Jordana Ross's Speakable Mac Page

at

Washington State University

in

Pullman, Washington

Yes! You can speak to a Strawberry iMac!

... and it will obey!!

So will a 6500 / 250 or any Mac using system 8.xx or 9.xxx or 10.xxx

This is my Speakable Macintosh page. We Mac owners paid a premium price to own a Macintosh, so let's use the good stuff that came with it.

Caution!!
I will not be held responsible for anything you do to your computer. Everything on this page is your responsibility. I make suggestions, you double check other sources to make sure they will work for you.

These are some of the voice commands already on your computer:

"Open Speakable Items"
"Shutdown the Computer"
"Make this Speakable"
"Close this window"
"Tell me a joke"
"Add this to the Apple Menu"

Apple has several recommendations:

If you are using an iMac, get an external Plaintalk microphone. The iMac buit-in microphone is too awkward to use and you have to shout. You can start with the built in mike, but plan on getting the external.
You must have a Plaintalk microphone on any Mac, not the older round microphone. The Plaintalk microphone is a 16 bit with lots of circuitry in it.
The oval shaped microphone that came with the Mac 6500 / 250 is perfect.
The iMac running system software older than OS 8.6, requires a Speech Recognition Enabler. Instead of looking for the Enabler, just upgrade your System software to 8.6 or 9.0
If you are using System 8.5, get the free System 8.6 by downloading from Apple.
If you are using a System older than 8.5, skip to system 9.0. Students ARE NOW able to buy OS 9.0 directly from the Apple Store For Education FOR $49.00. OS 9.0 is also presently available at this location.

Here's how to make your computer obey commands:

Open the Speech Control Panel.
Click on the button next to the word "Options."
This button contains five "Options." They are: Voice, Listening, Feedback, Speakable Items, and Talking Alerts
Click on "Voice" and then go down to the next button and select "Agnes"
Click on "Voice", select "Listening" and then in "Key(s):" type Esc The Esc button on the upper left of the keyboard then toggles Speakable between asleep and awake.
Under "Method", click on "Key(s) toggle listening on and off."
Ignore "Name:" box and under "Name is:" select "Optional before commands" This can be changed later when you find your Mac responding to the radio or tv.
Click on "Listening" and select "Feedback".
Click on the button next to "Character" and select "Connie"
Check the box next to "Speak text feedback"
Click on "Feedback" and select "Speakable Items"
Select "On" and "Recognize 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons (Go here if you accidentally turn off the Voice Commands feature and Connie disappears.
Click on "Speakable Items" and select "Talking Alerts"
Check "Speak the phrase:" and then select "It's not my fault!"
Check "Speak the alert text"
Move the "Wait before speaking" slider to "O"
Click on the button at the end of the slider bar to hear a demo of your "Talking Alert"

Press the "esc" (escape) button on the upper left of your keyboard to put Connie to sleep. (Yes, her eyes close.) This way, no extraneous noises will cause windows to open and close at random. Press "esc" again to wake up Connie to accept voice commands. You can go to the "Speech" Control Panel Options:Listening:Key(s) to set a different key sequence to toggle Connie.

If your Speech Control Panel does not have the "Options" button, you can go to this Official Apple Speech Page. At the bottom of that page are links to download OS 8.6 AND the Speech Control Panel free. Once you download the Speech Control Panel, double click on it. If you downloaded a .hqx file, double click on whatever comes out of it after double clicking it. Double click whatever came out of that until you get an installer. This installer does nothing but install the correct control panel onto your hard disk. Open the resulting control panel which is step one above and then continue the steps above.

Now speak to your Mac: Say "Open Speakable Items."

If everything is set as above, your Mac will open a folder named "Speakable Items"
Look at the files in the window. Read the name of a file outloud into the microphone and that action will take place. (Sometimes, you need to say the word "Open" and then the name of the file.)

Try these:

Voice Command
Result

"Open Speakable Items" Opens the folder "Speakable Items" so you can see all of the presently available commands. There is another folder named "More Speakable Items." These files can be moved to the "Speakable Items" folder so they can be used.

