Commands Tips and Examples

Learn about best practices for building effective dictation commands

A key functionality that brings an application from speech to text to a complete dictation solution is Commands. Put your users in the driver seat to control their workflow by defining commands to insert templates, navigate the application, automate repetitive tasks, and more!

Commands detected by the server are sent to the client in a separate message type than transcripts, and include the following details:

• Unique identifier for the recognized command.
• Variable(s) recognized with the command.
• Raw transcript text and time segments for the recognized command.

Click here to view command response message details.

Click here for a library of commands ready for use.

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Building an effective command

Below are some recommendations, tips, and tricks for building commands that are effective and reliable:

	Best practice	Good Example	Bad Example
1	Use an action verb as the first word in your command phrase because users are telling the computer to do something	”go to assessment section"	"assessment”
2	Don’t make command phrases too long or too complex so that users can remember them and say them in one concise utterance	”insert normal exam male"	"insert physical exam for male with history of diabetes”
3	Make sure to not create command phrases with content that also needs to be recognized dictation text	”pull latest vitals"	"vital signs”
4	Be mindful of including articles, extraneous terms, and filler words in your command phrases as the command will only be recognized when the defined phrase is matched in full	”insert normal exam"	"insert the normal exam”
5	Use the variables feature to support having alternative methods to execute a single command	delete text
6	Use the variables feature to support having a single command support many actions	navigation

Be sure to test your commands!

Dictate command phrases to make sure they are recognized reliably, and use the recognized text as phrases to be recognized for the command.

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Client handling of detected commands

	Best practice
1	Configured commands must have unique values for id
2	Each command should have unique phrases to prevent conflicts
3	Add timeouts, error handling, and command execution logging so that a command does not run indefinitely when there are errors executing the action following command recognition
4	Consider which commands should be standardized across all users of the application or opened for custom user configuration

Get creative!

Most applications follow linear flows to click through from one place to another, but speech-enabling the application with commands opens a world of opportunity for supporting more dynamic navigation through the workflow.