. application software are not installed on the user s computer there are certain speech components and Microsoft Agent files that must be Because of this the user must have administrator rights to play a CD Prep disk See the installation details below for more information about what is installed on the end user s computer Preparation Before preparing your first CD we recommend that you review the following general information about CD Prep Presentation Guidelines The PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Minimum Requirements for Playback How the CD Will Run Administrative Rights and Other Issues a What s New in Version 3 The CD Prep Wizard The CD Prep Wizard will lead you step by step through the process of creating all the files needed to burn the self starting CD 1 CD Layout 2 Quick Prep 3 CD Image Folder 4 Single Presentation or Menu 129 Vox Proxy Documentation 5 Menu Builder 6 CD Files 7 Characters 8 Languages amp TTS Engines 9 Info File 10 Author File 11 CD Startup Message and Copyright 12 Finish What s new in Version 3 Version 3 contains many enhancements to CD Prep all designed to make it easier for you to generate self starting CDs Quick Prep If you have a single presentation file rather than a menu of multiple presentations and do not need info author files or changes to the standard copyright notices you can use a new feature called Quick Prep which will prepare ev
25. are not always the same Separate each animation in the list with the vertical bar For example Show Paul at center explain explain explain2 explain3 crossarms handsonhips Timers and Timing When interacting with PowerPoint slides it is best that you NOT use timings in your slides With the use of the PowerPoint Click and navigation commands NextSlide etc timings are generally unnecessary and worse can cause synchronization problems with your scripts There are situations however when timing within your script is needed and appropriate We ll look at a few of those situations and several ways to use timers and other script timing techniques to deal with them Pausing the Script If you would like to simply pause for a few seconds between character actions use the WaitFor command with the number of seconds as its only argument For example Say OK let s think about that for a moment 50 Reference WaitFor 5 Say Do you see what I mean WaitFor is preferable to the Delay command for this purpose because Delay does not wait for completion of the previous character action before starting Pause until a specified elapsed time from the start of the slide A slide timer is started automatically at the start of each slide Use the WaitFor command and specify SlideTime Show Paul at Center WaitFor SlideTime 1 00 Say Are we ready to get started Narrate a video The PlayMedia command allows you to use WaitFor
26. audio is finished Test Insert Cancel RandomLineFrom Inserts into the current script a single line selected at random from the specified Macro Script Note that the line retrieved should have any needed script command in it If the line is for some spoken text for example it should start with the Say command This command can be used with a macro of data to produce a random joke saying etc Syntax RandomLineFrom macro Examples RandomLineFrom Pearls Wizard Miscellaneous Commands E Macro Selection DEK Macros A Cancel Carlin at Random Carlinisms clocktest correct 69 Vox Proxy Documentation RandomMacro Randomly select a script macro whose name begins with name Get and insert its script into the currently running script When using this command enter the name in quotes Syntax RandomMacro name Examples RandomMacro joke Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Random Macro command Help Randomly select and run a macro from those which Insert begin with the specified text Text A Cancel ReadExcel This command reads a value from an Excel worksheet It is normally used with the Set command to assign the value to a variable The value is accessed by specifying the file name worksheet name and cell range Syntax Set 8ivariable ReadExcel file F sheet S cell C File is an Excel workbook XLS S is a valid worksheet name in the workbook Cis a va
27. begins This is usually caused by hiding several characters at the same time at the end of a slide The NextSlide command waits for the LAST character to finish hiding before changing slides but if an earlier character has a slower Hide animation it may not be completed when the slide changes so he may reappear The solution is to rearrange the order in which the characters hide making the slowest one hide last If the character reappears in the middle of a script then you have inadvertently used a hide animation rather than a Hide command Vox Proxy always interprets Hide as a command unless it appears on the same line as another animation To avoid this problem always use Hide on a separate line by itself 127 Vox Proxy Documentation I see a small amber icon in the middle of my slide How do I get rid of it This icon is a new feature in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 called a Script anchor Normally used for web scripts It appears on any slide containing a Vox Proxy script This anchor must be visible for your scripts to work but you can simply drag it off the visible area of the slide to hide it When playing a presentation from the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer my automatic custom animation does not play There is an important exception to the use of Custom Animations in the PowerPoint Viewer the Vox Proxy Viewer support does not permit custom animations that are started automatically with previous as the first animation o
28. certain files Neither the Vox Proxy software nor your presentation files will be installed to the end user s computer but will actually run from the CD Certain Microsoft Agent and speech features however must be installed on the user s computer These include the Agent control which is pre installed on almost all versions of Windows any Text To Speech engines needed and the character files 134 CD Prep The space needed on the user s computer is minimal a little more than the size of the character files you are using During the installation process the user will see the following E CD Startup Checking Microsoft Agent Controls and Speech Engines This indicates that the software is checking for necessary speech and Agent components and will install whatever it needs as follows 1 Microsoft Speech API version 4 If not found it will install from the file spchapi exe The speech API is normally installed on any Windows system containing a sound card but on Windows XP the speech API must be installed 2 Microsoft Agent control If not found it will install from the file msagent exe This should almost never happen because the agent control has been a standard feature in Windows since at least Win 98 3 Languages TTS engines Checks for the TTS engines which you have specified in the CD Prep program Installs if necessary from the files included in your setup This will usually be necessary because the T
29. custom animations that follow another object with previous or after previous are handled correctly The PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Presentations run on the CD can support PowerPoint 97 or the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Vox Proxy scripts however cannot be accessed from within the presentation file by these programs Instead it uses a companion script text file with a file extension of VPS If you have not manually run the Export to file feature on the Tools menu of the Script Writer to create this companion file CD Prep will run it and prompt you On the finish page of the CD Prep wizard you may opt to require that the CD play on the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer which will be bundled on the CD For consistency of playback we strongly recommend that you use this feature If you do not when the end user starts the CD the software will detect whether the user s computer has access to PowerPoint If so it will use whatever version the user has If not it will automatically use the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer The author should be aware that each version of PowerPoint has many features which are not supported in prior versions You must design your presentations accordingly if you want them to work properly with all versions The new PowerPoint 2003 Viewer offers a consistent play back and therefore alleviates this problem so we strongly recommend that you require the CD always play on the viewer One important feature of Vox Proxy will not wor
30. display This is called a broken link Similarly if you move the presentation to another computer or onto a CD the absolute links are also likely to break causing the files to fail to play or display The solution to these problems is to change the absolute links into relative links A relative link is one that does not specify the exact path to the file PowerPoint will default to looking in the current directory which is normally the location of the presentation file exception There is an exception to the rule that PowerPoint will always look into the same location as the presentation file If you open a file from PowerPoint s Most Recent Files MRU list on the File menu it will not reset its current directory to the location of the presentation file and therefore your relative links may not work To ensure that it does so open the file from File Open rather than from the MRU So if you put all the files in the same folder as the presentation file then PowerPoint will normally find all those files and your links will not break A relative link does not have to consist of an empty path It can consist of folders so long as it does not specify a drive letter or server name examples Relative links entertainer mp3 medialentertainer mp3 media sound entertainer mp3 Absolute links c program files vox proxy media entertainer mp3 server media entertainer mp3 When you insert a file like a movie or mp3 audio into a slide u
31. fe ti Test Spoken oshe a Test New Delete Save Restore AutoShape auto shape c est la vie se la vee carpe diem carpay diem Champs Elysee shonzay lee zay D Artagnon Dartanyon et tu Brute et tu brutay Gore Vidal Gore Vee dahl Mao Tse Tung Mowwe Tsay Tung Marseilles Mar say Merci beaucoup Mairseebo coo Global Speech Substitutions In order to correct for difficult pronunciations you may substitute the Spoken phrase for the written phrase The written phrase appears in your script and in balloons The Spoken phrase is used by the speech engine These global substitutions will apply to all scripts in all presentations They are NOT case sensitive Variables Maintenance Variables are items which are used to represent text within a phrase to be spoken by a character Some variables such as amp date are pre defined They are listed below Others may be user defined They are defined and edited in this menu item or by using the Set command in a script Names should consist of a single word without spaces When used in the script names must always begin with the character amp For examples see the Variables section under Script Commands There are three pages or tabs on the Variables form All Presentations These variables apply to all presentations and macros This Presentation These variables apply only to the active presentation or macro Any variables defined here will override those
32. is active at the cursor position Variables Displays a list of all variables currently defined including the current value for each variable Note that these values may be different when the script is run Speech Tags Displays all available speech tags such as emphasize Help for command Displays help for the command at the current cursor location in the script Test Speech Allows you to test the sound of a line of speech without playing the whole slide script Tools menu 110 Wizard Displays a dialog box with access to all available script commands For a complete description and screen shot see Script Wizard Macros Activates the Macro Menu and switches the Script Edit Window to Macros See Macro Menu Preferences Variables Pronunciation Dictionary CD Prep Wizard If you have the optional CD Prep feature of Vox Proxy you will see the menu item for CD Prep here This program allows you to create self starting CDs containing your Vox Proxy PowerPoint presentations For detailed documentation about CD Prep see the separate CD Prep help file Diagnose Script Writer Export to Notes This option will copy all slide scripts into PowerPoint s Notes for each slide The purpose for this option is to allow you to print both slides and scripts together Be aware however that in PowerPoint the print program will truncate any notes that will not fit on the same page as the slide For longer scripts we suggest that you use
33. la vie senor Peedy We have no rellenos Speak C est la vie senor Peedy We have no rellenos The vertical bar character also called style is used to separate alternative phrases to be spoken The TTS engine will randomly choose to speak only one of the phases Suppose you have a simple macro for example which you might call on multiple slides when the character is finished and you can proceed to the next slide A typical slide script might be ae rivets RunMacro Next Slide 121 Vox Proxy Documentation The macro script for Next Slide might be Say You can change slides now Go ahead to the next slide It s OK to change slides now Next slide I ll wait for you to change slides Another use would be in working with speech commands If the user s input is not recognized you might want the character to respond with Say Sorry I didn t understand that What did you say What was that Huh Please stick to words that I understand A little care in testing and adjusting your characters speech will go a long way in improving the effectiveness of your presentation Using Multiple Characters Interaction between characters is one of the most effective tools for creating interest and avoiding a boring presentation but it also presents many challenges The greatest challenges of course are in the script s dialog But the more technical issues of making two or more characters interact effectively is also impor
34. on your computer Vox Proxy does not check this If you do not the default will be English Tru Voice You may override this default when you Show individual characters using the Language command a Miscellaneous Pronunciation The Pronunciation Dictionary provides a way for you to adjust the pronunciation of special words or phrases Whenever a character s speech encounters one of these items the item will appear in the speech balloon as it is written in the script the written words but the character will say it as it appears in the spoken words This is useful not only for foreign words or phrases but for technical terms which may not be defined within the speech engine There are three pages in the Pronunciation Dictionary s editor All Presentations These items apply to all presentations and macros This Presentation These items apply only to the active presentation or macro Any words or phrases defined here will override those defined on the All Presentations page One Time Insertion These words or phrases are inserted directly into the script at the current cursor position as one time map commands Actually all Pronunciation Dictionary entries end up as map commands when they are actually spoken by the speech engine but you only see those entered as one time insertions 103 Vox Proxy Documentation ll Pronunciation Dictionary All Presentations This Presentation One Time Insertion Written
35. options Show all keep aspect ratio may cause border No border keep aspect ratio may lose one edge Exact fit stretch to fit window exactly may distort image Options IV Auto close Stop script until done Loop Play Play movie Insert Close PlayMedia 66 Reference Plays a media file audio or video using Microsoft Media Player Media Player has the advantage of playing more media types than the default MCI player used by PowerPoint Use the CloseMedia command to close the media window and or audio Note When you show a movie in a window the new window is placed on top of all others and it can cover up any visible character making the character seem to disappear The solution is to HIDE the character immediately prior to displaying the movie and then SHOW the character again immediately afterward so that it appears on top This behavior is Windows version dependent Syntax PlayMedia nowait file at X Y hold size S controls C volume V loop N ontop Options 1 File Be sure to include quote marks around the file name If no path is specified the standard search path will be used 2 Screen position AT X Y default 50 50 3 Hold If you include the word hold the script will not continue until the video file is complete 4 Display size Select one of the following size 1X Authored size size 2X Twice authored size Size 1 16 One sixteenth of the screen
36. printing as both a Microsoft Word document and a PDF file both located in the vox proxy help folder The CD Prep add on for Vox Proxy has been considerably enhanced to make it much easier to use and to automatically embed the new PowerPoint 2003 Viewer files on the CD New commands DisplayClock Displays a digital clock with optional timer Styles include clock time countdown timer or countup timer You can specify an alarm sound file Size and colors can be selected Options are included to hold the script for a specified length of time or until the countdown or countup time is reached The clock should be especially useful for breaks during live presentations Input Provides a simple single field input form Allows you to ask the user for text data and assign it to a Vox Proxy variable For example you could ask for the user s name and then use he name in speech ScaleCharacters This new command allows you to specify an authored screen resolution width When the file plays it will scale all characters up or down to match the size at the authored resolution PointAt Causes a character to point in the direction of another character or a visible window For characters having Pointing animations it will point in 45 degree increments For others it will use gestures left right up and down Characters can point at other application windows as well as other characters CDPrep Enhancements Quick Prep If you have a singl
37. pronunciation rules defined in Speech Normalization These rules include how to pronounce abbreviations in addresses phone numbers web addresses etc Animation Either a character animation or a PowerPoint slide animation also called a custom animation Balloon A cartoon like balloon or bubble that appears over a character s head and displays the text being spoken by that character C Character animation One of a list of discreet animations that a character can perform Each character has its own unique list of animations Click A Vox Proxy script command that sends a next build command to the active PowerPoint slide show The result is essentially the same as the user pressing the left mouse button The Click command is used to invoke the next custom animation on the slide Context A set of TTS Engine pronunciation rules defined in Speech Normalization These rules include how to pronounce abbreviations in addresses phone numbers web addresses etc See E mail Context and Address Context Custom animation Animation rules for a PowerPoint slide object Custom animations can be invoked from a script using the Click command E mail Context A set of TTS Engine pronunciation rules defined in Speech Normalization These rules include how to pronounce abbreviations in addresses phone numbers web addresses etc I Idle animation One of a special set of character animations beginning with the word idle These ani
38. spaces or symbols Insert Cancel GoTo Goto is used to branch to a bookmark in the script It is most often used in evaluating the user s response to a ListBox or ListenFor command Syntax Goto bookmark Example Bookmark Start ListenFor yes no SELECT amp Response CASE yes say You said yes ICASE tpo say You said no ELSE say Please try again say I am only listening for yes or no COTOS tara END Wizard Miscellaneous Commands The GOTO wizard will prompt you with a list of bookmarks in your script 88 Reference MM Bookmark Selection Bookmarks Cancel Tf Else End IF evaluates a test statement for whether it is true or false If the statement is true the script immediately following it is run If false it is skipped Script which follows the optional ELSE command if any is just the reverse it runs only if the statement is false ELSE can also be written as OR ELSE An END command must follow each IF command in the script The statement evaluated is most often a test of the amp Response variable after the user has responded either to a Listen ListenFor or ListBox command Synonyms ORELSE ELSE Syntax IF test statement ELSE END The test statement normally uses one or more comparison functions to evaluate whether the statement is true or false Comparison functions available for use in an IF statement are IS IF
39. the characters page shown above but lists all of the languages included with Vox Proxy Select the languages which are used in your scripts Languages determines the Text To Speech engines which must be installed on the user s computer Most characters require the U S English language by default Do not select any languages which you do not actually need because their installation slows down the CD startup Info File The Info file is an optional HTML RTF or text file which will be displayed when the user presses the CD Info button on the CD menu You must create this file in a text or html editor HTML or RTF offers nicer display formatting than plain text files For RTF or text you can create the file using Wordpad For HTML you may use any html editor If you use an HTML file you can include picture files or other hyperlinked HTML files Any such support files must either be in the same directory as the html file or in a sub directory You may un check the Display Info button field if you do not want to include an info button and you may change the caption that will appear on the button After specifying the files you can see exactly what the user will see by clicking on the Info button 142 CD Prep lid co Prep Wizard Menu File View Tools Help CD INFORMATION You may supply a file containing information about the contents of your CD The user will be able to display this information by pressing an Info butto
40. the process needed to create a CD Image Folder containing all of the files necessary for an auto starting CD You may click Back or Next at any time to review previous information entered You can also jump to a specific page by clicking on the View menu item 136 CD Prep On any page of the CD Prep Wizard you may have Paul give you a brief description of the information required on that page by pressing the Talk to me button CD Layout When you run the CD Prep program you are determining the layout of the CD including files menu information and documentation At the finish of this process you will be asked for a layout name All of the information about the CD layout will be saved under this name In the future if you want to modify the layout and re create it you can open the layout by clicking File Open iJ CD Prep Wizard File View Tools Help CD PREP This wizard will help you prepare a folder containing the layout of the CD all of the files necessary to create an auto starting CD The CD may contain one AS d 3D Talking or more PowerPoint presentations or Vox Proxy script macros gei oce m Quick Prep If you have only a single presentation file with no special file requirements and no author or info files see Help you may use the QUICK PREP option to prepare your CD image in one simple step If so just click on the Quick Prep button Otherwise click the NEXT button to begin the CD Prep proc
41. to synchronize narration to the actual media time WaitFor checks the actual media position so if you or the user pause the video the synchronization will remain correct at the specified media time s For example PlayMedia amp media stsl00landing_56 asf at 50 50 hold size 1 4 controls some volume 100 ontop Show Paul at left center Waitfor MediaTime 5 say If you look closely you will see that the shuttle is coming almost straight down WaitFor MediaTime 15 Explain say Now he s beginning to pull the nose up oveto left center delay 25 cume 40 say He s starting a right turn toward the camera Stop a looping animation Looping animations require explicit interruption and a timer is one way to do it Show Genie at center StartTimer temp Processing WaitFor temp 5 Stop say Sorry I got lost in the universe Note that you must start the timer BEFORE the looping animation processing Control and synchronize an audio file I PlayMedia amp media entertanr mid at 50 50 size NONE controls none volume 100 ontop Show Merlin at left center WaitFor MediaTime 5 MediaVolume 40 5 WaitFor MediaTime 10 Say OK let s get Started WaitFor MediaTime 15 CloseMedia 51 Vox Proxy Documentation In this case it is important NOT to include the hold option in the PlayMedia command check box Hold script until media is finished playing or the script will wait until the media is finished before p
42. you open the file 2 Open the Vox Proxy Script Writer from the PowerPoint menu Vox Proxy Run Vox Proxy with Slide Shows Script Writer h Tutorials Help 3 Onthe Script Wizard form click on the Wizard button 14 Introduction M Vox Proxy Script Slide 1 EER File Edit View Insert Tools Help SgjTes Tie gt Samples Side Macto f 8 4 Onthe Wizard form click on Show a New Character MI Script Wizard Help Insert agent character commands Either switch to another character iri your script THEN da T Uther agent gt M ove y say something something commands r Insert other script commands PowerPoint Miscellaneous commands commands 15 Vox Proxy Documentation 5 On the Show Character form click on Peedy 6 16 MP Show Character Show at location FES EH EA EH EH HR ARB Wait r Show Balloons C Yes C No C Yes C No Default Default E Idle Animations r Sound Effects On of C Yes C No Default Default r Character Size r Language Voice Default Default Default Inset C Size E E us English y Select Cancel Click the Insert button For this illustration we are leaving all of the defaults alone For example if you don t want to display speech balloons when the character talks just check the No option under Speech Balloons on th
