Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for many years to help mitigate my RSI. After having recently switched to OpenOffice.org [from all things Microsoft] I have found that Dragon NaturallySpeaking does not work well with these products.

I've been informed by the experts at http://knowbrainer.com/PubForum/index.cfm?page=forum that OpenOffice.org does not support the Natural Language Commands [as does Microsoft word] needed for Dragon NaturallySpeaking to work.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

If yes, what is the best way to ask OpenOffice.org add support for Dragon NaturallySpeaking?

See that query (dragon keyword). There are some topics tagged issue meaning that there are feature requests where you can vote for (up to 2 votes per report).

Hagar de l'Est wrote:There are some topics tagged issue meaning that there are feature requests where you can vote for (up to 2 votes per report).

I followed your link (thanks) but I didn't recognize anything as being tagged or opportunities for voting on features.

See that post for example.

But check the comments made in the thread and also in the feature request: it's not an OOo issue. The action is for the DNS devs since they are the ones who know how their software should communicate with OOo.

So you should ask the DNS team when they intend to support OOo.

Hagar de l'Est wrote:See that post...it's not an OOo issue. The action is for the DNS devs since they are the ones who know how their software should communicate with OOo.

So you should ask the DNS team when they intend to support OOo.

I did. BTW-Thx. "The house is on fire but the hose crew says that it's the hydrant crew who is responsible for connecting it to the hydrant, and it is the hydrant crew who says that it is the hose crew who is responsible...meanwhile the house burns." CTC from the days of DOS.

After reading responses from a couple of experts on the knowbrainer forum http://www.knowbrainer.com/PubForum/ind ... hread63862, it appears that they have a good explanation. I have excerpted part of the discussion below for your consideration.

"If you want improved support for OpenOffice, ... your first contact should be with Oracle. It's how they wrote OpenOffice, not whether Nuance can improve support for such. Nuance has done what it can. It's up to Oracle to finish the job." Chuck.

And...

"Unfortunately software companies are famous for playing the blame card.

Typical OpenOffice answer: If you want NaturallySpeaking to work right in our application you'll need to talk to the manufacturers of NaturallySpeaking. The problem is those degenerate programmers at Nuance.

Typical NaturallySpeaking answer: If you want NaturallySpeaking to work right in OpenOffice you'll need to convince the manufacturers of OpenOffice to make their application Microsoft Active Assessable to allow NaturallySpeaking to function correctly. The problem is those degenerate programmers at OpenOffice

Are you beginning to see the Catch-22. Chuck's assessment is correct. The problem is with the programmers of OpenOffice. They probably don't even know what Microsoft Active Accessibility even means. However, at the moment there is simply not enough demand for Nuance to justify the expense of voice automating the menus so depending on how you look at the situation, there's some blame to go everywhere." Lunis

Thanks for the summary!

ctc wrote:Typical NaturallySpeaking answer: If you want NaturallySpeaking to work right in OpenOffice you'll need to convince the manufacturers of OpenOffice to make their application Microsoft Active Assessable to allow NaturallySpeaking to function correctly.

I think that it's the problem with any Microsoft technology: you may have to pay to have access to that feature. Don't know if there are some standards for speech recognition but it's typical from very specific features linked to a tight bond between 2 commercial companies: they have implemented a kind of de facto standard because they were the first in. Now when alternatives appears, nobody will be ready to pay for such a small market share until it has reached a critical mass.

Also, the Microsoft Active Assessable protocol is most probably platform specific, and this would limit its application to the cross-platform OpenOffice.

Interestingly enough I have found a section of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking help, which states that it now fully supports OpenOffice Writer 3.1 and 3.2. I have version 3.3.

How do I obtain version 3.2?

Should I uninstall version 3.3 before I installed version 3.2?

Will the documents I created in 3.3 open in version 3.2?

Thank you.

First some answers: What worked for me was to uninstall 3.3 and then install 3.2; and it works perfectly with DNS! Also, docs created in 3.3 work in 3.2. But I don't remember where I found 3.2 - sorry.

Now a question: can anyone explain how or why, after Nuance finally took the trouble to fix this, could someone at OO almost immediately break it again?

rob p wrote:Now a question: can anyone explain how or why, after Nuance finally took the trouble to fix this, could someone at OO almost immediately break it again?

On the other hand, the question might be why didn't Nuance make a robust fix when they fixed it? We're not the developers, just users trying to help other users. The developers don't hang out here, so we're not going to get an aswer.

Point taken. Where would be a better place to ask that question?

Here is the issue where this was discussed: http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=71542

Seems to me, in principle the OOo folks are open to discussion if the Nuance folks approach them but the initiative has to come from Nuance. Or perhaps, initially from you, if you manage to strike just the right tone in talking to the Nuance people. Good luck!