
                         CHAPTER III
             TOGGLING THE INTERACTIVE facilities




    Each facility discussed in this chapter is turned on and
off in command mode. Once the facility has been turned on or
off the program returns you to command mode.



    III-1. Key echo - characters.


    Keystroke:
    F1

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Characters on" or
"Characters off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, every character displayed on the
screen are pronounced whenever they are hit on the keyboard.
If you press the a key the speech synthesizer will speak out
a.



    III-2. Key echo - words.


    Keystroke:
    F2

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Words on" or "Words off",
depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the character string, i.e. words
or numbers being written is pronounced whenever one of the
folling keys is pressed: SPACE BAR (the most frequently used),
CR and all keys moving the cursor such as LAR, DAR and so on.

    Note:
    The corrections of characters are not taken into account
by this facility and the string will be pronounced with all
its characters including the bad characters.



    III-3. Key echo - lines.


    Keystroke:    F3

    Message:
    The speach synthesizer speaks "Lines on" or "Lines off",
depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, written words are pronounced one
after another whenever you press CR or if the number of
written characters reaches 80, i.e. a whole screen line.

    Note:
    The corrections of characters are not taken into account
by this facility and the string will be pronounced with all
its characters including the bad characters.



    III-4. Key echo - sentences.


    Keystroke:
    F4

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Sentences on" or "Sentences
off", depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the sentence being written is
pronounced whenever you type a character marking a sentence
end or if the sentence exceeds a defined length.

    Note:
    The corrections of characters are not taken into account
by this facility and the string will be pronounced with all
its characters including the bad characters.



    III-5. Key echo - screen.


    Keystroke:
    F5

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Screen on" or "Screen off",
depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, every message displayed on the
screen are pronounced.

    Note:
    This facility works correctly with some speech
synthesizers but not so well with others. Its working also
depends on the display type used by the current application. Aseries of beeps informs you when the scrolling is over.



    III-6. Key echo - edition keys.


    Keystroke:
    F6

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Edition keys on" or
"Edition keys off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, cursor keys edition keys and
function keys are echoed whenever you press them.



    III-7. Key echo - toggle keys.


    Keystroke:
    F7

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Toggle keys on" or "Toggle
keys off", depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the new state of the system is
echoed whenever you press toggle keys.

    Note:
    The toggle keys are as follows: CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK,
INSERT, SCROLL LOCK.



    III-8. Key echo - SHIFT ALT and CONTROL keys.


    Keystroke:
    F8

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "S A C on" or "S A C off",
depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, ALT CONTROL and SHIFTING keys
are echoed whenever you press them.



    III-9. Key echo - display noise.

    Keystroke:
    F9

    The speech synthesizer speaks "Display noise on" or
"Display noise off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, you can hear a slight noise
coming from the PC speaker whenever a character appears on the
screen.

    Note:
    The working of this facility depends on the display type
used by the current application and can sometimes be inactive.
The noise thus made informs you about the appearance of one or
several characters on the screen.



    III-10. Key echo - movement of the cursor.


    Keystroke:
    F10

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Cursor tracking on" or
"Cursor tracking off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, moving the cursor by means of
one or several cursor keys depressed together will cause the
speech synthesizer to speak the string of characters located
between the previous and the new cursor position. The level of
this echo can be adjusted (see below).
    If you delete a character with the DELETE or BACKSPACE
keys it is pronounced before being erased.

    Note:
    This facility enables you to read a text in conjunction
with the movement of the cursor in live mode.



    III-11. Toggling colour bars.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F1

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Colour bar to switch?".

    Description:    The program is waiting for you to type a number between 1
and 5 representing the number of the colour bar to switch.
When this facility is on, the character string corresponding
to the foreground and background colours of the characters and
the background is pronounced. Different criteria govern the
elocution of such a facility.

    Note:
    This facility allows you to automatically read menus in
many application software. Its configuration is set up in
reading mode (see chapter V).



    III-12. Toggling selection tables.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F2

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Selection table to
switch?".

    Description:
    The program is waiting for you to type a number between 1
and 5 representing the number of the selection board to
switch. When this facility is on, the message following a
selection square is pronounced. Different criteria govern the
elocution of such a facility.

    Note:
    This facility allows you to automatically read menus of
options to select in some application software. Its
configutation is set up in reading mode (see chapter V).



    III-13. Toggling portions of lines.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F3

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Portion of line to
switch?".

    Description:
    The program is waiting for you to type a number between 1
and 5 representing the number of the portion of line to
switch. When this facility is on, the character string
correspondint to the portion of line found is pronounced.
Different criteria govern the elocution of such a facility.

    Note:
    This facility allows you to automatically read pop-upboxes in many applications software. Its configuration is set
up in reading mode (see chapter V).



    III-14. Toggling surveillance areas.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F4

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Surveillance area to
switch?".

    Description:
    The program is waiting for you to type a number between 1
and 2 representing the number of the surveillance area to
switch. When this facility is on, if a modification of the
text located in the active surveillance area is detected
VOXPARLE then speaks it.

    Note:
    A surveillance area is a portion of line on the screen
which can be set up in reading mode (see chapter V).



