Here is the latest information on ViaVoice 98.
Please familiarise yourself with this Read Me. It complements the Problem Solving Reference in ViaVoice Help. Before calling Technical Support, check this Read Me any time you have a question not covered in the Problem Solving Reference, other online Help, or the User Guide.
B. Installing/uninstalling ViaVoice 98 over other dictation software.
For best recognition, do not use the "(migrated)" enrolment.
When you install ViaVoice 98 over a previous ViaVoice or VoiceType product, the installation program migrates the users of the previous product to ViaVoice 98. User data such as added words, macros, as well as enrolments are migrated to ViaVoice 98. The descriptions of enrolments migrated from the previous product contain the word "(migrated)". In addition to the migrated enrolments, ViaVoice 98 creates a new enrolment for each user whose description does not contain the word "(migrated)". For best recognition results, you must select this new enrolment from the "The user is enrolled to use:" dropdown box in the User page of ViaVoice Options, and then run the Enrolment program.
Installing over VoiceType 3.0.x, Simply Speaking, or Simply Speaking Gold.
ViaVoice 98 is a continuous speech product. When you install it on a computer where a discrete speech product such as VoiceType 3.0.x or Simply Speaking is already installed, be sure that you install in the same directory as the previous product. Your added words and other personal data will migrate to ViaVoice 98, and ViaVoice 98 will save your personal speech files from the previous product in the directory "~users30". Your VoiceType 3.0.x and Simply Speaking enrolments cannot be used by ViaVoice 98. You must re-enrol in ViaVoice 98 to increase recognition accuracy and performance.
When you uninstall ViaVoice 98 and reinstall VoiceType 3.0.x or Simply Speaking, you must reinstall in the same directory. You must also copy the subdirectories in the "~users30" directory to the Users directory in order to restore the user data of the previous product.
Installing then uninstalling over Olympus or other dictation software.
If you install ViaVoice 98 over Olympus or other ViaVoice-based dictation software, and then uninstall ViaVoice 98, and you want to continue using your other dictation software (such as Olympus Transcription), you must uninstall the other dictation software, then reinstall it in the same directory. Your personal dictation data (added words, enrolments, etc.) will be saved.
Ignore page fault when installing Olympus Transcription over ViaVoice 98.
Sometimes when you install Olympus Transcription over ViaVoice 98, the Olympus Transcription installation menu might cause a page fault. Simply close the page fault dialog box, and proceed with Olympus Transcription installation. The Olympus installation will complete.
Restrictions when you upgrade multiple-language installations.
If your previous IBM speech product is installed in more than one language and you install only one of those languages in ViaVoice 98, the previous products in the other languages will no longer work.
Those other languages will still appear in the User page of ViaVoice Options. Warning! Do not select enrolments or any other data associated with those other languages. ViaVoice 98 will not work with those other languages. Should you inadvertantly do so, you will be unable to switch back to the upgraded language, and you will have to re-install ViaVoice 98.
Use back-up and Migrate Users when you need to migrate vocabulary-specific dictation macros.
Dictation macros from earlier products that do not show ALL in the Vocabulary column of the Dictation Macro Editor (i.e., that are defined for the starter set only) will not be migrated at installation time. If you require such macros to be migrated you need to make a back-up of the corresponding user before you install ViaVoice 98. After installation, use the "Migrate Users" function to migrate the user data.
De-installing one language in a multiple language installation.
If you have installed multiple languages on your computer and you want to remove one of those languages, you have to select a user for a language that remains on the system. Go to ViaVoice Options ('User' tab) and select a user or an enrolment which is defined for a language that remains on the system.
C. SmartCenter in StartUp folder causes User Wizard display problem.
If you place certain programs, such as SmartCenter, in your StartUp folder, when the ViaVoice User Wizard starts right after installation, it might not display correctly on your screen. To correct this problem, close the User Wizard, and then restart VoiceCentre by clicking Start > Programs > IBM ViaVoice - UK English > VoiceCentre.
D. Word 97 dictation limitations and usage notes.
Word 97 starts with a Visual Basic Error.
Close Microsoft Word 97. Use "Install or Uninstall MS Word Support" in the ViaVoice folder under Tools\Installation Tools. Select Install to reinstall MS Word 97 Dictation support.
Limit the size of your dictated documents.
Dictating very large Word 97 documents may drain system resources and result in slow performance or even page faults. Limit your dictation documents to less than 10,000 words -- about 25 average typewritten pages. Break up large documents into sections and edit each section separately.
Insert a space by saying "spacebar" after numbers in Table cells.
If the last item you dictate within a Table cell is a number, insert a space after it by saying "spacebar" before moving to the next cell. Otherwise, the number is moved to the next cell.
Install Word 97 dictation support once, to enable Natural Commands.
