
5.2	Naming Icons, Symbols, and Pointers
This section describes outSPOKEN's features for 
labeling graphical images such as icons, symbols, and 
pointer shapes (Sections 3.1, 3.2). This is all done 
through two outSPOKEN dialog boxes, Rename Graphic and 
Edit Graphics Dictionary. To change the name of a 
graphic, place the pointer on the graphic and bring up 
the Rename Graphic dialog (CTRL-KPD PLUS). Type the new 
name and press oENTER, or click on the OK button. This 
saves the new name to a file on the hard disk called a 
graphics dictionary. It is important to note that 
naming a graphic names all graphics that have that 
image, not merely the individual graphic being named. 
Thus naming a single icon automatically names all 
identical icons.
A graphics dictionary is a file which contains one or 
more graphic images (or bitmaps), along with a user-
defined name for each graphic. Each dictionary has the 
file extension ".DIC" and is located in the outSPOKEN 
directory (usually C:\OSW). Each graphic and its 
associated name are called an "entry" in that graphics 
dictionary. Unless otherwise specified, all new graphic 
names are stored in the default dictionary, 
"DEFAULT.DIC". If you are a beginner, there is no need 
to be overly concerned about how graphics dictionaries 
operate. It is enough to know that these files contain 
the images and names of the graphics you define in the 
Rename Graphic dialog. For more information about 
dictionaries, advanced users may wish to read the final 
sub-section of this chapter, "More About Graphics 
Dictionaries." 
Whenever outSPOKEN encounters a graphic, it searches 
its graphics dictionaries to find a name for that 
bitmap. If an entry is found, outSPOKEN speaks the 
assigned name when announcing that graphic. If none is 
found, outSPOKEN assigns the graphic a unique number, 
such as "Icon 7" or "Icon 9." This numbering scheme 
serves to distinguish one unnamed graphic from another. 
outSPOKEN numbers icons separately from symbols 
(Section 3.2). This means that "Icon 7" is not the same 
image as "Symbol 7." These numbers are not saved to 
disk, but are regenerated each time outSPOKEN is 
launched. This means that an unnamed graphic's number 
will probably change each time you restart outSPOKEN.
The pointer takes on many forms, depending on the state 
of the system and the item under the pointer. As the 
pointer changes shape, outSPOKEN announces the new 
cursor. Most of the standard shapes have been pre-
defined in an existing dictionary. As with graphics, 
any unrecognized pointer is given a unique number. For 
more information about renaming pointers, see the sub-
section called "Editing Graphics Dictionaries."
5.2.1	The Rename Graphic Dialog
An icon or symbol can be renamed at any time by placing 
the pointer on it and opening the Rename Graphic dialog 
(CTRL-KPD PLUS). In this dialog, an edit box contains 
the current graphic name in highlighted text, and OK is 
the default button. Thus, typing a new name replaces 
the old one, and pressing oENTER selects the OK button. 
The new name is saved, and the Rename Graphic dialog 
closes, returning the pointer to the graphic which has 
just been renamed. 
In addition to the previously mentioned edit box and OK 
button, there are a number of other important features 
of this dialog. To the right of the edit box is an 
image of the graphic itself. This serves to positively 
identify the graphic being renamed. Below the edit box 
is a check box labeled Ignore Graphic. If this box is 
checked, outSPOKEN will not speak the displayed graphic 
when reading. To the right of this check box is a combo 
box showing the currently selected graphics dictionary. 
This setting determines the dictionary to which the 
displayed graphic will be saved. In the lower-right 
corner of the dialog is the Edit Dictionary button, 
which brings up a sub-dialog from which any graphic in 
the current dictionary can be renamed. To the left of 
the Edit Dictionary button are the OK and Cancel 
buttons.
When the Rename Graphic dialog opens, the edit box 
contains the graphic's current name. The name is 
highlighted, so any new text typed from the keyboard 
immediately replaces the old name. This is a normal 
edit box, and standard editing keys, such as RIGHT-
ARROW, LEFT-ARROW, BACKSPACE, and DELETE, can be used to 
correct any errors made while typing. A graphic name 
can be up to five-hundred and twelve characters long, 
but extremely long names may not entirely show in the 
edit box. 