    III-15. Toggling soft cursor.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F5

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Soft cursor on" or "Soft
cursor off", depending upon the state of the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the cursor watched by the
program becomes a cursor whose colors and code are defined by
the user. The BIOS cursor, i.e. the normal cursor does not
prevail any longer.

    Note:
    If the soft cursor does not exist on the screen the BIOS
cursor prevails again, as if no soft cursor had been defined.



    III-16. Toggling system cursor attribute.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F6

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "System cursor attribute on"or "System cursor attribute off", depending upon the state of
the toggle function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the program checks the attribute
of the cursor defined by the user.

    Note:
    This feature is especially used to avoid redundances
caused by the cursor movement echo associated with the BIOS
cursor.



    III-17. Toggling the dictionary.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F7

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Dictionary on" or
"Dictionary off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the dictionary loaded into
memory is active. Words written or displayed are replaced by
their equivalents.

    Note:
    Only the synthesization of the word is modified, the word
keeps its original aspect on the screen.



    III-18. Toggling the visual tracking.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F8

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Visual tracking on" or
"Visual tracking off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, a white cross in reading mode
shows the pointer, i.e. the reading cursor position. The
intersection between the row and the white column shows the
pointed character.

    Note:
    This mark only appears when in reading mode.


    III-19. Toggling service messages.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F9

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Service messages on" or
"Service messages off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, messages such as those discussed
in this chapter and others are pronounced.

    Note:
    This facility allows you to know the state of toggle
functions and echo facilities and the status of many other
functions in reading mode.



    III-20. Toggling software beeps.


    Keystroke:
    SH-F10

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Software beeps on" or
"Software beeps off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, VOXPARLE gives out different
beeps throughout its use. Those beeps give you information
about the result of a number of operations in reading mode.

    Note:
    This facility can be turned off if silence is required in
the place where you are using VOXPARLE. However beeps are
particularly useful for a good control of the software.



    III-21. Toggling outer processing.


    Keystroke:
    CTRL-F1

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Outer processing on" or
"Outer processing off", depending upon the state of the toggle
function.

    Description:
    When this facility is on, the pronounciation of themessages and menus of the optional utilities available with
VOXPARLE IS AUTOMATIC. Programming colour bars or portions of
lines is therefore not required.

    Note:
    If VOXPARLE is loaded and the utilities remain mute check
if this facility is turned on.



    III-22. Suspending services.


    Keystroke:
    ALT-F1

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Suspension of interactive
services" or "Recovery of interactive services".

    Description:
    This facility temporarily suspends the interactive
services described above.

    Note:
    This action allows you to silent the software when
necessary and to resume when required.



    III-23. Cancelling every service.


    Keystroke:
    ALT-F10

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer speaks "Cancelling every
interactive service".

    Description:
    Every interactive service described above are turned off.

    Note:
    This action is not definitive and each service can be
turned on again one after another.



    III-24. Listing active facilities.


    Keystroke:
    TAB

    Message:
    The speech synthesizer lists the facilities turned on oneafter another or speaks "No active service" if they are all
turned off.

    Description:
    This function allows you to be informed about the
different interactive services turned on at a given moment.



    III-25. Reading documents.


    Keystrokes:
    UAR, LAR, RAR, DAR, CTRL-LAR, CTRL-RAR

    Message:
    None.

    Description:
    This function is different from those described until now
because this is not really a toggle function. It actually
triggers off an automatic reading process of the current
document. So, if you depress one of the keys mentioned above
when in command mode the cursor automatically moves as
required. The speech synthesizer will then echo the scanned
characters.
    For example, when in live mode if you press the CTRL key
to go into command mode then DAR the speech synthesizer is
going to read the current line, i.e. the line on which the
cursor is, then the cursor is going to move down on the
following line which is also going to be read and so on. If
you press CTRL-RAR VOXPARLE reads forward word by word, RAR
reads the document forward character by character, UAR reads
the document backward line by line and so on.
    In any case you can stop the reading process by hitting a
key: this is manual stopping. It is however possible to
program automatic stopping when the cursor reaches the end or
the beginning of a document (see chapter V-E-5).
    The movement of the cursor can be governed by the speech
of the synthesizer for some synthesizers, i.e. the cursor will
only move if the speech synthesizer has finished with its
current reading. The adjustment of the synthesizer speech
speed therefore manages the movement of the cursor. In case
the synthesizer used does not allow this type of temporisation
it is possible to indicate a pause value between each
movement.
    Whether the synthesizer used enables you to associate the
cursor movement with the speech speed or not is specified In
your synthesizer documentation available with VOXPARLE in the
paragraph dedicated to this feature.

    Note:
    Three beeps from high-pitched to low-pitched indicate the
beginning of the document reading process, three beeps from
low-pitched to high-pitched signal the end. This process is of
real interest only if you are reading a text in a word
processor or an ASCII editor.
    During the automatic reading of the current document youcan use the ALT key (or another if reprogrammed) to stop the
current elocution without for all that stopping the process.
However you cannot access command mode. All other keys enable
you to stop the process. To be accessed the document reading
process must be declared "available" (see chapter V-E-5).