43. 1 139 Mail acta e 72 Media AU Osiris 55 63 66 68 Bitmaps osos a 53 54 A A noe epo REOR AERDA RUSR Is 55 65 Gn CDS aiii rete rera 131 139 TIM A 79 MA A ia 55 66 VOI UMC cia ux i a 63 Mendaro i 62 Menu Dario ir ae 75 Message box seeeeeeenee 63 Microsoft Word eene 77 Monitor esesssssene menn 58 Monotorie iece hanana innia 9 49 MOVE ca ido 36 MOVETO eremi 36 95 NetWork neis vetu ia 123 NextAnimation eeee mnn 82 NoBalloons eene 95 YI ii oiiire DICE 10 Normal eeeeeeeeenen nmm 9 49 Normalization sess 9 49 111 Nowalt see ias 10 122 O Office Assistant eee 117 P Package for CD 130 138 Path E ET DEI T at 91 Palin 49 Pitt iadiwbad AN 49 Player Vox Proxy 5 129 Point esee n nen aun 1 32 POINTA ainia FX HERR E ERR IRE 95 PowerPoint Animation 13 82 86 156 Behavior ces nene 118 127 Command 82 83 84 85 86 87 Controlling sess 13 Navigation 13 83 84 85 120 Sl pucca air 82 83 84 85 100 Viewer 1 129 132 133 144 Preferences 43 46 74 102 105 PPO GUAM iio ics oe e o rette xe rea 72 Program Updates 19 Programming commands
44. 3 and your computer is operating with Windows 95 98 or ME PowerPoint requires that you start Vox Proxy from Windows Start Programs Vox Proxy Menu After doing so you will see a small floating menu which will appear on top of PowerPoint This menu is exactly the same as the Vox Proxy menu above and all of the features of Vox Proxy work in the same way Introduction Run the Tutorials The simplest way to start getting familiar with Vox Proxy is to run one or more of the tutorials Click on Vox Proxy Click on Tutorials You will see a list of available tutorials and other presentations similar to the following li Tutorials Ja fx 4 variables 5 looping animations Demo Vox proxy player We suggest that you run the tutorials in the following order Introduction First Script Speech Variables Looping Animation The Vox Proxy Player tutorial explains the player version of VP These are actually simple macros that call PowerPoint presentations located in Vox Proxy s Presentations folder Select a tutorial such as Introduction to Vox Proxy and click Run or simply double click your selected tutorial This will start the presentation as a full screen slide show When the tutorial is finished just press escape to end the slide show You may interrupt a tutorial while it is running by pressing escape to end the slide show You may run any tutorial directly from PowerPoint Open the tutori
45. 4 ShioWEXCOe i5 n oseesvtraten avem oo APA 75 SHOW W OF REED 77 Start TIME diia 78 Walt BOM sacs aaaea ds AREEN 79 WIHteExcel EE E EEE T ET AE A OA EEE E da 81 E EEE A ia od 81 PowerPoint commahds 5 52 x rw A a Ed n a iaa 82 eec 82 EndSlioW st Ad ibas DL CRISE 83 FirstSlide pec lo Id A lo bis ala 83 Gotoslid ii nd 83 l astSlide us tort ra dur Re Ree dar S E orar a Gre dor exte SUC en ch dls 84 LastSlideVieWed sut eee edt a separa te pol aA vate Re e dba Rod Oda a 84 Notes about Slide Navigation in PowerPoint cceceeeeeeeee eset eee eens emen 85 NextSlide eaii e UU OST 85 PAKAL E ii iii 85 RunSlideSlioW k experti a E E a Rr ea DUREE DAEN aD 86 WaltforGlIck usui eerie toc aee E eate a fea d v dcn a fer d e x E Na a a Re 86 Vgl EPDID IMEEM 87 Projramming commirids cii eic derive bene rta a nere ia Pena D Ra aene AR a E apaga ras 87 e fore di Ez REEL TR TETUR ET TIENDE 88 Table Of Contents CO Oi A O A A AAA Ar 88 If Else EE IE T 89 Selecta 2 Case 2Elsez TENG uci eee ERE mor di 90 METER 91 Script rq 95 Script WiZa d sernai 95 Character Commands eaaa r a ba a a a a A Da a pork eee bed 95 Miscellaneous Commands 1 0 rr EI I I nennen nemen 96 PowerPoint COM a as 97 Programming COMMAND tae 98 SGript WEE tics 99 Script Writer FORM rs EE 99 Script Edit WINK OW 2 5 entere A as 99 POWEFSETIPLINGEM GNU a A tack nnes Sedan eet autensee T
46. 45 46 95 Glicle edet cit 86 Commands ciinii eaa Dx Ex Fco TT S 46 Media coincida ci eid a ea a 79 Mg 56 79 WaitCommands enne 95 WaitFor 77 78 79 95 WaitforClick 13 82 86 110 118 WaitforNextAnimation eese 86 Wav Files osuna ica cdta 9 39 68 Web odoare a 123 libri 9 49 WildGard 2 1 reri VR eva o ERO RN ERAI IRE 62 Wizard ios OOAO5 0 D5 5 PC A 111 Wizard toolbar eese 111 Word occ hn nw KR 77 WordTime eeeenmeeene 77 WorkbOOoK roce reiten 70 75 80 Worksheet eee 70 75 80 iuge 80 81 157
47. 88 Prompt ocior nn ni nan sirien a 60 Pronunciation suessss 9 43 49 Pronunciation Dictionary 43 R RABO 2e 10 50 69 Read Only s sssssssessnsnssnserensnennsnnena 75 77 Relative link esses 132 Remove Agent Characters button 111 Replace ones cese se ii 107 Reset suede aS 49 111 Abo O A 72 73 R n mote 2 da 1 8 SAPI A str uec ge RE Oe En UE 9 136 SAY sister eaten extra cs 9 43 44 49 95 110 Say WAY ETT TOT TTE 95 110 SOMO A 40 65 ScaleCharacters 95 Screen Resolution 40 58 Script T EIL ERECTO QT TTL LLL 8 Edito rec ene 99 100 101 General Rules for 48 Guide to first 14 Samples iia 18 Tips and Techniques 118 120 122 Wizard uere 95 96 97 98 Writer cece eens 99 100 101 Script Anchor cocinados 127 SGrOll Duc E 75 SOC Oo a 71 81 Self starting CD 110 SOL ues retia ina A 49 73 74 78 SetPrefs cuenta 43 95 VILI GM I I LL 87 110 Show uoo 10 41 42 95 117 ShOWEXCel idi erescotsesen dd 75 ShowWord eee 77 cp ani nas 42 95 Slide RE siisii iniiai 114 Interaction esee 82 86 Navigation essssse 83 84 85 sls c 127 SEDE PS 99 100 SHOW se patis aa iuto URS REESE as 86 127 Tab O i 100 TOS e i oraa 114 Sound effe
48. As you become proficient at writing Vox Proxy scripts you can simply type the commands directly into the script edit window Right clicking in the script edit window brings up the cascading menus of the Power Scripting Menu where you will find handy shortcuts to most script writing features Click on any hot region below for more details The cursor will change to a hand where additional details are available ll Vox Proxy Script PEE File Edit View Insert Tools MEGS DWS BIA lt ZZ al Test P Tile Samples Pp Wizard Slide Macro i ay Welcome to the Script Writer Script Edit Window The Script Edit window is a plain text field used for writing or editing scripts The window resides on one of two selectable pages with tabs 1 The SLIDE tab If a presentation is open this page contains the script for the active slide 2 The MACRO tab This page displays the text of the active macro Macros can be opened either using the OPEN toolbar button the File Open menu item or by selecting a macro from the Macro Menu The 99 Vox Proxy Documentation Macro Menu is opened automatically when the Macro page is selected See Running Script Macros The easiest way to get start writing scripts is to play the tutorial Your First Script It is often helpful to examine existing scripts Once the tutorial is finished for example just open the Script Writer and look at the scripts on each slide When you are ready to write you o
49. BIBLE Sl Test b Tile gt Samples b Wizard Slide Macro Show Peedy at Center Greet 9 OK now let s have Peedy speak For now we re just going to type the word Say along with the text of what you want Peedy to say Later you can explore the Say Something button on the Script Wizard to test modifications to the speech such as speed pitch or emphasis M Vox Proxy Script Slide 1 EBR File Edit View Insert Tools Help Dus rera Test gt Tile P Samples gt Wizard Slide Macro Show Peedy at Center Greet Say Welcome to Tom s first scriptl 17 Vox Proxy Documentation 10 11 12 Just to be sure the script is saved in the presentation click on the save button the disk icon on the toolbar or click File Save We re ready for a test Click on the Test button You will see the slide appear full screen Peedy will fly into the center of the screen and speak There s one more save required since the script is embedded into the PPT file you must also save the PowerPoint presentation You ve done it Your first script has been written tested and saved When you re ready to run this script in your slide show you must turn on Vox Proxy s Run Mode Do this by clicking Vox Proxy Run Vox Proxy With Slide Shows If you forget this step your slide show will run without the character scripts As a time saving tip for entering and editing scripts you can right click in th
50. Find Next Cancel File menu New Begins a new macro script This item is enabled only when the Macro Page is open and is disabled while viewing slide scripts Same as pressing the New button on the standard toolbar Open Open a new macro file This item is enabled only when the Macro Page is open and is disabled while viewing slide scripts Same as pressing the Open button on the standard toolbar Save Save the current script Same as pressing the Save button on the standard toolbar Windows shortcut key is Control S Save As Same as Save but allows you to specify the file name and applies only to macros This item is enabled only when the Macro Page is open and is disabled while viewing slide scripts Save As Presentation for VP Player Saves a copy of the active presentation file with the file extension PPV rather than PPT That file may then be played from the Vox Proxy Player software by simply opening the file It will automatically start PowerPoint and play the slide show Restore Restore the current script from its file copy This overlays the script currently displayed in the Script Edit window with the last saved version Page Setup Displays a dialog box allowing changes to margins headings and footings used in Print Print Print scripts Prints either macro or slide scripts depending on the Script Writer s page selector When printing slides allows selection of current slide range of sl
51. Il default Preserves the aspect ratio of the movie but ensures that it will fully display in the form window NoBorder Forces the form window to be fully filled If the window is not the same aspect ration as the move one edge of the movie will not be visible off the form ExactFit Scales the movie to the form If the aspect ratio of the movie is significantly different than the form some distortion will be apparant 6 loop causes the movie to run continuously in a loop Note that this require you to explicitly close the movie or it will go on forever 7 Close causes the form to close and disappear when the movie stops playing Note that if the movie has a stop or pause button pressing it will close the flash form The PlayFlash command assigns a value of one to the variable Response if the media file successfully starts or a zero if it does not Examples PlayFlash file c program files vox proxy sample swf at 25 25 size 50 50 close PlayFlash file c program files vox proxy sample swf at 25 25 size 50 50 scale ExactFit PlayFlash file c program files vox proxy sample swf at 25 25 size 50 50 close Align TL Wizard Miscellaneous Commands P PlayFlash command Help Shockwave Flash File File Browse Size and location Location Center X 50 Ve 50 Move on Slide Size Ww 50 H 50 Scale amp Alignment Align movie in window Center C Edge Left fF Right Top f Bottom Scaling
52. OT not IF NOT amp count EQ 2 Not reverses the logic test that follows AND and IF Response EQ yes AND amp count LT 3 And combines logical tests each of which must be enclosed in parentheses Only if both tests are true does the script continue to execute OR or CIF amp Response EQ yes OR amp count LT 3 OR combines logical tests each of which must be enclosed in parentheses Only if either test is true the script continues to execute Examples Show Peedy at Center Say Would you like more detail Say Please say yes or no Listen IF amp Response IS yes Say OK let s take a more detailed look ELSE Say OK we ll skip the detail GotoSlide 26 END Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Select Case Else End The Select command which can also be written Evaluate begins a section of script which evaluates multiple possible responses from the user called Cases and runs a piece of script for each case It can be interpreted in English as follows Select the user s response In case it s ONE run the following script In case it s TWO run the following script In case it s THREE run the following script OR ELSE if it s none of the above run the following script Now I m done Select is most often used with either the ListenFor or the ListBox command Synonyms Select Evaluate InCase Case ORELSE ELSE Syntax SELECT variable CASE va
53. Paul Show at location C Instantaneous C Specify C Wait C NoWait Default Wait Insert Cancel NoBalloons Do not display text balloons when the current character speaks This command is included for backward compatibility It is recommended that you use the balloons off option in the Show character command Equivalent commands Balloons off Balloons off Show character at location balloons off Examples Show Merlin at center NoBalloons Recommended equivalent Show Merlin at center balloons off Wizard 37 Vox Proxy Documentation Other Agent Commands PointAt Point in the direction of another character Unlike Gestures pointing animations are made in 45 degree increments but are supported only by characters that are known to support pointing animations At the time of this writing the characters are Paul Chuck Brooke Ben Susan Simon Doc and Tom If you use PointAt with a character that does not support pointing animations then it will default to Gestureat PointAt can also be used to point in the direction of a visible window Substitute for the name any unique portion of the window s caption text The text is case sensitive Syntax PointAt name Examples 1 Point at another character Show Merlin at Bottom Right Show Paul at Center PointAt Merlin Paul points to his lower left 135 degrees 2 Point at an Excel window Show Paul at Center ShowExcel file C apl VPtest x
54. PowerPoint s Send to feature to send slides and notes to Microsoft Word Word will print both slides and notes regardless of the length of the notes Export to File This export option will copy all slide scripts into a file with the same name and in the same location as the presentation file but with a file extension of VPS Vox Proxy Script The VPS file is used to play slide shows under PowerPoint 97 or the PowerPoint Viewer Convert Speech to WAV Files View Menu Tile with PowerPoint Tiles or un tiles the Script Writer form with the PowerPoint window Tiling occurs on the left side of PowerPoint Slide Script Switches the Script Edit window s active page to the slide page Macro Script Switches the Script Edit window s active page to the macro page and activates the Macro Menu Tool Bars Standard Tools Wizard This toolbar contains all of the features of the Script Wizard in a compact floating toolbar For detailed documentation of Script Wizard features see Script Wizard The Wizard toolbar appears similar to the following Script Wiz ES gt Show gt Say b Do gt Move gt Agent gt PowerPoint gt Misc Speech This toolbar contains many of the features of the Speech panel from the Script Wizard When each button is pressed it inserts the appropriate speech tag at the cursor position in the script The Test button is convenient for testing that line of speech in the script The to
55. RIGHT SEAT SOFTWARE INC VOX PROXT 50 Talking Animated Characters for PowerPointe User Manual Right Seat Software Inc 1110 12 Street Unit A Golden CO 80401 303 278 2244 support voxproxy com 2001 2004 Right Seat Software Inc Table Of Contents A OO 1 Welcome tO VOX Proxy aai xia air A AA e 1 What s New in Vox Proxy Version Benicio a save EA 1 TOS Vox Pro xy Player iii A a Di 5 Getting SA ii T 6 PowerPoint MENU sererai s 8 Script BASICS isis A a vide E A Settee AA A A A ea o 8 Speech BASICS isinin i A A dd da 9 Character ANIMAION ci A ia at 10 Controlling PowerPoint teen oet a ERR M Ea dc 13 Guide to your First Scriptsu dioit oie 14 Sample Scripte ii A a A AE REORUM UE 18 Simple script with two characters rosserie iaeia aaa aa a a aiaa 18 Script with PowerPoint commands cccccncnnncnnncnnnnnncncnroronennrnrnrnrnraranenrnrrananininrnraranenes 18 Program Updates and SUpport ssm aE eene nemememesesemini nin nennen 19 character Gallery 2 0 In e SER ee A TNR da UR 21 Character Gallery Forint etin deen gas arn ei A cran ex cv da 21 janrcs UH U UuM 21 Downloading Characters intececeteten sce ime eene na dies insu ena aka Eg ba natu e Ra ERR FR ON iaeia a 22 Inserting a Show Command sss ee memesesesesesenisie tenens senes 22 Placing Characters d EU 22 Previewing AnlrmatlOris oce eS 23 POPE Sd A iia 23 Removing A Character de
56. T 1 4 DTNV rosa ATT 1 4 DTNV audrey Test Insert Cancel Listen Listen for a voice command or yes or no Requires that a voice recognition program has been installed on your system The listening state persists only for a fixed period of time about 10 seconds The listening state may also be invoked on a visible or hidden character by pressing the Scroll Lock key To listen for specific words or phrases see the ListenFor command Syntax Listen wait nowait Wizard Other Agent Commands Listen Command Help Select optional wait parameter C Wait C Nowak D Insert Cancel 35 Vox Proxy Documentation ListenFor This command causes the current character to listen for a voice command a list of words or phrases To listen for a simple yes or no see Listen The user speaks one of the possible commands into a microphone The result is placed into the amp Response variable where it may be evaluated using IF or Evaluate Items in the list are specified in quotes such as ListenFor First thing second thing etc Listenfor is used where you want to take different actions depending upon the user s selection It is an alternative to the ListBox command For example you may start different slide shows or branch to different slides within the current slide show Each item may consist of either just the text to appear in the list or as two items separated by the style character or v
57. Then we ll have Merlin gesture right and speak We want Merlin to gesture while Paul is running RestPose NOT while Paul is speaking Show Merlin at right center Show nowait Paul at left center Explain Say Welcome to Vox Proxy Wait RestPose Merlin GestureRight nowait Say Thank you Peut Without the Wait prior to RestPose Merlin would GestureRight while Paul does Explain Miscellaneous commands Background Display either a solid color or a bitmap file as a background in a script macro Background is normally used only with Script Macros not PowerPoint slides Script Macros can play on the desktop making a background desirable under some circumstances 52 Reference Syntax Background color fit Options are 1 Color may be either a color number or a Bitmap file name in quotes Use the Script Wizard to select colors Fit if a bitmap file is displayed you may specify one of the following fit options tile scale unscaled e e e N The Wizard form offers a color palette and bitmap file browsing Examples Background c windows clouds bmp scale Background 8421376 Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Background iS Choose C Bitmap File owse C Tie Scaled Insert Cancel Bitmap Display a bitmap file on the screen Use the CloseBitmap command to remove the bitmap Syntax Bitmap options Options are 1 File name and path enclosed in quotes 2 AT X Y optional l
58. USE BUTTON while you drag the command up onto PowerPoint s Tools menu The tools menu will drop down Continue to hold the mouse button and move down to the macro menu Move the cursor over the macro menu and release the button when you are pointing below the Security item The Show All Scripts menu item will now appear on your Tools Macro menu After adding the menu item make sure that Show All Scripts is turned ON It will show a check mark next to it when it is on This will solve the halting slide show performance problems Characters disappear when showing a movie an Excel spreadsheet or other window When you show a movie Excel or other window Windows places the new window on top of all others and it can cover up the character making it seem to disappear The solution is to 126 Troubleshooting HIDE the character immediately prior to displaying the new window and then SHOW the character again immediately afterward For example Show Paul at center say Here s a cool spread sheet Hide ShowExcel file cool xls etc Show Paul at center Miscellaneous Whenever I open the Help files in Vox Proxy I get either a Dialer or Work Offline dialog box Vox Proxy Help is in HTML and uses Microsoft Internet Explorer for its display If you have a web url address set as your home page in Internet Explorer and you are not connected to the Internet then Internet Explorer will prompt to connect You can avoid the conn
59. Upper Left and so on To move the character after it is shown use Moveto For example Moveto Lower Right Comments notes to yourself which are ignored by the script may be included in scripts by preceding the comment with a semicolon Any text following a semicolon is ignored except where a semicolon may appear in lines of speech Comments may not appear in lines of speech Say Speak or Think commands 48 Reference With two exceptions script commands must always be the first word on a line of script The first exception is where the command follows a character name For example Merlin say Hello Merlin Moveto 50 50 Merlin Greet The second exception is for animations Multiple animations may appear on the same line For example Greet Pleased GestureLeft Multiple animations may appear on the same line Commas separating animation names are optional but at least one space is required For example Greet Pleased Announce Or Greet Pleased Announce Use the nowait parameter to force simultaneous animations among multiple characters Also see Wait Options This parameter may be used on the following commands Do GestureAt Hide Listen MoveTo Say Show Speak and Think Enter the parameter immediately after the command For example Hide nowait Moveto nowait Lower Right Say nowait What are you doing Speech Tags Speech Tags are special character strings inserted into the body of the spe
60. Vox ProxyMMediaNVPweb swf 30 WaitFor MediaEnd WaitFor 5 Wizard Other Agent Commands ug Script Command WaitFor TER Help The script will wait for either a prior character or for any of several timers Select one of the options below If you are using a timer be sure to enter the time y Characters r Timers Character Time 38 Seconds or min sec From start of Slide Show From start of Slide C From start of a PlayMedia file audio or video C From start of Flash movie From start of custom timer m End of media C End of a PlayMedia file audio or video C End of Flash movie Insert Close 80 Reference WriteExcel This command writes a value to a cell in an Excel worksheet It is normally used to write the contents of a variable The value is written by specifying the name of the file the worksheet and the cell range Syntax WriteExcel file F sheet S cell C value amp Count File is an Excel workbook XLS S is a valid worksheet name in the workbook Cis a valid cell value is either a constant or the name of an existing variable Examples WriteExcel file c tests questions xls sheet Sheetl cell B9 value amp Count Wizard Miscellaneous Commands P Write to Excel Help File Browse Leave the file name blank to read from the visible worksheet Worksheet Cell Value Display Insert Cancel WriteFile This comma
61. al in PowerPoint by browsing the folder Program Files Vox Proxy Presentations Turn Vox Proxy s Run Mode ON by clicking Vox Proxy Run Vox Proxy with slide shows Start the slide show Vox Proxy Documentation Open the Script Writer Click on Vox Proxy Script Writer from the PowerPoint menu The Script Writer contains nearly all of the authoring features of Vox Proxy To start your first script click on the Wizard button then click on Show a new character Once you re familiar with using the Wizard you can quickly reach all of its features plus context sensitive help characters animations and others from the Power Scripting Menu by right clicking anywhere in the Script Writer s edit window Follow the Guide to your First Script It provides a step by step illustration for creating your first script in Vox Proxy PowerPoint menu Vox Proxy appears on PowerPoint s main menu as follows Vox Proxy Run Yox Proxy with Slide Shows Script Writer h Tutorials Help Run Vox Proxy with Slide Shows This turns on Vox Proxy s Run Mode which will play Vox Proxy scripts when the slide show is viewed With Run Mode off the slide show will play without Vox Proxy scripts Script Writer This is the primary authoring tool for Vox Proxy scripts It contains all of the script writing wizards tools and access to Script Macros as well as PowerPoint slide scripts Tutorials Each tutorial is simply a PowerPoint prese
62. alk When you re ready for Peedy to appear you click the mouse An off screen slide object appears releasing the script Peedy flies in on the center of the slide and says Wait just a second Tom I have a question You say something like Hi Peedy What s the problem You click the mouse again The next off screen slide object appears releasing the script Peedy says There s something about that last point I don t understand Peedy waits You proceed to answer his question You can continue this back and forth if needed using the WaitForClick commands with their companion slide objects Here s how you set it up step by step using PowerPoint 2003 1 Create an autoshape object on your slide in PowerPoint Click Autoshapes Basic shapes and select any shape 2 Right click on the shape and select custom animation 3 Click Add Effect Entrance Appear Leave the default to start On Click 119 Vox Proxy Documentation 4 Drag the object anywhere off of the visible area of the slide 5 Select the autoshape object and for each additional WaitForClick command press Control D to make a duplicate object The duplicates will contain the same custom animation as the original Copy and paste the sample script above to test the procedure It contains two WaitForClick commands so you should create two autoshape objects Navigating in PowerPoint If you would like the user to be able to re visit certain s
63. and StartTimer Help Timer Name MyTimed This command will create a new timer using the specified name and start it running The WaitFor command may be used to pause the script until a specified number of seconds has elapsed from the StartTimer w aitFor name seconds Insert Cancel WaitFor This command will hold the script and wait for one of several events to occur A specified character to complete its speech or actions The end of a media file or flash file An amount of elapsed time A specified length of time from 1 The start of the current slide 2 The start of the slide show 3 The start of a media file audio video or Flash 4 The start of a custom timer 5 The completion of the previous character s speech or action The WaitFor command will not begin until the previous character if any completes its speech or actions Syntax WaitFor Item Time 79 Vox Proxy Documentation Time can be in seconds or min sec Item can be one of the following Character followed by character name ShowTime SlideTime or MediaTime followed by time MediaEnd FlashEnd followed by full path and name of flash file CustomTimerName followed by time Item can be omitted in which case the script will be held at that point for the elapsed time specified Examples WaitFor character Merlin Waitfor SlideTime 1 23 WaitFor MediaTime 4 15 WaitFor MyTimer 5 Waitfor FlashTime C Program Files
