COMPLETE HELP - 5. Dictation Lessons 

5. Dictation Lessons 

5A. What is Dictation? Wouldn't it be nice if a computer could act like a real person who dictates a letter or document to their secretary? And wouldn't it be nice if when the dictation is finished, the computer would announce how fast and how accurate the person typed the text, including corrections for misspelled words? Well, TypeAbility can do just that. TypeAbility provides an opportunity for the student to take dictation of sentences, paragraphs, or even entire pages of text! TypeAbility comes with many built-in Dictation lessons, each containing a number of dictation tasks. Each of the lessons concentrates on a particular set of typing skills. For instance, some of the Dictation lessons concentrate on drilling punctuation marks. Other Dictation lessons exercise the student's ability to type lists, including the use of the ENTER and TAB keys.

5B. How Do You Start a Dictation Lesson? To start a Dictation lesson, just press F4 twice quickly. The Pick a Dictation Lesson dialog opens, containing a list of 10 different types of Dictation lessons. Each lesson contains a number of  Dictation tasks. In fact, if you press the RIGHT ARROW on a lesson in the list, all the tasks in that lesson will be displayed. So, you can ARROW DOWN and see the beginning words of each dictation task. If you wish, you can start the Dictation lesson from the beginning by pressing ENTER on the lesson Title. Or, you can start the lesson from any particular dictation task by pressing ENTER on one of the tasks in the list.

5C. How Does a Dictation Task Run? During a dictation task, TypeAbility will dictate a particular number of words and will then wait until the student has typed them, and then will dictate the next chunk of text. This process continues until TypeAbility has dictated all of the words and the student has finished typing them. When the student has finally finished typing, the student presses ESCAPE, and TypeAbility will announce how fast and how accurately the student has typed. 

5D. What's the Difference Between a Keyboarding Lesson and a Dictation Lesson? Dictation tasks are run a little differently from the tasks from the TypeAbility Keyboarding lessons. In the latter tasks, the student is required to type letters, a word or two, or even a full sentence, and they are required to type it 2 or 4 times, after which the next task automatically runs. And usually,  TypeAbility will correct the student when they press the wrong key and will not let the student proceed until they have typed the correct key. However, in a dictation task, when the student types what's been dictated to them, TypeAbility will not correct the student if they press the wrong key. In addition, the task is dictated just once, after which the student must press ESCAPE before TypeAbility can end the task and report their speed and accuracy.  If the accuracy isn't perfect, TypeAbility will also provide a tip on spelling any misspelled words.

5E. Could You Explain More Clearly What TypeAbility Speaks During Dictation? During Dictation tasks, TypeAbility speaks what it wants you to type, and also what you are typing. However, because it can be confusing to hear both the instructions and what you are actually typing, TypeAbility does not speak every keypress during a Dictation task. It only speaks the words that are typed. Realize that normally, Keyboard echo is set to speak every keystroke. But in Dictation, the Keyboard echo is set to speak only the full word that is typed. In addition, when TypeAbility speaks the word that has been typed, it speaks it with a high voice. That way, there will be less confusion between listening to what TypeAbility is telling the student to type and what the student is actually typing. Note that there is a User Preference that can make the pitch of the Keyboard Echo low rather than high. And there is a User Preference to turn off Keyboard Echo entirely during Dictation.

5F. Using the F2 key during Dictation Lessons. Another way Dictation lessons are run a little differently from TypeAbility Keyboarding lessons is that when a dictation task is finished, the student must press ESCAPE to end the task. Whereas in Keyboarding lessons, TypeAbility automatically goes to the next task in the lesson. In Dictation lessons, after pressing ESCAPE to end a task, the student has to deliberately press F2 twice quickly to go to the next Dictation task. And if the student wishes to repeat the current Dictation task to get a better score, they can press F2 three times quickly, and the dictation task will repeat. Note how the behavior of F2 during Dictation lessons differs from how it behaves during the regular Keyboarding lessons. During the regular Keyboarding lessons, pressing F2 twice quickly goes to the next Keyboarding lesson. And pressing F2 three times quickly repeats the entire Keyboarding lesson. But in Dictation lessons, pressing F2 twice quickly goes to the next Dictation task, not the next Dictation lesson. And pressing F2 three times quickly repeats the current Dictation task, not the whole Dictation lesson. 

