Say Something with Text-To-Speech won't receive dictation correctly from Dragon

[JGFarris]

This is a strange one. I just updated to beta 1.9.9.88. As many of you may know, I use Dragon for all my dictation (can't use my hands). So I just noticed that whenever I try to dictate into the Say Something with Text-To-Speech window, it doesn't work right. Here's what it's doing.

If I dictate one word, it will print the first letter of that word and nothing else. If I dictate multiple words (a sentence), it will print the first letter of the first word and then every space included in the sentence, but no other letters.

Example: if I dictate "Testing", it will print "T". If I dictate "This is a test", it will print "T   " (that's three spaces after the T). If I dictate "What a very strange and confusing problem this is.", it will print "W        " (that's eight spaces after the W).

Any ideas?

[Pfeil]

Does this happen exclusively in the "Say Something with Text-To-Speech" action's main input field, or other fields in different actions/windows as well?

[JGFarris]

List filter works great. Write a value to the event log works. Category and description fields work. Fields where I have to type in a digit like pausing for a few seconds works fine. Typing in variable names works fine. Only the Say Something field is doing this. Is there another field specifically you would like me to try?

[Pfeil]

Does Dragon have a setting for a delay between different keypresses and/or the amount of time keys are held down?

I do notice that if I use a VoiceAttack command with a "Quick Input" action to type into that field (in the beta version, specifically; v1.8.9 does not exhibit this), without any delay between keypresses, that characters don't get typed (E.G. "Testing one two." turns into "Tetng one w.").
Not sure why spaces, specifically, would be different though.

[JGFarris]

Unfortunately, no. There is no setting to adjust the speed of its dictation. After messing around with the beta all day today, I did notice that other fields sometimes miss a few letters here and there, but nothing as obscure as only allowing spaces to be passed on.

[Pfeil]

Not sure if this applies to your version of Dragon, but this page lists a "Settings for application" entry that can be set to paste text rather than typing it (though pasting is noted to be the default already), for specific applications

Do you have this setting? If so, and you set it up for VoiceAttack, do any of the three methods result in all text getting "typed"?

[JGFarris]

The page you linked is referring to a function called "Dictation Box". It's a feature built into Dragon for where it can't type directly into an application. It works like this... If there is an application that is not a standard Windows text input field, I would simply say "Open Dictation Box". Dragon would then open a window similar to a notepad where I can dictate everything into it. It has a button called "Transfer" (or I can say Transfer). It will then copy the text I dictated and PASTE it into the application. It's a real annoyance to use and I'm very thankful I hardly ever have to use it. I DID however try it yesterday with the Say Something with Text-To-Speech field. Strangely, the Dictation Box will not even open AT ALL. I tried speaking "Open Dictation Box" and I tried selecting it manually from the Dragon function menu. It will not open this box while the cursor is targeted on the Say Something field.

As far as using the Dictation Box, I can just as easily open notepad, type what I want and then paste it into the Say Something field. That works just fine.

There's just something very nonstandard about that field causing Dragon to have now two issues with it. 1. Can't dictate into it, and 2. Can't use Dictation Box with it.

[Gary]

Hey, Jerry -

I've uploaded a build (v1.9.9.91 Standalone) to the 'unofficial' bin - https://voiceattack.com/u64 

This is a small attempt to help with the input issue you're experiencing.  Just download the .exe and replace the one in your installation folder with that one.

Also - come on over to the Discord server if you haven't yet (would love to have you over there): https://voiceattack.com/discord

Note - this is the standalone version, and not Steam.

[JGFarris]

That did the trick! No problems at all with Dragon dictation. I almost reported a bad link, but I realized you just left the A out of the u64 link above.

Thanks for the invite to discord. I think I'm already a member over there, but I'll check it out. :-)

Thanks a bunch!

[JGFarris]

Hey Gary, I've been programming in VA every day for the past week, and I know I said earlier that this strange Dragon dictation issue did not appear anywhere except the "Say Something…" field, but now that I've used it a lot, I have noticed it does have problems in other text fields (variables, list filters, etc.). It's nothing to the extent of what it was doing in the Say Something field. I would say maybe one in every eight times I dictate something, it will skip characters, sometimes whole words.

Anyways, hope this helps.

[Gary]

Thanks for the heads-up, Jerry.  I'll need to go through and see what fields are using validation when the text is changed.
 The new WPF controls seem to struggle even without text-change validation if the input is too fast.  It would be a huge help if Dragon's input could be slowed down even by a few milliseconds per character  

[Pfeil]

Hey Gary, I've been programming in VA every day for the past week, and I know I said earlier that this strange Dragon dictation issue did not appear anywhere except the "Say Something…" field, but now that I've used it a lot, I have noticed it does have problems in other text fields (variables, list filters, etc.).

Are you purely using Dragon for this, or are you using VoiceAttack commands to trigger something and/or do the typing?