64. and is checked the character will wait for the previous character if any to complete its speech or actions before acting on the command If the command is not checked it will not wait Commands listed here include Hide Do GestureAt Listen Moveto Say Show and Think Note that the Show command often contains an implied move e g Show Paul at Center Therefore if you do not want to wait on a Show command you should uncheck both the Show and the Moveto commands It is often better to use the nowait parameter on individual commands than to change the system preferences here Convert To Wav This function processes all slides in the active presentation converting text speech commands for a specific character Say to audio speech commands SayWav using the AT amp T Natural Voices Text To Speech engine in a selected voice For each line of TTS speech in the script Say command an audio file is created and saved into the default media folder Requires AT amp T Natural voices The primary purpose of this function is to allow you to use AT amp T Natural Voices in presentations that you wish to distribute on self starting CDs prepared with the CD Prep program The AT amp T speech engine cannot be distributed on CDs but the wav files generated from the engine may be 106 Script Writer UJ Convert Speech text to wav files Help This will convert all speech using the Say command for the character specified below t
65. and the script will run When finished or at any time during the test click on the slide or press lt escape gt to end the test and return to the normal display Another way to test the script is to make sure that Vox Proxy is in Run mode you have clicked on Run Vox Proxy with Slide Shows Then simply click on PowerPoint s Slide Show View button Tile Causes the Script Writer to tile or un tile with the main PowerPoint window The default is not tiled Samples Starts a PowerPoint presentation named samples ppt containing sample scripts that may be copied and pasted Wizard The Wizard button opens the main Script Wizard form All Vox Proxy script commands are available from the Script Wizard Wizard The Wizard toolbar contains many of the features of the Script Wizard but allows you to keep it visible in a floating toolbar 114 Script Writer Script Wiz X gt Show gt Say b Do gt Move gt Agent gt PowerPoint gt Misc Show Say Do Move Agent PowerPoint Misc 115 Tips and Techniques Using Office Assistant Characters You can use all of Microsoft s office assistant characters as agents although they do not speak The following procedure will make them available as agent characters 1 From PowerPoint install all of the office assistant characters If you already have them installed go to step 2 Press F1 or click Help Show the Office Assistant Rig
66. aneous files or sub folders which you don t want on the CD CD Prep will check the CD image folder you specify to see if it appears to have been created by PowerPoint s Package for CD feature and incorporate those files appropriately Single Presentation or Menu Specify here whether the CD will contain only a single presentation or multiple presentations For a single presentation select the presentation file here When the CD starts the slide show will automatically start and run When it is finished the program will terminate For multiple presentations you will create a menu which will be displayed to the user After each presentation is played the menu will reappear Menu Builder 138 CD Prep If the CD will contain multiple presentations this is where you build the menu which the user will see and which will control the files to be played VP co Prep Wizard Menu1 File View Tools Help Menu Item Enter text to appear on Menu Text NG the menu File c program files vox proxy presentationsstuto Enter the presentation or macro file to be run for Description Introduction to Yos Proxy Takes about 11 mii this menu item Enter the description to be displayed on the user menu Add Cancel User Menu New First Script Vox Proxy Player Delete Wariables Move Up Move Down Talk to me lt Back Next gt Cancel For each presentation on the menu you must specify three thing
67. area size 1 4 one fourth of the screen area default size 1 2 one half of the screen area size FS full screen Size NONE No display useful for audio files size W H where W and H are width and height expressed as percent of screen 5 Controls Select one of the following controls none controls some default controls all 6 Volume Specify a number from O to 100 The default volume is the maximum 100 Zero is not actually mute but a very low volume 7 Loop Specify the number of times the file should play 8 Ontop This optional parameter is sometimes needed to ensure that the media is visible on top of other images 9 nowait This works like all other nowait options if it is specified the Microsoft Media Player will begin to load before the previous character is finished its speech or actions May be used to hide the load time for the Media Player 67 Vox Proxy Documentation The PlayMedia command assigns a value of one to the variable amp Response if the media file successfully starts or a zero if it does not Examples PlayMedia amp media STSland mpeg at 50 50 wait size FS PlayMedia amp media guitar wma at 50 50 size NONE controls none PlayMedia c my files music mp3 at 50 50 size 1 4 controls none Note in these examples the use of the variable amp media This variable is created automatically by Vox Proxy and points by default to the directory program files vox proxy m
68. at they will point to the media files on the CD Linked files are not limited to media but can also include pictures text files or other data files to be displayed during the presentation Note that this does not apply to media files played with the Vox Proxy PlayMedia command These are file links inserted directly into your presentation from PowerPoint Relative and Absolute Links When you insert a media file into a PowerPoint presentation PowerPoint may or may not embed the file within your presentation what files can be embedded Most media files 132 CD Prep such as audio or video will be linked rather than embedded the exception is that PowerPoint will embed WAVE sound files wav that are smaller than a specified size Large files will always be linked Picture or clipart files that you insert into a slide will normally be embedded rather than linked You can force it to create a link rather than embedding the file during the insert process It may insert a Link to the file as it exists on your computer That link is actually a URL Uniform Resource Locator consisting of the absolute path the drive folder and file name where the file exists and is called an absolute link When the presentation is shown PowerPoint follows the link to open and display or play the file If you move any media file with an absolute link in your presentation the link will no longer properly locate the file and the file will not play or
69. buttons or other objects each of which will invoke a different slide show Syntax RunSlideShow file startslide endslide File must be a PowerPoint file name with or without a path specification see specifying files File can also refer to a file on the internet using the file specification as http etc file ppt Note however that the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer does not support playing internet resident presentations Examples RunSlideShow c tutorials Excel Tutorial ppt RunSlideShow amp pres Excel Tutorial ppt 6 12 RunSlideShow http www voxproxy com downloads Tutorial Variables ppt Wizard PowerPoint Commands ld RunSlideShow command Load and run a presentation file as a slide show Specify optional starting and ending slide numbers File Presentation Browse All Slides C Slides From To Insert Cancel WaitforClick Wait until the user presses a mouse click to start the next animation on the current slide before proceeding with the script See Interacting with PowerPoint in the Tips and Techniques section for specific instructions to set up and use the WaitforClick command Synonym 86 Reference WaitforNextAnimation Syntax WaitforClick or WaitforNextAnimation Wizard PowerPoint Commands WriteShapeText Displays text in a specified PowerPoint slide shape on the current slide at a specified position This is one way to display text on the fly during a slide show
70. cated in Vox Proxy s macros folder Macro scripts are edited from the Script Writer just like PowerPoint Slide Scripts Embedded Scripts An Embedded Scripts is actually a special kind of Script Macro that has been saved within either the PowerPoint presentation file but NOT associated with any particular slide or within a Script Macro file Embedding a script macro allows you to call that macro from any slide script without the necessity of having to have access to a Script Macro file Therefore when you distribute a presentation to another user you do not have to distribute the Script Macros separately They can be included within the presentation file itself Speech Basics Vox Proxy Characters speak in one of two ways 1 Using a SAPI4 compliant Text To Speech engine TTS engines convert text into audible speech Vox Proxy includes the TruVoice TTS engine distributed by Microsoft but any SAPI4 TTS engine can be used AT amp T Natural Voices are available as an option for Vox Proxy The following script commands are used to produce speech from a TTS engine Say Speak A sample speech command would be Say Good morning The wizard form used to enter test and modify speech using TTS engines is the Say Something wizard which is accessed by the say something button on the Script Wizard Speech text can also be displayed in optional Speech Balloons Speech balloons provide a visual cue to the speech in cartoon like bubbles dis
71. cts 10 41 43 74 95 SPEAK tacita 9 43 44 49 95 Speech BallOOnS ivan is ic 31 37 41 Commands for 38 39 43 44 A teamed 9 45 Normalization 9 49 111 Prerecorded eese 9 39 PronurnciatiOm ci siot ihre area in npn vanes 103 A EIE 38 49 109 111 MT 9 45 Start MeT suderina an aA 78 Stop Playing 0 21 Style cbe a aada 32 36 38 Support inae aaa aaa 19 T pc 49 Tarta 9 109 114 Test speech a i ira ca 9 111 Ico SEES 63 Text To Speech 134 AA MC 31 44 95 LII 111 114 WANG s 74 Tie isi oeste iewi 50 56 75 77 78 79 TIDE ME 118 120 122 A sa sie wdewg baad T 63 Tool Dat miii 75 111 113 114 TOPs 66 TruMVolce TES ua renun t yx ic 9 INE 9 45 49 TTSEngine eere nen 9 45 95 U Using Multiple Characters 122 V Variables ADOUE tU 91 Creating ossosa aaa 73 91 104 MiM EXE diia 70 80 Index A sete 60 61 Irure 91 A ea n eer Ee iden kx 38 91 Pre defined 91 104 109 User defined 73 91 104 With FileS vecina in nr tori 71 81 Viewer PowerPoint 129 130 132 133 144 Voice POPUT IE 35 36 Output 9 38 39 41 43 45 49 Prerecorded ccccceceseeeeueeeeeeeeeeeeeanens 39 MT 49 VOIUMEG oasis eani ane li 49 63 66 Vox Proxy Player 5 129 Ww Wait Characters o diaria
72. cts Open it will launch PowerPoint and play the presentation using Vox Proxy Troubleshooting Character Behavior Speech I have no speech at all characters lips move but they do not speak The most likely problem is that your sound system is turned down or off Test this by seeing if you can play a wav file From Windows Explorer go to program files Vox Proxy media Double click on the file CLAP WAV Do you hear sound If not then your sound system is not playing sounds Check the Mute button on the Windows volume control check that the volume is not all the way down check that your speakers are properly connected If you do hear sound re check the speech If you still do not hear speech try manually installing the speech TTS engine In Windows Explorer go to program files Vox Proxy speech Double click on the file TV_ENUA EXE This will re install the default US English speech engine If the speech still does not work make sure that the problem is not an isolated single line of speech Test the character with several consecutive lines of speech A specific line of speech fails but remaining lines speak correctly This is caused by another sound stepping on the line of speech The speech TTS engine will remain silent if another sound begins just prior to the speech and is not finished by the time the speech begins It is most often caused by another character performing an animation which has sound eff
73. d Press the Preview button below to see exactly what the user will see General require administrator rights Copyright Preview Talk to me lt Back Next gt Cancel The Preview button will allow you to see exactly what the user will see when the CD starts CD Startup This disk will start a presentation or offer a menu of presentations It will install any features it needs then run from the CD Windows NT 2000 and XP users may require administrator rights IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICES Uses Vos Proxy 2001 2004 Right Seat Software Inc Uses Microsoft Agent Technology 1996 2001 Microsoft Corporation Uses APL WIN 2000 APL2000 Inc Author OK TO CONTINUE Info i f No Finish Before clicking Finish you must decide whether to require that the CD always play on the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer The viewer files will automatically be included on the CD The advantage to always playing on the viewer is that the playback will be consistent If you allow 144 CD Prep the presentation to play on whatever version of PowerPoint that the user may have some of your PowerPoint features may not work Why would you NOT require that it always play on the viewer Only in rare instances The viewer does not support running VB macros programs or opening linked or embedded objects Also a few Vox Proxy features are not supported under the viewer LastSlideViewed WriteShapeText When you click
74. de dure 145 Files 131 138 139 142 143 145 Image folder 129 130 138 144 145 Layout e 137 144 PENU iaeoa ETE 134 138 self starting 130 Variables nori 131 Viewer 130 132 133 144 CD Prep 9 91 110 129 130 131 132 134 136 137 138 139 142 143 144 145 146 149 Celiacos 64 70 75 80 CONST iniciada Econ a EE Ra 33 Character Animation eesseennem e 10 Behavior ceeesennm mme 125 Commands den 95 Gallery 21 22 25 111 on CD E 141 Pr Deltigs covered erexit ox 23 SOUFCGS iiseeeeesioe earn hk nana aan rr 22 Elek 2 13 82 86 118 127 llis ATO UIT 56 Close Agent Characters 25 111 iure 54 EXCEL iia 55 A An 55 Media iii dada iba 55 Word TIRE 56 CloseBittmmap 2i eene rode ordin ena rea naa 54 uin En 45 en 52 53 Column headings eessssssse 75 Command bars eere 75 77 A vae eiprat inr ri cR aA 49 CONO Sisi arrasa 66 Convert to Wav eeeennn 106 CDi ida va Run aa RE va MEER CREER RUM RARE 49 Current Slide eene 114 Custom Animation 127 132 D Data file 70 71 73 77 80 81 A onea a R 56 78 DisappedaF ocius iie 10 Display creino xe tates 40 58 Document eeeeennm n 77 Dual monitor
75. defined on the AII Presentations page Pre defined These variables are available in any presentation or macro They include time oriented variables day Y date amp month amp year amp time and amp tod time of day and several speech tags amp w whisper amp m monotone amp n normal amp r reset and amp e emphasize 104 LI MP Variables Wait preferences Script Writer Golden Colorado JCPL Good amp tod amp name c program filesvos proxy c program files vox proxysp c program files vox proxy c program files wox proxysh CAWINDOWS c c Ndocume 1 tom locals 1 CAWINDOWS rnronram files tren mens 105 Vox Proxy Documentation WJ Preferences Wait Commands File Locations Timeout Language Misc Before performing any of the following actions a character will wait until all prior characters finish whatever they are doing lv Hide V Move Iv Do Play M Say Speak iv Show MV Think v Gestureht Iv Listen NOTE To override these preferences use nowait or wait on the command line For example if your defaults above are all ON checked you can override specific commands as follows Show nowait Peedy at Center Do nowait Think Confused or Think Confused nowait Say nowait What are you doing If pour defaults are OFF unchecked override with wait rather than nowait When a character is about to perform a command listed here if that comm
76. ds Paths can be implied or expressed Implied paths If a file name is specified without a path then the path is implied Depending upon the file type Vox Proxy will automatically look through a series of folders called search paths to find the file before it gives up See below for the search path of each file type recognized by Vox Proxy Expressed paths Expressed file paths may be specified either explicitly or with a variable An example of a file with an explicit path is C program files vox proxy media drumroll wav The same file expressed with a variable could be amp mediadirNdrumroll wav See below for a list of variables containing paths that are always available in Vox Proxy Search Paths For each file type recognized the search paths are as follows PowerPoint Presentation Files 1 The Vox Proxy presentation folder c program files vox proxy presentations 2 The Vox Proxy application folder c program files vox proxy 3 The folder from which Vox Proxy was started 47 Vox Proxy Documentation Media Files audio video 1 The Vox Proxy media folder c program files vox proxy media 2 The Vox Proxy presentation folder c program files vox proxy presentations 3 The Vox Proxy application folder c program files vox proxy 4 The folder from which Vox Proxy was started Script Macro Files 1 The Vox Proxy macro folder c program files vox proxy macros 2 The Vox Proxy presentation folder c progra
77. e Script Writer s edit window to open the Power Scripting Menu This can substitute for the Script Wizard All script commands are available from a cascading menu and selecting a command will display the corresponding wizard From the Power Scripting Menu you can also insert character Show commands select animations for the current character insert speech tags display help for the current script command and test a line of speech This menu is context sensitive so if you are editing a script be sure to click at the location you re editing in the script Sample Scripts Simple script with two characters show Merlin at Left Center balloons on Greet say Peedy where are you show peedy at Center say Hi Merlin Got any good crackers moveto Bottom Right say None here moveto Top Left say Here we are Idle2_2 say Not bad See you Merlin Hide Script with PowerPoint commands Show Paul at Left Center balloons off size 1 5 Greet Say This amp tod we ll be talking about our three goals for the next quarter Point45 Click RestPose Say barst Dilah Gesture Left Click Explain Say Second blah blah Post 135 Click RestPose Say and third blah blab blah NextSlide 18 Introduction Program Updates and Support Support is available via E mail at support voxproxy com Program updates tutorials script macros FAQs and other files are available in the support pages of our web site www voxproxy com support htm
78. e Wizard form above before clicking Insert To show the character at a different location either click one of the grid location buttons or the mouse button to drag and drop the character on the slide You will see the following line of script inserted into your Script Writer s edit window ll Vox Proxy Script Slide 1 DE File Edit View Insert Tools Help DA BA Az Fi Test gt Tile gt Samples Wizard Slide Macro P Peedy at Center Now let s have Peedy take a bow Click Wizard then click Peedy Do Something Peedy will appear along with a drop down list showing all of Peedy s animations Notice that as you scroll through this list Peedy will demonstrate each animation for you Scroll to Greet and click the Insert and Close button Introduction Animations for Peedy Help Browse animations to test them To insert into script double click or select and click Insert Continue with any other animations that are consecutive Click Close or Insert amp Close when done GestureRight GestureUp GetAttention Get ttentionContinued Insert amp Close Get ttentionR etum Insert wv C Wai NoWait Default Wait 8 You will see the word Greet inserted in your script Once you learn some of these simple animation names you can just type them into the script rather than using the Script Wizard M Vox Proxy Script Slide 1 EBR File Edit View Insert Tools Help DEUGS
79. e active presentation file Embedded in a macro file Running macros Running a Macro File Macro Files may be run from the macro menu in any of three ways 1 Single click on the macro name then click on the Run button 2 Double click on the selected macro name 3 Click the Test button on the Script Writer From Windows with PowerPoint and Vox Proxy close you can run a macro file by opening the file Macros can be run from any Vox Proxy script using the RunMacro command Example Interrupting a Running Macro A running macro can be interrupted in several ways depending upon what the macro has displayed fthe macro is running on your desktop on top of your desktop or any applications that may be open either click on the small X close button in the upper right corner of the screen or right click the Script Macros button on the task bar and select close The macro will be interrupted and the macro menu will be automatically restored 29 Vox Proxy Documentation Ifthe macro has started a PowerPoint presentation end the presentation in the normal way by pressing escape for example or by right clicking on the slide and selecting end show If the macro is running on a background other than a PowerPoint presentation click anywhere on the background The macro menu will be automatically restored Returning to the Macro Menu When a macro is finished you may exit the macro and return to the macro
80. e also available through the Power Scripting Menu Character Commands Balloons Disappear Do GestureAt Hide 95 Vox Proxy Documentation IdleAnimations Interrupt Language Listen ListenFor MoveTo NoBalloons PointAt Say SayWav ScaleCharacters a SetPrefs Show Size SoundFffects Speak Think TTSEngine Wait WaitCommands Miscellaneous Commands Background Bitmap CloseBitmap CloseExcel CloseFlash CloseMedia CloseWord Delay DisplayClock DualMonitor EndMacro GetMacro 96 Input ListBox MacroMenu MediaVolume MessageBox PlayFlash PlayMedia PlayWav RandomLine RandomMacro ReadExcel ReadFile Run RunMacro Set SetPrefs ShowExcel ShowWord StartTimer WaitFor WriteExcel a WriteFile PowerPoint Commands Click EndShow FirstSlide GotoSlide LastSlide LastSlideViewed NextSlide PreviousSlide RunSlideShow WaitforClick Script Wizard 97 Vox Proxy Documentation WriteShapeText Programming Commands a BookMark GoTo f Else End a Select Case Else End 98 Script Writer Script Writer Form The Script Writer is the place where all of your script authoring takes place It gives you access to a host of script writing tools including the extensive click simple Script Wizard
81. e ends in ing Vox Proxy does not know whether any given character animation is looping or not so it assumes that any animation whose name ends with ing is a looping animation In order to prevent the looping animation from going on forever hanging your script it starts a timer that will stop character animations after a specified time If the animation is not actually looping it can stop your script unexpectedly The noloop option prevents the timer from starting For example many characters have animations called StartListening and StopListening These are intended for use with speech recognition and are not looping animations To use them after inserting the animation name into your script you should add the noloop option StopListening noloop Vox Proxy Documentation There is now an online registration for new users For existing users upgrading to version 3 you can access the online registration on the Script Writer s Help menu Help PlayMedia Now supports Microsoft Media Player 9 10 The support is completely transparent Existing scripts will work on any version of Media Player PlayMedia now supports the nowait option that works exactly like a character nowait It will start the media player before the previous character has finished its speech or animation Media Player can take a few seconds to load in memory the first time it s called The purpose of the nowait option is to let the Media Player load while the pre
82. e instructions Enter your first name in the field below variable amp FirstName Say Good morning amp FirstName Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 60 Reference wp input Wizard Help Instructions Center location E 6S m Y 75 BES BH ER EH EB E Here are the instructions for filling in the field below Prompt Mami Click the Refresh button to Form Caption update the sample input form Caption Assign to Variable Response Refresh Cancel Insert ListBox This command displays a list box containing a list of words or phrases The user selects a single item by clicking on it The result is placed into the amp Response variable where it may be evaluated using IF or Evaluate Items in the list are specified in quotes such as ListBox First thing second thing etc ListBox is used where you want to take different actions depending upon the user s selection It is an alternative to the voice command ListenFor For example you may start different slide shows or branch to different slides within the current slide show Syntax ListBox item text return item text return Each item may consist of either just the text to appear in the list or as two items separated by the style character or vertical bar 1 The text to appear in the list 2 The text to be returned in the amp Response variable Examples ListBox Rast thang Second thing In this example the use
83. e presentation file rather than a menu of multiple presentations and do not need info author files or changes to the standard copyright notices you can use a new feature called Quick Prep which will prepare everything you need for the CD in a single step Automatic File Scanning CD Prep will now scan through the scripts in your presentation file looking for files that you call including media macros other presentations etc It will automatically include those files on the CD and alter the scripts if necessary to change all paths to the appropriate file locations It also locates and includes any characters used in your scripts Optional Info and Author buttons The info and author buttons displayed on the dialog box shown when a CD starts are now optional PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Introduction You can specify that the CD prepared with CD Prep should always play on the PPT 2003 viewer even if the user has PowerPoint This provides a consistent presentation that does not depend on the version of PowerPoint that the user may have Linked Files Vox Proxy version 3 138 or newer CD Prep including QuickPrep will scan your entire presentation for file links It will convert those links to a relative link pointing to the presentations folder within the CD Image It will then gather those files and copy them into the presentations folder CD Prep will fix and include linked files with any version of PowerPoint from 2000 and newer P
