Voice-Activated Mouse Clicks with MacSpeech Dictate
One feature missing from the still-new [msd] program is the ability to control the mouse. This addition won't let you control the movement of the mouse, but we can teach you how to use your voice for mouse clicks. For those who have the ability to move the mouse, this could make the difference between a usable computer system and an unusable computer system.
To insert the commands to generate mouse clicks into MacSpeech Dictate you'll first need to download two files. Download the files by right clicking (or command clicking if you have a one-button mouse) on the files and selecting "Download Linked File" if you're using Safari, or selecting "Save Link As..." if you're using Firefox. Just leave them in your Downloads folder for now:
[Edit: I have put a zipped version of the Mouse Click commands here so we don't have so many problems with Safari changing the file name.]
First, double-click on the xtool-20.dmg file to open it up. Now you need to put the XTool.osax file in the directory /Library/ScriptingAdditions. Here's step by step instructions for those who need them - if you don't need the detailed instructions, just scroll down to the next section.
Open the Finder and select "Computer" from the "Go" menu, like this:
Reminder: You can click on any of the pictures here to see a larger image.
Your Finder window will switch to displaying all the disks on your computer. Unless you've renamed it, the main disk will be called Macintosh HD. Double-click on that disk to open it:
Now open the Library folder on the hard drive you just opened, again by double clicking it:
Now you need to create a new folder. Press shift-command-N or select "New Folder" from the Finder menu, and name the new folder ScriptingAdditions:
Double-click on your new folder to open it.
Now go back to the window you opened first - the XTool 2.0 that you downloaded. Drag the file XTool.osax from that window to your new ScriptingAdditions directory. When you're done, your new directory should look like this:
That part makes the mouse-clicking commands available to AppleScript.
Now we have to put the AppleScript commands into MacSpeech Dictate. If your mouse-clicks.commandstext file is still zipped - it will have a zipper on the icon and the word "ZIP" - then double-click it to extract the regular file which will have a plain icon which looks like a sheet of paper. This part's much easier - just open up MacSpeech Dictate and select "Command Import" from the "File" menu:
In the dialog box, go to the Downloads folder (or wherever you downloaded the file to) and select the file mouse-clicks.commandstext that you downloaded. MacSpeech Dictate will process for a moment, then you should see this dialog box:
That's all!
Congraatulations - you now have four new commands within MacSpeech Dictate. They can be used while you're in dictation mode or in command mode. These are the commands:
- Mouse click
- Mouse double click
- Mouse right click
- Mouse middle click
The names should be self explanatory, the first two commands use the left mouse button, the third command the right button (opens context menus) and the fourth command the middle button (not often used).
These commands won't move the mouse for you, the mouse clicks happen at wherever the current mouse location is. But if you want to take some strain off that mousing hand, not having to press the buttons is a good start.
We're working on commands to move the mouse, and undoubtedly the MacSpeech Dictate team are doing the same and these commands will feature in Dictate itself very soon. In the mean time, I think this is a useful stop-gap measure.
Special thanks for the information in this article goes to Everardo Verguizas who put most of this information together for me on the MacSpeech Dictate forums, Hiroto from the AppleScript Forum on Apple.com who found XTool which does the actual mouse clicking, and of course Jean-Baptiste Le Stang who wrote XTool in the first place and made it freely available. The only part I did was streamline the process and write this article. The original download site for XTool is http://lestang.org/osax/XTool/XTool-2.0.dmg.tgz, I have redistributed it here because I suspect many readers won't have Stuffit available to uncompress .tgz files and I wanted the process to be as simple as possible.
Please let us know how this works (or doesn't work) for you - leave a comment or three at the end of this post.
- Ricky Buchanan and Everardo Verguizas
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Very interesting! Going to give this a try with games that require right-clicks. :-)
Quick update: Just tried this with Neverwinter Nights in fullscreen and it works perfectly even with the game sound and music on! This bodes well for other games. :-)
finding Macspeech Dictate commands has turned to a search for the Holy Grail
I found the Grail. You can too,
Open system preferences. Select the microphone. Select speech recognition. Select commands. Open the speakable items folder Check what you need,(I checked them all) copy paste and print. Globals are the most useful since they work in all apps
i posted a list at my website
@Paul: That's fantastic! Keep me updated about it. Perhaps you could write it up for AssistiveGaming too?
@Diane: I hate to rain on your parade but Speakable Items isn't the same thing as Dictate Globals as far as I know. They may be (mostly?) the same syntax but it's not the same thing, I hate to tell you :( So even if it works now, I think if MacSpeech update their command syntax then it won't change what's in the Speakable Items folder.
I'm excited about mouseclicks, but stumped. I added the scripting addition, but when I click to download the second file, it opens as a webpage that I can't retrieve using Dictate. I right-clicked to save to downloads folder and nothing happens. My downloads folder is gone from my dock these days (???).
Thank you for this!
@MHB: Do you mean you can't find your Downloads folder at all? Try going to the Finder and then "Home" from the "Go" menu, it should show you a bunch of folders and one will be labeled "Downloads". If you drag it back to the Dock it should appear again, and you can also double-click on it in the Finder to see what's inside.
Let me know how you go!
Thanks for that. I got my downloads folder back where it should be, but when I go to file/import commands there is a dialog box saying that the format better be compatible. I clicked okay on that and when I drill down to my downloads folder the file I need to select is grayed out and an active. Next ideas?
Got it. The downloaded file had 2 extensions ... .txt at the end which I removed.
@MHB: Congratulations on your persistence! Hope it's working usefully for you now :)
I tried to import the mouse-clicks.commandstext file into MacSpeech Dictate. When the file window opened themouse-clicks.commandstext file was not highlighted as an available file to be imported.
I just updated MacSpeech Dictate to version 1.2 .1 could this be the problem?
I think what happened to me was the file had two extensions. After I deleted, I think it was .txt, it became an available file. Does that help?
I removed the .txt extension from the file and still it would not highlight when I went and use the import command with Dictate. I exported a command set for Finder commands and then imported them successfully because they showed up available during the import Finder window.This is the file I downloaded off this page "mouse-clicks.commandstext" and I removed the .txt extension from it.
Kind of puzzling, maybe I'm doing something wrong not sure.
@JW: Perhaps try downloading the command set again with right-click and save from the link instead of opening the file then saving it? All I can think is perhaps it's got corrupted when you downloaded it or else it possibly *still* has 2 extensions on it? Have you checked exact filename with highlighting it in Finder and then command-I for to display info about file?
Thanks everybody, I went to my Finder Preferences and turned on the "Show all file extensions" checkbox and found the.txt extension I was unable to see. It is now highlighted and imported fine. I will play around with it and see how it works for me.
Thanks again
@JW: Oh, fantastic! Hope it works well.
I have tried the Xtool commands and they work very well. I am a quadriplegic who will be purchasing a product called the Head Mouse Extreme and this would really make things easier for me. By being able to activate mouse clicks via MacSpeech Dictate I would not need to be tethered to my computer for buttons or switches to operate another mouse I use. One feature that would be really great would be a mouse click and drag command. I currently use the Airline 77 head set sold by MacSpeech. I am free to roam around and dictate at will without having to be attached to any computer. Hopefully MacSpeech will bring out some mouse command enhancements soon.
@JW: The click-and-drag is next on our list, actually, so stay tuned! I'd love to have you write up a bit about your experiences of making things accessible, anything relevant would be great if you'd like to write it :)
I would like to let you know how it works when it gets released. Sounds good to me.
Unfortunately, it's not working for me. Due to problems with the update for Dictate, I had to do a complete uninstall and reinstall of Dictate, download the update, create a new profile and then rerun this procedure. The commands show in the available commands window but nothing happens when I speak them. I am still having problems with Dictate also. I am just about to give up completely on Dictate, not just because of problems with the recent update and their lack of ability to incorporate mouse functions by now, but because I've been frustrated with them ever since I bought iListen which was a piece of crud.
@MHB: That really sucks. I hope you can find a solution that works for you.
I have just upgraded to MacSpeech 1.2.1. And I've have successfully installed your command. However, using it is another story -- for example, while in Safari I say the words "mouse click" then this page scrolls down only. I can't seem to get it to do anything else. If I'm in the finder nothing happens at all. Am I doing something wrong? Could it be a conflict with this upgrade? This is exactly what I've been looking for and I really want to get it to work even if it means downgrading to 1.0 [ not that that would be much of a downgrade ]
@Greg: It should work fine with version 1.2.1. Are you having trouble with any other commands not doing the right thing, or is MacSpeech working as it should except for these mouse commands? Are you using Leopard or Tiger?
My OS is leopard. I did some further investigation, and noticed, first, that many of my global commands are duplicated in the command window, e.g. there are 2 file close, file new etc. Also, I followed Diane's instructions to find Macspeech's commands and all I found in that folder were a bunch of commands most likely from an old install of ViaVoice. I have also "successfully" installed the mouse click command -- it even shows up in my list of globals, but when I quit and reopen MacSpeech, they are gone. I too am a quadriplegic who uses the head mouse, and I fear I may have to abandon the Mac and get a PC with Dragon. That would be one of the saddest days of my life. Any suggestions? BTW, fantastic website -- please keep up the good work!
Correction: you are correct, the speakable items folder contains commands for use with Mac's built-in voice commands. Commands for Macspeech are contained in one file in the application support folder, so one cannot remove or add from there.
One more thing: I should have mentioned in my first post today that despite the duplicate commands, and they all work fine except for the mouseclick commands.
@Greg: There's an article in the MacSpeech Dictate knowledgebase about duplicate commands appearing and what to do about it. I suspect if you do what they tell you, your mouse commands may be deleted and you may have to import the AppleScript commands again (from second last picture in this article). Let me know if that helps at all.
For anybody still having trouble, including Greg and MHB, could you please follow these steps:
1. Open the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder inside it, then the application "Terminal".
2. Copy and paste this command into the terminal:
ls -l /Library/ScriptingAdditionsand then copy and paste your results into a comment or email to me. The results will probably look very much like this:
total 0 drwxr-xr-x 3 rickybuchanan admin 102 26 Feb 2007 XTool.osax3. Open your MacSpeech dictate program and select "Commands" from the "Tools" menu. A window with your commands will appear - on the left side of the window select "Globals" and then scroll down to find the commands beginning with the word "Mouse". Select each one and just check what's in the window marked "Source" - are any of them blank? If so, which ones?
4. Are you having any other trouble at all with any MacSpeech Dictate functions or commands? Is everything working perfectly?
4. Post your results here, or email to atmacjournal@gmail.com along with any other information that might be relevant.
Thanks! This will hopefully help me sort out what's going on - whether my instructions don't work for everybody, or if it's somehow hitting another MacSpeech Dictate bug.
Dear Ricky,
I have tried to insert the “click†into Dictate as you have instructed but can’t select the mouse-clicks.commandstext.text to be imported as it is “greyed outâ€.
How do I get over this and select? Have inserted the XTool-2.0 as instructed.
Bob Wines.
[Comment moved from contact page by Admin.]
@Bob: I suggest you turn on "Show all file extensions" in the Finder's preferences - it seems that a .txt extension is getting appended when Safari downloads the file and you need to remove this before it can be imported. The file name needs to be simply mouse-clicks.comandstext with no other extensions to work properly.
Had done both before but it worked this time. Immediately got a fatal error but had typed cl in the search window of the dictate available commands(crashing when doing this has often happened in the past.)
You seem to be providing a wonderful service to those with impairement.
I wonder if you faced this problem with those using dictate or similiar. When I open a saved Word Document (say a letterhead) when I open it the insertion point is always at the top of the document when below the letterhead when saved.
Do you know how to get the insertion point below the letterhead either by saving it with the insertion point below or having a Command which will move the insertion point down (say 10 lines) after it has been opened.
I realise there was a Command in iListen but I suspect it may have worked only in the context of previously dictated material.
Would be useful for those wishing to use their own letterhead.
Many Thanks,
Bob Wines.
I do not see mouse-clicks.commandstext file. Can someone point the location out to me?
TIA
Tbone
If what you need is the ability to click, doubleclick and right-click the mouse by voice, the shareware application Extra Suites [$10] lets you write Applescript to do those actions by voice using speakable items.
tell application "Extra Suites"
ES click mouse
end tell
tell application "Extra Suites"
ES click mouse with double click
end tell
I didn't write these; I was given them by a helper on the Macscripter forum.
There's also the $10 AppleScript extension package which includes mouse click AND positioning commands, among other useful commands. The latest version dates back to OS 9, but it's been working fine for me up through OS 10.4.11, & I'm guessing it's probably fine with OS 10.5. Years ago, back when I was using ViaVoice, I had programmed a command that emulated Dragon's Mouse Grid, allowing me to zero in on progressively smaller portions of the screen until the mouse was in the position I wanted (I couldn't get it to actually draw the gridlines that delineated a nine-box area, but I got pretty good at estimating visually where they were). A version for Dictate will have to wait until MacSpeech starts including numeric variables in their AppleScript library -- they obviously *have* capability for numeric variables, as they are used in such built-in commands as "Move Forward/Backward Words," but so far they haven't made them accessible to users.
@TBone: Sorry about that, I accidentally messed up the coding in the article yesterday and hid the links! You can find them at the top of the article now.
@Lenny, @Polly: This XTools is essentially the same in functionality as the mouse clicks in ExtraSuites, but it's free. The article's only long because I walk people step by step through placing the scripting addition and importing the applescript commands - lots of people have trouble with that.
I am lost. I was able to download the Xtool, but not the mouse click commands from this page. When I double click on it, it shows the commands, but does not download them. If I drag it to the desktop from this page, I get an http document. I cannot import it into Mac Speech Dictate. I tried to change the settings as stated above to show all file extensions, but that does not help.
Any ideas? I am running 10.5.5 and have Mac Speech Dictate 1.2.1.
I have followed your instructions , but I got to importing the Mouse click commands it was not an active file highlighted in my desktop folder. So I can not select it to import it. Also the XTool 2.0 is not active on my dexktop either. Even though I have followed your instruction for that part and it went ok. So the issue is that I cannot import the downloaded file Mouse click Commands.
Martin
@SK, @Martin: I have replaced the Mouse Click Commands file with a zipped version so that Safari will stop messing with the file extension. I suggest you download the zipped version which is now listed at the top and install that.
@Martin: The XTools file will never be able to be double clicked so don't worry about it. As long as you've put it in the right place per instructions, it will work.
Ricky,
Worked like a charm! Thanks so much.
Tbone
Forgive me for my ignorance. I double clicked on the Mouse Click Commands file above and it downloaded as a 2.6 kb file into my download window. However, the icon is a blank page and when I double click on it, it tells me, "Safari can't open the file "mouse-clicks-1.commandstext" because no available application can open it."
I had Stuffit and DropZip, but I just downloaded the free Stuffit Expander as I figured mine was dated. The mouse-click file from the download still will not open. Now when I click on DropZip, it tells me, "DropZip will not work without Stuffit Engine. Please reinstall from the original installer."
I have Stuffit and DropZip and reinstalled Stuffit again from the download but it still does not work.
Can you help me or tell me where I need to write to get help. I really need the ability to click the mouse with these commands.
Thanks.
OK, Theoretically, I got it to import as a command, but it doesn't work. When I say, "Mouse Click"....it prints out the word mouse click.
I really don't think it was zipped open.
Help!
Ricky, the mysteries of the computer never cease to amaze me, often times defying logic: I copied the line of text into terminal and continued to follow your instructions to prepare to send you an e-mail. I thought I would try to use the commands once more to make sure that they didn't work -- now they do work! I can't begin to tell you how important these commands will be to my quality of life -- this is not hyperbole! Please keep up the great work you are doing -- looking forward to the drag command!
@SK: Ignorance is always forgivable in people like you who are willing to learn! It sounds like Safari is automatically unzipping the file for you if the icon is a blank page already. So you don't need to double-click on it, just proceed to the next part of the instructions. I'm not sure where you got up to in the instructions from what you've written - did you get the "Command import successful" dialog box as shown in the last picture?
Also, when you say "Mouse click" does it print the words into your document literally, or do you mean the words are shown under the status window like a recognized command?
@Greg: Computers are indeed bizarre and strange in their behaviour - I've had similar things happen myself! I'm just glad it's working for you now, and thank you sincerely for the praise, it's greatly appreciated.
Yes, I got the dialog box that say "Command import Successful" and when I say, "Mouse click" it literally prints the words in the document.
I'd appreciate the stumblers among us stumbling "Voice-Activated Mouse Clicks with MacSpeech Dictate" http://is.gd/cjyq
@SK: I am baffled. Would you mind doing this for me: open your MacSpeech dictate program and select “Commands†from the “Tools†menu. A window with your commands will appear - on the left side of the window select “Globals†and then scroll down to find the commands beginning with the word “Mouseâ€. Firstly, are the four mouse commands there? Are the checkboxes beside them ticked like all the other commands? Select each one and just check what’s in the window marked “Source†- are any of them blank? If so, which ones?
Thanks for your persistance!
Hi again. I tried it, but there are no commands with the word Mouse under Globals for me to select. Therefore, it doesn't seem to be installed.
Any more ideas? I really do need this. The mouse is the hardest part of the computer for me.
Thanks,
SK
@SK: I suggest you download and import the mouse commands again - just the mouse-clicks.commandstext part of it, not the XTools part. If they're not there something must have gone wrong somewhere with the importing. Best of luck!
I followed the directions again. It is still not working. When I download the mouse-click command from this page, it appears within a second or two. Should it take longer? Again, I am not unzipping it, it appears as a blank page.
I tells me it has imported the command, but it doesn't work. Again, when I say, "Mouse click", it prints the words mouse click into my document.
@SK: It's a very small file, and Safari's probably unzipping it for you so those things shouldn't matter. I can't think of anything else that could be happening though, so if you email me at atmacjournal@gmail.com I'll email you the file and we can keep poking at it that way. Don't dispair - we'll get it sorted out!
Thank you for the printable lists of Dictate commands. I printed up the entire Dictate User's manual, though I haven't had the time to read and reread it to learn all the commands.
Yes, it would be nice to have more commands for different programs.
Thanks again
sjb
Thank you Ricky,
Once I got the file e-mailed to me (zipped), I unzipped it and followed the directions to import the command and now it works!!
Thanks!
Please let me know if anyone figures out how to move the mouse with this program.
SK
Hello Ricky,
Thanks for you're efforts.
I've followed most of the hints you've given but....
The click commands were "successfully installed". The commands all turn up in the list of global commands. When I say "MouseClick", the words appear in the Status window, as do the other Mouse commands.....but Nothing else happens.
@Grahame: please follow these steps:
1. Open the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder inside it, then the application “Terminalâ€.
2. Copy and paste this command into the terminal:
ls -l /Library/ScriptingAdditions
and then copy and paste your results into a comment or email to me. The results will probably look very much like this:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 rickybuchanan admin 102 26 Feb 2007 XTool.osax
3. Open your MacSpeech dictate program and select “Commands†from the “Tools†menu. A window with your commands will appear - on the left side of the window select “Globals†and then scroll down to find the commands beginning with the word “Mouseâ€. Select each one and just check what’s in the window marked “Source†- are any of them blank? If so, which ones?
4. Are you having any other trouble at all with any MacSpeech Dictate functions or commands? Is everything working perfectly?
4. Post your results here, or email to atmacjournal@gmail.com along with any other information that might be relevant.
Thanks! This will hopefully help me sort out what’s going on - whether my instructions don’t work for everybody, or if it’s somehow hitting another MacSpeech Dictate bug.
happy New Year Ricky,
I began following your instructions, then realised that in scripting additions, I had not opened the file xtool-20.dmg. Once this was done, everything worked fine. However, I'm now discovering that after multiple uses the mouse click command seems to lock up. It acts as though there is a queue of commands causing a traffic jam. Closing and reopening the programme clears the problem.
Once again, thanks for your help. Enjoy 2009.
I have not had much success with clicking the mouse by voice. when I open the commands box I find them listed however, it says, "click mouse," and "click mouse times 2" and so forth. When I use the commands in an application they are not executed.
What can I do to solve this problem?
Larry Jay
@Grahame: I'm very glad your problem is resolved! I haven't come across the locking up before, but I don't actually use these commands myself so if it takes a while I might not have hit it. I use dwell clicking as it suits me better.
@Larry: Please go through the steps outlined 3 comments up for people who are having trouble and let me know the results. Then I can figure out what might be the problem.
Greetings and a Happy New Year to everybody from New Zealand!
I have been using MacSpeech Dictate, for a few months now and I find it to be excellent.
Many grateful thanks, for the tip on inserting mouse clicking into the software. I have had a stretch in bed, and instead of my usual Headmaster Control System with puff switch for clicking, I have been using the SmartNav system which is more suitable in a lying down situation. Clicking using its own dwell or voice certainly does work okay but it is would be very useful to have the clicking incorporated into MacSpeech Dictate.
With mouse clicking in MacSpeech Dictate would it be possible to;
1. -- a command for drag
2. -- change the spoken command to a different word. For example;zap, instead of "mouse click" etc.
Any thoughts, hints, or advice on achieving this would be gratefully appreciated.
Cheers,
David
Thanks for the reply. this is what i got: Last login: Mon Jan 5 06:59:28 on console
larry-jordans-imac:~ larryjay$ ls -l /Library/ScriptingAdditionsls -l /Library/ScriptingAdditions
----Hope this helps.
this is what is listed for each one, In order from top to bottom:
click mouse
click mouse times
click mouse times 1 using middle button
and click mouse times 1 using secondary button
And now, am I having problems otherwise. By dictation recognition I believe he is very good. I would like to test its accuracy on a more permanent basis. In regards to commands, very often they do not work. It is possible that tied it will design custom commands may be three or four at once, and one or two of them simply do not work. I have checked the spelling, invisible space is and other things that I could imagine might cause a problem, but it is always to no avail. Some commands work all of the time, however they are at the simple ones.
Thank you for your attention and help in this matter as it is greatly appreciated.
Larry Jay
PS: I used to MacSpeech Dictate to insert the preceding comment, without error. So that portion works and so does he base spelling mode.
@David: Usually longer commands are recognised better, which is why I used "mouse click", but you can certainly change it to suit yourself. Here's how:
Open your MacSpeech dictate program and select “Commands†from the “Tools†menu. A window with your commands will appear - on the left side of the window select “Globals†and then scroll down to find the commands you want to change. When you've selected the right command, just edit the field labelled "Command" then press enter - bingo, new name.
It seems from my testing that you need to quit MacSpeech Dictate and then start the program again for the new names to be properly recognized, but I am not certain that this.
Let me know how you go!
@Larry: if your other MacSpeech Dictate commands are not working fully this is probably affecting the mouse click commands also. I suggest that you contact the support team at MacSpeech Dictate and resolve those issues first. Best of luck.
I want to thank you Ricky, for all your help. I got the mouse clicks to work. My general problem with commands, I think is my use of them. I will go back to square one for doing all but the most easy and often used commands. The others seemed to be intermittent in their behavior. Possibly MacSpeech support can help with that.
Again thank you so much for your help with this and the other efforts you and your team makes toward making MacSpeech Dictate usable.
Larry Jay
@Larry: That's fantastic! I'm really glad you got the commands working, especially the mouse click commands. Can you explain what you changed to get them working, in case anybody else has the same problem?
I am confused. I have downloaded everything, and imported the commands. The commands show up in my commands listing, and contain the simple AppleScript such as "click mouse times 1 using middle button"or such.
However, none of the commands for mouse bring any result. (Except in dictation, such as the other users have seen.)
When I click Run to test them, I get a syntax error "A identifier can't go after this identifier."
I played with AppleScript to to make a mouse command click on a certain spot on the screen (x,y) but then that is not really using the variable position of the mouse.
@David: Have you followed the instructions for installing the XTool file also? It sounds as if this may be missing. Check it's done correctly and then try clicking 'run' on the AppleScripts again to see if they work.
If this doesn't fix the problem, please take the steps 1-5 which I have posted for others having trouble- most recently Grahaeme. Just look at previous comments. Best of luck.
I reinstalled the x-tool, and now it works! Thank you
@David: That's fantastic! Glad you've got it working :)
so glad I have bumped into your work. Seems like you are doing great things here. I have just switched from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional on Microsoft-based machines to using MacSpeech on a new Apple laptop. I didn't realise how many of the facilities would be missing, but being able to use your mouse click commands at least restore something very useful -- so thank you so much. I have also downloaded the global commands that you have listed (Heaven knows why the manufacturers don't supply such things), and it would also be great to have the application-specific commands for mail, Safari, pages. Is that still work in progress, or are they now available somewhere? Thank you again for your invaluable help
@Grant: Glad it's helpful to you! I'm still working on the application specific lists, the Mail one is first and should be available very soon. Best of luck.
I just installed this and it works. I'm really excited about it! Now, I want to take it to the next level.
I'm a computer programmer. I'm willing to dig into things. I looked into the text of mouse-clicks.commandstext. Eek! there is some complicated stuff in there! But what I'd really like to do is change it to use shorter words of my own choosing to activate the clicks. For example, "clicko", "clicktwo". Can you tell me how I might accomplish this?
@Ken: Luckily for you, there's an easier way than editing that file! It's in MacSpeech Dictate's export/inport format so it's not meant for human editing. Longer commands are generally recognised better which is why we used them, but here's how to change the names:
Open your MacSpeech dictate program and select “Commands†from the “Tools†menu. A window with your commands will appear - on the left side of the window select “Globals†and then scroll down to find the commands you want to change (they're in alphabetical order). When you’ve selected the right command, just edit the field labelled “Command†then press enter - bingo, new name.
Best of luck!
I installed everything as specified and I had a similar problem to some of the other posters. The words mouse click appear just like any other command or dictated word under the little dictation window, but the mouse button does not actually get clicked. This is the message I got when I went into terminal:
drwxrwxr-x 3 kurumaisu admin 102 Jan 21 12:57 Adobe Unit Types.osax
drwxr-xr-x 3 kurumaisu admin 102 Feb 25 2007 XTool.osax
The source seems to be correct in the command list as well, but when I click run under where you can look at the source, I get this error
AppleScript Error
«script» doesn’t understand the click mouse message.
Hi Ricky
I just installed the mouse click scripts from your website. They work for me. If someone could come up with scripts for moving the mouse around it would make my day.
Take care
Jim
Hi Ricky
I'm just going to echo the comments above, and say thank you very much for your "mouse clicks"!
I have just installed MacDictate - really impressed with the dictation, but seriously frustrated about the lack of mouse moving commands. I got used to "mouse anywhere" with ilisten, and that was great.
Really appreciate your efforts!
All the best
Frances
@Jim: I'm glad the mouse click scripts are helping you. I'm working on an article about scripts for moving the mouse around using Dictate and a program called Maestro actually - you might want to try it yourself without an article if you are feeling brave! I'm pretty sick at the moment so it may be a while before articles get done, unfortunately.
Hello Ricky
Really sorry to hear that you are not well at the moment -- I hope that you will be feeling better soon, and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me.
I am so happy to be able to use Dictate to write like this, and I am feeling brave, so I would like to experiment with Maestro -- but I can't find it!
Is there a website where I can download it?
All good wishes
Frances
@Frances: Jim very kindly send me the URLs that you need: Keyboard Maestro is the program, found at http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/
You can see documentation of the actions available at http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/documentation/3/actions.html
Let us know how you go!
The fact that Macspeech comes out with a medical version before developing a full correction feature, or mousegrid feature baffles me!!!??? I have Vista on Bootcamp with dragon 10 which blows Dictate away ... but the free VR that comes on Vista is still better than Dictate and now has a pre beta macro feature!
I just upgraded Mac Dictate 1.5, can't create a voice profile after 2-3 weeks working with Customer Support. I don't have my old MAc Dcitate discs (the data disc was corrupted to re-install
The Mac Dictate Technical Support team dooesn't know what's wrong with the new upgrade, they have sent me a version 1.5.2 in order to fix the problem (clearly a more debugged version), they are escalating the issue to "technical mangement".
I don't have the old MAc Dictate discs on hand (they are sitting my in my office in Indonesia. The install went ok with Mac Dictate Tech Support but the system crashes when I try to create a voice profile.
Bottom line: if you buy the upgarede and this happens we pay for this Mac Dictate 1.5 upgrade upgrade, but installing disbles the old version. It seems like this is a less then ready-to-go Beta version of 1.5. The result is users in my situation are left "dead in the water" concerning Msc Dictate. I understand they are trying to iporve their product for our benefit, but should be careful not to disable the old version whilst installing a less than stable upgrade. The company;s response to me to is to thank me for my patience, until they are able to come up with a resolution.
I'd appreacaite any feedback from others with similar difficulties and if you came up with any solutions. I use a Mac Mice USB microphone and I'm not sure if the new Snowball microphone may be a better USB microphone, does anyone know if "the Snowball usb microphone" is Mac Dictate 1.5 compatible?
Looking forward to your feedback,
Jonthan
I just got the new MacSpeech Dictate version 1.5 upgrade as well but have experienced no problems with it. In fact it is noticeably better than the previous version. I still think the upgrade cost was ridiculous but I'll definitely get my money's worth out of it. I'm sorry to hear you're having problems though.
Off the top of my head have you tried deleting the preference files, or at least removing them and putting them somewhere else, forcing MacSpeech Dictate to create a fresh set of preferences? If you have trouble locating the correct files let me know and I'll do some digging for you.
You might also want to try the MacSpeech Dictate forums on their website. Other MacSpeech Dictate users congregate there and might be able to help you. I was just reading through some posts there and I came across the following:
"The first thing I try is to delete my profile, clear all my caches on my computer, and create a brand-new profile. This generally fixes the problem. By clearing my caches, I mean that I run a program called Onyx. It's a free application available for download from many places on the Web. When I use it, I run all the "automated" tasks, such as clearing the system cache, the user cache, the Spotlight index, running the periodic UNIX tasks, etc. Then, with Dictate not running, I delete all of my user profiles.
From time to time, I have also had to completely reinstall the entire application. This requires that you delete all things MacSpeech from your computer and load the application from the very beginning again. The process takes a very short time."
I don't know if any of these things will help you but perhaps it couldn't hurt to try? Please let me know if you find a solution.
Paul
@Rick: I think that developing versions such as Medical and Legal which have different vocabularies but are otherwise the same is a significantly different and easier problem than working on something like a mouse control feature. It would also, I suspect, use different programmers who were used to working on different areas of the code so it wouldn't take away from those efforts either. I agree it's frustrating not to have mouse support and other similar things, but I think that if anything the aditional revenue from these new products will help them to work more quickly on features like mouse support.
Hi Paul Natsch,
MacSpeech sent me a new updated data disk. I uninstalled, the new version of MacSpeech, reinstalled a new downloaded version (via their website in a zip file) and reinstalled MacSpeech 1.5 and the new data disk. This resulted, in a seamless upgrade, finally.
Prior to this, I forwarded your advice to MacSpeech support to get their assistance in following the technical steps you laid out. Their response was to send me a new data desk and proceed with a reinstallation. Bottom line, I'm a happy camper can you helped me to get there.
Please advise: the AT MAC community that we got a working system and upgrade after all, although somewhat time-consuming, the company continues to work to improve the system. Thank you Paul, Ricky and AT Mac community for your kind support.
My best, Jonathan
Hi Paul Natsch,
MacSpeech sent me a new updated data disk. I uninstalled, the new version of MacSpeech, reinstalled a new downloaded version (via their website in a zip file) and reinstalled MacSpeech 1.5 and the new data disk. This resulted, in a seamless upgrade, finally.
Prior to this, I forwarded your advice to MacSpeech support to get their assistance in following the technical steps you laid out. Their response was to send me a new data desk and proceed with a reinstallation. Bottom line, I'm a happy camper and you helped me to get there.
Please advise: the AT MAC community that we got a working system and upgrade after all, although somewhat time-consuming, the company continues to work to improve the system. Thank you Paul, Ricky and AT Mac community for your kind support.
My best, Jonathan
Jonathan,
I'm so happy to hear that you got the problem resolved! :-)
Now that you've gotten it installed I think you're really going to like it. Version 1.5 is a big improvement. It's an application I can't live without now.
Happy dictating! :-)
Hi there,
This is a great tool, thanks so much for keeping it available to everyone.
I recently tried using "click mouse" in my applescript and my computer locked; the computer didn't recognize any input from either the keyboard nor mouse.
I'm using the latest Leopard.
Hope you can help!
-Adam
@Adam: Apologies for the slow reply. I don't actually use the click script myself as I use the dwell clicking in KeyStrokes for mouse clicks. I haven't had any others reporting trouble specifically with the new version of Leopard though, so I doubt it's that. I suggest you download the XTools package and install that again following the directions in the article, just in case it somehow got corrupted.
Let me know how you go!
does it work w/ Snow Leopard....so far so NOT good
@David: I don't have Snow Leopard yet to check, but I'd be surprised if it did work with 10.6 honestly. I wouldn't hold your breath :(
So anyway to adapt or alter the current scripts
to work with msd? I don't want bring in 3rd party
software...I hope u guys can pull it off!! Took me forever
to find this site, u guys are my only hope ;)
Breakthrough news...IT WORKS WITH SNOW LEOPARD..... I downloaded the xtool from: http://lestang.org/osax/XTool/XTool-2.0.dmg.tgz, Installed the tool, only in the Macintosh hard drive library scripting additions then quit MSD. then downloaded the AppleScript from this page. Open MacSpeech Dictate, imported the commands, save the Commandments in my documents folder. Quit MacSpeech Dictate, re-open the app and it worked perfectly!
@David: I'm thrilled you've got it working! Does this mean that you just followed the same original directions again? That makes sense, as Snow Leopard's installer would probably remove the XTool file when upgrading because we put it in a system location.
Can anybody else confirm that Snow Leopard upgrades remove the XTool file and that replacing it fixes things? I'll put a note at the top of the article if this is the case. I'm not upgraded yet myself so I can't test it.
Hello everyone - I thought I'd add my contribution to the upgrade debate.
I delayed installing Snow Leopard because I was so worried about losing the ability to click the mouse - but I have now installed the upgrade, followed by Mac Speech Dictate 1.5 (upgrading from the prior version), and the mouse clicking works just fine. I didn't have to reinstall anything, it just worked.
Hope this helps if you're still trying to decide whether to go ahead with Snow Leopard.
Sorry - don't want to mislead you - I have just discovered that the new Mac speech Dictate includes mouse clicking, so my comment above is not relevant.
@Frances: Which new MacSpeech dictate includes mouse clicking? This isn't something I'm aware of...
@Ricky: this is the standard upgrade -- I've checked and it is described as version 1.5.2
In the Global Commands it includes mouse click, mouse double click, mouse right click, and mouse middle click
I don't think the developers have made much of it -- as I said above, I only found out by accident that I was using it!
Apart from this feature, which would have been really handy, if I hadn't known about your great solution, I must confess that in a lot of ways I've been a bit disappointed with the upgrade. It seems glitchier than 1.3, and much less clever about recognising the difference between dictation and commands.
@Ricky Thank you to ATMac for helping MacSpeech Dictate users understand and extend the product's functionality.
MacSpeech Dictate 1.5.2 is the latest version. It was released two months ago. This version does not include mouse click commands unless you've configured them yourself.
@Ricky: have seen the comment above from JayG, so I thought I'd better confirm that I haven't configured any mouse click commands - frankly, I'm not clever enough!
I did have your "Mouse Click commands" already installed because I was using them with Dictate 1.3. All I did was install Snow Leopard, followed by the Dictate upgrade.
The various mouse options appear in the "Available Commands" window when I use Dictate
What features would you like to see in voice mouse control?
I have successfully created a prototype of MSD commands in applescript for incremental positioning of the mouse: mouse up 100, mouse left 100, etc. I can see expanding the commands to a full screen of 2000x1500 in 1000, 500, 100 increments and a set of close in adjustments of perhaps 10, 20, 50. That would require about 200 commands in the set including the standard mouse button actions. Once created they could be easily imported.
Would such a set be worthwhile?
Those incremental positioning of the mouse in Applescript do seem worth it.
In terms of other features, I would appreciate it if "position of the mouse" were fixed in Snow Leopard in Applescript. (I'm assuming there's a bug, because it doesn't work for me!)
Regarding: position of the mouse
that AppleScript only calls up the coordinates of the current location of the mouse, that is {100,200}. the AppleScript: "move mouse [100, 200]" will reposition the mouse at the absolute coordinates 100, 200. (By the way, the coordinates are in units of pixels and my MacBook Pro 15" is 900x1400 and my 23" cinema display is 1200x2000 pixels just for reference.) Are you suggesting that you would like to have the ability to position or click the mouse at specific coordinates?
I'm not currently using snow leopard. I'll be waiting for version 10.6.2 before upgrading. Most of the bugs should be fixed by then.
It would be useful to have an applescript addition that let me:
Take the current position of the mouse
Click at that position
Some of my scripts take advantage of this ability, basically by letting the user show the script where some certain button is in order to click it, in cases where not even gui scripting works.
There is of course the click at for System Events but as anyone who has tried using it for non-cocoa coded apps knows it don't work too often.
I'm in education where lots of different kinds of non-standard programs are used so such features would be quite useful to me, certainly! But I can't see moving the mouse around being as useful, but then I don't use it for accessibility reasons. I use it to streamline teacher workflows in the classroom.
Would this work?:
set {x, y} to position of the mouse
get position of the mouse
click mouse [x, y]
And, you are correct. The principal purpose of this program would be to enhance accessibility of those with limited hand or arm use.
@Philip: I'm guessing it would most definitely be worthwhile. I'm going to reprint your comment in a new post I'm just writing now - please see that post for related comments.
Hello and thank you for your time,
I installed Snow Leopard and then Mac Speech Dictate 1.5.5 to go with it. Then I followed the directions on your web page to install mouse click, double, right, and center click.
Three questions:
1. All seemed to be working, but now in Safari, when I say, "Go To Google, the name of the topic, and mouse click" it doesn't click. It was doing it, but not anymore. If I manually put the mouse on a subheading below the main google search box and say, Click Mouse" it works...Any ideas?
2. Where can I go to get a complete list of all oral commands that this program can accomplish? The users manual seems to have them in various sections. I want to print out the entire list.
3. If you are in a program such as Excel, what is the command to move the mouse down or across one cell at a time.
Thank you so much for your time and I apologize if you have answered these questions previously.
Sharon
Let me address your questions last to first.
In Excel you can move between cells in several ways: right arrow, left arrow, press the key: return, press the key: tab, next field, press the key: enter; all of these commands work. In addition you can create custom keyboard commands for Excel within Excel.
To see the commands, Ricky has posted them on her main post: mouse click; mouse double click; mouse right click; mouse middle click. The program of which you speak is X. tools. To see the AppleScript's list: go to your home (typically your name) >library >scripting additions >XTool.osax double-click on this and it should open up its library in script editor. It only consists of six commands. If you want additional commands you can create them in MSD commands window.
Your next question is confusing. After I put in a topic For Google search I typically press the key, return. Unless I position the mouse over the search button.
Let me clarify my last post somewhat. In the third paragraph I said "it only consists of six commands" that should read "it only consists of six AppleScript elements". In other words if you want additional commands for your mouse you will have to create applescripts in MSD using these six elements.
Mouse clicks in MSD conflicts with QuicKeys. QuicKeys causes the mouse to freeze. It will release if you do a force quit, just by opening the window.
@Sharon: Philip answered your other questions but I suspect you wanted all the spoken commands from MacSpeech Dictate? We have a MacSpeech Dictate Commands List For Version 1.2.1 which is due to be updated soon. There are actually not a lot of command changes between 1.2.1 and the current version 1.5 so it should be helpful for you until I've updated the list. If you'd like to go through the manual and help with the updates that would be really wonderful!
Thank you Phillip. I did not know how to get the return button to depress with verbal commands. So that solves both the Google and Excel questions.
Yes Ricky. Thank you, I was looking for all commands. Are there specific commands for iTunes?
I'm not clear, how can I help.
Sharon
I've found the mouse click commands work with the built-in speech recognition program too. Sorry if this is very obvious to everyone. I only thought of trying it today, so it's new to me.
I'm not sure if the scripts work everywhere. I know the program in general doesn't work well for others, but I'm one of the lucky ones it does work for. I haven't tested the scripts much and I'm not a programmer. I'm on a MacBook Pro, Version 10.5.8, Tiger. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
What I did:
-I'd already done what this article describes and I'd been using mouse clicks in Dictate wonderfully.By the way, I put the "XTool.osax" in "HardDrive - Users - me - Library - ScriptingAdditions". I'm not sure if I'd followed the instructions right.
-I rewrote those mouse click scripts in Applescript by hand
-I saved them in "HardDrive - Users - me - Library - Speech - Speakable Items"
When I first tried, it was buggy (I think I tried restarting it too), but after I stopped it and restarted a couple hours later, it worked fine. It's worked with Safari, Finder, and VMWare. Maybe others too.
This site has been fantastic, by the way. Great job!
On a second note, about click-and-drag, is there a way to write a script that holds the mouse button down? That way, all I'd have to do manually to drag is move the mouse, I wouldn't have to put pressure on the mouse key.
@Michelle: Thanks for that great information, I hadn't thought of using them with the build in speech recognition!
@Michelle: I'll work on a click and drag script. It would need two command - perhaps "Mouse Button Down" and "Mouse button up"? Or "begin drag" and "end drag"? What names would you prefer?
@Ricky: That would be incredible!
As far as the commands go, I can always change that with the file name, right? So if after a while I find it's a drag (haha), I'll change it.
I prefer just two word commands (one if possible), I'm lazy that way, so I might prefer the latter two. Or maybe "drag on" and "drag off", Karate Kid style.
Thank you so much,
- Michelle.
Thanks so much!
Quick Question:
So when using new command "Mouse Right Click" (which works great, ...wow) brings up a contextual menu, lets say for example in FireFox, with a row of available options, how would i use my voice to select an item from that menu I've just called up within MacSpeech Dictate?
Again, thanks so very much....great work-around for a feature that just seems like it should have been there from the start.
Best,
David
@David
There are two different techniques that work for me. The quickest (though it doesn't work in every application) is just to speak the name that you require from the menu list -- brilliantly simple!
Alternatively, I use the command "press the key down arrow" to go down through the list.
Hope this helps,
Frances
@Frances
Very kind Frances!
I had tried "just speaking the name", but perhaps has been in the wrong app (FFox) or wrong vocal "mood" (kidding ;-)).
Will go back to FFox now and try this "press the key down arrow" idea...
Thanks so much.
And thanks to all here, esp. you Ricky, for this super work-around and discussion thread.
~David
PS: For what its worth:
While not, at this time in my life, physically impaired from typing with my hands by any physical disability, I recognize that some using this solution and sharing at this discussion thread are. Thank you all for the spirit of camaraderie and uncompromising resolve to mutually empower each other so obvious and inspiring here in this "community".
@David: Thanks for the compliment - I've been very impressed by the readers' mutual support too!
As Frances said, once you have the menu visible, you should just be able to use the phrases "press the down arrow" to select and then use "new line" or "press the enter key" to use the currently selected option.
I have just posted MouseMoves84. A command set of more than 80 mouse directional commands for MSD. in the format of "mouse up right 100", in increments of 20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000. It needs testing and I need feedback. Volunteers contact me at pblair18@comcast.net
I'm running OSX, and I followed the instructions and went through the terminal process, but I didn't get the results you did. However when I checked the MacSpeech commands menu the command was there and the box said "click mouse" as it should, but it still is in working. In Safari scrolls down, otherwise it does nothing. Is there anything else I can do?
Also for other folks who were having trouble with it typing "click mouse" I think you have to say "command click mouse".
Thanks for showing us how to use mouse clicks it is so helpful! Is it possible to hold down the mouse? So we can move things around and such.
Thank you very much,
Joe
Dear Joe,
currently there is no simple command for holding the mouse down, as for drag-and-drop. But you've actually given me an idea to supplement the command set with one of the sticky keys. I'll take a look at that.
Philip
(created, edited and sent hands free with MacSpeech Dictate)
Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with a simple AppleScript. Basically I want to make a command that mimics the “press the key†command. After almost 2 years of saying “press the key ____â€, I would like to say something more like attack or strike enemy. I have tried looking for the “press the key†command in the command menu but have been unable to find it. Essentially I am running keyboardmaestro to play certain games and have mapped my keyboard with a whole bunch of macros that would allow me to play the game. Any help is appreciated.
Now with regards to clicking with MacSpeech, it took me almost 2 hours to figure out how to make it work. Perhaps what I learned can be of benefit to other users. It is important to note that there are two (at least in my Mac) library folders. You have to be sure you copy the xtools file into the right library. In addition the scripting additions folder must be created without a space… “ScriptingAdditionsâ€.