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39 MacSpeech Dictate
Chapter 7 — Reference
Recognition
Moving the slider towards Faster makes text appear more
quickly, but may sacrifice accuracy. Moving the slider towards
More Accurate makes the program try harder to understand
you, which could slow it down. By default, the slider is set to
balance the two factors. Feel free to experiment to see what
setting works best for you.
2. Recognition Preferences
Recognition Preferences (Figure 7-2b) allows you to adjust
how the Recognition Window is shown and/or hidden.
Figure 7-2b
Show Recognition Window When Dictating will show the
Recognition Window after each word or phrase that you dic-
tate. Close Recognition Window After Each Choice will
hide the Recognition Window after an item is selected for the
list.
3. Command Preferences
Command Preferences allow you to adjust the ways com-
mands are handled. This window has two sections, Available
Commands Window and Command Generation at Startup
(Figure 7-3).
Available Commands Window
Checking Hide at Startup will hide this window when
MacSpeech Dictate starts up.
Figure 7-3
Enable Command Grouping will group commands, rather
than show them as one big alphabetical list. This option has
two sub-options: Show Global Commands at Top and Show
all Global Commands in One Group.
Global Commands at Top
When checked, this option forces all the Global com-
mands to appear at the top of the Available Commands
window.
Show all Global Commands in One Group
This option puts all the Global commands in one group,
leaving application-specific commands in their separate
groups.
Command Generation at Startup
Turn on Generate Application Launch Commands to allow
each application in the Applications folder on your hard drive
to be opened by voice. With this option on you can say Open
followed by the name of an application to open it by voice. For
example, “Open iChat”, or “Open Safari”.
The Generate Email Commands option generates commands
that can address an email to a person in your Address Book.
4. Shortcuts Preferences
This pane (Figure 7-4) allows you to choose what keyboard
shortcuts you want to use to toggle the microphone on or off,
cycle through the speech modes, and show the Recognition
window.
The defaults are Command-F11 to toggle the microphone,
Command-F10 to select the speech mode, and Command-F9
to show the Recognition window. You can use any key com-
bination you prefer, provided the combination includes at
least one modifier key (Command, Control, or Option). The
Toggle Microphone shortcut turns the mic on and off. The
Select Speech Mode shortcut will switch between Dictation
and Command modes. The Show Recognition Window will
show and hide the Recognition Window.
Figure 7-4