84. e that the computer is too slow has too little RAM or you are running something else that is CPU intensive Both character animations and speech take considerable system resources so things like animated GIFs running on a slide can cause character animations and speech to be slow However particularly when running on a laptop computer there is a Windows performance setting that can also cause poor performance Open the Control Panel System click on the Advanced tab then the performance settings button Change the setting to Adjust for best performance This option will be especially effective in solving performance problems with AT amp T Natural Voices During my slide show the character nearly stops then sporadically makes some movement or sound In PowerPoint 2002 or newer you must be sure that you have the feature called Show all scripts turned ON You can tell if it s on by the small amber icon called a script anchor that appears in the middle of any slides with scripts If you do NOT see that icon you must turn Show all scripts on The problem is that this feature does not appear in the default PowerPoint menus Here s how you add it n PowerPoint click Tools Customize Click on the Commands page it is probably the default Inthe Categories column select Tools You will drag and drop the new menu item onto your Tools Macro menu In the Commands column click on Show All Scripts and HOLD DOWN THE MO
85. ech text and are used to modify the pronunciation pitch tempo or interpretation rules called Text Normalization for the speech Specific TTS engines may or may not support speech tags The TruVoice TTS engine included with Vox Proxy supports the following speech tags TAG Syntax Var Emphasis emp amp e Monotone Chr Monotone amp m Whisper Chr Whisper amp w Normal Chr Normal amp n Reset Rst amp r Pause Pau N Volume Vol N default 65535 Pitch Pit N Address Ctx Address amp ca Email Ctx E mail amp ce Description Emphasize a specific word Monotone Whisper Normal Reset to defaults Pause for N millisec Lower speech volume Set relative pitch Special context rules for text normalization Special context rules Example Say Vox Proxy is emp cool Say Chr Monotone I am a robot Say Chr whisper I ll tell you a secret Say Chr whisper I can whisper Chr Normal and speak normally in the same sentence Say Chr whisper This is a secret Rst But you didn t hear it from me Say Now pau 50 listen pau 50 to pau 50 me Say This is normal Vol 32000 but I can also speak softly Say I can speak normally Pit 150 or in a squeaky voice say Ctx Address I am from Den CO 80401 Say Ctx E mail Visit us at www voxproxy com 49 Vox Proxy Documentation for text normalization Special speech tags are also used to specify different text for display in
86. ection dialog box by setting the home page to Blank in Internet Explorer Tools Internet Options General Home page PowerPoint Behavior We strongly suggest that you disable the fast save option in PowerPoint Our PowerPoint experts say that this feature causes many corrupted files and other unexplainable behavior It is on the Tools Options Save dialog in PowerPoint If you have not already done so be sure to turn on the Show all scripts menu item in PowerPoint Instructions are in the Character Behavior troubleshooting item During a slide show either a slide changes too soon or the wrong slide animation appears Your script contains more Click commands than there are animations on the slide Remember that the Custom Animation must be set to appear on mouse click and not automatically by time Use the Diagnose button on the Script Writer to check your script animation commands for consistency with your slide animations When I go to a specific slide during a slide show a character appears in the upper left corner of the screen rather than where it is supposed to Each slide script must stand alone if is to be restartable At the beginning of each slide script be sure to put a Show command to place each character on the screen Otherwise the slide show will work correctly if run continuously but may not if you skip to a specific slide One or more characters that Hide at the end of a slide reappear as the next slide
87. ects just prior to the failing line of speech If you re using the nowait parameter remove it and re test If not try reversing the order of the actions Animations In general it is a good idea to turn off the Office Assistant in PowerPoint while using Vox Proxy A character s animation begins too soon This is almost always caused by a nowait parameter For example Show Peedy Show Paul Peedy say Hello My name is Peedy Greece Paul Greet nowait Paul will bow before Peedy does in fact he will bow just when Peedy begins to speak In order to have Paul bow at the same time as Peedy place a wait command just above Peedy s Greet Peedy say Hello My name is Peedy wait Greer Paul Greet nowait 125 Vox Proxy Documentation Now Paul will wait for Peedy to stop speaking before he bows A specific animation does not work the remainder of the script works fine Check to see that you are using a valid animation command for the character Not all characters have the same list of animations Also some characters list of animations includes some which do not work they are simply ignored Test the animation using the Preview button on the Character Gallery If it works there it will work in your script Also check that your spelling is correct Capitalization is not important but spelling is Performance When I run my slide show the animations and or speech are choppy and intermittent It is possibl
88. ed in one of three places 1 Ina Macro File Macro Files are text files with the file extension VPM Vox Proxy Macro They can be run directly from Windows outside of PowerPoint by opening the vpm file from Windows Explorer or from a shortcut to the file 2 Embedded in a PowerPoint presentation file Macros that are embedded in a PowerPoint presentation can be run anywhere within the presentation s slide scripts using the RunMacro command In order to run an embedded macro from a slide script do not specify a path in the RunMacro command 3 Embedded in a Macro File Macro Files themselves can contain other embedded macros In this way the script in a Macro File can run other embedded macros using the RunMacro command Example Show Merlin at center RandomLine pearls The macro pearls can be embedded in this Macro File making it self contained This technique can be used for jokes sayings or other expressions from which you want to play a single randomly selected line Pearls might contain say I ve gradually risen from lower class background to lower class foreground Marvin Cohen say Man can climb to the highest summits but he cannot dwell there long George Bernard Shaw say Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself and yearns for the impossible Eric Hoffer say Be nice to people on your way up because you ll meet them on your way down Wilson Mizner SIS In order to investigate Script Macros op
89. edia Wizard Miscellaneous Commands ll PlayMedia command Help Play File N Browse Location Center x 50 Y 50 Move on Slide Screen Size Controls r Volume Authored Size C None has Twice Authored Size Some One sixteenth of Screen Dne quarter of Screen C AI One half of Screen Full Screen None audio only Custom move on slide as H LORA E 1 IV Force media window ON TOP MV Hold Script until media is finished playing V Wait until previous character is finished before starting player Play E H time s Test Insert Cancel Note that the Move on Slide button displays the slide full screen and allows you to both drag the video window into position and also to resize the window If you resize it the screen size option will be selected as Custom PlayWav Play an audio wav file using the standard Windows MCI media player not Microsoft Media Player 68 Reference Syntax PlayWav wait file Be sure to include quote marks around the file name If no path is specified the standard search path will be used If you include the word wait the script will be held until the audio is complete before proceeding Without the word wait the script will continue to run while the audio plays Examples PlayWav wait c windows media chimes wav Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Play Audio Way File Help Wav File Browse Iv Hold script until
90. en the Macro Menu by clicking on the Macro tab of the Script Writer and look at the sample Macro Files included with Vox Proxy Test them from the Macro Menu by clicking on the Run button Test them from Windows by exiting from PowerPoint browsing to the folder program files vox proxy macros and opening one of the sample Macro Files such as Merlin pearl of wisdom The Macro Menu The Macro Menu is comprised of two tabs or pages Page 1 shows a list of Script Macro Files in a selected folder 27 Vox Proxy Documentation Mg Script Macros TE Tools Help Macro Files Embedded Macros Macro folder c program files vox proxy macros embed pearl of wisdom epearls 1 Job losers Delete Language test edia test Merlin pearl of wisdom Haw pearls Peedy calls Merlin for a pearl Embed Peedy demos variables Player Welcome pronunciation example Buttons on the Macro Menu allow you to Run the selected macro Stop the macro once it is running Delete the selected macro file Create a new macro Embed the macro script into the active presentation file or into a macro file Select alternate macro folders Page 2 of the Macro Menu allows you to work with embedded macros 28 Macros TP Sc ript Macros m fex Tools Help Macro Files Embedded Macros re VoxProxpSPPT Embedded macro em C Shot macros embedded in macro file break On this page you can display macro scripts that are Embedded in th
91. ent script begins to run Note that this is functionally different than a RunMacro command which actually runs the specified macro on the fly when it encounters the command during execution of the current script The specified macro name is not case sensitive Syntax GetMacro name Examples GetMacro Merlin pearl of wisdom Wizard 59 Vox Proxy Documentation Miscellaneous Commands Input Displays an input form containing a single data field and captures input from the user The captured data is placed into the variable specified Syntax Input wherezX Y prompt text instructions text caption text variable amp varname Options 1 where X Y Location specified as an X Y screen location for the center of the display in percent Default is center EXAMPLE where 50 75 2 instructions text Text to be displayed above the input field as instructions Default is none Instructions may be multi line Line breaks are entered as the stile character vertical bar 3 prompt text Text to be displayed to the left of the input field as a prompt 4 caption text Text to be displayed as the caption of the input form 5 variable amp whatever Name of variable to which result will be assigned Variable name must begin with and ampersand Default amp Response Examples Show Paul at center Say Please enter your first name in the box below and click OK Input prompt First Name caption Enter nam
92. ertical bar 1 The text to appear in the list 2 The text to be returned in the amp Response variable Syntax Balloons on off lines size fint name Examples Listenfor First thing one Second thing two In this example the user will see First thing and Second thing If he selects First thing the amp Response variable will be set to one Wizard Other Agent Commands Script Command ListenFor Help Enter words or phrases to listen for Add Delete Insert C Wait C NoWait Default Wait Insert evaluation template Cancel MovelTo Move the character to a different position on the screen Location may be specified as either an X Y value pair horizontal vertical as a percent of screen 0 100 or as any logical combination of the words Upper Center Lower Left and Right For example at Upper Left The location 50 50 is the same as Center 25 25 is the same as Upper Left and so on 36 Reference The speed parameter S is a number equal to zero or larger Higher numbers are slower The default value is 1000 A speed of zero causes the character to be relocated instantaneously without playing its move animation The fastest animated move is a value of 1 The word atspeed may be elided Syntax Moveto location atspeed S Examples Show Peedy at Upper Left Moveto Lower Right Moveto 75 75 Moveto Lower Right atspeed 1 Wizard Other Agent Commands Move
93. erything you need for the CD in a single step Automatic File Scanning CD Prep will now scan through the scripts in your presentation file looking for files that you call including media macros other presentations etc It will automatically include those files on the CD and alter the scripts if necessary to change all paths to the appropriate file locations It also locates and includes any characters used in your scripts The automatic scanning for files works whether or not you use Quick Prep Optional Info and Author buttons The info and author buttons displayed on the dialog box shown when a CD starts are now optional PowerPoint 2003 Viewer You can specify that the CD prepared with CD Prep should always play on the PPT 2003 viewer even if the user has PowerPoint This provides a consistent presentation that does not depend on the version of PowerPoint that the user may have PowerPoint Package for CD If you use the new Package for CD feature in PowerPoint 2003 and specify that folder as your CD Image folder CD Prep will automatically re configure the files for use with Vox Proxy However CD Prep will now perform the most important functions of Package for CD so it should not be necessary 130 CD Prep Linked Files with CD Prep applies to Vox Proxy version 3 138 or newer CD Prep including QuickPrep will scan your entire presentation for file links It will convert those links to a relative link pointing to
94. es Show Paul at Left Center Show nowait Merlin at right center SoundEffects off Congratulate Paul say nowait Congratulations to Wizard Other Agent Commands Sound Effects Help Turn agent character sound effects on or off Insert Cancel Speak Same as Say except that the text is not filtered by the Pronunciation Dictionary The optional wait or nowait parameter will over ride the default behavior Syntax 43 Vox Proxy Documentation Speak wait nowait text Examples Speak Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country Wizard N A Stop Stop the active character This command is normally used to stop a looping animation Stop does NOT wait for any previous character speech or action Example Show Genie at center StartTimer temp Processing WaitFor temp 5 SCOP say Sorry I got lost in the universe Note that you must start the timer before playing the looping animation in this case processing Stop will stop any character speech or animation as soon as it is encountered and does NOT wait for any previous character speech or action so if you do not allow time for completion of the character activity it could be lost For example Show Genie at center Say Hello I am the Genie STOP say Goodbye In this case all you will hear is Goodbye because the first line of speech gets stopped before it has a chance to play Think Display the spec
95. ess Quick Prep Talk to me Bacl Next gt Cancel Here you may opt to run Quick Prep which will create the CD image folder in one easy step You should NOT run Quick Prep if you need to set up info and author buttons or edit the copyright notices QuickPrep If you select the Quick Prep option you will go directly to a special finish screen that appears similar to the following 137 Vox Proxy Documentation lid CD Prep Wizard File View Tools Help 1 What is the presentation file SI SS PLNVosProse PPT Sdemo ppt Browse 2 Where shall we save your files c program files vox proxy cdimage Browse Click the Finish button to create the files needed to burn the CD When buming the CD do not copy the image folder itself but copy all files and folders WITHIN it Talk to me Finish Cancel Just confirm that the current presentation file is the one you want to use tell it the folder name in which to save all files and click Finish That s it CD Image Folder When you finish setting up a CD layout the actual files and data are saved in a folder called the CD Image folder on your hard drive You will then use your CD R burner software to copy the contents of this image folder onto the CD If you specify an existing folder name the program will not delete the contents of this folder when it copies the CD layout files into it so you should be sure that it does not contain extr
96. etre dde 25 Selecting character Sunan see dave ii A A A Dr RRETRDR Velde o 25 Character IMAGES in A aie Vaan tea ele ra RENE ber tee 25 MACK OS oia A nas 27 INTFOUCTON TO MACOS TEE 27 The Macro Mena EIE 27 Tailles Beso EUER 29 Mu hs cM m 31 Character commands reso rena a a aa DX guns a ERa Fa E EE WE In IR A an ga PEDRES 31 Balloon Si 2 terere solet uti A aeri da uta a de Dd 31 DI ELE 31 Dp O 32 GOES Ca A A A A ae O diam at teeta 32 alf 33 IdleAnimiatioris s iiu cide aa tese tratan A test iM aad ERR Le pr Ra dee Fouad 33 Tntefr pt arnon PETERET 34 PON QU AGES cio PETS 34 Hr METER 35 LIN Oi a A A A IER d ER TFT OS 36 Move TO zie uns e a e Goa lc daeansaue 36 NoBallOOrlS a tir o elias 37 POINCA me 38 SAY A A t taies cera eR PL windy denen Ut D DE Pr teta edd Ea MADE 38 SPA Ie URL ES 39 rez 1E esie 40 SHOW Mr A ied tied A Ai 41 clip er 42 So ndEffects ui a itta the haan A a Foe age e ter a deen i 43 cC i Q 43 SEO Di ci ederet E A A a a S Do Vade bor ai oe 44 bee 44 WIRSEBGIEIS ecu ccostese ae bed dE 45 Wallet A A a tado 46 Vox Proxy Documentation WaitcommandS aesan an A A E Sonnet oe 46 COn unicas A E EAEE T 47 File References in VOXIPFOXY iii A ta 47 General Rules fOr Scripts oec ern etit A O A a 48 fes To MEET miii A A A e 49 Random Phrases and Animations
97. g See also the timeout preference item Syntax Interrupt character name Examples Show Genie at center Processing Show Peedy at right center nowait Say nowait What are you doing Genie Interrupt Genie Genie say whatever Wizard Other Agent Commands Language Specify the language to be spoken by the currently active character name may be any of the following 1 A valid language name with or without quotes 2 The numeric language code for example US English 1033 3 The hexadecimal language code in format amp amp Hxxxx for example US English is amp amp H0409 A TTS engine for the specified language must be installed on your system If an appropriate TTS engine is not found it will use the character s default speech engine Syntax Language name decimal code hex code Examples Language French 34 Reference Language 1036 Language amp amp H040C Wizard Other Agent Commands A drop down list of languages is displayed Select the desired language and press Insert Note that the drop down list contains all possible languages not just those that are installed on your computer Select Text To Speech Engine Help Select the ttsengine to be spoken then click Insert Click Test to listen to how the engine sounds Adult Female 1 French L amp H Adult Male 1 French L amp H Adult Female 1 Brazilian Portuguese L amp H Adult Male 1 Brazilian Portuguese L amp H AT
98. ge them Pre defined variables include Date and time related variables amp date Date in form January 1 2005 amp time Time in form 2 00pm amp day Day of week in form Monday amp month Month in form January amp year Year in form 2005 amp tod Time of day in form morning afternoon or evening Directory path variables Several pre defined variables are provided for directory paths These variables do NOT end with a back slash so when you use them you should supply the back slash as appropriate 91 Vox Proxy Documentation amp tempdir Contains the path to the Windows temp folder on the user s computer For use in CD Prep scripts to locate files temporarily copied to the user s hard drive amp windir Contains the path to the user s Windows folder amp appdir c program files vox proxy amp chardir c windows msagent chars amp DiskDrive current default disk drive amp macrodir c program files vox proxy macros amp mediadir c program files vox proxy media amp presdir c program files vox proxy presentations amp tempdir windows temp folder amp windir windows folder amp DiskDrive Contains the drive letter of the default drive and a colon It is used in presentations to be played on CD Prep disks to determine the drive on which the CD is playing Presentation related variables amp pptpath Contains the path to the currently acti
99. ht click on the Office Assistant and select Choose Assistant Select and install any desired Office Assistant characters 2 Using Windows Explorer copy the office assistant character files to the msagent chars directory Locate your default office directory For Office 2003 this is usually program files Microsoft Office Office11 Locate and tag all agent character files all files with extension ACS If you don t see the character files locate them using Search Copy those files into the agent character directory This is windows msagent chars Once you have copied the office assistant characters into the agent characters directory they will automatically show up in Vox Proxy s character list Although these characters do not speak they can provide many colorful and interesting animations on your slides Notice that many animations of office assistants are selected at random from several alternatives so that selecting the same animation several times may result in different behavior Beware A number of the animations for Office Assistant characters are looping animations so be sure to use the loop option and have a timeout set in Tools Preferences or otherwise set a custom timer to stop the looping animation at a specific time To test whether an animation is looping open the Character Gallery display the office assistant character and click the Preview button Look at each animation and observe whether it repeats or c
100. i A A A A A toate a A 123 Delivering Presentations on the Web ooocococncncnnncncncnnnnnncncnnnnnanannnrnrnnnnenenrnrnrnrnrninnns 123 Bee 125 Character Behavior REPE a Sead A Ata ened dis 125 Miscellaneo US A ies tees 127 PowerPoint BEHAVIOR ici A a ba 127 CGD PrEP antiin ta ts la ia dad a 129 TOO UN A aci 129 What s new ir Version a a ru 130 Presentation Guidelines cesesseseeeeeeeennne nennen memes nemen arenas nnn 131 The PowerPoint 2003 Viewer cececcecece eect nent nennen memes messe snas massas nnne 132 SAA A E cn sees ana alata svar voade dana AEA 132 Minimum Requirements for Playback cccceeee eect eee eee eee eee eee eee e ene 133 Recommended aiios A a inde distaste dnd 134 How the CD will iE 134 Vox Proxy Documentation Administrative Rights and other XP ISSUES 0ooccccococococononnnnnncncnnnnancnnnnnananananrnennananenes 136 The CD Prep Wizard nissan A A ia Aaa 136 Introduction to the CD Prep Wizard ooococccncncncncncnnnncncnnononennrnrnraranannnrnnnarnananinrnrnnanenes 136 CDA OU tit O AA A A O A Ea 137 QUICKPTED vicio a A A a sc 137 CD Image FOIA Cais tees ici rd A A A A a ni 138 Single Presentation or MenNU ooocncccanacnoncnsonanonanancaracionononannananca nana ra nasa naa ra re sana da nna 138 Menu BUS lies 138 CD FICS ii A ai na 139 Characters P TEE 141 Languages M TT 142 Inpadi c TM 142 Wdaldd se PEE 143 CD Startup Message and Copyright sensro riesia eee ee eee eene nemen nn
101. ide command immediately after several characters hide you should make the character with the longest hide animation hide last Otherwise the slide change will occur before the characters are fully hidden and they can re appear on the following slide 2 Let a character start speaking while another is moving There is only one tricky thing to be aware of when using nowait for speech Many animations are accompanied by sound effects These sounds can step on the speech of another character The general rule is that the speech engine will not allow two characters to have simultaneous sounds or 122 Tips and Techniques speech And usually the first sound to be encountered will suppress any other character s sound that tries to play after it starts There are two ways around this when using speech in Vox Proxy One is to shut off animation sound effects This can be accomplished either on the Preference menu item or by using the SoundEffects off command in your script The other way is just to make sure that the speech starts BEFORE the animation sound effect Consider these two versions of the same script Show Merlin at right center Show nowait Paul at Center Merlin search Paul say nowait Hey Merlin What are you looking for Show Paul at Center Show nowait Merlin at right center Paul say Hey Merlin What are you looking for Merlin search nowait Merlin s search animation is accompanied by the sound of bells In the firs
102. ides or slides Fonts can be selected but are limited to available fixed pitch fonts Windows shortcut key is Control P Exit Closes the Script Writer Help menu Vox Proxy Help Displays this documentation file 108 Script Writer Tutorials Displays a menu of macros which run tutorial presentation slide shows WEB Support Displays several links which navigate to specified web sites such as Microsoft s PowerPoint home page Register Displays a registration form showing the software owner and serial number The Trialware version of Vox Proxy may be registered by entering the purchased software serial number here Download PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Links to the Microsoft download site for the free PowerPoint 2003 viewer Readme Displays the software readme file License Displays a copy of the software click license for Vox Proxy Speech Install TTS Languages Displays a menu of TTS engines in available languages Select a language to install the TTS engine and appropriate documentation The documentation for Speech Normalization for the selected language is saved as a Microsoft Word document in the speech folder program files vox proxy speech This documentation explains pronunciation issues such as numbers abbreviations and so on according to the selected speech context see Address Context or E mail Context TTS Help Displays a Help File containing Speech Normalization information for English