5G. How Can I Create My Own Dictation Lesson?  Just like creating your own Keyboarding lessons, teachers can create, run and save their own Dictation lessons. Teachers can even copy text from another document and have that text dictated to the student. With a few notable differences, the process of creating your own Dictation lessons is similar to creating your own Keyboarding lessons. To create your own Dictation lesson, press F11 twice quickly to go into Teacher's mode. Then, when you press F4 twice quickly, the Pick a Teachers' Dictation Lesson dialog will open. By default, this dialog has a list containing one example lesson. But the Teacher can add as many Dictation lessons to the list as they like. The Pick a Teachers' Dictation Lesson dialog is similar to TypeAbility's Dictation Lesson dialog in that it contains a list of Dictation lessons, and you can press the RIGHT ARROW to display the tasks in each Dictation lesson. However, the Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog contains an extra row of buttons at the bottom of the dialog that give Teachers the ability to open other dialogs that allow them to create their own Dictation lesson and edit or remove any of their existing dictation lessons. Here are the instructions for creating your own Dictation lesson:

• Press F11 twice quickly to go into Teacher's Mode.
• Press F4 twice quickly to open the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog.
• TAB to the Add Dictation button and press it with the SPACE BAR. The Add Dictation Title dialog opens.
• In the Add Dictation Title dialog, you will be in an edit field where you must type the Title of your Dictation lesson. Give it a short descriptive title. Then press ENTER, and the Add Dictation Lesson Details dialog opens. 
• The Add Dictation Lesson Details dialog has several buttons for creating, editing, and removing your Dictation tasks. For now, since you're creating a new Dictation lesson, just TAB to the Create New Task button and press it with the SPACE BAR. The Type your Dictation Task dialog opens. This is the dialog where you actually type or paste your Dictation.
• In the Type your Dictation Task dialog, you will be in an edit field where you can not only type anything you want, but you can also press TAB and ENTER in order to indent and create line breaks. That way, in more advanced Dictation tasks, you can teach the student formatting. 
• When you are done typing your Dictation task, you must OK the dialog. But recall that TAB won't navigate to the dialog's OK button but rather create an indent in the text. So, the only way to OK the dialog is to press CONTROL+ENTER, or if you are sighted, click the OK button with the mouse. 
• When the Type Your Dictation Task dialog is OKayed, you are returned to the Add Dictation dialog. The Add Dictation dialog is identical to the Add Dictation Lesson Details dialog that you were in before, which contains the different buttons for creating, editing, and removing your tasks. The only difference is that the Add Dictation dialog now contains a list that has your newly created tasks in it.
• If you wish to add another dictation task, repeat the process of TABBING to the Create New Task button and press it with the SPACE BAR so that the Type your Dictation Task dialog opens. You can then type another dictation task, press CONTROL+ENTER to OK the dialog, and once again return to the Add Dictation dialog. 
• After you have created all your Dictation tasks, then in the Add Dictation dialog, TAB to the OK / Save button and press it with the SPACE BAR. This will save the lesson and return you to the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lessons dialog, where the whole adventure started out. This time, however, in the list of Dictation lessons, you will find the title of your newly created Dictation lesson. And pressing ENTER on it will start the Dictation lesson. As in the Keyboarding Lessons List, the Dictation dialog list is a tree view, so pressing the RIGHT ARROW on any lesson title will display the tasks in the lesson. So if you wish, you can begin a Dictation lesson from any of the tasks.

5H. How Can I Remove One of My Dictation Lessons? You've been taught earlier how to use the Add Dictation button in the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson in order to create a new Dictation lesson. Well, once you've created a Dictation lesson, you may want to change it a little. Or, perhaps, you want to remove it entirely. You can do either of those tasks by opening the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog, picking the lesson from the list, and pressing either the Edit Dictation button or the Remove Dictation button. Here's how to remove one of your Dictation lessons.

• While in Teachers mode, press F4 twice quickly to open the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog. In the list of Dictation lessons, ARROW to the lesson you wish to remove.
• TAB to the Remove Dictation button and press it with the SPACE BAR. A confirmation dialog will pop up, saying, "Are you sure you want to remove the dictation lesson?" If you're sure, then press the YES button with the SPACE BAR. Or if you don't want to remove it, then TAB to the NO button and press it. In either case, the confirmation dialog closes, and you are returned to the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog. If you confirm that you wanted to remove the lesson, then you will see that it has been removed from the dialog's list of Dictation Lessons.