The Ignore Graphic check box, located below the edit 
box, is used to omit specific graphics when reading 
with outSPOKEN. To turn off an icon or symbol, check 
this control in the Rename Graphic dialog when viewing 
that graphic. In other words, to turn off a graphic, 
place the pointer on the graphic to be turned off, 
invoke the Rename Graphic dialog (CTRL-KPD PLUS), select 
the Ignore Graphic check box, and press OK. When this 
control is checked, outSPOKEN ignores the graphic, and 
neither navigates to it nor speaks it. From within the 
Rename Graphic dialog, this control can be toggled with 
the hotkey combination ALT-I. This setting can be 
overridden by turning on the "Verbose Graphics" option 
in the outSPOKEN Graphics Preferences sub-dialog 
(Section 5.1.3).
A graphics dictionary is a file which contains a group 
of graphics and their names (Section 5.2.3). The combo 
box to the right of the Ignore Graphic check box 
displays the name of the graphics dictionary where the 
current graphic is stored. A status line above the 
combo box also indicates the graphic's dictionary. If 
the graphic has not yet been saved, the dictionary name 
displayed in the combo box is "DEFAULT.DIC", and the 
status line reports that the graphic has not yet been 
stored. This means that pressing OK will store the 
newly named graphic in the dictionary "DEFAULT.DIC". 
Another dictionary can be selected by clicking in the 
combo box and choosing another name from the list. If 
another dictionary is selected, the graphic is filed in 
that dictionary when OK is pressed.
Along the bottom of the Rename Graphic dialog are three 
buttons labeled OK, Cancel, and Edit Dictionary. The OK 
button accepts all the settings in the dialog, saves 
them to the selected dictionary, and closes the dialog. 
Pressing the hotkey combination ALT-O from within the 
Rename Graphic dialog also selects this button. The 
Cancel button, which can alternately be selected with 
the hotkey combination ALT-C, closes the dialog, but 
makes no changes to any dictionary. This button 
discards any changes made while in the dialog and 
returns to the location of the original graphic. 
Selecting Close from the Control menu is equivalent to 
pressing the OK button. The Edit Dictionary button, 
which produces a sub-dialog, is explained in detail in 
the following section. This button can be selected with 
the hotkey combination ALT-E.
Please note that the Cancel button only 
discards changes made in the Rename Graphic 
dialog. If changes are made in the Edit 
Dictionary sub-dialog, pressing the Cancel 
button in the Rename Graphic dialog will not 
undo those changes.
5.2.2	Editing Graphics Dictionaries
The Edit Graphics Dictionary sub-dialog is opened by 
selecting the Edit Dictionary button at the bottom-
right corner of the Rename Graphic dialog (CTRL-KPD 
PLUS). The dictionary to be edited is selected with the 
combo box in the Rename Graphic dialog. The sub-dialog 
allows the user to view all of a dictionary's entries, 
as well as any graphics that have not yet been named. 
From within this sub-dialog, entries can be browsed and 
specific names can be searched for. From the Rename 
Graphic dialog, a shortcut to this sub-dialog is 
provided by the hotkey combination Alt-E.
This sub-dialog contains six significant controls. Two 
of these, the edit box and the Ignore Graphic check 
box, are similar to those found in the Rename Graphic 
dialog (Section 5.2.1). Along the bottom of the sub-
dialog are four buttons labeled Previous, Next, Find, 
and Done. A line of text at the top of the dialog 
displays the current graphic name, as well as an image 
of the graphic itself.
As in the Rename Graphic dialog, the edit box where the 
new name is to be typed contains the graphic's current 
name. When the sub-dialog is first opened, the text in 
the edit box is highlighted, and can therefore be 
replaced by typing a new name. This is a normal edit 
box and standard editing keys, such as RIGHT-ARROW, 
LEFT-ARROW, BACKSPACE, and DELETE, can be used to edit its 
contents. A graphic name can be up to five-hundred and 
twelve characters, but extremely long names may not 
entirely show in the edit box. 
As explained in the previous section, the Ignore 
Graphic check box, located to the right of the edit 
box, is used to omit certain graphics when reading with 
outSPOKEN. To turn off a specific icon or symbol, 
select this box when viewing that graphic's dictionary 
entry. When this control is checked, outSPOKEN ignores 
the graphic, and neither navigates to it nor speaks it. 
From within the Edit Graphics Dictionary sub-dialog, 
this control can be toggled on and off with the hotkey 
combination ALT-I. The Ignore Graphic setting can be 
overridden by turning on the Verbose Graphics option in 
the outSPOKEN Graphics Preferences sub-dialog (Section 
5.1.3).
