Cortana - Email

Have a friend that has a disability that is worsening and could really
benefit from voice software such as Cortana to ease his typing tasks. I
have a test system in my office with the latest (Creators Update) Win10 Pro
version. I can tell Cortana to send an email and it opens a window and asks
for the recipient but I cannot get it to accept any dictation for the
message content.

I have only a cursory experience with Cortana but I thought this latest
update would allow for dictating to email. This link
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/write-...ana-windows-10 states it
works but I can't get it to accept voice input for the subject or message
block.

I can use Cortana for all sorts of things but this has me stumped. Could be
a simple setting I have off but it seems to work for searches and commands -
why not the email dictation...?

Thanks,

Bob S.

B wrote:
Have a friend that has a disability that is worsening and could really
benefit from voice software such as Cortana to ease his typing tasks. I
have a test system in my office with the latest (Creators Update) Win10
Pro version. I can tell Cortana to send an email and it opens a window
and asks for the recipient but I cannot get it to accept any dictation
for the message content.

I have only a cursory experience with Cortana but I thought this latest
update would allow for dictating to email. This link
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/write-...ana-windows-10
states it works but I can't get it to accept voice input for the subject
or message block.

I can use Cortana for all sorts of things but this has me stumped.
Could be a simple setting I have off but it seems to work for searches
and commands - why not the email dictation...?

Thanks,

Bob S.

According to the Youtube video example here, as you'd
expect, the recipient field will only work, if it is in
the Address Book. That means, the automation may not advance
to the next field, until you rectify that issue. Make
sure you have an Address Book, it has at least one
valid entry, then speak the name of that entry,
just in the interest of "science". The Address book is in
"People", a separate application from "Mail".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTH2vd-DxW8

Now, one puzzling thing, is the visual feedback in that
application, isn't all that good. There should have been
a visual indicator, of "nothing matches in your Address Book".

*******

And somehow, this just showed up in a random search.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...input_in_unity

"Only dictation or phrase recognition can be handled at once.
That means if a GrammarRecognizer or KeywordRecognizer is
active, a DictationRecognizer can not be active and vice versa."

Now, Unity is part of their VR stuff.

Cortana coding could be quite different.

Cortana does seem to be a bit modal, and doesn't
appear to be ready for anything. She also doesn't
provide the normal level of audio feedback that
a voice recognition program would use - so that
a user can quickly discover the application did
not understand. The interface seems to be more
content to just "sit there with its arms folded".

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message news
B wrote:
Have a friend that has a disability that is worsening and could really
benefit from voice software such as Cortana to ease his typing tasks. I
have a test system in my office with the latest (Creators Update) Win10
Pro version. I can tell Cortana to send an email and it opens a window
and asks for the recipient but I cannot get it to accept any dictation for
the message content.

I have only a cursory experience with Cortana but I thought this latest
update would allow for dictating to email. This link
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/write-...ana-windows-10 states
it works but I can't get it to accept voice input for the subject or
message block.

I can use Cortana for all sorts of things but this has me stumped. Could
be a simple setting I have off but it seems to work for searches and
commands - why not the email dictation...?

Thanks,

Bob S.

According to the Youtube video example here, as you'd
expect, the recipient field will only work, if it is in
the Address Book. That means, the automation may not advance
to the next field, until you rectify that issue. Make
sure you have an Address Book, it has at least one
valid entry, then speak the name of that entry,
just in the interest of "science". The Address book is in
"People", a separate application from "Mail".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTH2vd-DxW8

Now, one puzzling thing, is the visual feedback in that
application, isn't all that good. There should have been
a visual indicator, of "nothing matches in your Address Book".

*******

And somehow, this just showed up in a random search.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...input_in_unity

"Only dictation or phrase recognition can be handled at once.
That means if a GrammarRecognizer or KeywordRecognizer is
active, a DictationRecognizer can not be active and vice versa."

Now, Unity is part of their VR stuff.

Cortana coding could be quite different.

Cortana does seem to be a bit modal, and doesn't
appear to be ready for anything. She also doesn't
provide the normal level of audio feedback that
a voice recognition program would use - so that
a user can quickly discover the application did
not understand. The interface seems to be more
content to just "sit there with its arms folded".

Paul

Paul,

Do we pay you by the hour or do you just like doing research...;-)

I did spend a bit of time (obviously not enough) on this problem but you
have nailed it. I spoke the contact name (my friends) that I had in the
address book/contact list/People app. It showed it but then I had to click
on the entry because of having more than one variant of his email address.
You were right - if it can't get the correct recipient, it will not proceed
and if you enter the address by typing it in, it won't proceed to the next
boxes (subject and message).

So the lesson is - have your contact list in good order. In further testing
today, I gave Cortana the command to "Open Contacts" (you can also say "Open
People" but not "Open Address Book") so I could look at the list of
addresses. Can't get Cortana to search from within that app (People) so I
had to manually scroll to get to his address entries, edited them and then I
could dictate his name and Cortana would insert the email address and move
on to subject and message blocks. Success...!

It is a bit touchy but that is most likely because I have not done the voice
training and I also have a cold which is probably confusing things.

The YouTube video is spot on if anyone else is having a problem but your
explanations were key to solving why I could not get past the address part.
Cortana is rough around the edges but with this new found knowledge, I can
move forward with helping my friend get his address book cleaned up so he
doesn't have the same problem and then teach him how to use it to dictate an
email. If it only does that for him - it's a huge step forward. He can
still type but it's painful and his frustration level over accuracy is way
up there.

I don't know where you're at but if you are ever in the Syracuse, NY area -
I owe you a cold one or two or....

Thanks,
Bob S.

B wrote:


Paul,

Do we pay you by the hour or do you just like doing research...;-)

So the lesson is - have your contact list in good order.

Well, if you're going to sit around, my
policy is, "make yourself useful" :-)

I only get lucky on these, once in a while.

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message news
B wrote:


Paul,

Do we pay you by the hour or do you just like doing research...;-)

So the lesson is - have your contact list in good order.

Well, if you're going to sit around, my
policy is, "make yourself useful" :-)

I only get lucky on these, once in a while.

Paul

Good policy and from the posts I've read from you are well beyond any odd's
that "luck" may have to do with you providing accurate and well thought out
responses.

Thank you,

Bob S.