103. ifference between the Show command and the show animation In the midst of a script if you want an already visible character to perform its show animation you must use the Do command Show Peedy at center Say Let me fly back in for you Do show Hiding Characters Like Show there is both a Hide command as well as a Hide animation By default when you use the Hide command in a script the character automatically plays its Hide animation You can avoid the Hide animation by using the Disappear command rather than Hide Idle Animations When characters are on the screen without speaking or moving for more than a few seconds they default to randomly playing their idle animations animations whose names begin with idle You can change the default to turn off idle animations in preferences and you can turn them on and off in your script using the IdleAnimations command Sound Effects Some animations are accompanied by a sound called sound effects Sound effects can also be turned off in preferences as well as in your script using the SoundEffects command Wait Options Normally animations will not play until the previous character s speech or animation is complete The nowait option allows the command to be acted on without waiting for the previous character For example to allow Peedy and Merlin to hide at the same time Merlin Hide Peedy Hide nowait Also see wait options in the Reference General section Looping Anima
104. ified text in a thinking word balloon but do not speak it Rules for use are the same as Say The optional wait or nowait parameter will over ride the default behavior Syntax Think wait nowait text Examples Think Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country Wizard Other Agent Commands 44 Reference Think command Help Type the text to be shown in the field below then click Insert C Wait Nowai Default Wait Insert Cancel TTSEngine Select a specific speech engine for the selected character The clsid is a formatted string defined by the speech vendor that uniquely identifies the engine s mode A list of available speech engines detected on your computer is shown in the wizard form A TTS engine for the specified language must be installed on your system If an appropriate TTS engine is not found it will use the character s default speech engine Syntax TTSEngine clsid Examples TTSEngine 33f7d612 a2ea 4d6e 8585 112AF0C4491A Wizard Other Agent Commands Select Text To Speech Engine Help Select the ttsengine to be spoken then click Insert Click Test to listen to how the engine sounds ATT 1 4 DTNV julia16 ATT 1 4 DTNV reiner15 ATT 1 4 DTNV rich16 ATT 1 4 DTNV mike ATT 1 4 DTNV alberto Test Insert Cancel 45 Vox Proxy Documentation Wait Causes the script to wait at this point until the active character has c
105. ion with a character Click a WaitForClick For some specific examples and instructions for several applications using Click and WaitForClick see Interacting with PowerPoint in the Tips and Techniques section Starting and Stopping Slide Shows You can start a new slide show or end the current slide show using these commands RunSlideShow EndShow Note that as an alternative to RunSlideShow you may also start a second slide show using an action setting on a slide object In this way you can prepare a menu of buttons or other objects each of which will invoke a different slide show Miscellaneous One additional feature is the WriteShapeText command which provides the ability to write text directly from your script into a text object on a slide An example of this feature would be to use the Input command to ask the user for his her name and then write the name into a text field on the slide An important limitation of this feature is that it will not work when played from the PowerPoint Viewer Guide to your First Script Creating A Slide Script The Script Writer is the place where you create and edit slide scripts Follow these simple steps to create your first script 1 Open a new presentation in PowerPoint or open an existing presentation file and navigate to the slide you wish to create the script on This is important If you start creating a script without a presentation file open you will lose that script when
106. isplays a digital clock showing one of the following Time of day a countup timer or a countdown timer While the clock is visible during a slide show it may be deleted at any time by clicking anywhere on it Syntax DisplayClock at X Y alarm file style clock countup countdown size N timer T bgcolor C fgcolor C hold yes no action release delete Options 1 at location where location is an X Y screen location for the center of the display in percent Default is center 2 alarm file where file is the path and name of an audio file to be played as an alarm for either the timer or countdown options Deefault is no alarm 3 style clock countdown or countup If not specified clock is assumed For clock the following display styles are available 4 clock hh mm ss show seconds 5 clock hh mm do not show seconds 56 Reference 6 clock hh mm am show am pm 7 clock HH mm ss show hours in military 24 hour display 8 size N Relative size of the display where N is an integer number greater than or equal to 1 The default is 10 9 timer T If the style is either a countdown or countup timer this specifies the time limit in either seconds or hr min sec For clock display the timer events will fire after this incremental time elapses from the start of the display 10 bgcolor C Specifies the background color for the display Available colors are red blue green black yellow cyan magenta white gray 11 fgcolor
107. k in PowerPoint 97 the WaitforClick command As an alternative to WaitforClick split your slide into duplicate slides at the points where you want to wait for a click WaitforClick WILL work in the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer The PowerPoint Viewer does not support slide ID numbers In order to work in the Viewer be sure to use slide numbers rather than slide IDs in any GotoSlide commands Custom Animations with the Viewer There is an important exception to the use of Custom Animations in the PowerPoint Viewer the Vox Proxy Viewer support does not permit custom animations that are started automatically with previous as the first animation on a slide Instead you must change the custom animation in PowerPoint to start on click and insert a Click command at the beginning of your Vox Proxy script for that slide Objects with custom animations that follow another object with previous or after previous are handled correctly Linked files Linked Files have nothing to do with Vox Proxy They are files primarily media files that you have inserted as links directly into your presentation in PowerPoint A good example would be an MP3 file or a video file Such files are not embedded into the PPT file but are linked to the actual media files on your computer When you prepare a CD containing such a presentation the links will likely break and the media files will not play from the CD The links must be fixed to make them relative so th
108. lid cell Examples Set amp O ReadExcel file c tests questions xls sheet Sheetl cell B9 Assigns the contents of cell B9 of worksheet Sheet1 of the file c tests questions xls to the variable amp Q Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 70 Reference WJ Read from Excel Help File Browse Leave the file name blank to read from the visible worksheet Worksheet Cell Variable Display Insert Cancel ReadFile This command reads a value from an ini style text file It is normally used with the Set command to assign the value to a variable The value is accessed by specifying the SECTION name and KEY for the value Syntax Set amp variable ReadFile file F section S key K file is the full path and name of an ini style text file S is a valid section in the file K is a valid key Examples The file c program files vox proxy test1 txt contains the following history qi In what year did President Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address q2 q3 The script command to assign question 1 to the variable amp Q would be Set amp O ReadFile file c tests questions txt section history key qgl Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 71 Vox Proxy Documentation I Read File Help File C Program Files Vox Proxy test1 txt Browse Section history Key 01 Wariable al Display Insert Cancel Run Execute a Windows program Syntax Run program options
109. lide Don t call me bird brain Describe Object Copyright 1336 1338 Microsoft DoMagic2 v Close Insert Pearl of Wisdom Link to the Web Site for Pi Yes No Show List of Animations Insert Show Command Insert Moveto Command Properties w With many animations a character either gestures or looks in a certain direction and then holds that state for a period of seconds or until another animation is performed Most of the time characters can speak after it has moved to its animated state For example with most characters you can say GestureLeft Say Look at this picture The character will speak while gesturing Characters cannot speak while they are in the process of moving during an animation However if you have two or more visible characters one character can speak while the other is performing an animation See the discussion of the nowait option You can exploit this technique to speed up the pace of speech and animations in a script Example Show Paul at left center Show Peedy at right center Paul Say nowait I d like to introduce you to my friend Peedy Because of the nowait option after Say Paul will speak while Peedy is in the process of appearing 11 Vox Proxy Documentation Show Animations When you Show a character you are actually running a script command to show the character When the character appears it automatically plays its built in show animation There is therefore a d
110. lide number may be specified either as a relative slide number starting with 1 or a Slide ID Slide ID s are shown in the Wizard form for the GotoSlide command If you use relative slide numbers they must be changed manually if you add or delete slides Slide IDs remain constant with moving or deleting slides and so do not need to be kept updated However the PowerPoint Viewer does not support slide IDs so if you anticipate showing your presentation with the viewer including from CD Prep you should use slide numbers rather than IDs Slide animations do not reset themselves to the unplayed state when navigating with GotoSlide See the discussion on playing self narrated slides containing custom animations 83 Vox Proxy Documentation Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Syntax GotoSlide N Examples Balloons on size 14 font arial lines 5 Balloons off Wizard PowerPoint Commands Goto Slide Help C apl VoxProxy PPT demo ppt Insert Cancel v LastSlide Go to the last slide in the presentation Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Syntax LastSlide Wizard PowerPoint Commands LastSlideViewed
111. lides in your presentation PowerPoint presents us with some challenges If those slides contain objects with custom animations including simple bulleted text when the user views that slide and then later tries to return to it the custom animations will be shown as completed In other words the actions will not replay as they did the first time the slide was visited This will cause problems with self narrated slide shows if you use the Click or WaitforClick commands in your slide script The only way to replay a slide exactly as it originally played is to navigate to it from the slide immediately before it either using the NextSlide command or in PowerPoint by automatically changing slides from the previous slide Consequently one way around the problem is to precede each slide to which the user might re visit with a dummy slide that just immediately goes to the next slide On each dummy slide you can just set the slide transition in PowerPoint to advance after zero seconds Alternatively you could use a VP script containing just the NextSlide command Under some circumstances you may wish to use variables with this navigation For example on each dummy slide you could assign the current slide number to a variable Set amp S amp SlideNumber Then to return to that slide from a subsequent slide you could use GotoSlide amp S Scripting Speech Synthetic speech technology using free TTS engines like those included with Vox Proxy
112. lock is visible Cancel Insert DualMonitor Turns on or off dual monitor support without changing the permanent dual monitor preference item It may be turned on and off within a script This command automatically offsets the X location of characters and forms by 100 It requires that the resolution of each monitor be set the same Syntax DualMonitor on off Examples DualMonitor on Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 58 Reference I WJ DualMonitor command Help Turning dual monitor support ON will displace X values for characters and forms by 100 to the right It works correctly only if the resolution is the same for both monitors e Insert Cancel EndMacro End any currently running macro Close any characters which may be visible If the macro was started from a menu re display the menu Do not use EndMacro in a macro which will be called from another script either a slide script or another macro All executing scripts will be closed by this command NOTE this command is not normally necessary since Vox Proxy automatically closes any macro which is started from a user selected menu Syntax EndMacro Examples Balloons on size 14 font arial lines 5 Balloons off Wizard Miscellaneous Commands GetMacro Retrieves the script for the macro name and inserts it into the current script at this point This is essentially a cut and paste which takes place just before the curr
113. ls at 75 25 size 50 50 cell A3 PointAt Excel Wizard Miscellaneous Commands PointAt Character Help Select the character to point at C Wait C NoWait Default Wait Insert Cancel Say Speak the specified text Text may include various speech tags also see Speech All text is filtered by the Pronunciation Dictionary Variable names in the text are replaced by the variable s value The optional wait or nowait will over ride the default behavior If speech balloons are on the text will also appear in the balloon while it is spoken The character s 38 Reference name may be placed before the Say command to clarify who is speaking If the character s name is not specified the current active character will speak The style character or vertical bar is used to separate alternative phrases to be spoken The TTS will randomly choose to speak one of the phrases This may be useful in a macro which is repeated often in scripts It is common to use variables within lines of speech A common example would be the pre defined variable amp tod Time Of Day You may also use user defined variables such as amp name Syntax character name Say wait nowait text Examples Show Merlin Say Good amp tod Let me show you my cyber magical powers Merlin Say Welcome to the show Say You can change slides now Go ahead to the next slide It s OK to change slides now Next slide I ll wai
114. ludes the menu standard and formatting bars If commandbars are off the document will open readonly Examples ShowWord file c program files vox proxy sample doc at 25 25 size 50 50 commandbars off Wizard Miscellaneous Commands I ShowWord command Help Word Document File Browse Size and location Location Center X 50 S 50 Move on Slide Size MW 50 H o Options Read only MV Show menu and control bars Show Word Insert Cancel StartTimer Sets the start time for a new timer with the name name Once started the WaitFor command can be used to wait until this timer reaches a specific number of seconds StartTimer waits for the completion of the previous character s speech or animation so be sure to start it before starting anything you want to time Syntax StartTimer name Examples StartTimer MyTimer Waitfor MyTimer 0 32 Stop a looping animation Show Genie at center StartTimer temp Processing 78 Reference WaitFor temp 5 Stop say Sorry I got lost in the universe Control an audio file StartTimer temp PlayMedia amp mediaNentertanr mid at 50 50 size NONE controls none volume 100 ontop WaitFor temp 5 MediaVolume 40 5 Say OK let s get Started WaitFor temp 15 CloseMedia Note that you would normally use WaitFor MediaTime T for this application but the custom timer will work as well Wizard Miscellaneous Commands ug Script Comm
115. luel Script to be run if variable equals valuei CASE value2 Script to be run if variable equals value2 etc as many additional CASEs as needed ELSE Script to be run if variable does not equal any of the cases END 90 Reference Examples Show Peedy at Center Say Welcome to Peedy s Pizza Say Would you like Pepperoni Sausage Hawaiian or Veggie ListenFor Pepperoni Sausage Hawaiian Veggie Select amp Respons Case Pepperoni place your Pepperoni script here Case Sausage place your Sausage script here Case Hawaiian place your Hawaiian script here Case Veggie place your Veggie script here SE lace script here for the case where Peedy didn t recognize what the user Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Variables Variables are special words that are used to represent text or numbers within a script Names of variables always begin with an ampersand amp and consist of a single case sensitive word without spaces An example of a variable is date which contains the current date in the form January 1 2005 Another example is amp name which might contain the text Alice Variable can be used within speech text or within other script commands There are two kinds of variables pre defined and user defined Pre defined Variables Pre defined variables are variables that are built into Vox Proxy You can use them wherever variables can be used but you cannot chan
116. m files vox proxy presentations 3 The Vox Proxy application folder c program files vox proxy 4 The folder from which Vox Proxy was started Variables Variables containing search paths include amp appdir c program files vox proxy amp chardir c windows msagent chars current default disk drive c program files vox proxy macros amp mediadir c program files vox proxy media amp presdir c program files vox proxy presentations amp tempdir windows temp folder windows folder General Rules for Scripts All commands and character names are NOT case sensitive Say SAY and say are all equivalent Before a character can speak or play an animation it must first be visible Hidden characters will move but not speak Before a character takes any action it automatically waits for any previous character to complete its action You may over ride this default using the nowait parameter Atypical script to show a character perform an animation and say something would look like this Show Peedy Ese Say Hi My name is Peedy Screen location is specified in one of two ways 1 Two numbers from 0 to100 X and Y values representing the relative horizontal and vertical positions of the character on the screen 2 Any logical combination of the words Upper Center Lower Left and Right For example at Upper Left The location 50 50 is the same as Center 25 25 is the same as
117. mations are played randomly after several seconds of inaction by the character L Linked file A file that is not embedded in the presentation but is located from a file link a URL Uniform Resource Locator consisting of the absolute path the drive folder and file name or the relative path relative to the location of the presentation file where 151 Vox Proxy Documentation the file exists When the presentation is shown PowerPoint follows the link to open and display or play the file List box A dialog box containing a list of items from which the end user may make a selection The dialog box is displayed during a slide show and the selection result can be acted upon in the script See the ListBox command Looping animation A character animation that loops until it is explicitly stopped Animation names usually end with ing Special care must be taken using looping animations Macro A Vox Proxy script that is saved in a file rather than a PowerPoint slide Macro files can be executed directly from Windows by opening the macro file They can be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation file or another macro file Message box A dialog box that can be displayed to the user during a slide show The message box displays a text message and can have several optional response buttons The user s response can be captured and acted upon in the script Microsoft Agent Microsoft Agent is a character technology used by Vox Proxy I
118. menu in any of the same ways that you would interrupt a macro see Interrupting a macro 30 Reference Character commands Balloons Turn on or off the speech balloons that are displayed when a character speaks or thinks Also allows selection of the balloon font and font size and whether the balloons should be a fixed length or automatically sized according to the spoken text Syntax Balloons on off lines size font name Optional parameters onor off default on lines default auto sized specify a fixed number of lines for the balloon size If this is not specified the balloons will be auto sized according to the text displayed size Specify the text size in points font name Specify the name of the font Examples Balloons on size 14 font arial lines 5 Balloons off Wizard Other Agent Commands Speech Balloon Options Help Show Balloons Yes No Insert Iv Sizeto Text Lines E H Cancel Comic Sans MS Size 12 E Disappear Make the currently active character disappear This command closes the character and does not play the character s Hide animation This may be useful if the character s Hide animation is lengthy or plays unwanted sounds 31 Vox Proxy Documentation Do The active character performs an animation This command is not normally necessary because the default command is to perform a character animation by that name The optional wait or n
119. mmand ReadExcel always reads the text of the cell whereas amp excelChangeValue may receive a numeric value depending on the cell properties If you want the character to say the value it is recommended that you use ReadExcel rather than amp excelChangeValue Syntax onExcelChange RunMacro macro where macro is the name and optional path of a Script Macro Example In the slide script Show Paul at Bottom Left ShowExcel file amp pres mortgage xls at 70 70 sheet Sheet1 cell A1 size 40 40 onExcelChange RunMacro xlchange GestureLeft Say Go ahead and change something in the worksheet In the macro xlchange Set amp newvalue ReadExcel cell amp excelChangeCell Say You changed the value of cell amp excelChangeCell to amp newvalue PlayFlash Play a Macromedia Shockwave Flash movie in a window Note this uses and requires the Macromedia Flash Player Use the CloseFlash command to close the flash window Syntax PlayFlash file at X Y size align scale loop close Options are 1 file file name swf 2 at location as screen Default 50 50 Location is at the CENTER of the form 3 size width height as screen Default 50 50 4 align LTRB Aligns the movie with the Left Top Right and or Bottom of the form Any combination is valid Default is to display the movie in the center of the form 5 scale X Options for X are 65 Vox Proxy Documentation ShowA
120. mp media for the location of any media files in your scripts For example PlayMedia amp mediaNstsl1001launch 56 asf at 50 50 hold size 1 4 controls some volume 100 ontop The same can be done for presentation files using the variable amp presdir Delivering Presentations on the Web 123 Vox Proxy Documentation Vox Proxy is not designed as a web delivery tool However if the visitors to your web page have installed the free and downloadable Vox Proxy Player software they can play presentations saved on your web site In order to do so you do not create a link directly to the PPT file or Windows Explorer will ignore Vox Proxy and play the presentation in PowerPoint only Instead you create a link to a simple Vox Proxy Script Macro that runs the presentation Here s how 124 From the Script Writer click the Macro tab then click the New button on the Macro Menu Type into the Script Edit window the following line RunSlideShow url Where url is the complete url to the PPT file on your web site http wherever file ppt Click the Save button or File Save on the Script Writer and give the macro file a name Since it will be on the web it is best not to use spaces in the name A small file will be saved with that name and the extension VPM in the folder program files vox proxy macros Upload that macro file to your web site Place a link to that file on your web page When a visitor clicks on that link and sele
121. mp mediadir Vox Proxy s media folder This corresponds to program files Nvox proxy media on your system amp tempdir The windows temp folder on the end user s computer where the CD is playing Any files listed in the temp folder on the CD will be copied into this folder when the CD starts and deleted when the CD ends amp presdir Vox Proxy s presentations folder This corresponds to program files Nvox proxy presentations on your system amp windir The windows folder on the computer where the CD is playing amp pptpath The folder where the PowerPoint presentation resides on the computer where the CD is playing This would normally be amp DiskDrive presentations Note that with Vox Proxy release version 3 138 or newer you do not need to worry about linked files inserted in your PowerPoint presentation CD Prep will automatically detect such links fix them to be relative to the CD drive and include the files in the CD Image folder Custom Animations with the Viewer There is an important exception to the use of Custom Animations in the PowerPoint Viewer the Vox Proxy Viewer support does not permit custom animations that are started automatically with previous as the first animation on a slide Instead you must change the custom animation in PowerPoint to start on click and insert a Click command at the 131 Vox Proxy Documentation beginning of your Vox Proxy script for that slide Objects with