The Previous and Next buttons display the previous and 
next dictionary entries, respectively. Which entry is 
"previous" and which is "next" is determined by 
outSPOKEN according to the bitmap of the graphic. The 
Previous and Next buttons can be used to browse through 
each entry in the current dictionary, as well as all 
entries of unnamed graphics. The Previous and Next 
buttons can be selected with the hotkey combinations 
ALT-P and ALT-N, respectively.
The Find button in the Edit Graphics Dictionary sub-
dialog is used to locate specific dictionary entries, 
or unnamed graphics. When this button is pressed, an 
extremely simple sub-dialog is produced. Contained in 
this Find Graphic sub-dialog are an edit box, an OK 
button, and a Cancel button. From within the Edit 
Graphics Dictionary sub-dialog, a shortcut for 
selecting the Find Graphic sub-dialog is provided by 
the hotkey combination ALT-F.
When the Find Graphic sub-dialog opens, the name of the 
graphic to be searched for can be typed into the empty 
edit box. To start the search, press oENTER or select 
OK. Select Cancel to abort the search and return to the 
current dictionary entry. 
Find Graphic is only able to locate entries that 
exactly match the request. Capitalization does not 
matter, but spaces and punctuation must be typed 
correctly. If Find Graphic is unable to locate a 
request, it behaves as if Cancel had been pressed, 
closing the Find Graphic sub-dialog and returning to 
the current entry in the Edit Graphic Dictionary sub-
dialog. If the requested entry is located, the Find 
Graphic sub-dialog is closed and the newly found entry 
is displayed in the Edit Graphics Dictionary sub-
dialog.
When searching for unnamed pointers, icons, or symbols 
using the Find Graphic sub-dialog, be sure to include a 
space before the graphic's number. As explained in the 
introduction to this section, unnamed graphics are each 
assigned a unique number until named by the user. When 
outSPOKEN assigns a number to an unknown graphic, the 
name is of the form Icon-space-number. It is important 
to include the space because Find Graphic can only 
locate graphics that exactly match the name that is 
typed. Since all unnamed graphics are locatable from 
the Edit Graphic Dictionary sub-dialog, this is an 
alternative to using the Rename Graphic dialog. 
To rename a pointer, enter the Edit Graphics Dictionary 
sub-dialog and use Previous, Next, or Find to locate 
the desired pointer. This is the only way to rename a 
pointer, because the usual method of naming graphics 
(by placing the pointer on them and invoking the Rename 
Graphic dialog) will not work for a pointer. Unnamed 
pointers are numbered in the same way icons and symbols 
are, but are called cursors (e.g., "cursor 1"). 
There are two ways to exit from the Edit Graphics 
Dictionary sub-dialog. Pressing the Done button closes 
the sub-dialog and returns to the Rename Graphic 
dialog. When this button is pressed, all dictionary 
modifications are immediately saved to disk. Selecting 
the Close option from the Control menu discards any 
changes made to the current entry and closes the 
dialog. This saves all entries except the current one 
to the dictionary, and returns to the Rename Graphic 
dialog. Effectively, this provides a method of exiting 
the dialog without saving changes to the current 
dictionary entry. However, when the dialog is closed in 
this way, changes that were made to any graphics 
besides the current one will be saved.
Please note that pressing Cancel from the 
Rename Graphic dialog does NOT undo any 
changes made in the Edit Graphics Dictionary 
sub-dialog.
5.2.3	More About Graphics Dictionaries
Graphics dictionaries are files which contain 
information about a graphic's name, bitmap, and Ignore 
Graphic status. Each such set of information about an 
individual graphic is called an "entry," and a 
dictionary can contain any number of entries. Each 
dictionary has the file extension ".DIC", and is 
located in the outSPOKEN directory (usually C:\OSW). 
Unless otherwise specified, all new graphic names are 
stored in the default dictionary, "DEFAULT.DIC". If you 
are a beginner, there is no need to be overly concerned 
about how graphics dictionaries operate. It is enough 
to know that these files contain the images and names 
of the graphics you define in the Rename Graphic 
dialog. Advanced users may wish to read the following 
two sub-sections for more information about graphics 
dictionaries. 
