Chapter 23

Ten Time-and-Sanity-Saving Tips

In This Chapter

Using hotkeys in dialog boxes

Positioning the microphone the same way every time

Changing your mouse habits

Drinking with a straw

Turning off your word processor’s automatic spell checking

Working on small pieces of large documents

Using dictation shortcuts

Turning the microphone off when you walk away

Selecting or correcting longer phrases

Using the physical mouse and keyboard

Sometimes the difference between doing well and just getting by is a well-placed piece of advice from a wiser and more experienced mentor. Go West, young man. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Look before you leap — that kind of thing.

I looked all over for a wiser and more experienced mentor, but I came up short. That’s the problem with cutting-edge software: “More experienced” means somebody who installed his copy last Thursday. Anyway, here are ten things I wish somebody had told me last Thursday.

Using Hotkeys in Dialog Boxes

I’m a big fan of hotkeys in general, but they really shine in dialog boxes. The varied features of dialog boxes, the radio buttons, check boxes, and so on, respond unevenly to voice commands. In some dialog boxes, you can say, “Click Never Ask Me This Question Again” and have a check mark show up in the Never Ask Me This Question Again check box. In other dialog boxes, it doesn’t work. But saying, “Press Alt S” works every time.

Positioning the Microphone the Same Way Every Time

Misplaced microphones are the number one cause of error. NaturallySpeaking learns best when you sound the same way every time you say a word. And even if you actually say the word the same way every time, it sounds different if your microphone isn’t in quite the same location.

Develop your own precise way of knowing that the microphone is in exactly the right place. Maybe you can just fit a finger between the microphone and the corner of your mouth. If all that is too much trouble, get in the habit of running the microphone check from the Audio menu whenever you put your microphone on: Choose Audio⇒Check Microphone from the NaturallySpeaking menu bar.

Changing Your Mouse Habits

What habits am I talking about? I’m talking about all those things that you might be in the habit of doing with your computer’s mouse: clicking toolbar buttons, using scroll bars, dragging and dropping, clicking links on web pages, and relocating the cursor.

NaturallySpeaking has mouse commands, which I describe in Chapter 16. So you could keep all your same mouse habits and just use mouse voice commands instead of grabbing the physical object next to your keyboard. But that’s not a great idea. The mouse commands (like “MouseGrid”) are usable in a pinch, but they get tedious if you try to do everything with them.

Instead, learn to do the same actions with other commands. Use the web commands with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Firefox. Say, “Press Page Down” or “Press Page Up” instead of clicking the scroll bar. Use menu commands instead of toolbar buttons. Cut and paste with hotkeys instead of dragging and dropping. Use the “Move” and “Go” commands to put the cursor where you want. You can also try the “Scroll Down” commands to navigate. They work in applications like Microsoft Outlook.

Drinking with a Straw

Dictating is thirsty work. You can maintain a clear, steady tone of voice and avoid doing damage to your throat if you keep something to drink nearby and sip it occasionally. But there is no way to raise a cup to your lips without moving the microphone.

The solution is to drink through a straw! I admit, sipping hot coffee or cold beer through a straw is a weird experience, but most drinks are just fine.

Turning Off Automatic Spell Checking in Word Processors

NaturallySpeaking is incapable of making a spelling error (unless you introduce a misspelled word into its vocabulary through the vocabulary-building process). So spell-checking is a waste of your computer’s resources (which NaturallySpeaking may already be stretching). If NaturallySpeaking seems a bit sluggish when you’re using a word processor, turn off that word processor’s spell checker.

In Word, from the File menu choose Options⇒Proofing. Make sure the Check Spelling As You Type check box isn’t selected.

While you’re there, you can save some RAM by making sure the Check Grammar As You Type check box is deselected as well. In WordPerfect, choose Tools⇒Proofread⇒Off.

Working on Small Pieces of Large Documents

This tip is another RAM-saver. Large documents take up a lot of your computer’s memory, memory that could be better applied to improving the performance of NaturallySpeaking. Don’t make your computer keep your whole novel in memory if you only need to work on one scene. Put the scene in a separate file and work on that file instead.

Using Dictation Shortcuts

You can save a lot of time by teaching NaturallySpeaking some shortcuts. Teach your NaturallySpeaking assistant to type “the Honorable Judge James J. Wackelgoober” when you say “The Boss,” or to reproduce your full street address when you say “My Address.” See Chapter 17 for details.

You can also use shortcuts to gain some privacy for yourself. If, for example, you have a pet name for your spouse that you would rather not have overheard in the next cubicle when you dictate e-mail, substitute some dull-sounding shortcut.

Turning the Microphone Off When You Stop Dictating

NaturallySpeaking and the microphone that comes with it are usually good enough that they don’t pay attention to random noises. The microphone doesn’t, however, know that you have just picked up the phone or are talking to the person who just came into your office. I’ve had some interesting and lengthy gibberish result from such interruptions. It’s good to get in the habit of pressing the + key on the keyboard (or clicking the microphone icon off) when you are interrupted or otherwise done dictating.

Selecting or Correcting Longer Phrases

When you dictate “a hippopotamus” and NaturallySpeaking types “the hippopotamus,” don’t just say, “Correct The.” NaturallySpeaking may mishear it again, and there’s bound to be a “the” in your document somewhere else that it will try to correct instead.

Speak the command, “Correct The Hippopotamus.” Chances are good that only one occurrence of “the hippopotamus” is currently displayed and that NaturallySpeaking will pick it out for you right away. Select an even longer phrase, if you can (“Correct Tickle The Hippopotamus,” for example).

Using the Physical Mouse and Keyboard

In theory, you can do just about anything with the NaturallySpeaking voice commands. Voice commands like “MouseGrid” and “Click” give you a virtual mouse. The “Press” command gives you a virtual keyboard. So, you should be able to work without the physical mouse and keyboard — in theory. (Theory is a nice place, and I am thinking about relocating there. I hear it has an average temperature all year long.)

Sometimes, however, doing something by voice is simply a pain. Give it up. If you know in your heart that you can do it in three clicks of a mouse’s tail, do it. You’ll have better days, and you can figure out how to handle the situation with voice commands then. Meanwhile, you stay productive.