122. n If you want to see the character in a particular animation pointing or gesturing for example so that when you position him on the slide he will be pointing precisely where you want click on the Preview button You may also right click on any visible character and choose Animations from the character s menu Drag the character wherever you want Right click on the character and select Insert Moveto or Insert Show An appropriate command will be inserted into your script text Repeat the last two steps as needed each time relocating the cursor to the appropriate place in your script 22 Character Gallery Previewing Animations While a character is displayed in the gallery window press the Preview button A list of animations available for that character will appear similar to the following V Paul s Animations gat aZ Close Insert As you scroll through each animation in the list the character will demonstrate it If you are creating or editing a script and the Script Writer is visible you may insert any selected animation commands at this time by pressing the Insert button Properties Press the Properties button to display the character property form Properties that are set in this form become defaults for the specified character 23 Vox Proxy Documentation WJ Character Preferences for Paul Voice Speech Balloons Size Other gt Voice Selection Language E
123. n 143 ship 144 Burning the CDi eite ei pM ee pere PI UNE IR PR M Te ER PENSA ERR 145 CD DIAGNOSTICS wre em 146 Copytrights arid trademarks ii a in 149 COSSA A A A Aa a wae aa 151 MAA A a A dad 155 vi Introduction 3 D Talking Animated VOX PROXY Characters V for PowerPoint Welcome to Vox Proxy Vox Proxy is a user oriented authoring and playback system for scripting 3 D talking animated characters and other advanced multi media features in Microsoft PowerPoint slide shows For authoring it works with PowerPoint 2000 or newer For playback it works with any version of PowerPoint as well as the free PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Though a PowerPoint add in the Vox Proxy menu appears in PowerPoint and allows you to create and edit your scripts side by side with your slides Scripting is click simple with Vox Proxy s comprehensive Script Writer and Script Wizard Vox Proxy works through scripts that are saved in each slide of the presentation file We give you some basics about scripts and an introduction to character speech and animations An extensive reference section provides details about each Vox Proxy script command Previous users of Vox Proxy should check out What s new in Version 3 To get started quickly look at the step by step Guide to your first script For information on playing your Vox Proxy presentations on other computers read about the Vox P
124. n a slide Instead you must change the custom animation in PowerPoint to start on click and insert a Click command at the beginning of your Vox Proxy script for that slide Objects with custom animations that follow another object with previous or after previous are handled correctly 128 CD Prep Introduction The purpose of the CD Prep program is to create a CD R that will auto start on an end user s computer and run slide shows with Vox Proxy scripts without requiring the user to have first installed the Vox Proxy Player The CD Prep program creates a CD image folder on your hard drive that contains all of the files and folders to be placed on the CD It includes the necessary Vox Proxy Player files as well as the PowerPoint Viewer You will use your CD burner software to copy those files and folders to the CD The Vox Proxy CD Prep program supports running PowerPoint presentations and or Vox Proxy Script Macros CDs created with CD Prep can be configured to run automatically from the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer bundled on the CD so that it will run the same whether the user has PowerPoint or not Please be aware that there are many issues involving the end user s computer and configuration which could cause the presentations on the CD not to work properly Some of those are discussed below You should also be aware that the CD you will distribute is not a zero footprint application Although your presentation files and the Vox Proxy
125. n on the menu of available presentations This file is intended to be an HTML file but may also be an ATF or text file Provide the name of that file in the Info file field If the Info file is in HTML and contains graphic images or other linked files be sure to include those files in the support files list below IV Display Info button Caption Info Info file C APLWVoxProxy InfoFiles cddinfo htm Browse Support CAAPLWYoxProxyMnfoFileswplogo with tom JPG Delete To see what the user will see click here Info Sample Talk to me lt Back Next gt Cancel Author File You may designate a file similar to the Info file described above for the purpose of identifying the author s of your presentations Like the Info file this can be an HTML RTF or text file CD Startup Message and Copyright When the CD auto starts it displays a dialog box to the user allowing him her to continue with the autostart or not Copyright messages are displayed on this screen which appears similar to the following 143 Vox Proxy Documentation lid co Prep Wizard Menu File View Tools Help When the CD first starts it will display a general startup message and copyright information and allow the user to approve or decline the CD startup Enter or edit the general startup message and your copyright information here In addition to your own copyright information some additional software copyrights will be displaye
126. n this menu script macro files may be open edited run or embedded into a presentation file or other macro file Menus Tools File location preferences I Preferences Wait Commands File Locations Timeout Language Mise File Types location lp Media files c program files vox proxy media Macro files c program files vox proxy macros Presentation files c program files vox proxy presentations Character files C AWINDOW S msagent chars Modify 101 Vox Proxy Documentation Miscellaneous preferences 1d Preferences Wait Commands File Locations Timeout Language Iv Prompt for Export to Notes V Prompt for Export to File Display Tips of the Day Dual Monitor display Idle Animations When agents are idle they play default animations in which they may appear bored and finally go to sleep This allows you to turn off those idle animations Play Idle Animations Yes No C m Sound Effects When agent characters appear and move on the screen there may be sound effects to accompany those actions Those sound effects in some circumstances can interfere with another character s speech This preference allows you to turn off the sound effects Sound Effects on Yes No C Prompt for export to notes Prompt for export to file Display tips of the day Dual monitor display Idle Animations When characters are idle on the screen they randomly play a series of animations called
127. nd or the character s lips will react to any background noise Users of AT amp T Natural Voices can generate wav files directly from the AT amp T TTS engine in two ways 1 The SayWav wizard The wizard will allow you to specify a file name and generate the file from the speech text entered 2 Convert Speech to Wav Files feature on the Tools menu of the Script Writer This feature will convert all speech of a specified character throughout your presentation and will modify each Say command in your script to use the newly created wav files This feature is especially important for distributing disks created with CDPrep since the AT amp T license does not permit distribution of the TTS engine itself Character Animation Characters animations are performed from a list of pre rendered movements Each character has its own list of available animations many of which are common The animations for any character may be previewed from the Character Gallery In addition any time a character is visible on the screen you may right click on the character and select Show list of animations from the menu 10 Introduction UJ Character Gallery File Tools Help Right click a character for more options Ul Peedy s Animations J x Open Yoice Commands Window Hide Stop Stop AlliGo away Who am I Character Description am your Read text from the clipboard Peedy for short and very fond c i A misi Describe S
128. nd writes a value to an ini style text file It is normally used to write the contents of a variable The value is written by specifying the SECTION name KEY and VALUE If the specified section and key names are new they will be created in the file If the file does not exist it will be created Syntax WriteFile file F section S key K value 8var file is the full path and name of an ini style text file S is a valid section in the file 81 Vox Proxy Documentation K is a valid key value is either a constant or the name of an existing variable Examples You are keeping count of the number of incorrect answers to a question in the variable amp Count and wish to write the value into the history section of the file c tests questions txt WriteFile file c tests questions txt section history key wrong value amp Count Wizard Miscellaneous Commands WJ Write File Help File c tests questions txt Browse Section history Key wrong Value amp Cdunt Display Insert Cancel PowerPoint commands Click Send a mouse click to PowerPoint to start the next custom animation on the slide If the slide does not contain another custom animation it will cause PowerPoint to change slides This command is used in self narrated slides or slide shows to control the custom animations on the slide It is important the custom animation be set in PowerPoint to start on click and that timings are not used in
129. ndent Syntax ShowExcel file sheet cell at X Y size readonly displayoptions Options The option names are not case sensitive 1 file file name xls Default an empty sheet 2 sheet sheet name Default Sheet1 3 cell cell reference to activate Default A1 4 at location as screen 9o Default 50 50 Location is at the CENTER of the Excel form 5 size X Y as screen Default 50 50 75 Vox Proxy Documentation 6 readonly If not specified read write unless commandbars are off then readonly The following options specify window display options for the Excel window The options for each are on or Off 7 FormulaBar on off 8 MenuBar on off 9 StandardToolBar on off 10 FormattingToolBar on off 11 Headings on off Row and Column headings 12 WorkBookTabs on off 13 VScrollBar on off Vertical scroll bar 14 HScrollBar on off Horizontal scroll bar 15 GridLines on off Examples ShowExcel file c program files vox proxy sample xls at 25 25 size 50 50 sheet january FormulaBar off MenuBar off StandardToolBar off FormattingToolBar off WorkBookTabs off ShowExcel file http www voxproxy com downloads vptest xls at 25 25 size 50 50 sheet january FormulaBar off MenuBar off StandardToolBar off FormattingToolBar off WorkBookTabs off Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 76 Reference I ShowExcel command Help m Worksheet Excel File Browse Worksheet Activate cell
130. nglish Y TTS Engine NOTE Some TTS engines do not permit changes in pitch or speed or have different high and low limits Defaults Voice Pitch I Default Low Normal High r Voice Speed Default Slow Test Speech Welcome to Vox Proxy Test Character defaults include Voice Defaults Language TTS Engine Pitch NOTE AT amp T Natural Voices do not support pitch changes Voice Speed Speech Balloons Show balloons on or off Balloon size Font Font size Other Character size Idle animations on or off Sound effects on or off 24 Character Gallery You can embed a character s properties into your presentation PPT file by clicking on the embed button In this way if you copy the presentation file and run it on another computer the character properties will be preserved These properties are saved in a special file along with other system preferences The file is C program files vox proxy voxproxy dat If you copy this file to another computer that has Vox Proxy or the Vox Proxy Player installed on it it will overlay all preferences and character properties on the other computer Removing a Character You may remove a character from the screen in any of several ways 1 If the Script Writer is visible you can remove all characters from the screen by clicking on the Close Agent Characters button located on the standard toolbar
131. nsist of a single word but the text in variables may be longer Variable name amp org Variable text the Jefferson County Public Library Sample line of script Say Welcome to amp org A variable may contain other variables Variable name amp greet Variable text Say Good amp tod amp speaker Sample line of script Say amp greet Welcome to amp org In Directory Paths Anywhere you refer to media files Macros or other files it is often a good idea to use a variable for the path rather than to hard code the path to a location on your hard drive Several pre defined variables are provided for this purpose see above Example PlayWav wait amp Media APPLAUSE WAV To Capture Input Variables are the only way to capture input from the user Several commands in Vox Proxy automatically assign user input to the variable amp Response ListBox Listen ListenFor MessageBox The Input command will assign data to any user defined variable defaulting to amp Response After using any of the above commands you can re assign the data to a user defined variable of your choice Example Set amp Name Respons In Calculations Numeric variables can be used in a variety of calculations For example if you have a quiz and you would like to keep score you can use a variable such as amp Score to accumulate the total At the beginning of the quiz you would set the value to zero Set amp Score 0 93 Vox Pro
132. ntation wherein the characters explain the basics of how to use Vox Proxy The tutorial files reside in the folder program files vox proxy presentations As a useful exercise you may open each tutorial and use the Script Writer to examine its scripts Help The online help file for Vox Proxy Script Basics Scripts are simply a list of text commands describing the actions and speech that you want performed by a character All of the commands in a script can be entered using drop down menus from the Vox Proxy Script Wizard Only the speech text itself must be entered from the keyboard Here is a simple Vox Proxy Script Introduction Show Peedy at center Crec Say I hope you enjoy the show Hide Scripts can be saved in three ways With PowerPoint slides In text files called Script Macros Embedded in either PowerPoint presentation files or in Script Macros PowerPoint Slide Scripts PowerPoint scripts are kept in the presentation file itself in what may be thought of as a hidden text box in each slide The script text box can be edited only using the Script Writer Each slide in the presentation has its own script Characters shown from the script in a particular slide will remain on the screen until explicitly hidden which may be in the same slide or any subsequent slide Script Macros Macros are just Vox Proxy scripts that have been saved into text files with a file extension of VPM and are normally lo
133. o WAY audio files using the selected AT amp T Natural Voices voice Each line of speech creates a separate WAY file which is saved in the Vox Proxy media folder Your script will be modified automatically You should save your presentation file with a new name to avoid losing the original version Character Voice y Mike Engish START CONVERSION OK Cancel Example Script before conversion Show Paul at Left Center say This Is Links il Script after conversion Show Paul at Left Center SayWav This is Links 1 amp mediaNpaul mike A Slidel l wav The file paul mike A Slide1 1 wav was create in the process and saved into the default media folder Edit menu Undo Undo the last insertion into the script ut Cut the script text currently selected Saves into the Windows clipboard Copy Copy the currently selected script text into the Windows clipboard Paste Paste the text contents of the Windows clipboard into the script at the current cursor position Find and Replace The find and replace feature is also available by pressing control F while in the Script Writer Find and replace will work on the current slide or macro or on all slides in a presentation The find and replace form appears similar to the following 107 Vox Proxy Documentation li Script Find and Replace Find Replace Find what Search this slide C Search all slides Match case of string
134. ocation where X and Y are percent of screen see Show 3 Display size One of the following default 1 4 size 1X as authored size 2X twice authored size size 1 16 1 16 of screen area size 1 4 1 4 of screen area size 1 2 1 2 of screen area size FS full screen 53 Vox Proxy Documentation 4 One of the following scaling options tile scale unscaled Example Bitmap C my files picture bmp at 25 25 size 1 16 scale Bitmap c program files vox proxy media Clouds bmp at 50 50 scale size 1 4 Bitmap Clouds bmp at 50 50 scale size 1 4 Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Bitmap Help Bitmap File C NaplVvosProxy S amplesClouds bmp Scaling C Tile Scaled Unscaled Screen Size C Authored Size Qne quarter of Screen C Twice Authored Size One half of Screen C Dne sixteenth of Screen C Full Screen Insert Cancel CloseBitmap Close the display of a bitmap file Syntax CloseBitmap file Specify the name of the bitmap file to close in quotes Examples CloseBitmap c program files vox proxy media Clouds bmp CloseBitmap Clouds bmp Wizard Miscellaneous Commands lil Close Bitmap Bitmaps sanl voxproxy samples clouds bmp Cancel 54 Reference CloseExcel Closes the Microsoft Excel window that was opened by the ShowExcel command Takes effect after the active character is finished whatever it is doing Syntax CloseExcel
135. ock eet 100 Slide ope 100 Macho Tabzcs E Mo ted MI I MEME han 101 MENUS A PR P ER e E coals a a E ue Medusae a Wat A a dryer EN RA ET Gouna 101 DIEM E 101 File location preferences inn a N Aa suas rea psa pice gage Furia Fa pica nura 101 Miscellaneous Preferences umi sae hd dana cesta eR ne Fa KR ERE RI RAE Va NE E aaa dea 102 Preferences dicbus ee a DM II iD MBIcm ea ERI D HM sede dans arcu epo baa cad ERAN 102 PRONUNCIATION a Per A A A A A AA A A EE 103 Variables Mainteriance ucc A Ce swa ent Mex Ma cx RR M dasa dae ded 104 Wait Preferences id Get pees 105 Convert TO WaVioc taria ad aaia ie Dew e eL SRM ge ETE a a AAA caus a 106 E Dm 107 A Ui os A Oda A se hans Tue ent eo duca bs 107 File Mesa A A de A at Sad deine 108 Help MENU MEE 108 OSEA a A A red vat cuu RR yok acids wean 109 TOOIS MOL ii 110 ME O ON 111 TODA EE 112 Speech Tool ia A A AAA E 113 Standard Tola rai Goa tete es 113 Tools Toolbar srr arpei teeta heed A ae A eed een ea oe aa oes te 114 WIZQaFG uses ia AR AA AA ASA err cleansed ened Hulse A AS 114 TIPS Toro TECHNIQUES cuco a A A a yews hata 117 Using Office Assistant CharacterS cinnennciononinacacan canas ra 117 Miscellaneous Character Techniques oococococococnnnonencnnnnnnnnnnnnnnananrnrnrnrnnenrnrnrrrnrnrnrnnns 117 Interacting With PowerPoints iae aae a aA tia 118 Navigating im POwWerPolNt nesen a lesa aai Ua a DE miim ESENS 120 Scripting Pee E 120 Using Multiple Characters voii end 122 NETWOFKINO PS c
136. oes an amazingly good job of determining when the word object should be pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable and when it should be on the second But it isn t perfect perfect is another one of those words When you test these words in the Pronunciation Dictionary you may have to enter several words or the whole sentence in order to determine how the TTS engine will pronounce it Many other tools are available to work with pronunciation See individual descriptions for the Power Scripting Menu and the Speech Toolbar Using speech tags you can emphasize a specific word or change the character of speech whisper and monotone Also on the Speech Toolbar are Context buttons called address and E mail For U S English these buttons are the same Context primarily affects the way the engine speaks numbers punctuation and abbreviations Web addresses for example require use of the context tag In order to review these pronunciation rules in detail see Help Speech TTS Help on the Script Writer menu Additional tools are available in the Script Wizard s Say Something button There you can vary the speed of speaking as well as its pitch A couple of other tips that may be somewhat obscure The Speak command works exactly like Say except that it bypasses the Pronunciation Dictionary If you want to illustrate a mispronounced phrase for example you might use the same line of text with both commands Say C est
137. olbar appears similar to the following Vox Proxy Documentation 112 Speech Wizard X gt Emphasize gt Start Monotone gt Start Whisper gt Start Normal gt Reset to defaults gt Address Context gt E mail Context Test speech Emphasize Insert the speech tag emp at the cursor position in the script Emphasize the next word only Monotone Insert the speech tag Chr Monotone at the cursor position in the script Monotone begins at this point and ends at the end of the current line or when either the Normal or Reset to Defauts tag is encountered Whisper Insert the speech tag Chr Whisper at the cursor position in the script See Monotone Normal Insert the speech tag Chr Normal at the cursor position in the script See Monotone Reset to Defaults Insert the speech tag Rst at the cursor position in the script Address Context Insert the speech tag Ctx Address at the cursor position in the script Any speech on the line following this tag will be pronounced using Address context See the Speech Normalization documentation in the speech folder or on the menu Help Speech for the appropriate language E mail Context Insert the speech tag Ctx E mail at the cursor position in the script Any speech on the line following this tag will be pronounced using E mail context See the Speech Normalization documentation in the speech folder or on the menu Help Speech for the appr
138. ompleted whatever it is doing This can be useful to signal when another character should begin its actions Syntax Wait Examples Paul say Good morning etc etc Wait Say I d like to introduce my friend Merlin Show nowait Merlin at Center In this example Merlin will begin to appear just as Paul starts to introduce him and not before This helps to speed up the activity by simultaneously showing Merlin while Paul is introducing him but not while Paul is making his previous remarks Wizard N A WaitCommands Changes the list of commands for which a character will wait before performing Available commands are Hide Moveto Do or Play Say Speak Show Think GestureAt and Listen If you leave off exclude or include the list should be inclusive This changes the system Preferences in the file and will persist until they are changed back Syntax WaitCommands exclude list Examples WaitCommands Say Do Think Listen WaitCommands exclude Moveto Show WaitCommands include Moveto Show Wizard Other Agent Commands 46 Reference WaitCommands Help Select all desired wait commands then press Insert Gestureat Hide Think Insert Cancel General File References in Vox Proxy Several Vox Proxy commands require referencing a file The syntax of each command is important so please refer to the specific command for the correct syntax Directory paths however are consistent for all comman
139. on Dictionary in order to achieve variations in pronunciation while preserving correct spelling and punctuation Use the Pronunciation Dictionary in the following ways For foreign language words or commonly used made up words that are consistently mispronounced by the TTS engine enter them on the All Presentations page We have included a number of such words such as autoshape and c est la vie as samples Any time Vox Proxy encounters one of these words or phrases in a line of speech it will automatically use your substitute pronunciation Look over and test these examples to get ideas for your own pronunciation adjustments For words that are needed only in the current presentation but throughout it enter them on the This Presentation page Be aware that such entries will cause a special slide to be created to contain that information The special slide will be marked hidden so that it won t be displayed in the slide show For one time pronunciation adjustments use the One time Insertion This will insert a map tag into the line of speech showing both what is to appear in the speech balloon and how it is to be pronounced You can be creative with using this feature For example you can insert pauses into the speech by using commas that don t show up in the speech balloon You will occasionally have to adjust the pronunciation of a word whose emphasis is wrong for the current context The TTS engine for example d
140. ontinues for a long period It is not a good idea to use Vox Proxy characters as office assistant characters In fact as a general rule it is best to turn the office assistant off while using Vox Proxy Miscellaneous Character Techniques Using alternate show animations Most characters use the animation named show when they appear using the Show character command but some do not Some characters have alternate show animations Show2 Here is a technique you can use to make a character seem to appear with any alternative animation First show the character in an off screen location Then move it instantaneously to the desired screen location And finally perform the animation with which you want it to appear Off screen locations are any X or Y values greater than 100 or less than zero Here are two examples The first uses Louis who does not normally appear with his Show animation The second is to make Paul appear using his Show2 animation 117 Vox Proxy Documentation Show Louis at 50 150 Moveto 50 50 O Do show say See I can walk In this case Louis appears using his show animation Louis is one of the rare exceptions in that he does not use his show animation to appear by default Note that the Do show is necessary Show alone will not do the same thing because of the distinction between script commands and character animations Show as the first word on a line is interpreted as the Show command not the sh
141. opriate language Test Speech Test the line of speech where the cursor is in the script Use the character which is current at that point in the script Prompt if the character is not visible Character Gallery Display a dialog box showing all available characters Animations can be demonstrated for each character shown See Character Gallery Close Agent Characters Remove any characters currently displayed on the screen Toolbars Script Writer Speech Toolbar The Speech toolbar is visible as a floating toolbar It contains many of the features of the Speech panel from the Script Wizard When each button is pressed it inserts the appropriate speech tag at the cursor position in the script The Test button is convenient for testing that line of speech in the script The toolbar appears similar to the following Speech Wizard X gt Emphasize gt Start Monotone gt Start Whisper gt Start Normal gt Reset to defaults gt Address Context gt E mail Context g Test speech Emphasize Insert the speech tag emp at the cursor position in the script Emphasize the next word only Monotone Insert the speech tag Chr Monotone at the cursor position in the script Monotone begins at this point and ends at the end of the current line or when either the Normal or Reset to Defauts tag is encountered Whisper Insert the speech tag Chr Whisper at the cursor position in the script See Monotone N
