Talking to Dragons

This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don't want to reveal your proper name (which is wise), and don't want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise). No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it. --- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Types of "Words":

Ordinary Words e.g. return

Punctuation e.g. , [comma]

In pre-defined macros, this form is used primarily for punctuation. However, it is not limited to punctuation. It can be used more generally for words which have different written and spoken forms. While you cannot include special characters such as {enter}, many programming macros can be written in this form instead.

Macros e.g. [Enter Key] or [Bottom of Document]

Although in DragonDictate you have to pause after ordinary words as well as macros, there is a bug which causes DragonDictate to swallow the next thing that you say after a macro, unless you leave an extra little pause. this is not true of punctuation symbols, so I recommend that you use punctuation symbols over macros when possible.

Sentence Commands

e.g.
[<Move or Select> <Direction> <Number/1 to 40>]


Sentence commands are useful for commands with constrained choices, as well as for reducing the number of macros you have to write. However, they can only be used in Command Mode, and even then, they have lower recognition priority than ordinary macros.

Command Mode vs. Dictation Mode:

Command	Dictation
small vocabulary (good recognition) sentence commands available character for char, integer for int, etc. are unambiguous VoiceGrip works simply	correction works easy to use ordinary English variable names

Overriding Macros:

Often, when writing programs or other non-English text, you may want to override an existing global macro. For example, you may want DragonDictate to:

• type <P>{enter} when you say [New Paragraph] while editing HTML
• generate different keystrokes when you say [Word Left 5] while using a non-Windows editor,
• use different spacing and capitalization properties for a punctuation symbol than in ordinary English.

You can only successfully override a word with another word whose name matches exactly. ( I consider a macro to be successfully overridden only if DragonDictate will consistently choose your version over its version when both are active at the same time.)

This seemingly simple rule contains a number of subtleties which you should understand before trying to do this at home. Here are some examples where an attempt to override a word fails:

• lambda with [lambda], or \lambda [lambda]
• $ [dollar sign] with [dollar sign]
• [Word Left <Number/1 to 9>] with [Word Left 1], etc.
• [Word Left <Number/1 to 9>] with [Word Left <Number/1 to 40>]
• [<Move or Select> <Direction> <Number/1 to 40>] with [Move Left 1], etc.
• or with [Move <Direction> <Number/1 to 40>] and a separate [Select <Direction> <Number/1 to 40>]

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This document last modified on 1/10/2002

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