gemnfert wrote: I havepurchased a tablet to do professional art. Thus, I am using a pen-based screenwith no keyboard. I am wanting to use Windows Speech Recognition in lieu ofkeyboard shortcuts and right mouse button control.    My first hurdle to doing thisis Windows Speech Recognition itself, hogging screen space. I am hoping that it is possible to have WSS start as abackground process (hidden or minimised) rather than sitting on top ofeverything.

Hi Sam,

Just echoing Marty's advise but with some alternatives that may be useful toyou.

You obviously know that you can have Windows speech recognition start-upautomatically when you start up your computer. I honestly believe you do not need to mess around with the 'sapisvr.exe'because more often than not, there are speech commands you can use to performthe functions you want.  If you want touse WSR, you should get into the habit of speaking the commands along with yourdictation, thus being hands-free.  Afterall, that's what it was invented for.

For your first problem, when Windows first starts up and the WSR speech meteris showing on the screen, to hide it yet still have it in use, you can simplysay "Hide Speech Recognition." The speech meter will then disappear and put WSR on the taskbar.  WSR will still be working from the taskbar buthides the cumbersome speech meter so then you have a full screen to play with.  If for any reason you want the speech meterback showing again, you just say "Show Speech Recognition" and itwill reappear again.

My second hurdle is macros. I would LIKE to be able to open Photoshop,and say "undo" and have the computer press the equivalent of undo(Control Z) rather than saying "Press Control plus Z" One of thebenefits to keyboard shortcuts is you can just press them. With speech recognition,just saying the keys or shortcuts you want done will make things far easier. Ihave noticed that there are macro programmes available, are there any that Ican use to make my own macros easily, based on keyboard shortcuts?

 As Marty says, the "Undo"command already exists within WSR for most select-and-say word processorapplications.  Just say, "Undo,"and it will undo the last piece of work or text you dictated.  Sometimes, when you say that command, the undosymbol within Microsoft Word will have the 'Show Numbers' flash on it.  If this happens, you simply just choose thenumber that coincides with the undo symbol and then say OK. 

I'm not too familiar with Photoshop so I am not sure if "Undo" worksin this application.  If it does not, I'msure you can make a macro so it does. 

For making speech macros, two free programs are available to download from theweb that Microsoft offer.  They are, "WindowsSpeech Recognition Macros" and the "Windows Speech RecognitionProfile Tool."  Then as Marty says,for a modest price, I would purchase the WSR toolkit as this manages andcompliments WSRMacros and makes things much easier to make speech macros.

Also, I need to beable to access the right mouse button. The easiest way would be to say"right button" or "right mouse button" and use the pen(mouse) to click on the relevant area. Is that possible? In OSX, you can pressControl and click, and it is the same as right clicking. There must mesomething that can trigger Windows to see a click as a right click, evenwithout the right mouse button to click with.

Sam,