142. ormal Insert the speech tag Chr Normal at the cursor position in the script See Monotone Reset to Defaults Insert the speech tag Rst at the cursor position in the script Address Context Insert the speech tag Ctx Address at the cursor position in the script Any speech on the line following this tag will be pronounced using Address context See the Speech Normalization documentation in the speech folder or on the menu Help Speech for the appropriate language E mail Context Insert the speech tag Ctx E mail at the cursor position in the script Any speech on the line following this tag will be pronounced using E mail context See the Speech Normalization documentation in the speech folder or on the menu Help Speech for the appropriate language Test Speech Test the line of speech where the cursor is in the script Use the character which is current at that point in the script Prompt if the character is not visible Standard Toolbar 113 Vox Proxy Documentation The Standard Toolbar contains buttons for New Open Save Print Undo Copy Cut Paste Tools Toolbar The Tools toolbar is visible on the Script Writer by default It can be moved to other locations on the Script Writer form Individual items on the Tools toolbar are Test For slide scripts this button allows you to test the script on the current slide The active slide will be displayed as a full screen slide show
143. ow animation Do show uses the Do command to perform the show animation Show Paul at 150 50 Moveto 50 50 0 Do show2 Say I can appear in a puff of smoke Paul s Show command performs the show animation by default in which he simply appears on the screen But he has an alternative show2 animation in which he appears in a puff of smoke See also Character Animation Avoid Hide Animations Some characters come with a fairly long Hide animation that advertises its creator Avoid these animations by using the Disappear command rather than Hide Show Plany at bottom left Moveto top right Disappear Interacting with PowerPoint Vox Proxy slide scripts are automatically started as soon as the slide is displayed in a slide show There are several techniques you can use with PowerPoint commands to cause an interaction between the characters PowerPoint animations and the presenter Let s look at some examples Example 1 You want the active character to trigger a click or NextAnimation sometimes called next build on the slide A typical use for this is that the character is acting like the presenter and will bring up some bullets on the slide and talk about each Use the Click command in your script A Click command acts just like clicking the mouse during your presentation Be aware that you must set PowerPoint s Custom Animation for this object so that it is animated by a mouse click not automatic by time For exam
144. owait will over ride the default behavior The following commands are equivalent do Greet Merlin Greet mesi The style character or vertical bar is used to provide a list of alternative animations to be played The program will randomly choose to play one of the animations In the list This may be useful in a slide or macro which is repeated often to provide some variety in the character s actions Syntax Do animation Examples Do Greet Do Explain Greet Explain Announce Wizard Do Something Animations for Paul Help Browse animations to test them To insert into script double click or select and click Insert Continue with any other animations that are consecutive Click Close or Insert amp Close when done Insert Announce Announce Insert amp Close Blink Confused Congratulate Cross rms Decline v C Wai C Nowait Default Wait GetstureAt Causes the active character to gesture toward another visible character on the screen The active character does not move but merely gestures either up down left or right depending upon the selected character s location on the screen 32 Reference Syntax GestureAt name Wizard Other Agent Commands GestureAt Character Help Select the character to gesture at C Wai C Nowait Default Wait Insert Cancel Hide Hides the character If the character name is not specified the character currently active i
145. played over the character s head You can change the font size and other characteristics of speech balloons using the Balloons wizard Speech can be modified in several ways using Speech Tags Speech Tags are special character strings inserted into the body of the speech text and are used to modify the pronunciation pitch tempo or interpretation rules called Text Normalization for the Vox Proxy Documentation speech Specific TTS engines may or may not support speech tags The most commonly used speech tag is emp which is used to emphasize a specific word For example Say Vox Proxy is emp very cool To modify the pronunciation of words or phrases use the Pronunciation Dictionary available on the Tools menu of the Script Writer Rules for pronunciation of various kinds of numbers addresses and abbreviations are defined in a text normalization document for the TTS engine The text normalization documentation for the TruVoice TTS engine is available in the document program files vox proxy speech tvtn doc Using pre recorded WAV files Vox Proxy supports a special command that allows characters to speak using your own pre recorded voice files SayWav The only file format supported is WAV You can record your own wav files using the Windows sound recorder found in Start programs accessories entertainment Since the character s lips synch with the sound however it is important that you record with a very quiet backgrou
146. ple Show Paul at Left Center Point45 calls Say Our first topic will be 118 Tips and Techniques Example 2 You want the script to wait until you the presenter click to bring up the next animation Then the script should continue to run Use the WaitForClick command in your script Each WaitForClick command must have a companion slide object with a custom animation set to appear on mouse click Usually this object will be off of the visible area of the screen because its purpose is not visual but simply to hold the script until you click the mouse For example WaitForClick Show Paul at Left Center Say Wait just a minute Tom I have a question Example 3 You want to have a dialog with an on screen character Use the same technique as above to interact with characters Again you normally don t want visible PowerPoint animations for this purpose so for each WaitForClick command create an invisible companion slide object set to appear off screen on mouse click For this example create two simple autoshapes stars let s say and drag them off the visible slide For each of the autoshapes set their custom animation to appear on mouse click Here s your script WaitForClick Show Peedy at Center say Wait just a second Tom I have a question WaitForClick Say There s something about that last point I don t understand Say Please explain it in more detail Here s how it runs You bring up the slide and talk your t
147. r will see First thing and Second thing in the list box If he selects First thing the amp Response variable will be set to First thing ListBox First thing one Second thing two In this example the user will also see First thing and Second thing If he selects First thing the amp Response variable will be set to one Wizard Miscellaneous Commands 61 Vox Proxy Documentation WI ListBox Wizard Help Display this in List Box Return this in amp Response A A First thing Second thing two Delete Insert Cancel C Wait C NoWait Default Wait Insert evaluation template MacroMenu Displays a menu from which the user selects a macro to run Wildcard is a specification for matching macro names Note that case is significant in macro names Syntax MacroMenu name Name must be enclosed in quotes Name can include wild cards to select all macro names containing certain text Examples MacroMenu Displays a menu containing all macros in the macro folder MacroMenu Tutorial Displays a menu of all macros whose name starts with Tutorial Mac roMenu Tutorials Same as above but the macro names displayed contain only the text following the word Tutorial MacroMenu Chapter Tutorial Display matching macro names containing any character in the place of Wizard Miscellaneous Commands MacroMenu command Help Enter text with wildcard for matching macro names Insert
148. ram files vox proxy speech Note however that the optional AT amp T Natural Voices TTS engine cannot be distributed to others and is not included in the Vox Proxy Player Therefore you should not use Natural Voices within presentations that are to be played on the Vox Proxy Player Installing the Player The end user must install the VP Player on his her computer before playing presentations enhanced with Vox Proxy There are two sources for the VP Player software and they are installed differently Downloadable from www voxproxy com downloads vpplayer exe Download the file and save it anywhere on the end user s computer Then run the file to begin the installation The VP Player CD delivered with Vox Proxy You may duplicate this CD as needed Insert the CD in the end user s computer to start the installation Vox Proxy Documentation Using the Player The player may be used in any of several ways By running a VP Player presentation file A VP Player presentation file is a copy of the PowerPoint file with the file extension PPV rather than PPT or PPS Windows will recognize this as a Vox Proxy enhanced presentation and run the Player automatically If the user does not have PowerPoint it will launch and play in the PowerPoint Viewer The user may run a PPV file in any of the normal Windows methods Double click on the file name in Windows Explorer Right click on the file name and select Open or Slide Show F
149. roceeding with subsequent commands Wait Options for Script Commands nowait Normally script commands will not be acted upon until the previous character s speech or action is complete The nowait option allows the command to be acted on without waiting for the previous character This option is normally not needed when you are working with only a single character Its principal use is to speed up the pace of the presentation by allowing a character to perform an animation simultaneous with another character s animation or speech For example when you re showing two characters the second one doesn t begin to show until the first one is finished showing To show them both at the same time Show Paul at left center Show nowait Peedy at right center wait This option applies to commands in the same way that nowait does but if forces a wait for the previous character Since this is the normal default the only reason you should ever need to use wait is if you have changed the default setting from wait to nowait see wait preferences Wait command While nowait solves the problem of simultaneous actions If the previous character performs several consecutive animations or speech the nowait can cause the new character to act before you want it to For this reason you can use the Wait command by itself to hold the script at that point In this example we ll have Paul do his Explain animation say something and return to RestPose
150. rogress Bar when Playing CD Vox Proxy version 3 138 or newer Disks prepared using CD Prep will now start up and display a progress bar while the Player checks the end user s computer for and optionally installs any required speech or other components Other Enhancements Embedded Macros A major new enhancement in Version 3 is the ability to embed macro scripts into PowerPoint presentation files or into other Vox Proxy script macro files This embedding capability allows you to distribute self contained presentations to other users including to users who have only the free Vox Proxy Player without having to distribute any script macros separately The Macro Menu now has a new page to allow you to display and manipulate embedded macros Folder Preferences Preferences has a new Folder Preferences tab allowing you to change the default folders for presentations macros media and characters One thing this allows you to do is keep files including characters on a network drive Internet resident Files You can now use the RunMacro or the RunSlideShow commands to run a script macro or presentation residing on the internet For example RunMacro http www voxproxy com samples job losers The Macro Menu has been enhanced to allow changing the macro folder displayed It shows the current macro folder noloop option Character animations now allow the option noloop This is needed if the character has a non looping animation whose nam
151. rom an attachment to an e mail select Open rather than Save or save the file and then run it from Windows Explorer For a PPV file saved on a web site single click on a link to the file The file will download and then automatically start running a Double click on a shortcut to the file You can create the PPV file in two ways 1 From the Script Writer File menu click Save Presentation for VP Player A duplicate copy of your presentation file will be created with the file extension PPV 2 In Windows Explorer make a copy of the PPT file and rename it with a file extension of ppy By opening a presentation in PowerPoint and manually starting the slide show In this case the user must click on the Vox Proxy menu item Run Vox Proxy with Slide Shows before running the slide show This is the same as the normal procedure in the Vox Proxy software itself If the user has Windows 95 98 ME and is running PowerPoint 2002 from Office XP not Windows XP then the Vox Proxy menu is located on Windows Start program files Otherwise it is on the PowerPoint main menu Getting Started When PowerPoint starts it automatically installs the Vox Proxy menu El Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation1 i8 Ele Edit View Insert Format Tools Slide Show RoboPDF Window Help vox Proxy KE EEN 1 0 Run Vox Proxy with Slide Shows X Script Writer Tutorials Help If you are running from PowerPoint 2002 or 200
152. roxy Player Vox Proxy s optional CD Prep feature lets you create self starting self contained CDs that you can distribute royalty free The CD s will play on most Windows computers from 98SE on Each CD will contain the Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer so PowerPoint is not required to play it Additional highly animated characters are available on our web site at www voxproxy com Click on the character gallery and look for the extra cost characters Vox Proxy uses Microsoft Agent technology and the advanced application development tools of APL2000 Inc Copyrights and trademarks What s New in Vox Proxy Version 3 With Version 3 Vox Proxy adds support for two important new Microsoft products the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer and Windows Media Player 9 or 10 Support for the new PowerPoint 2003 Viewer means that you can distribute presentations to people who do not have PowerPoint and as long as they ve installed the free Vox Proxy version 3 Player they can still play your slide shows complete with all your Vox Proxy scripts Vox Proxy Documentation The Media Player 9 10 support is completely transparent any media files played with the PlayMedia command will detect and support the version of Media Player available Previously if the user had Media Player 9 10 PlayMedia would not work Version 3 comes with an entirely new online help system complete with context sensitive help topics The full users manual is available for
153. ruVoice TTS used by all of Vox Proxy s standard characters does not come pre installed in Windows The setup file for TruVoice is tv_enua exe For other languages the setup files begin with Istts and agtx 4 Speech Recognition Engine Installs only if you need it according to your setup If installed the setup file is actcnc exe 5 Character files copies onto the user s hard drive any character files which you have selected in your setup These files are identified by the file extension ACS and are copied into the folder windows msagent chars for Windows 95 98 and ME or WINNT msagent chars for Windows NT 2000 and XP Vox Proxy will start PowerPoint and display your menu of presentations or if you have configured it for only a single presentation open your presentation file from the CD and start the slide show A sample menu is illustrated here 135 Vox Proxy Documentation ll CD Contents Presentations Introduction First Script Vox Proxy Player Description tutorial on variables in Vox Proxy Includes a discussion of pre defined built in as well as user defined variables When the presentation is complete Vox Proxy will return to your presentation menu PowerPoint will remain open on the end user s computer If you have specified only a single presentation there will be no menu and the program will terminate when the slide show is ended If the same user either reruns the CD or run
154. s 1 The Menu text what the user will see as the menu tem 2 The presentation file this can be either a PowerPoint file ppt or pps or a Vox Proxy script macro file VPs 3 Description this description will be shown to the user when the presentation is selected on the user menu CD Files There may be a number of files needed on the CD other than the presentation files themselves CDPrep will automatically scan your presentation file s for file references and show them here Five kinds of files are grouped by their location on the CD 1 PowerPoint presentations This may include pps or ppt files Do NOT include files already specified on the Menu Builder You may however include PowerPoint slide shows which are run from a script macro All of these files will be placed in the presentations folder on the CD Also included with presentation files are any Linked files detected in your presentation What are linked files Linked Files have nothing to do with Vox Proxy They are files primarily media files that you have inserted as links directly into your 139 Vox Proxy Documentation presentation in PowerPoint A good example would be an MP3 file or a video file Such files are not embedded into the PPT file but are linked to the actual media files on your computer When you prepare a CD containing such a presentation the links will break and the media files will not play from the CD The links must be fi
155. s hidden This is a command that plays the character s default hide animation If you want the character to disappear without playing the hide animation use the disappear command Syntax Hide Examples Show Peedy at Center Say Nice to see you Hide Wizard Other Agent Commands IdleAnimations Temporarily turn on or off a character s idle animations If the word all appears after on or off it will apply to all characters which are visible at the time the command is encountered in the script Otherwise it applies only to the currently active character This over rides the default which is a preference item See Tools Preferences on the Script Writer and also see help for the SetPrefs command This command is especially useful for animations such as SitLeft and SitRight to ensure that the character remains seated If idle animations are on after a few seconds the character will stand and begin its normal idle animations The command will remain in effect only until the character is closed 33 Vox Proxy Documentation Syntax IdleAnimations on off Examples Show Paul at Center Announce Say Good morning IdleAnimations off Site te say How nice it is OR e Wizard Other Agent Commands Interrupt The Interrupt command signals another character which is in the process of playing a looping animation to stop playing Note that this command must be issued by another character not the one that is loopin
156. s other CDs from you in the future they will start much faster because the speech files will have already been installed Administrative Rights and other XP Issues On systems where it is necessary to install any speech components as described in How the CD will run the user must have administrator rights to permit those installations On Windows 95 98 and ME those rights are always available but on NT 2000 and XP they may or may not be In labeling your CD and in any user documentation included with your CD you should make it clear that the user should have administrator rights in order to run the CD Note that these installations are required only the first time the CD is played Any subsequent playing can be done without administrator rights Subsequent CDs which you send out will also not require administrative rights unless you include a TTS engine not included on a previous CD Windows XP contains a version of the Microsoft speech API SAPI 5 which is not backward compatible and is not compatible with the speech supported by Microsoft Agent SAPI 4 Vox Proxy s CD Prep program will automatically install SAPI 4 Windows will support both versions concurrently without conflict If users report that your presentations run and the characters appear but do not speak you should advise them to reboot and reinsert the CD The CD Prep Wizard Introduction to the CD Prep Wizard The CD Prep Wizard will guide you through each step of
157. sing the PowerPoint Insert Movies or sounds feature PowerPoint will create an absolute link to the file When you save the presentation ppt file PowerPoint will automatically convert SOME of those links to relative links but they will be relative to the current location of the ppt file on your hard drive Linked Files with CD Prep CD Prep including QuickPrep will scan your entire presentation for file links It will convert those links to a relative link pointing to the presentations folder within the CD Image It will then gather those files and copy them into the presentations folder This procedure ensures that your linked files are included on the CD and the links to them will not break no matter what drive the CD is actually played from This process makes it unnecessary to run the Package for CD feature included with PowerPoint 2003 Older versions of PowerPoint had no such feature so including links involved a tricky manual process or running other third party software CD Prep will fix and include linked files with any version of PowerPoint from 2000 and newer Minimum Requirements for Playback 133 Vox Proxy Documentation The computer on which the CD will be played must have Windows 98SE Me NT 4 0 2000 Professional or XP It will NOT play correctly under Windows 3 1 The PowerPoint 2003 Viewer requires Windows 98 SE or newer so if you anticipate supporting 95 or early versions of 98 do not force the CD to run on the
158. size whisper etc In addition the Power Scripting Menu offers two additional scripting features HELP for the script command on the line where the cursor appears TEST the current line of speech if it is a Say command Note that if you select text in the script before right clicking you will see the standard undo cut copy paste delete menu rather than the Power Scripting Menu Slide Tab 100 Script Writer The Slide tab displays in the script edit window the script text associated with the active PowerPoint slide When you select the Script tab you will see the active slide number displayed in the caption of the Script Writer dialog box The script text is actually saved as an invisible text box within the PowerPoint file When you change slides in PowerPoint the script text is automatically saved and the script for the new slide is displayed If you move or copy slides the script will be moved or copied with the slide While on the Slide tab the save button will save the script within the presentation file The presentation file must be saved within PowerPoint to retain the script before you close the file or the PowerPoint window Macro Tab The Macro tab displays in the script edit window the script text associated with the selected Script Macro When you select the Macro tab you will see the macro name displayed in the caption of the Script Writer dialog box Pressing the Macro Tab also opens the Macro Menu O
159. t allows characters to appear on top of any application perform pre selected animations and to speak using either a TTS engine or pre recorded sound files R Relative link A link that does not contain the exact path to the file but a path that begins in the location of the source presentation file When a presentation file uses a path based on a relative link you can move the presentation file and its destination media files without breaking the link Move the presentation file and its destination media file s together S Shape A PowerPoint slide object Shapes with custom animations can be animated from a Vox Proxy script using the Click command and can be written to using the WriteShapeText command Speech normalization A set of pronunciation rules built into a Text To Speech Engine These rules include how to interpret and pronounce abbreviations addresses various kinds of numbers and so on Speech tag Special character strings inserted into the body of speech text used to modify the pronunciation pitch tempo or interpretation rules called Text Normalization for the speech T Timer A timer allows you to place a hold in your script waiting for a specified elapsed time Timers can be based on the slide show slide media or custom timers defined in your script See the StartTimer and Waitfor commands TTS Engine A Text To Speech application that converts written text into speech played through the computer s a
160. t for you to change slides Wizard Say Something Speech Command Help m Speech Text Insert Cancel Test Clear Undo C Wait C NoWwait Default Insert Speech Tags at Cursor Buttons will insert tags in test area above Cin Script Normal Monotone Whisper Emphasis Reset Pause io millisec Volume CE 65535 Insert Volume Pitch 50 Insert Pitch Defaults Speed 7 150 Insert Speed SayWav Speak using an audio wav file The character essentially lip synchs the file No Text To Speech engine is used The balloon text will be displayed in the word balloon if visible If speech balloons are not displayed you may leave out the balloon text but the quote marks must remain 39 Vox Proxy Documentation For specifying the file path see file paths If you have AT amp T Natural Voices installed you can convert typed speech text into a wav file Click in the check box select the voice to use enter or browse for the file name to save press the Create wav file button to create the file The Test button will play the file before you insert the command into your script Syntax WayWav balloon text file Examples Show Merlin SayWav Good Morning c my files gm wav SayWav gm wav Wizard Other Agent Commands Wg Speak amp Play Audio Wav File Help Text to appear in speech balloon Speak wav file Browse Convert text above to a
