Before you can use VoiceAttack effectively, it will be necessary to train your speech engine. I know this sounds a bit tedious, but, it really helps your computer understand *YOU* a lot better.
The good news is, once you are done training, you can save your training file so you don't have to go through all this trouble again if you change computers or reinstall Windows (SEE 'Back up your speech engine training file').
The nice folks over at Microsoft have included an extraordinary speech recognition engine with their latest versions of Windows. Out of the box, it does a pretty good job, but, with a little bit of training, this speech engine becomes very accurate.
Note: Some third-party software (like Logitech's Setpoint) will prevent the mouse from working properly. Please check the documentation for your mouse for more info.
Often it is necessary to have two or more commands running at the same time. By default, VoiceAttack only allows one command to execute before another is allowed. If a command has a long action list, for example, you may be forced to wait a while until the command is finished. This may be bad if you are being attacked while your macro is executing (especially if you have long pauses in your macros :) For situations like this, VoiceAttack has an option in the Command add/edit screen titled, 'Allow other commands to be executed while this one is running' (horrible title, I know!). Checking this option will keep the command from 'blocking' other recognized commands. Remember: you are sending commands to your application like a keyboard. Commands that are running at the same time CAN interfere with each other, so, plan accordingly.
Some games handle keyboard input differently than others. Some games require slight delays between key presses while others recognize an entirely different set of keyboard codes (or both!).
VoiceAttack is flexible enough to cover these areas by allowing you to choose the input method of your key presses as well as providing a way to fine-tune your keystrokes.
Let's say you've created a command in VoiceAttack to interact with your favorite game. You notice that VoiceAttack is recognizing your command, but, nothing is happening in the game. Chances are, you are playing a game that only recognized DirectX keyboard codes. The next step is to change the input mode of your command. To do this, go back and edit the command you just created.
The game is only recognizing SOME of the keypresses. ESPECIALLY when using a modifier key (like Control/Alt/Shift).
This looks like a job for delays! VoiceAttack (out of the box) does not wait between key presses. It just fires off key presses as fast as it can go.
Some games are built with the intent that only a human is typing at the keyboard. Therefore, you must make VoiceAttack work more like a human by adding pauses between your key presses.
Your pauses might be between entire key presses (example: press and release key A, PAUSE, press and release key B), or, your pauses might need to be between modes of a key press (example: press down on key A, PAUSE, release key A).
Sometimes these pauses only need to be very slight (like hundredths or thousandths of a second). Again, VoiceAttack is flexible enough to work in these situations.
In the following example, we will be holding down the Control key while pressing the X key and then releasing both (with delays).
What will end up in the command action list looks like this :
Press down CTRL key Pause 0.1 seconds Press down X key Pause 0.1 seconds Release X key Pause 0.1 seconds Release CTRL key
If you have command phrases that contain mostly the same words, and VoiceAttack is recognizing only the first parts of each, you may need to increase your recognition delay. The recognition delay is the delay between VoiceAttack recognizing a phrase, noticing a silence and then executing a command.
If you want to add more commands, just repeat the process. VoiceAttack will make sure that you don't get stuck in a command loop :)
VoiceAttack provides two ways to get audible feedback: Via playing a .wav file or through Text to Speech.
If you want to spice up your gameplay or just have confirmation of a started or completed command, just click on the 'Other' button on the Add or Edit Command screen. Choose either the, 'Play a sound file' option or the 'Say the following using Text to Speech' option. Click the, 'OK' button and you now have audible feedback in your sequence :)
I wanted to be able to launch my games after I loaded up VoiceAttack. I also wanted a way to unceremoniously close those games. You can do the same!
Tip: This is also handy for launching web pages. Just put in the browser's .exe and the web page address in the parameters box!
Every now and then, VoiceAttack tries to interpret bodily sounds as words. They will show up in the log as unrecgonized (like, 'if if if'). I found this kind of annoying, so, I added the, 'Ignore command' option. It's a rather quirky action, and, it is only intended to be contained in a command by itself. So quirky and ill thought-out that I was going to remove it. I use it a lot, however, and have found that others do, too :)
This is more of a tip than a how-to.
The log on the main screen has additional secret functionality. You can double-click on an unrecognized phrase to add it as a command, or, you can double-click on a recognized phrase and go straight to editing it.
Remember all that time you spent training your speech engine?
Remember all the extra, non-English words you spent time adding and all the harassment you received from your family?
Wouldn't it be horrible if your machine went belly-up, or, you had to switch machines and lost all that work?
Well, here is a tip : BACK UP YOUR SPEECH TRAINING DATA FILE.
It's actually very quick and easy, however, you will need another piece of software to do the job.
Microsoft currently does not offer this app on their site anymore, however, it is available here for download: SpProfileMgr.zip (68k)
Unzip, run and export/import your speech profiles as you would expect (pretty self-explanatory). Note that VoiceAttack.com does not accept any liability or offer any type of support for this application (that is, you accept all responsibility, assume all risks, yadda yadda yadda).
Note: This works for Windows 7 and up.