New Features to Come in J-Say 14.1!

Introduction.

Now we are just a few weeks off from the release of J-Say version 14.1, we're in a position to let people know about the exciting new features which will be included as part of this release. J-Say of course allows you to control your computer by voice while at the same time gaining speech feedback from it. Our low-cost product, J-Dictate, is used for dictating text only, and there is news about that too within this blog post.

Remember, Remember.

By far the majority of our customers work to some extent in Microsoft Word and, as a result, read large documents within it. While we do have commands to find a place within a document, we've made locating the position within it far easier.

If the new feature is enabled, and the document is subsequently closed and opened again at a later time, J-Say will automatically set focus to the last point in the document which had been read or worked upon.

The Elements.

J-Say 14.1 contains support for inserting, moving through and deleting FootNotes, EndNotes, and Comments in Microsoft Word. When you've finished inserting one of these elements, just say, "Go Back", and the cursor is returned to the body of the document where you were dictating. Part of the text is also spoken as a reminder, so a user can pick up the thread of the dictation.

In addition, full support exists for document collaboration through Revisions. You can control the spoken output when a revision is encountered, (such as hearing the author, type of revision and date). Each Revision can be moved to systematically, rejected or accepted.

Finally, a list of all of the Elements mentioned above can be selected by voice and any of these moved to directly from it.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words.

In version 6.1 of J-Say, (which seems a long time ago), we introduced J-Say Text Notes. The concept is that a voice command can be associated with reproducing a block of text, such as a few paragraphs or entire pages. However, the Text Note was restricted to plain text rather than incorporating special formatting or graphics.

This limitation has now been overcome. Imagine scanning your handwritten signature into the computer and being able to have the image with appropriate text reproduced with a voice command? This is now available with the command, "Store Text with Graphic". This will ensure our customers are more independent and is also a feature which will be available to J-Dictate users later this year.

Follow You, Follow Me.

Last year, we introduced a series of commands for users to work with Facebook, so it seems only natural that we provide a way for people to use Twitter as well.

There are a number of Twitter clients available which could be worked with. As a starting point, we have chosen to create voice commands for the Chicken Nugget application, but it is our intention to support a number of other clients in a future update.

All aspects of the application are controllable by voice, such as being able to move through tweets, examine their details, compose tweets and reply to them, the kind of things you would expect to be able to do. However, there is an additional feature which can be used irrespective of the Twitter client being worked with

Many Twitter usernames are difficult to say or even type on the keyboard. We've created the ability for a person to associate a real name with a Twitter username. This will allow a person to say the word, "Direct", or, "Mention", prior to the person's real name, such as, "Mention Brian". When the phrase is spoken, the relevant syntax is transcribed into the text edit area, such as, "@BrianHartgen". The tweet can then be dictated as usual. This feature will be available to J-Dictate users later this year as well.

Finally, you will be able to add Emoji to tweets and Facebook messages, as you can with our Leasey product. It's a feature which has been very successful and we're glad to be bringing it to J-Say users.

Living By Numbers.

One of the features often asked for is support for Microsoft Excel. This release will contain that support. Users can easily dictate into cells, quickly move to any cell of their choosing, set up monitors for cells together with automatic column and title reading. There are many commands you can speak in Microsoft Excel to gain the most from it.

Walk Right Back.

We're very glad in this release of J-Say to be offering full voice control and support of Sendero PC Maps and GPS.

With an intuitive user interface and the power of the PC, accessible maps and GPS are at your fingertips. Just type or dictate a destination, select a route and you are on your way. It can be used while travelling or, of equal benefit, to plan a route before setting out on your journey.

Sendero PC Maps and GPS enables you to:

• Explore rural roads or city streets, intersection-by-intersection. Teachers, family, friends, anyone can follow along with the integrated visual maps.
• Record personal Points of Interest (POI) and add rich audio content like restaurant menus or museum descriptions. Effortlessly share these POIs in real-time when you sync with the Sendero servers or your Sendero GPS or Sense Navigation product.
• Hear your direction of travel. Check the odometer for distance traveled.
• Search the database of millions of Points Of Interest in many countries for everything from airports to zoos and choose one as your destination.
• Create and follow a route to that destination. Or turn on the manual route creation and create the route while you explore the maps.
• Easily save and print or emboss routes to take with you or to share.
• Create longer more complex routes on the PC and then transfer them to your Sendero GPS or Sense Navigation product.

Within our extensive J-Say documentation, we provide not only the voice commands for this program but a quick summary of each function together with its corresponding keystroke.

You've Got to Feel the Music!

If you have a Sonos device, you can now even control that with your voice too!

Sonos produce a range of sound systems, which are capable of streaming internet radio and online music services, such as TuneIn Radio, Apple Music and Spotify. You can also configure the players to use your own music library. In order to control all aspects of the devices, you need to use the Sonos Controller program for a Smartphone, tablet or PC. J-say makes the Sonos Controller for Windows accessible by voice and the keyboard.

Sonos devices are an ideal complement to J-Say. While we already have a radio player and the ability to listen to audio content on the PC, these devices take the music away from the computer so the speech output is not spoiling your enjoyment of the audio. They are especially ideal for anyone who has physical difficulties in terms of manipulating radios, CD players or other audio equipment. J-Say allows these devices to be controlled from the computer which could make a world of difference to anyone who is struggling in this way.

And That's Not All.

There are a number of other voice commands we have introduced. These include, "Save as PDF", (inserted into J-Say by customer request to save a Word document as a PDF file), "What Did I Say", (which repeats back the last phrase or command spoken), and commands to speak the remaining and total time of an audio file being played in Foobar 2000. Again, this was a customer requested feature.

New Chapters will be added to our documentation explaining all of the new features in detail and remember, this is a free upgrade to all users of J-Say 14.0. We hope our customers enjoy and benefit from it, and we look forward to bringing future updates in the months to come. We have lots of plans for new features!

We would very much like to thank our beta testers once again for their ongoing support and commitment to J-Say. Without their testing and ideas for features and refinements, the product would not be what it is today.