Hi to all

?

A few issues have arisen lately in respect of using JAWS with the J-Say software.

If a user is experiencing a problem with JAWS, he or she is contacting Vispero Technical Support.

They do not know about how J-Say works.

The assumption on their part is that J-Say is the problem. They therefore remove all the JAWS settings. They do not attempt to fix the problem first without removing the JAWS settings.

The settings are not backed up for later reference or to reinstate them.

?

This not only leaves a user without a computer which can be used, but it means potentially any special scripting which has been done above and beyond that which J-Say provides is potentially lost.

It causes immense frustration.

The whole point of users having the J-Say software is that they cannot use the keyboard, so if JAWS is returned to its factory settings then they may as well not have it at all.

?

If you are a J-Say user, and you experience problems with JAWS, please contact Hartgen Consultancy first.

If the problem cannot be resolved right away the very least that can happen is that a backup of settings will be made so that if JAWS needs to be installed again, there is something to refer back to.

The best that can happen is that all of the settings will be worked through systematically to find the cause of whatever the problem is.

?

This does not only occur with J-Say. If any additional scripts are installed, the quick fix apparently is to remove them without investigating the cause.

?

Brian Hartgen

Hartgen Consultancy.

Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

?

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.

Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

?

A new update to J-Say voice input/output software will be available on 22 July. This will be a free update to existing users of J-Say 22.

?

Changes include the following:

?

The primary purpose of the update is to facilitate access to Microsoft Teams version 2. People are waiting on this. Dragon itself is not equipped to handle Teams version 2, however a full set of voice and keyboard commands not only allow you to be more efficient with using Teams, but in addition they reduce unnecessary speech output in the application in the same way as offered by our JAWS scripts for Teams.

?

In addition, dictating directly into Teams is slow, unresponsive and unreliable. Users are encouraged to use the Dragon Dictation Box in order to do this, however this too does not always produce good results. J-Say now has its own equivalent to the Dictation Box which can be used within any application, not just Teams.

?

Google Search results in J-Say are now working consistently again.

?

The commands, Keyboard Help On and Keyboard Help Off, have been added by customer request.

?

It is now easily possible to scan through items within the JAWS Speech History without focus moving away from the existing application. Individual Speech History segments can be copied or viewed. A full set of voice and keyboard commands exist for managing Speech History items.

?

Brian Hartgen

Hartgen Consultancy.

Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

?

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.

Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

?

This post is unlikely to affect many people but we do have some customers attempting to be trained with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 16 and Microsoft Teams version 2.

?

At the moment, this combination of software is completely unusable, for two reasons:

1. None of the special voice commands work at all, and that does mean, at all. This is because the commands created by Nuance are not associated with Teams version 2 but with Teams Classic. It is not possible to change the application association because the commands are hidden.

2. More importantly, the method Nuance recommends for dictating text into messages often fails to transfer the message to Teams. Moreover Dragon is so unresponsive in this area it makes working with it impossible.

?

The next J-Say update hopes to overcome the issue with lack of voice commands and particularly the composing of messages. A special interface will have to be built to deal with this latter issue.

This post is just to confirm that resolving it at least for J-Say customers is very much on the agenda.

?

Brian Hartgen

Hartgen Consultancy.

Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

?

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.

Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

?

Never call Nuance support unless you have to.

?

I would create a new user profile.

Now, if the user has been trained to backup the voice profile via the command, Start Backup, I can tell you how to restore it.

If not, make sure Dragon is closed down. This is very important.

?

Now browse to this folder:

C:\Users\machine name\AppData\Local\Nuance\NS16

?

Delete the folder called Users.

?

Start Dragon and create the profile.

?

?

?

?

I’ve run into a problem I can’t seem to solve. In the middle of a session, the student’s mic stopped responding at all. When I check the system tray, the icon says “no user profile open,” or words to that effect. There’s only one Dragon profile on the system, and it is of course set to load when Dragon does. I opened the profile, then when that didn’t work, restarted the computer. We still had no open user profile. What, short of calling Nuance support, should I do next?

?

?

?

Encouraging and thought-provoking reading

https://bahaiteachings.org

?

This does take some experimenting, but it can be made to work. I have done so this morning on two separate occasions.

?

1. Into Dragon, say, Add New Word.

2. Into the first edit field relating to the actual word, type the word as you would like it to be spelled, such as:

?

Comma

?

3. Into the spoken form edit field, type the alternative using the phrase you would like to speak, such as:

?

CommaFull

?

Note I have concatonated the phrase here and used appropriate capitalisation. I have not used spacing.

?

4. Activate the button to train the pronunciation of the word. Speak the term,

CommaFull,

quickly but clearly as one string. Do not hesitate. Many people who use Dragon do not develop a natural dictation style and tend to pause often.

?

5. Activate the Save button.

?

I now have two such entries in my vocabulary: CommaFull and PeriodFull.

As a consequence, I can now say,

?

I would like to spell out the word CommaFull in my document.

Which is now represented as:

I would like to spell out the word Comma in my document.

?

Dani’s question has started me doing something I should have done long ago, that being, learn more about Dragon itself. So I’ve used the example of “comma full” to place a comma, and also trained the command “singoo” for the same purpose. My first tests showed that none of this worked, until I thought of a principle: these are commands. They have to be dictated like commands, with appropriate pauses, not as part of a string of text. When I dictated thus, the word “comma” was placed in my document. Now, unfortunately, since “commafull was treated as a command, no space was inserted before the next word as there ordinarily would have been, so when I said, “I need to insert a [pause] commafull into my document, the result was “acomma” run together.

?

Obviously, more has to be done here. I haven’t begun to experiment with Word’s own AutoText , or better yet, AutoCorrect, feature, to see if that can be used for better results. The goal would be to be able to dictate smoothly and have “commafull” seamlessly replaced by “comma.”