5.2.3.1	Managing Dictionaries
When outSPOKEN is launched, it searches the outSPOKEN 
directory for dictionary files and loads them into 
memory. This means that adding or removing a dictionary 
is as simple as moving a dictionary file into, or out 
of, the outSPOKEN directory. Graphics dictionaries are 
saved to disk at several times: when exiting outSPOKEN, 
when leaving the Rename Graphic dialog or the Edit 
Graphics Dictionary dialog, and when exiting Windows. A 
graphics dictionary can be prevented from loading by 
deleting it or by changing the file extension to 
something other than ".DIC". This can be done from File 
Manager or from DOS. Dictionaries can be added simply 
by copying a dictionary file into the outSPOKEN 
directory. If a dictionary is added to or deleted from 
the outSPOKEN directory while the program is running, 
outSPOKEN must be restarted before the change takes 
effect. 
outSPOKEN must have at least one graphics dictionary to 
work with. When it launches, outSPOKEN looks for a 
dictionary called "DEFAULT.DIC". If this file is not 
found, outSPOKEN creates an empty file with that name. 
This guarantees that when the user wishes to name a 
graphic, there is a dictionary in which to save it. 
This file is also offered as the default dictionary 
when naming a graphic which has not yet been saved.
The best way to create a new graphics dictionary is to 
remove or rename the current default dictionary and 
restart outSPOKEN. outSPOKEN automatically creates a 
new default dictionary. A group of new graphics, such 
as from a new application, can then be defined and 
stored in it. Once these new graphics have been saved 
in the default dictionary, the dictionary can be 
renamed (in File Manager or DOS) to some other 
dictionary name. The next time outSPOKEN is launched, 
an empty default dictionary will again be created. 
Following this procedure, groups of related icons and 
symbols from specific applications can be kept in 
individual graphics dictionaries and shared with other 
outSPOKEN users. For example, we provide a dictionary 
called "WORD.DIC", which is a file containing all of 
the graphics found in Microsoft Word. Although we 
provide graphics dictionaries for some applications, it 
would be impossible to support all of them. For this 
reason, we encourage the sharing of dictionaries via 
electronic bulletin boards, anonymous FTP, and any 
other means available.
5.2.3.2	Dictionary Restrictions
A graphic can be stored in only one dictionary at a 
time, and a particular image can have only one name. 
When loading dictionaries, if outSPOKEN comes across a 
graphic that has been defined in an earlier dictionary 
(i.e., a dictionary loaded earlier in the startup 
process), the definition in the later dictionary 
replaces the older entry. The next time outSPOKEN makes 
a change to the dictionaries on disk, it deletes the 
entry from the earlier dictionary. This ensures that 
only one definition exists for any given graphic.
For this reason one should be careful when adding new 
dictionaries to the outSPOKEN directory. If a new 
dictionary is added which has definitions for graphics 
that are defined in previously existing dictionaries, 
any graphic names defined in dictionaries which load 
earlier than the new dictionary will be replaced by the 
new definitions. If you then quit outSPOKEN, the 
previously defined names will be permanently removed 
from the original dictionaries. This makes it a good 
idea to make regular backups of all important graphics 
dictionaries. 
Graphics dictionaries are loaded by outSPOKEN in their 
order of appearance in a DOS directory list. From DOS, 
typing the command "DIR C:\OSW\*.DIC" will display the 
dictionary file names in their loading order. If you 
have installed outSPOKEN to a directory other than 
"C:\OSW", substitute the proper drive letter and path 
name in the command line above.
Although a graphic can have only one name, there can be 
any number of different graphics possessing the same 
name. This means that several different graphics (even 
graphics which look completely different) can have the 
same label. For example, suppose there were two icons, 
one of a dog and one of a cat. If the user labeled both 
icons "Dog," outSPOKEN would have no objection, even 
though one of the icons is, in fact, a cat.
It is important to note that when outSPOKEN assigns a 
name to a graphic, it is doing so for a specific bit 
depth (number of colors). When the bit depth is 
changed, a previously named graphic appears to 
outSPOKEN as a new image. outSPOKEN has not forgotten 
the previous label, it simply needs a label for the new 
bitmap. Because outSPOKEN allows multiple graphics to 
share the same name, renaming the bitmap in the new bit 
depth solves the problem. When you return to the 
previous bit depth, the previously assigned name 
returns. It is often a good idea to maintain different 
dictionaries for different bit depths. This allows the 
flexibility of removing unused high bit depth 
dictionaries to make more memory available and to speed 
up outSPOKEN's startup process.

