I went looking for some existing post to add this comment to, since I'm fairly sure I've mentioned this in the past. But I have tweaked it a little bit, and I am very Very VERY happy. 

 

---+ GOOD:  microphone on/off to trackball keys UL/UR

 

One of the best and very minor things I have done to make Dragon more usable by me has been to bind microphone on/off to my trackball keys.

 

Currently, I have trackball UL double-click bound to microphone on, and Trackball UR double-click bound to microphone off.

 

---+  verbal confirmation

I play string "Dragon microphone should be on/off"  as an audible confirmation. I say "should be"  because I currently don't have a nice way of confirming that the Dragon microphone is on or off from Dragon itself. And even if I did, that doesn't help when Dragon  or the microphone or the Nvidia Broadcast noise filtering software is not responsive.

 

---+ Past

 

In the past I have used other key-bindings,  and I *thought*  I had posted about that but cannot find my posts if they exist.

 

In the past I have used the standard Dragon toggle microphone on/off key-binding open Dragon hotkey, which I currently have bound to ctl+alt+shift+F12,  since  AFAIK no program I care about uses that binding.  and I have had my trackball keys admit that key sequence.

 

---+  using PTT to get absolute microphone on/off

 

But at the moment  I trackball keys do on and off in the absolute non-toggle manner. I kluge it by having UR->F11->PTT  since pressing and releasing PTT reliably turns the  microphone off, and UR-> F11 then ^!+F12,  i.e. PTT to turn the mic off and the Dragon toggle  hot-key to flip  it back on.

 

---+  yeah, I know, I should post on GitHub... ISOL wrt  ad hoc submodules

 

I have described this in  in enough detail that you can certainly write your own AutoHotKey script for whatever trackball or keys you want to use. The most interesting thing is using PTT to turn the microphone off. The most annoying thing is that I hate using the very limited set of hotkeys available to Dragon.

 

I know that I should post the code on GitHub.  Others might even be interested in using my AutoHotKey library to bind to multiple key clicks, like double and triple and quadruple click and hold. But it is not yet a nice clean module. Actually, it probably is, my main reluctance is due to the fact that it is part of a git repository that handles most of my other AutoHotKey stuff, which I am almost certain that most people do not want. I wish that gets supported dynamic  Ad hoc modules well. Git submodules suck.   I might just post the files by themselves, but it seems somewhat retrograde to do that on GitHub.  if you can show me how to export a partial git repository, pruning both workspace and history,  in a way that also allows me to back import changes from the subset, please tell me.

 

---+ I want my PTT (but can't have it)

 

Unfortunately, I cannot currently use UR->F11  as a press to talk PTT, since I currently have a long press of UR (not F11) that key bound to a menu  that has lots of other good stuff on it. The usual problem with finding a free encoding.   I am considering adding bindings up to four clicks, which  experiments have shown fairly reliably. My biggest problem with  AHK hotkeys has been  autorepeat  invoking the AutoHotKey script and slowing my PC down excessively. 

 

---+  I am not using SpeechStart+ MICROPHONE ...  because life ...

 

Lunis is probably going to say "why not use SpeechStart+  MICROPHONE ON". I really liked  this feature when I was using  SpeechStart+.  Minor: it doesn't have the verbal acknowledgment that I've added my own trackball key-bindings. And it might be unfair or inaccurate to say this, but I had so many stability problems with Dragon that I have disabled as many add-ons as I can, including SpeechStart+. I do really miss SpeechStart+'s "MICROPHONE ON" and "RESTART DRAGON",  and someday I may try using them again. 

I don't mean to disrespect SpeechStart+ MICROPHONE ON,  but I am currently not using it, and have no plans to do so in the short term.  I do not know that it was  causing the stability problems, but I do not want to go back to that place which was making me desperate.

 

---+  CONCLUSION: I'm happy,  and it might make you happy too

 

Anyway, I am quite happy to report that these trackball button bindings for microphone on/off of made me very happy.

 

I was almost as happy when I had these microphone on/off  bindings on a Bluetooth media remote wristband. However, I kept forgetting the media remote wristband in another room or in my computer bag  in the front hall. The trackball buttons are always present, which is nice.

 

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DPG15.6 (also DPI 15.3) + KB, Sennheiser MB Pro 1 UC ML, BTD 800 dongle, Windows 10 Pro, MS Surface Book 3, Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.3/1.5GHz (4 cores, 8 logical, GPU=NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 with Max-Q Design.

Update April 6, 2023


I was fairly happy with trackball UL/UR double-click --> Dragon mic on/off.


However, double clicking more and more hurts my hands. Even with my left hand, which hitherto has been not so bad.


So I recently changed to


Trackball UL/UR single-click --> Dragon mic on/off


moved the old bindings to


Trackball UL/UR double-click --> Browser back/forward


keeping my other trackball UL/UR bindings the same, e.g. press-and-hold, click-press-hold, triple click: menus of things like "move all lost windows to a sane visible place".


I have been finding single presses so much less stressful that I am messing with different durations - short-press, long-press, etc.


--


I also recently made CapsLock into a pseudo-PTT - turn Dragon mic on while held down, off when released, but double click to turn mic on persistent. But double clicking remains a literal pain. And for me trackball is more convenient - I am mainly a "move mouse cursor around screen by trackball, else use voice".






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DPG15.6 (also DPI 15.3) + KB, Sennheiser MB Pro 1 UC ML, BTD 800 dongle, Windows 10 Pro, MS Surface Book 3, Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.3/1.5GHz (4 cores, 8 logical, GPU=NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 with Max-Q Design.