161. t version since Merlin begins his animation before Paul starts to speak the bells suppress Paul s speech In the second version Paul s speech starts first and the bells are suppressed Overlapping sounds are not a problem with silent animations nowait is often helpful in these cases to speed up processing Paul GestureRight Say Our first item of business is blah blah Wait BestPose Merlin GestureLeft nowait Say And second we want to talk about blah blah It s a good idea to make Paul return to his rest pose but we don t want Merlin to wait until Paul is resting before he starts his own gesture so we use the nowait parameter The reason for the Wait command above is that it tells Merlin not to begin gesturing until Paul has finished speaking Networking tips Because of the speech and Microsoft Agent components the Vox Proxy software must be installed on a local workstation However many files can be accessed and run from a network drive in order to share them with other users By far the largest files in Vox Proxy are the character files Normally these are located in the folder windows Nmsagent chars but they can be relocated to a network drive and the new location designated in the file locations preference item on the Script Writer The same is true media and other files For media files change the folder location for media files to the shared network folder in preferences and then always use the variable a
162. t with only the one command NextSlide NextSlide Go to the next slide in the presentation If there are no more animations on the current slide PowerPoint will move to the next slide Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Syntax NextSlide Wizard PowerPoint Commands PreviousSlide Go to the previous slide in the presentation The previous slide is the slide numerically preceding the current slide and may not be the last slide viewed by the user Important note When you navigate using script commands be sure your slide transition is set to change slides on mouse click Do not set a slide transition to change slides automatically Syntax PreviousSlide 85 Vox Proxy Documentation Wizard PowerPoint Commands RunSlideShow Run the specified file in another slide show window The script continues on in its current slide show after the new slide show is ended You may optionally specify the starting and ending slides User defined variables may be used in the file specification When the slide show ends it will return to the slide show and slide from which the RunSlideShow command was run Note that as an alternative to RunSlideShow you may also start a second slide show using an action setting on a slide object In this way you can prepare a menu of
163. tant Of these timing is one of the more important To understand the timing of characters you must understand that in order to simplify the scripts the default in Vox Proxy is that each character must wait until the previous character finishes its speech and actions before proceeding with its own This ensures that nothing unexpected will happen when the script runs but it can result in interactions that may appear slow and stilted Vox Proxy has several tools to help you override these defaults and to create more effective and interesting interactions One of these is the parameter nowait which can be used to override the wait default on individual lines of speech or actions 1 Make multiple characters appear and hide simultaneously This is easily accomplished using the nowait parameter For example Show Paul at left center Show nowait Peedy at Center Show nowait Merlin at right center Hiding characters simultaneously is the same except for one thing It is a good policy to place a wait in the script just before the first character hides Otherwise the nowait could cause the second and any additional characters to hide too soon previous script lines Paul say Bye bye Wait Paul hide Peedy hide nowait Merlin hide nowait Without the Wait Peedy and Merlin would hide while Paul is still speaking Another trick to watch for is that some characters will take longer than others to hide If your slide contains a NextSl
164. ter s file it will be displayed in the Character Gallery For agent characters included with Vox Proxy the Character Gallery contains links to the characters creators Our web site contains a list of available download sites If you would like referrals for creating your own agent characters contact us by e mail support voxproxy com Inserting a Show Command If you are creating or editing a script and the Script Writer is visible you may insert a command into your script at this time by pressing the Insert button on the gallery form The Insert button will display the Show character wizard form A Show character command will be inserted into your script at the current cursor location Placing Characters If you are building a script and have a Vox Proxy Script Writer Edit Window open for either a macro or a PowerPoint slide the Character Gallery form can be a valuable way to locate the character on the screen and insert Show or Moveto commands at the appropriate locations in your script Follow these steps First be sure that the cursor in your script text field is at the position where you want the Show or Moveto command inserted Select the Character Gallery either from the Script Writer toolbar or View menu or from the Vox Proxy menu in PowerPoint Display one or more characters While displaying the slide you re working on start a full screen slide show in PowerPoint press PowerPoint s Slide Show view butto
165. the presentations folder within the CD Image It will then gather those files and copy them into the presentations folder This procedure ensures that your linked files are included on the CD and the links to them will not break no matter what drive the CD is actually played from This process makes it unnecessary to run the Package for CD feature included with PowerPoint 2003 Older versions of PowerPoint had no such feature so including links involved a tricky manual process or running other third party software CD Prep will fix and include linked files with any version of PowerPoint from 2000 and newer Presentation Guidelines When preparing a presentation and Vox Proxy scripts for delivery on a CD it is very important that any files used in the presentation such as media files will be locatable on the CD This generally means that you cannot hard code the location the directory path of any files because you do not know what the end user s CD drive letter will be CD Prep will automatically locate any hard coded paths in your script to the appropriate variables However in the event that you want to locate files in CD folders other than those assumed in CD Prep Vox Proxy provides a number of variables for this purpose amp DiskDrive The drive where the CD is playing Example D amp folder The folder where your Vox Proxy program files are located This corresponds to program files vox proxy on your system a
166. the second monitor of a dual monitor system wait or nowait Over rides the system preference size N size of character as a multiple of its original size For example size 2 means twice normal size dle on or off temporarily turn on or off the character s idle animations Ssoundsc on or off temporarily turn on or off the sound effects if any associated with the character s animations balloons on or off display or don t display word balloons for speech language L change the character s language to that specified The appropriate TTS engine must be installed Note for British English The language codes do not distinguish between dialects of English so to select British English either use the TTSEngine command or select a specific British English voice below rather than selecting the language here VoicezV change the character s voice This is a simpler method to accomplish the same result as using the TTSEngine command For a list of available voices open the Script Wizard Show a New Character and click the Select button in the Voice frame Examples Show Merlin Show Merlin at 50 50 Show Merlin at Lower Left Show Paul at Center size 2 idle on sounds off balloons off Show Paul at Center Voice Mike Show Paul at Right Center Language Spanish 41 Vox Proxy Documentation Wizard Show a New Character P Show Character Help Select Character Shaw ab losation r Show Balloons C Ye
167. the speech balloons from that which is spoken These tags are used by the Pronunciation Dictionary The address and email context tags are the same when used with the TruVoice TTS engine in English but are different with other languages For documentation on text normalization rules for each language included with Vox Proxy see the MS Word files in the folder program files vox proxy speech Random Phrases and Animations The vertical bar character also called style is used to separate alternative phrases to be spoken as well as alternative animations to be played Speech When you specify a list of phrases each separated by the vertical bar the TTS engine will randomly choose to speak only one of the phases Suppose you have a simple macro for example which you might call on multiple slides when the character is finished and you want to let the user manually proceed to the next slide rather than automatically using a NextSlide command A typical slide script might be Sree anole RunMacro Next Slide The macro script for Next Slide might be Say You can change slides as soon as you re ready When you re ready go ahead to the next slide It s OK to change slides now I ll wait for you to change slides Animations You may specify a list of animations one of which will be randomly selected to play This can be useful on a menu slide for example that is returned to often in a presentation so that the gestures
168. tions Some animations are designed to run continuously in a loop until explicitly stopped These are called looping animations Their name normally ends in ing like searching Such animations must be handled with care because if not stopped properly the can run forever and effectively hang your script Vox Proxy includes a built in timer that is invoked automatically when you play any animation whose name ends in ing When the timer times out it stops whatever the character is doing allowing the script to continue Since Vox Proxy assumes that any animation ending with ing is looping you must take special care for these special cases 12 Introduction 1 Animations whose names end in ing but are not looping In your script follow the animation name with the option noloop For example Show Peedy at center Listening noloop 2 Looping animations whose names do not end in ing In your script follow the animation name with the option loop For example Show Chuck at center Hearing_1 loop Random Animations You may specify a list of animations one of which will be randomly selected to play This can be useful on a menu slide for example that is returned to often in a presentation so that the gestures are not always the same Separate each animation in the list with the style character or vertical bar For example Show Paul at center explain explain explain2 explain3 crossarms handsonhips
169. udio device TTS engines are available in multiple languages and from multiple sources Vox Proxy comes with the TruVoice TTS and can be ordered with the AT amp T Natural Voices V 152 Glossary Variable A variable is a special word beginning with an ampersand that contains changeable text or numbers When used in a script the text or data is substituted for the variable before it is played 153 amp achaca 91 amp DiskbDrive eee 91 amp Macrodir sees 91 amp Mediadir c essem 91 amp Presdir pisama osc det vis dv adunco a raa a cen 91 ARESPONSO i iei eren iR etna PARERE 61 amp Tempdil na tte orna eR Rx 91 WIN Enri a dat a aaaiiund 91 A Absolute link eene 132 Active slide 99 100 111 Address ieina Da gines 111 Address Context 111 Administrative Rights 136 Animation Character I EET 10 LOOPING coin 10 Miscellaneous 10 31 32 43 44 82 86 109 110 122 125 Random reet 10 32 PowerPoint s 82 86 127 AT amp T Natural Voices 9 39 125 AT amp T Natural Voices Text To Speech A T 110 Author file 134 137 143 B Background sssssseseese 52 53 Balloons 9 31 37 38 39 41 44 49 95 Bitmap isses cria 52 53 54 Bookmark i isi tad 88 C 9r o c ojn sitas 60 CD Butrnlhg ooo
170. ve PowerPoint presentation Does NOT end with a back slash amp SlideNumber Contains the number of the currently displayed slide The special Response variable amp Response is a special pre defined variable that contains the result of specific user inputs or actions For example it can contain the text of the user s response to a Listen ListenFor or ListBox command If the response was not recognized it is empty Other special variables amp excelChangeCell the cell reference for a cell changed by the user amp excelChangeValue the new value of a cell changed by the user See onExcelChange Note that the names of all these variables are case sensitive User defined Variables User defined variables may be defined in the Variables section of the Script Writer s Tools menu or from within a script using the Set command Names should consist of a single word without spaces When used in the script names must always begin with the character amp Creating Variables Variables can be created in two ways 92 Reference 1 With the Variables dialog box on the Script Writer tools menu 2 Within a script using the Set command Using Variables In Speech Examples may be the simplest way to understand the use of user defined variables in speech Variable name amp speaker Variable text Tom Sample line of script Say Good morning amp speaker My name is Peedy Variable names must only co
171. vious character is doing something thus allowing the media to start playing promptly The Click command also now supports the nowait option allowing you to start the slide animation while a character is speaking or performing an animation You can now arbitrarily resize the video window in the PlayMedia wizard Previously the video window was restricted to discreet sizes such as 1xAuthored 2xAuthored 1 4 screen 1 2 screen etc Now when you click on the Drag on Slide button you can resize the video window as well as locate it Applies to Vox Proxy version 3 138 or newer PowerPoint 2003 Viewer Vox Proxy presentations can now be played with the new Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer The viewer files are included in the Vox Proxy installation CD Prep disks can be configured to bundle the viewer files on the CD Run Mode now turns on automatically If you open a PowerPoint presentation file that contains Vox Proxy scripts and the Vox Proxy run mode is not already on it will be turned on automatically Prevent Double Execution If you try to execute a PPV or VPM file while PowerPoint and Vox Proxy are open you will now get an error message asking you to close PowerPoint before re trying Currently if you run a PPV VPM or CDPrep disk while you are in PowerPoint it opens 2 copies of Vox Proxy simultaneously which causes speech to play twice and also causes a shut down problem that can lead to other errors The Script Writer has
172. wav file requires AT amp T Natural Voices ScaleCharacters Vox Proxy characters are defined with a fixed pixel size Consequently if the slide show is played at a screen resolution different than that at which it was authored the characters will appear smaller or larger than on the authoring screen Use this command to automatically scale characters size to appear the same regardless of the screen resolution the slide show is played at Syntax ScaleCharacters H 40 Reference H represents the screen height of the authoring system in pixels For example if you are authoring with a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels then you should set H to 600 If the slide show is played at a screen resolution of 1024x768 the character s size would be scaled to 768 600 or 1 28 times its default size The character will appear to be the same height on the slide as it was during authoring Examples ScaleCharacters 600 Wizard Miscellaneous Commands Show Display a character at a specified location Syntax Show character name at location size N idle 0n off balloons on off language L voice V wait nowait Options at location Location may be any combination of the words center upper lower left or right or two numbers for X and Y representing percentages of the screen size Numbers greater than 100 or less than zero are off screen locations Note an X value between 100 and 200 can be used to display on
173. will not fool people into thinking that a live person is talking On the other hand they can be amazingly effective and with a little extra effort you can at least achieve correct pronunciation and even convey reasonable variations in emphasis This creates a far more effective presentation Be sure to play the tutorial on speech It provides some good illustrations using the tools in Vox Proxy The most convenient tool for scripting speech in Vox Proxy is the Speech Toolbar Find it in the View Toolbars menu Using this toolbar you can place the cursor on any line of speech in your script and press the Test Speech button to see how it sounds Punctuation in speech affects both timing and emphasis Commas semicolons and periods cause a pause in the speech and slightly affect the pronunciation of the immediately preceding word A question mark also affects the emphasis of the preceding word An exclamation point can affect the pronunciation of an entire sentence Using the Test Speech button experiment with the sound of each sentence Methods for changing pronunciation and emphasis in speech will depend on whether you are displaying the speech in a speech balloon If you are not then you can be free to use incorrect 120 Tips and Techniques punctuation or even spelling in order to adjust the sound of the speech With speech balloons you can still use variations in punctuation and spelling but you will need Vox Proxy s Pronunciati
174. wn start by opening the Script Wizard Just click on the Wizard button on the toolbar Power Scripting Menu As a powerful shortcut to inserting commands into your script you may right click at any point in the script edit window A context sensitive cascading menu called the Power Scripting Menu will appear Script Commands S character commands Characters I PowerPoint commands EndShow Animations For Paul Fk ther commands k FirstSlide Variables k Goto Slide Speech Tags k LastSlide Help For command Say LastSlide Viewed Click Test speech PreviousSlide Runslides how WaitForclick The Power Scripting Menu allows you to insert into your script any of the following Script Commands This item cascades into Character commands PowerPoint commands and Other commands Each script command selected will display the appropriate wizard Characters A list of available character names is displayed This is a context sensitive feature When you select a character if that character already appears in this script it will just insert the character name Otherwise it will bring up the Show Character form Variables This item displays a list of all variables that are currently defined along with their current values Animations This context sensitive item displays a list of all animations for the character active at the cursor position Speech tags Displays a list of all available speech tags such as empha
175. wse button or from Windows Explorer 140 CD Prep lid co Prep Wizard Menu File View Tools Help Select any additional presentation script macro media or other files which will be used on the CD Presentations and macros which will run directly off of the user menu were selected on the previous screen and need not be selected here You may drag and drop files from the Browse button or from Windows Explorer Script Macros c program files vox proxy macros break ypm Browse Scan for files gt Delete Script Macros Any script macros OTHER than those called directly on the user menu For example if a script macro calls another macro the other macro should be included here Talk to me lt Back Next gt Cancel Characters Select the characters you will need on the CD When CD Prep scans your presentation file s it will automatically select all the characters it finds in your scripts You may select additional characters as desired Character files will be copied onto the user s hard drive in the Windows Temp folder in order to speed up access during playback 141 Vox Proxy Documentation VP co Prep Wizard Menu1 File View Tools Help Select the characters that are needed on the CD by moving them from the list on the left to the list on the right Character Selection Chromedome Chuck Talk to me lt Back Next gt Cancel Languages The language page appears similar
176. x Proxy installed If the user does not have PowerPoint the Vox Proxy Player will run on the Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer which is included with the VP Player When the Player runs it will attempt to start Microsoft PowerPoint If PowerPoint does not exist it will attempt to start the Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer The PowerPoint viewer is bundled with the Player software but it requires Windows 98 SE or newer Limitations of the Player The Player software has two limitations compared with the full Vox Proxy software 1 Characters The CD version of the Player contains all characters delivered with Vox Proxy The downloadable version contains only the following six characters Paul Chuck Merlin Peedy Genie and Robby If you use any characters other than these you must deliver them to the end user separately The character files are composed of the character s name with the file extension ACS and are located in the folder C windows msagent chars for Windows 95 98 ME XP Or C WINNT msagent chars for Windows NT and 2000 Any needed character files other than those delivered in the VP Player should be saved in the corresponding folder on the end user s computer 2 TTS Engines The Player comes only with the US English Tru voice speech engine If you intend to use any other language or TTS engine you must install it on the end user s computer The appropriate files are located in your computer in the folder C prog
177. xed to make them relative so that they will point to the media files on the CD in order for them to work Linked files are not limited to media but can also include pictures text files or other data files to be displayed during the presentation Note that this does not apply to media files played with the Vox Proxy PlayMedia command Those files are included in the Media Files list see below Script Macros Include any Vox Proxy script macros here These files must have the extension vpm They will be placed in the macros folder on the CD Media files Include any media files which are called in your script macros and are not embedded in a PowerPoint presentation Any files compatible with Microsoft Media Player can be included These files will be placed in the media folder on the CD Temp files Any files listed here will be copied to the Windows temp folder on the end user s hard drive When the presentation is complete these files will be deleted from the user s hard drive This feature allows media or files to be rapidly accessed during the presentation Files accessed from the CD drive can be slow to load after the drive stops spinning If you use media files copied here be sure to use the variable amp tempdir rather than amp media in your script Other files Any ancillary files may be included here They will be placed in the other folder on the CD When selecting files you can drag and drop files displayed by the Bro
178. xplorer In the root directory of the CD you should see at least the following folders and files 145 Vox Proxy Documentation Mame agent info macros media other a presentations speech temp O viewer 5 aplwCo dll 8 apx20ocx dll E autorun inf 3 cdmenu ini vp adf Y vp exe vp ico p ini Vp WS 3 vpcd ini CD Diagnostics After creating the CD you can run a diagnostics check on it from the tools menu of CD Prep The results of the diagnostic check will look something like the following 146 CD Prep Ei CD Diagnostics 147 Copyrights and trademarks 2001 2004 Right Seat Software Inc Vox Proxy is a registered trademark of Right Seat Software Inc PowerPoint is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Microsoft Agent and the Microsoft Agent logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries The characters Genie Merlin Peedy and Robby copyright 1996 1998 Microsoft Corporation all rights reserved Natural Voices is a trademark of AT amp T Corporation Vox Proxy uses APL Win Copyright 1995 2003 APL2000 Inc 149 Glossary A Absolute link A link to the exact location of a file on your computer a file server the World Wide Web or a company intranet Absolute links use an exact path if you move the presentation file or any of the linked media files the links break Address context A set of TTS Engine
179. xy Documentation On a slide where the user made a correct response you could increment amp Score Set amp Score amp Score tl For Slide Navigation Variables provide a useful way to navigate in slides On any given slide you can capture the current slide number into a variable say amp S Set amp S amp SlideNumber Then if you have action settings or hyperlinks to other slides you can always return to the starting slide using the GotoSlide command GotoSlide amp S 94 Script Wizard Script Wizard Click on buttons below for more information MI Script Wizard Eifel Help Insert agent character commands Either switch to Paul another character OR Show a new In your script character THEN Peedy Peedy Move Other agent say something do something Peedy commands Insert other script commands Help PowerPoint Miscellaneous commands commands Close Scripting character speech and actions using the Script Wizard requires only two simple steps 1 Select a character or click to show a new character 2 Press a button to Enter and test speech text Insert animations for the selected character Specify a new location for the character by dragging it on the screen Select and insert PowerPoint commands such as NextSlide or Click Select and insert other character commands Select and insert other miscellaneous commands Note that all of the features available from this wizard form ar

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