Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Xy

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

> I've just purchased version 9 and have yet to install it. I plan to put
> it in an IBM laptop running W2000.
> Getting the Dragon to do XyWrite would be wonderful. Can you outline the
> steps you took for such a successful (and welcome) outcome?
There weren't any! That is, I installed Dragon, which was pretty easy but
took about 15 minutes. I gave it its initial training, which is optional.
That involved reading aloud into the microphone one of a choice of five or
six pieces of text they give you for about 10 minutes. Then, if you let it
(I did), it scans your My Documents folder and your Outlook Express folder
(mine being empty) for words you use. That took about 2 minutes, because I
don't use the My Documents folder much.
So then it was set up for general use. So I opened Xy, made it the active
focus and started dictating. It worked immediately. Except for the cursor
positioning. I'm working now on creating a Dragon .kbd file that will use
Windows-standard key assignments--e.g., having the End key put out Xy
function EL (end of line) so that when I say into the microphone: "Go to
end of line" it will invoke EL and do that. This isn't easy, because of the
incongruity of Xy functions and Windows functions. E.g., for "select" or
"DeFine" Xy uses a two-step process, whereas Windows extends the selection
only if you hold down the Shift key while moving the cursor. But I think in
principle it could be done (maybe).
OTOH, I suspect that it will be easier to use Dragon in this fashion: just
dump a whole lot of raw, a little messed up wordage into Xy, then edit it
into shape with the keyboard. Only time will tell. But the point, for me,
is to have a means of getting down (in a rough sense of "down") my thoughts
at a faster speed than I can either type or write by hand--i.e., as fast as
I can talk.


Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx