Allright, I know I am doing something out of the normal, in dropping this message right now. But I find that I have some thrilling news for you all.
Lately, we have had a discussion on the lists, as to the lacks of the exception dictionaries of WE. GW has stated, that they might look into things - sometime down the road. But for many of us, the lacks are rather bothersome, and some of them might not even fully have been addressed in the passed. Based on this, I have taken on me, to write a small app, that will take care of some of the requests I have seen on the lists. The app is just about ready for Beta-testing, and I hope to have the Beta out in the end of this month. Hopefully, it won't be long thereafter, before I can make the final release of the app. But just to wet your apetite, here is some words about the features that the app presents at this very moment. VOICE-SPECIFIC DICTIONARIES: Are you among those of us, who do work with more than one voice? Well, then you will be pleased to know, that the new app will leave you the chance of saving a seperate exception dictionary for each of the voices you are using. This will ensure, that you can optimize the speech for each synth and voice. Not only will you be given the chance of saving one dictionary for each manufacturer - like DecTalk or Eloquence - but even down to the very voice. So Eloquence Shelly, and Eloquence Reed - well they will have each their dictionary. ORIGINAL-TEXT CAN BE A PHRASE: One of the requests for an upgraded dictionary feature, was to be able to enter more than just single words in the original part of the dictionary. The app already features the chance of doing so. So, if you are tired of hearing your synth saying things like "Nothing is selected" , or the like - here is your chance of replacing the phrase altogether with a self-made word or phrase. Or, you could simply leave the replacement part empty, and the whole phrase would be silenced. (Save your ears!) REPLACING WITH SOUND CLIPS: You can enter a given word or phrase, and in the replacement field, enter a filename. The filename should refer to a sound-clip on your disk. Whenever the synthesizer is about to speak the given word or phrase, you will be presented with the sound clip instead. This feature is rather basic at the moment, but hopefully will grow more advanced as time goes by. PROGRAM-SPECIFIC DICTIONARIES: Not only does the app give you the chance of saving seperate dictionaries for each voice, but it even features a chance for you to make program specific dictionaries. Why would I ever include such a feature? Well, let's take an example. When you are working in your text editor - like MSWord - you of course want all text written, to be spoken. So you don't want much for an exception dictionary. But now, if you switch to your AntiVirus program, you might want to have a given phrase adjusted. M Maybe you want phrase that pops up all the time saying something like: "Now performing a full scan of your system" , to be replaced with the single word "Scanning". You then can save a program specific dictionary for your AntiVirus program, and the replacement will only take place, whenever you are in the AntiVirus program. In your Sound editor, or your Email client, or the Chatting software you are using, you might want other program specific exceptions. It's all up to you, to make up as many dictionaries as you want and need. Soon as you switch to an open window on your computer screen, the app will look out for a program specific dictionary - and if found, load it into memory, and put it in effect. Program specific dictionaries, will be saved under each voice. That means, you will be able to have one specific dictionary for Outlook Express when Eloquence Reed is talking, and a totally seperate dictionary for the same software, when DecTalk is in for a chat. This should leave you the optimal chance of tayloring your speech experience to the full. EASILY EDIT YOUR DICTIONARIES: Do you often find it somehow troublesome to navigate the menus and screens of the built-in dictionary in WE? Well, then I have a bit of news for you. With the new app, you will be given two hotkeys. One will load the general (or Basic) dictionary for the current voice, the other will load the program specific dictionary for the currently focused window - right into Notepad. Here you can easily edit all your exceptions. Once finished, you save and close the Notepad window; and woopsy, there the newly saved dictionary will be loaded into memory, and your exceptions put into efect. The app - which has been named Extended dictionary - has been running on my system for a few weeks now. I am continuously working on improving it, but the above is how far things have got up till now. As I said in my introductory, I hope to have the beta out in the end of the month. For those of you who are interested, I ask you to contact me off-list at: [email protected] . When the app is all ready and uploaded for general use, I will of course let you all know. And, if anyone of you have ideas for features that could come in handy, I am open ears. Not promising that it will make it into the app - at least at this moment - but surely would appriciate any ideas. It is my hope, that this app will be out in its final release soon, and that it will prove helpful for many. Even for the multi-lingual community, this might be of real help to you, since you now will be able to save separate dictionaries for your English voice, and your French, German, Danish or Italian voices. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. 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