5I. How Can I Edit My Dictation Lessons? In Teacher's mode, to edit one of your existing Dictation lessons, do the following.

• Press F4 twice quickly to open the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog. In the list of Dictation lessons, ARROW to the lesson you wish to edit.
• TAB to the Edit Dictation button and press it with the SPACE BAR. The Edit Dictation dialog opens. This dialog contains a list of the dictation tasks in the lesson you selected to edit, as well as 5 buttons. First, TAB to the list, and select the Task that you wish to edit.
• After selecting the task you wish to edit, you must choose one of the 5 buttons in order to do what you want to do with the selected task.  The 5 buttons are named the following. Create a New task. Edit Selected Task. Delete Selected Task. Edit the Dictation Title and the OK / Save Dictation button. 
• If you wish to Delete the selected task, TAB to the Delete Selected Task button and press it. If you then TAB to the list, you will see that the task has been removed. Then, TAB to the OK / Save button and press it. You will be returned to the Pick A Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog, where if you decide to run the Dictation lesson, you will find out that your task has indeed been removed from the lesson. Note that immediately after deleting your task, if you change your mind and don't want it deleted, then just press ESCAPE, and you'll be returned to the Pick A Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog with your lesson intact.
• If you wish to Edit the selected task, TAB to the Edit Selected Task button and press it. The Add Dictation Task dialog will open. This is the same dialog that you used to create your Dictation task initially. You will find your existing task in the edit field,  so you can immediately start editing it. When you're done, press CONTROL+ENTER to OK the dialog, and you will be returned to the Edit Dictation dialog. If you're done editing your lesson, then TAB to the OK / Save button and press it. Note that when you're in the Add Dictation Task dialog and editing your task, if you decide you don't want to keep the changes you have made, just press ESCAPE, and you'll be returned to the Pick A Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog with your lesson intact.
• If you wish to add another task to one of your existing Dictation lessons, then open the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog by pressing F4 twice quickly. Then in the list of Dictation lessons, ARROW to the lesson you wish to edit. Then TAB to the Add Dictation Button and press it. This will begin the process that you learned earlier in creating a new dictation task. The only difference this time is that you're adding it to an existing lesson.
• If you wish to change the Title of an existing Dictation lesson, then after selecting the lesson in the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog, TAB to the Edit Dictation button and press it. Then in the Edit Dictation dialog, TAB to the Edit Dictation Title button and press it. The Add Dictation Title dialog will open up. This is the same dialog you use to initially create your Dictation Lesson's title, except this time, the edit field contains your existing title. To edit it any way you want then TAB to the OK button and press it. You'll be returned to the Edit Dictation Lessons Details dialog. To keep your new lesson Title, TAB to the OK / Save button and press it. Or to cancel the change, just press ESCAPE. In either case, you are returned to the Pick a Teacher's Dictation Lesson dialog.

5J. How Can I Export My Dictation Lessons to Another Computer? The procedure is almost exactly the same as exporting your Keyboarding lessons described earlier, except that instead of copying the TeachersLessons.ini file, you copy the  TeachersDictations.ini file. So, the folder you need to open is the folder that contains the Student Records folder. And the Student Records folder can be opened from the TypeAbility entry in the Start Menu. And once you have opened the Student Records folder,  just press BACKSPACE, and the senior folder will open. That's the folder that contains your TeachersDictations.ini file. So, here's the step-by-step procedure:

• Open the Start Menu, and then go to Programs.
• In the Programs Menu, go to TypeAbility4.
• In the TypeAbility4, RIGHT ARROW to open its sub-menu
• DOWN ARROW to Student Records and press ENTER.

• In the Student Records folder, press BACKSPACE to go up one level. You will then be in a folder named TypeAbility.
• In the TypeAbility folder, ARROW to TeachersDictations.ini.
• Copy the file, and then you can paste it into a removable medium which you can then load onto another computer.
• On the other computer, repeat the directions of going into the Start Menu, opening up TypeAbility's  Student Records folder, and then pressing BACKSPACE to go up a level and open the TypeAbility folder.
• You can now paste the TeachersDictations.ini that you got from the original computer into this computer's TypeAbility folder. If Windows asks you if you want to overwrite the existing TeachersDictations.ini, say "Yes." So, that's it! Now the Dictation lessons you created on the original computer are available on this computer.