"Shutdown the Computer" DUH!! You might want to do this at the end of this session.

"Make this Speakable" This is so cool! Select the "Control Panels" folder without opening it by clicking on it once to highlight it. Say "Make this Speakable." Then close all of your windows and say "Open Control Panels." If things are set now, your "Control Panels" folder should be open. You can now open your Control Panels folder at any time in any application (unless you have something like a "Save As" window open) and your "Control Panels" folder should open as the frontmost window.

"Close this window" Simply closes the frontmost window as if you pressed "command - w"

"Tell me a joke" Mac responds with "Knock, Knock" These are really lame, but the concept ....

"Add this to the Apple Menu" This is really useful and so easy compared to getting stuff into the Apple Menu the old way. Simply click on the icon (to select / highlight it) of the application, folder or file you want in the Apple Menu and say "Add this to the Apple Menu" but, go ahead then, and say "Make this Speakable." You won't need to go to the Apple Menu for it later, but if you forget the name of the file and thus can't give the command, it'll be in the Apple Menu.

Big Caution!!!

If you leave your room and leave your computer on with Speech Recognition on, and your radio or tv on, or a group of people in the room talking..... YOUR SPEAKABLE MAC WILL GO NUTS!!!
When you come back to your computer, your life will enter the twilight zone.

I want your feedback:

Fill in the blanks below if you have a comment or a question. When you hit the send button, you will get a notice that your e-mail address will be sent along with the information. Being a busy student myself, I have delegated "me dear old dad" to help me maintain this webpage. The info provided by you below will go to him. He thinks he's a Mac Guru, but he may be able to help you anyway. He'll send the info either directly to you or post it here without identifying you or your e-mail address.

I expect this page to help me keep my iMac chugging along so please respond.

There are some things you should always know about your Mac such as your model and your Operating System. The most Recent operating system is OS X. Other operating systems might be 6.0, 7.1, 7.1.2, 7.5.3, 7.6, 8.0, 8.5 or 8.6, 9.0, 9.04, 9.1. This information is necessary to diagnose problems.

I am especially interested in the Mac experience here at WSU. If you know of places nearby to buy peripherals or get Mac help or repairs, I would appreciate your adding a comment here. If you know someone on campus who is a real Mac Guru, I would also like that information. If you have information about a problem you have had solved and want to share it, please enter it here.

After filling in the three fields, pressing the "Send Info" button sends the info to dad. Pressing "Clear" deletes all of your info from all three fields and sends nothing.

By the way, if you happen to see me around campus, please don't ask me for any help with your computer. I am very busy and would prefer that you use this method to communicate about computers. Thanks for understanding. After all, I have a Strawberry iMac, not a Ph. D. in computer science.

Please enter your Computer model:

Please enter your Computer Operating System:

Please enter your Comment or Question:

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Hot Links

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Voice Command	Result
"Open Speakable Items"	Opens the folder "Speakable Items" so you can see all of the presently available commands. There is another folder named "More Speakable Items." These files can be moved to the "Speakable Items" folder so they can be used.
"Shutdown the Computer"	DUH!! You might want to do this at the end of this session.
"Make this Speakable"	This is so cool! Select the "Control Panels" folder without opening it by clicking on it once to highlight it. Say "Make this Speakable." Then close all of your windows and say "Open Control Panels." If things are set now, your "Control Panels" folder should be open. You can now open your Control Panels folder at any time in any application (unless you have something like a "Save As" window open) and your "Control Panels" folder should open as the frontmost window.
"Close this window"	Simply closes the frontmost window as if you pressed "command - w"
"Tell me a joke"	Mac responds with "Knock, Knock" These are really lame, but the concept ....
"Add this to the Apple Menu"	This is really useful and so easy compared to getting stuff into the Apple Menu the old way. Simply click on the icon (to select / highlight it) of the application, folder or file you want in the Apple Menu and say "Add this to the Apple Menu" but, go ahead then, and say "Make this Speakable." You won't need to go to the Apple Menu for it later, but if you forget the name of the file and thus can't give the command, it'll be in the Apple Menu.