Natural Commands in Word 97 do not require that dictation support also be installed. However, in order to activate Natural Command support, you need to install dictation support at least once. You may then uninstall dictation support, and Natural Command will continue to work. To install or uninstall Word 97 dictation support, use Start > Programs > IBM ViaVoice - UK English > Tools > Installation Tools > Install or Uninstall MS Word Support.
The "Italicise this" command does not work in Word 97.
Use "Italicise on/off" to italicise your dictated text.
E. Direct Dictation limitations and usage notes (Executive Edition).
Certain word-processor options may conflict with in-line dictation commands
Certain word-processor options may conflict with Direct Dictation in-line dictation commands. You must turn these options off to avoid conflict. For example, in WordPerfect, the "lowercase-this" command will not lowercase the first word in a sentence, when the WordPerfect QuickCorrect "Capitalise first letter" is set. To avoid this, clear the "Capitalise first letter" option in the WordPerfect Tools/QuickCorrect/Options... menu.
F. Running ViaVoice 98 with other speech applications.
If your system has Lotus SmartSuite 97 with ViaVoice Seamlessly Integrated, or other speech applications, you may have microphone-state problems when running the ViaVoice 98 VoiceCentre at the same time as the other speech applications. To avoid these problems, do not run the VoiceCentre at the same time as other speech applications.
G. VoiceCentre and voice navigation limitations and usage notes.
Use the latest version of Internet Explorer 4 (Executive Edition, Office Edition).
You must use the latest version of IE4: Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 95 & NT 4.0. Earlier versions have problems and do not work well with VoiceCentre when the Active Program command set is enabled in the ViaVoice Options/Command Sets page. To see if you have the right version of IE 4, open the Help/About Internet Explorer window and make sure that the version is 4.72.3110.8 or later. You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer from the Microsoft web site: www.microsoft.com.
Entries in font fields are being recognised during dictation (Executive Edition, Office Edition).
If you dictate into a word processor that has a toolbar with a font field, such as Word 97, numbers you dictate may be recognised occasionally as commands resulting in an unwanted change in the font. This happens when you pause before and after you dictate the number. If you are having this problem, make the attention word ("Computer") required. This requires that all commands (other than Dictation In-line Commands) be preceded by the attention word, whenever you say these commands while you dictate. The attention word can be set in ViaVoice Options, Command Sets page.
Turn off the microphone before starting applications that use the sound card.
If you run applications that use the sound card, such as Greetings Workshop or other multimedia applications and games, we recommend that you turn the VoiceCentre microphone off while you are actively using these applications. Some of these applications can detect that the VoiceCentre is using the microphone and issue an appropriate message, but other applications issue no warning and may crash with a page fault, usually in the sound-card driver.
Say "Refresh Commands" if menus are not recognised (Executive Edition, Office Edition).
If you find that items in an application's menu are not being recognised, say "Refresh Commands" or "System/Close Menus" to re-enable voice recognition of the menus in the application.
Do not insert or edit objects within navigation macros (Executive Edition, Office Edition).
Navigation macros that insert or edit OLE objects directly into a document are not executed correctly. Use voice commands, the keyboard and the mouse to complete such tasks.
Use keystrokes rather than mouse clicks in MS Office 97 navigation macros (Executive Edition, Office Edition).
Use keyboard shortcuts for the activation of menu items when creating navigation macros for MS Office 97 applications. The recording of mouse clicks in these applications are not executed correctly.
Minimise and maximise navigation commands.
The minimise and maximise navigation commands do not work with certain applications if the SpeechBar is hidden:
WordPro
WordPerfect
H. The disk space requirement per minute of dictation is 0.75 MB.
ViaVoice 98 needs 0.75 MB of disk space for every minute of your dictation in SpeakPad, Word 97 or Direct Dictation. The online documentation incorrectly states larger numbers.
Users with ES1887E Plug and Play AudioDrive.
The Mute checkbox for wave files in Volume Controls gets checked for ES1887E plug and play AudioDrive each time Audio Setup is run, so some playbacks cannot be heard. If this happens, go to the Volume Controls and uncheck the mute checkbox for wave files.
To fix this problem permanently on Windows 98, replace the Windows 98 sound card driver with a Windows 95 driver.
ViaVoice supports dictation of European currency (Euro) amounts. Use the Formatting page of ViaVoice Options to specify whether you want the Euro symbol or the currency abbreviation EUR to be displayed with the amount. The default is the Euro symbol.
K. Close virus-checking system protection before restoring a user.
Most virus-checking software enable you to set up a "system shield" or system protection, where files are checked for virus activity whenever they are accessed.
When you plan to restore a user (from the User tab on ViaVoice Options), first disable the system shield before restoring the User data.