VoiceAttack Command line arguments

[Slan]

EDIT by Pfeil: The information below is outdated. Press F1 while VoiceAttack has focus to open VoiceAttackHelp.pdf in your default PDF viewer, and read the "Command Line Options" section for current information (assuming your VoiceAttack installation is up-to-date)


As the question gets asked, I thought I would put up a list of the command line parameters that can be passed to VoiceAttack.
There is no voodoo magic here, these are ripped straight from the VA help file that comes with every download!

These are for version v1.6

Command Line Options

VoiceAttack supports the following command line options :

These turn on and off VoiceAttack listening:
-listeningoff
-listeningon

These turn on and off hotkey shortcuts :
-shortcutson
-shortcutsoff


These turn on and off mouse shortcuts :
-mouseon
-mouseoff

These turn on and off joystick buttons :
-joystickson
-joysticksoff

-minimize Starts VoiceAttack minimized.

-nofocus Prevents VoiceAttack from popping up an already-running instance (if this is not
specified, VoiceAttack pops up as the topmost window).

-profile “My Profile Name” Changes VoiceAttack's active profile. Note that double quotes
are only necessary if your profile name has spaces in it.

-command “My Command Name” Executes the command specified by name in the
running profile. Note that double quotes are only necessary if your command name has
spaces in it.

-stopcommands This will work just like clicking the, 'stop commands' button.

-bypassPendingSpeech If VoiceAttack's 'not listening' mode is invoked, and you
are in the middle of issuing a command, VoiceAttack will allow you to finish your phrase
and not cut off what you were saying. For some, this behavior is not what is expected.
What is expected is that setting VoiceAttack into, 'not listening' mode should cut off
immediately, excluding anything that is currently being spoken. To allow VoiceAttack to cut
you off immediately, use -bypassPendingSpeech. Note this does require VoiceAttack to be
restarted (does not affect an already-running instance).

-ignorechildwindows This is to help with toolbox windows that are always on top. By
default, VoiceAttack will seek out popup windows. This attempts to suppress that check.
This is experimental right now and may become a feature later with a finer level of control if
the need is there. For now, it is available as a global setting.

-verifyaudio This will make VoiceAttack check all ‘play a sound’ and ‘play a random’ sound
files to see if they exist. This just runs at startup and does not affect the alredy-running
instance.

-toggledark was added as a test. Puts the main screen in, 'dark mode'.

-opacity was also added as a test. Passing a value of 0 to 100
affects the main screen's opacity level. 100 = not transparent at all, 0 = fully transparent.
Example: -opacity 75 sets the opacity at 75%.

-alwaysontopon This will set the running instance of VoiceAttack to be the top-most
application.

-alwaysontopoff This will turn off, ‘Always on Top’ if it is on, returning VoiceAttack to not
be the top-most application.

-showloadtime This will give an indication of the amount of time it takes to load your profile.  Both the total time and the  speech engine time are included.

-nospeech This disables VoiceAttack speech recognition initialization.  This is experimental and functionally complete (mostly from a user interface standpoint) and is used primarily for testing (that is, it is not currently supported).  However, this may be a last resort for those that just can not get their speech engine to work and need to get into the software for whatever reason.

-input to change your input device (microphones) from the command line.  You will need to indicate your device within double quotes, and your
        device name must match what is listed in the dropdown list on the
        Options screen.  Often, just updating a driver will cause
        the device name/description to change, so this parameter
        can also accept wildcards (see documentation on how wildcards
        are used if you are not sure what they are about).  VoiceAttack
        will find the first match and use that device, so use with
        care.  Note that this parameter will work against new or
        existing instances of VoiceAttack.

        This example shows how to change to a device exactly as indicated:
        C:\Program Files(x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe -input "Speakers (4- Sennheiser 3D G4ME1)"

         This example shows how to select the first device that has a description
        that contains, 'G4ME1':
        C:\Program Files(x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe -input "*G4ME1*"

        These can be put in a .bat file or used in a desktop shortcut.

-output Works just like the -input one above, except it's for output (speakers/headphones).

-inputx and -outputx.  These work exactly like '-input' and '-output' above, except that once the devices
        are changed, VoiceAttack closes immediately.  Again, this is helpful if you
        have a desktop shortcut, batch file or launching app and want to
        quickly change devices without fully launching VoiceAttack.

-punload to indicate the timeout for plugins to unload in milliseconds.  When plugins are unloaded
        on exit, VoiceAttack will wait a specified amount of time before
        giving up and shutting down.  If the timeout is exceeded, an
        entry will be written to VoiceAttackFault.txt in the installation
        directory.  The default timeout is 5000 (5 seconds).
         Example:
        C:\Program Files(x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe -punload 1000

Note: If VoiceAttack is already started, most command line parameters affect the already-
running instance of VoiceAttack. This way you can create desktop shortcuts that affect
VoiceAttack. Command line options are case-sensitive.