Running VoiceAttack and your favorite voice chat software simultaneously.

[Gary]

We've all used the, 'push to listen' and the 'push to not listen' feature of VoiceAttack to get it to only execute spoken commands when we want it to.  Sometimes you'll want to start up your favorite voice chat app and talk to friends and also be able to execute spoken commands with VoiceAttack at the same time.  Just leaving your voice chat mic open and VoiceAttack's listening on all the time may not be ideal in your situation.  The problem is that you don't want your friends to hear you talking to VoiceAttack and/or you don't want VoiceAttack trying to make sense of what you are saying to your friends (and possibly executing commands that you don't want).  If this is your problem, you're probably falling into one of two situations:

• You prefer the voice chat app's mic to be always on, and you want to mute your voice chat mic when you issue a VoiceAttack spoken command (thus, keeping your friends from hearing you and probably making fun of you lol).
  -or-
  
• You prefer VoiceAttack to always be listening for commands, and your friends only hear you when you press a key to talk.  You want VoiceAttack to not execute commands only while you are talking to your friends.

For both of these, we are going to set it up so that both your voice chat app and VoiceAttack are working together with a single key to get the job done.
   
For the first scenario, you'll want to have your voice chat application's mute button set to a particular key.  Let's say that key is F2.  That is, your friends can hear you talking all the time, but when you press F2 down, they can no longer hear you (mute is activated in the voice chat app).  Next, you'll want to set VoiceAttack's global listening hotkey ALSO to F2, but make sure the option, 'Push to Listen' is chosen.  This way, when F2 is held down, the mic will mute to your friends, but VoiceAttack will start listening for commands.  When you release F2, VoiceAttack will stop listening and your friends will hear you again.

The second scenario is similar to the first one.  In this case, your friends can only hear you when you press down a key.  Let's say that key is F2.  In your voice chat app, make sure that your, 'Push-to-talk' button is set to F2 and active while held down (do not choose, 'toggle').  Again, your friends can only hear you speak when F2 is down.  Next, you'll want to set VoiceAttack's global listening hotkey also to F2, but for this instance, you'll want to make sure that the, 'Push to NOT Listen' option is chosen.  When nothing is pressed, VoiceAttack is listening and your friends can't hear you.  When F2 is held down, VoiceAttack will stop, 'listening' for commands and your voice chat app's push-to-talk feature will be turned on and your friends will hear you speak.

For more info on global hotkeys, see the section 'Recognition Global Hotkey' in the VoiceAttack help document.

I hope that helps some!