Chapter 6
Voice Communications

When used with a modem that supports voice features, MacComCenter Plus provides complete voice messaging functions. At its most basic level, MacComCenter Plus acts as an answering machine or voice mailbox, allowing you to receive voice messages when you are away from your phone. You can review, delete or forward messages remotely from any touch tone phone.

MacComCenter Plus allows you to create multiple mailboxes to help separate calls into a more organized format. For example, you could create a business mailbox and a personal mailbox, or create separate mailboxes for each family member. You can assign various features to each mailbox. This chapter describes the voice mailbox setup options available with MacComCenter Plus.

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Voice setup

Before configuring your mailbox(es), it would be a good idea to configure the manner in which messages will be recorded and played. These options are discussed in Chapter 3 - Voice Setup.

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Mailbox Setup

See Chapter 3 - Mailbox Setup.

Playing messages

A received message will appear under the mailbox folder to which it was received. By default, messages are stored in the Inbox under the *Default Mailbox* folder. You can play messages by double-clicking on the message itself, highlighting the desired message and selecting Play/View from the Mailbox menu, or by highlighting the message and clicking on the Play button at the bottom of the window.

After a voice message has been opened, a check-mark will appear next to it to indicate that you have listened to it.

Note: You can mark a voice message as unread by using the Mark As Unread command from the Mailbox menu.

To find out further information on received voice files, highlight the desired voice file and press the Info button. The dialog shown below will appear.

The Caller text box in the Message Info dialog may be edited by the user as a means of identifying the person who left the voice message. The text the user enters will be automatically matched to records in the phonebook. If a match is found the text will be inserted into the text box. The descriptive name and will appear in the MessageCenter tab item list when the message is listed.

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Changing audio messages

MacComCenter Plus allows you to customize the greetings and prompts that callers hear when communicating with your system. The selection of the voice files to be used by MacComCenter Plus is performed in the Voice Script Editor, described in Chapter 7. This section describes how to record voice files.

1. Ensure that the desired recording device is selected for use. This selection is available using the Record From option under the Voice menu.
2. To record a new voice file, select New Recording from the Voice menu. To edit an existing voice file, select Edit Recording and double-click on the desired file in the resulting dialog box. The Recording Studio dialog will appear:

1. Click on the Rec button to record a new message, or Play to review the file (if you are editing or reviewing an existing file).
2. If you choose to record a new message, the Macintosh will play a beep sound to notify you that it is ready to start recording your new message. At the beep, begin speaking your new message. When finished click on the Stop button to stop recording. You can then play back your message, edit the audio or re-record the message if desired.
3. After completing the new message, select Save to save the outgoing message. Cancel will discard the current recording and return you to the previous dialog.

You can fast forward through a recording with the FF button, or fast rewind with the Rew button. Note that the Rew and FF buttons will only be enabled if your message is over four seconds long and you are playing the audio via your Macintosh's speaker.

The Revert button reverts a file which has been modified back to the last saved version.

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Editing Voice Files

MacComCenter Plus allows you to edit voice files to ensure the highest quality audio possible. The editing features are displayed by clicking on the disclosure triangle in the recording studio dialog box:

The recordings are visually displayed in the form of audio waveforms and statistics about the recording are provided. Users can Zoom the waveforms in or out by clicking on the Zoom In or Zoom Out icons located to the left of the horizontal scrollbar.

There are three levels of granularity for the waveform display - 7:1, 4:1, and 1:1. The default view (shown above) is 7:1.

Recordings can be edited by deleting or inserting audio samples into the waveform display. Cut, Copy and Paste operations are supported for moving audio clips into and out of the waveform.

Audio is deleted by selecting samples from the waveform display and pressing the Delete key on the keyboard or selecting Cut from the Edit menu.

Audio is inserted into the recording by selecting samples from the waveform display by choosing Copy or Cut from the Edit menu and then choosing an insertion point and selecting Paste from the Edit menu.

You can amplify your recording by using the Increase Audio popup menu. This will amplify a portion of the waveform if a selection was previously made, or amplify the whole waveform if no selection is highlighted.

Recordings may also be imported or exported using the Import and Export buttons. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), Macintosh Sound Resources, SoundEdit and MacComCenter audio files are supported for importing.

After editing is completed, click on the Save button to save the outgoing message. Recordings may be saved under a new name by clicking on the Save As button.

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Voice memos

MacComCenter Plus allows local users to leave voice memos without dialing in to the system. A memo works in the same manner as a normal voice message. Leaving a memo is a simple procedure:

1. Select New Memo For from the Mailbox menu. The Send Voice Memo dialog appears:

1. Use the Memo Destination Mailbox popup menu to select the destination mailbox for the voice memo.
2. Press Record to begin recording a new memo.
3. A beep will be played to notify you that it is ready to begin recording a new memo. Begin speaking after the beep. When finished, click on Stop to stop recording. You can then play back your memo or re-record the memo if desired.
4. After completing the new memo, select Save to save the outgoing memo. Cancel will discard the current recording and return you to the previous dialog.
   

You can fast forward through a recording with the FF button, or fast rewind with the Rew button. Note that the Rew and FF buttons will only be enabled if your memo is over four seconds long and you are playing the audio via your Macintosh's speaker.

When you are finished recording your memo, press Send to save the memo and place it in the selected mailbox.

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Remote operation

This section describes the options available to remote MacComCenter Plus users when using the default voice script. More options can be added or these options can be changed by modifying the script. See Chapter 7 for information on creating and modifying voice script files.

MacComCenter Plus also lets you check your messages when you're away from the computer. From a touch-tone phone, dial your phone number. You will hear the standard greeting message. Anytime during this message, press *7on the telephone keypad. You will hear a new recording which will request that you enter your mailbox ID. If the mailbox is password protected another recording will prompt you for the password as well.

Once you are connected to your mailbox, MacComCenter Plus will play all messages which are not archived. Archived messages are messages which you have previously listened to and which have been specifically marked as such. After each message, you will hear a single beep tone. After the beep (or during the playback of the message), you can enter one of the following command codes on the telephone keypad:

1- Replay the current message.

3- Delete the current message.

5- Archive the current message.

7- Replay all messages from the beginning.

If you do not enter a valid command code, the message will remain on the active list and will replay the next time you retrieve your messages.

MacComCenter Plus will continue with the next available message. When all messages have been replayed, you will hear two consecutive beep tones, indicating that the Remote Message Retrieval session is complete.