?

Note that I’m using Dragon 15.3, and I don’t know if any improvements have been made to the software in 15.6 or 16.0, neither of which I can afford at present.

?

Encouraging and thought-provoking reading

https://bahaiteachings.org

?

Hi Dean

?

It is not in the J-Say Command Summary because it is not a J-Say command. It is a Dragon command.

But you are right. Going through the command browser is often a good idea. Dragon has lots of good commands hidden away.

?

?

I tend to use the Command Summary a lot to figure things out that I should know but either don’t know or don’t remember. That Add New Command feature is one I didn’t know, is positively brilliant, and doesn’t seem to appear in the J-Say 22 command summary. I have the command summary chapters copied into an easily searchable text document for quick location.

?

?

?

?

Whichever way you tackle this using native Dragon techniques, you are going to encounter some difficulties. So I would suggest:

?

1. Say, Add New Command.

2. Into the first edit field, give the command a name, such as, Comma Full or Period Full.

3. Tab several times to reach the edit field for entering text.

4. Type, comma or period.

5. Tab to the plain text check box and check it.

6. Tab to Save and press Space.

7. Into your document, say the term you entered, such as, comma full, and the word will be spelled out.

?

Brian Hartgen

Hartgen Consultancy.

Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

?

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.

Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

?

This post comes from my personal blog rather than our company blog.

?

The March update of JAWS contains considerable new enhancements to the Picture Smart functions. In my view this is one of the very best feature enhancements within JAWS for some time. The system uses both Gemini and Chat GPT services so as to provide descriptions of images from web sites, files or perhaps a screen-shot of an application.
You don't need a special account to use it. You can just enjoy it.

I have been using this for a few weeks now. Here are some practical use cases I frequently work through.
1. I am a very heavy user of X/Twitter as it contains a great deal of content in which I am interested and keeps me up-to-date with events. Many posts on X contain images. I am easily able to focus on the image and get an excellent description in return.
It also works very well on social media sites where, for example, a user has scanned in a page from a TV listings magazine of long ago as the text is rendered correctly.

Here is a description of an image from X:
The image is a collage of four photos of the Swedish pop group ABBA.

The first photo shows the group in a recording studio, with Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bj?rn Ulvaeus, and Agnetha F?ltskog all standing around
a microphone.

The second photo shows the group in a more candid moment, with Bj?rn and Agnetha sitting on a couch and Benny and Anni-Frid standing behind them.

The third photo shows the group at a press conference, with all four members sitting at a table and answering questions from reporters.

The fourth photo shows the group at an awards ceremony, with all four members holding awards.
The Chat GPT output gives more descriptions of the outfits they are waring.

2. In order to prepare videos for upload to my wife's YouTube channel, I use a program called Handbreak. When the video is loaded into Handbreak, I can do a quick scan of the window. If it gives me a good description of the video then I know the visual appeal is of a high standard. I can also carry out the same action when the video is uploaded to YouTube and this gives me confidence since I know it has been uploaded correctly and is looking good.

Descriptions are like this:
The image shows an indoor setting with two individuals. On the left, there is a woman who appears to be smiling and has short, light-colored hair. She
is wearing a bright red top and is seated on a dark-colored couch. The woman has her head slightly tilted and is laughing or speaking. She is holding a
baby with both hands.

The baby, on the right side of the image, is lying on a cushion or support that is partially visible. The baby appears relaxed and is dressed in a white
onesie with various animal prints on it. The onesie has full sleeves, and the baby's left hand is resting on the onesie, showing only the fingers. The
baby has a pale complexion and eyes partially closed, possibly sleeping or resting comfortably.

3. We have a large library of pictures taken over the years and scanning these and obtaining descriptions brings back memories.

In the image, you see a person dressed elegantly in a red outfit with a tiara on their head, indicating a festive or formal occasion. This individual is
wearing jewelry like earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet, all showing a glittering appearance. They seem to be biting into a piece of red and white dessert,
possibly red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting or a similarly styled cupcake, given the size and how it's held.

In the background, you can see a table laid out with drinks, such as wine and champagne, and it seems there is a gathering or celebration taking place.
There's another person visible in the background, sitting at the table, looking towards the camera with a glass in front of them. The room has a warm and
joyous atmosphere, with a vibrant red wall that adds to the festive ambiance. The setting appears to be a home dining area, indicated by the presence of
bookshelves and domestic furnishings.

Useful tips:
By default, JAWS will just give you a brief description of the image. You need to activate the More Results link to obtain description from both services.
The Gemini summary is presented initially because the response time is faster and you may just want a brief picture description.

The list of keystrokes is:
JAWS Key+Space then P then:
C for control.
F for file, to be used in File Explorer as an example.
W for window.
S for screen.

It is important to note that when using this feature with social media sites, when the analysis is retrieved the Results Viewer does not always gain focus. This is a concern. You need to ALT+Tab over to it and possibly press Down Arrow afterwards for the description to read. It does not always happen but it frequently can.

?

Note to J-Say users.

We do not have voice commands for screen and window. But we do have:

Picture with Control. This is used a great deal on social media sites.

Picture with file. This will scan an image when the file is highlighted in File Explorer.

?

We have a very big J-Say update coming later this year and I will be sure to include those other commands which we do not have at the moment.

?

?

Brian Hartgen

Hartgen Consultancy.

Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

?

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.

Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

?

Have a great holiday. You have certainly earned it once again! Thanks for all your hard work.

From a legal perspective, JAWS, Fusion and Dragon’s License Agreement permit you to only use the software on one computer at a time. For example, the JAWS/Fusion license agreement, which you accepted when you installed it, says this:

Use of the Program is limited to only one Computer at a time.

?

?