Speakable Items: Speak Links in Safari (Surftalk Replacement?)

There was an a small, free application for OS9 (back when we called applications "programs") that let me speak any link on a page in Safari. The browser activated the link. It worked nearly flawlessly. All these years later, I still can't find anything that can do it.
Browsing was so much faster with that setup. Isn't there something that can do it now???

Have you tried Speakable Items? Also, check out Speakable Items Tutorial: PlainTalk Spoken Commands <--- direct PDF download.

Similar Messages

Speakable Items & Safari

When I try to add a specific webpage to Speakable Items in Safari, I don't get the dialogue box I'm supposed to get in order to rename the command. Speakable Items recognizes the command "Make This Page Speakable," by repeating it back to me. I have Address book deselected.

FYI: Ended up dragging all preferences with "Speech" in the name to the trash. Relaunched Safari and Speakable Items works like a dream now. It's pretty darned cool calling up individual websites by voice.

Speakable Items - Back command for browser

Apple speakable commands are fairly useful and can be used to open browser windows within Safari.
Is there a way to issue a speakable command to go back to a previous page?
Thank you.
20 iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

You can speak "Define keyboard command" from any application, and in the editor, can limit that command to a particular application. This allows you to add speakable commands for standard items such as:
"Move Back" (Cmd + Left Arrow)
"Move Forward" (Cmd + Right Arrow)
The "Make this Page Speakable" command is an Apple Script that will be harder to port to Firefox, but I have a workaround that may suffice for you.
I assume you only have a certain number of links (5 or 10?) that you wish to make speakable. If you create them all in Safari using the standard command, it will add web links to the Safari speakable items directory:
~/Library/Speech/Speakable\ Items/Application\ Speakable\ Items/Safari
Copy all of those web links into your Firefox speakable items directory:
~/Library/Speech/Speakable\ Items/Application\ Speakable\ Items/firefox-bin
Then those speakable pages should work from Firefox. Note: You'll need to redo this step anytime you create a new speakable page, so I recommend doing it all at once.

Speakable Items won't work with my headset

Here's the deal:
When I am using the internal microphone with Speakable Items, everything works fine. (I have to lean in a bit, obviously.) But no matter what I do, my computer won't understand commands spoken through my bluetooth headset. My OS is up-to-date (10.4.10).
The headset (Plantronics Voyager 510) pairs fine with my computer, an iMac G5, and appears to work perfectly well as an input device: the readout in the Sound preference pane shows that the computer can hear my voice through it. In fact, when I go to the "Speakable Items" tab in the Speech preference pane, choose the headset (which appears as "PLT 510"), and attempt to calibrate it, the blue, green, and red readout in the Microphone Calibration window also registers my voice.
But no matter where I set the slider, no matter where I am in relation to the headset microphone, and no matter at what volume or speed I speak, the computer will not recognize commands. It can hear my voice — which I keep in the green zone — but won't understand it.
It's not just in the calibration window: it also won't work when trying to use Speakable Items in, say, the Finder. I've tried changing the input volume for the headset in the Sound preferences, having my room totally silent (including shutting off the air conditioner), calibrating with Speakable Items set to "on" and "off," and weeping and begging. I even rebooted. Nada.
Again, Speakable Items works fine when I am using the internal microphone. The one other difference I found in their behaviors is that, with the calibration slider set to low and the room silent, the internal microphone is steady at the second green bar; but the headset under the same conditions is steady at the sixth bar. In fact, in the case of the headset, moving the slider has no effect at all: it always rests on the sixth bar.
(In other news, the headset won't pair with my iBook G3 [Dual-USB] using the D-Link DBT-120 [Rev. B3]. But I guess that's a different issue altogether.)
Googling, I see plenty of happy Mac users who own my model of headset, but I can't find this problem addressed anywhere. I've looked through the forums here as well.
Thanks for reading! Can anyone help?

Sorry for the slow reply, Philip!
First of all, Macs do not yet interact in stereo with Bluetooth headsets, though according to rumour this will be available in Leopard (along with everything else).
Have you tried using the Skype Test Call feature? This is one of the easiest ways of listening back to what you record. Come to that, does it record into one of the more standard sound apps (e.g. Garage Band, Audacity, SndSampler)?
My wife has a Plantronics 590 Bluetooth headset, but when it is interacting directly via the Mac's Bluetooth she can only get the microphone to work with Skype and the Finder. And iTunes outputs only the left-hand channel, evenly split between the two channels, and the quality is horrible. If she wants to use it for any other purpose she has to connect it via the Bluetooth 3.5 mm jack adapter plugged into the headphone socket, which cuts out the headset mike as well as the internal speakers.
Though VoiceOver does work through her headset, without using the adapter, the quality is awful and VoiceOver keeps crashing. She can, however, use it for Speakable Items, though she often has to repeat herself. The calibration had to be set very high — 100% mostly.
Have you gone through the full calibration sequence, including getting all the test commands to flash?
Keep us posted!
Archie

After mistakenly clicking a link, my safari does not open automatically and unexpected webs open up.

I am using MacBook Air with Yosemite OS. After mistakenly clicking a link, my safari does not open automatically and unexpected webs open up. Could you please give me suggestions on how to fix this problem? Thank you

That's a bit vague, but you may have installed the "VSearch" trojan. Remove it as follows.
Malware is always changing to get around the defenses against it. These instructions are valid as of now, as far as I know. They won't necessarily be valid in the future. Anyone finding this comment a few days or more after it was posted should look for more recent discussions or start a new one.
Back up all data before proceeding.
Step 1
From the Safari menu bar, select
          Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions
Uninstall any extensions you don't know you need, including any that have the word "Spigot," "Trovi," or "Conduit" in the description. If in doubt, uninstall all extensions. Do the equivalent for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, if you use either of those.
Reset the home page and default search engine in all the browsers, if it was changed.
Step 2
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist
Right-click or control-click the line and select
          Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "com.vsearch.agent.plist" selected. Drag the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.
Repeat with each of these lines:
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.daemon.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.helper.plist
Restart the computer and empty the Trash. Then delete the following items in the same way:
/Library/Application Support/VSearch
/System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ConduitNPAPIPlugin.plugin
Some of these items may be absent, in which case you'll get a message that the file can't be found. Skip that item and go on to the next one.
The problem may have started when you downloaded and ran an application called "MPlayerX." That's the name of a legitimate free movie player, but the name is also used fraudulently to distribute VSearch. If there is an item with that name in the Applications folder, delete it, and if you wish, replace it with the genuine article from mplayerx.org.
This trojan is often found on illegal websites that traffic in pirated content such as movies. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect more of the same, and worse, to follow. Never install any software that you downloaded from a bittorrent, or that was downloaded by someone else from an unknown source.
In the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences, select the General tab. The radio button marked Anywhere should not be selected. If it is, click the lock icon to unlock the settings, then select one of the other buttons. After that, don't ignore a warning that you are about to run or install an application from an unknown developer.
Then, still in System Preferences, open the App Store or Software Update pane and check the box marked
          Install system data files and security updates
if it's not already checked.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Copying links in safari in iOS 8 no longer works

At first I thought it was me but no. If I try to copy a link in Safari using the Copy item or by specifically selecting the link and copying it I get nothing. I use this feature a lot so it's pretty annoying.
I am running iOS 8 on an iPad 2. I am really not happy with the performance of iOS 8.

I am not sure if this is the answer, but I was trying some things to fix some of the iOS 8 issues I was having. One of the things I tried is to reset the network settings. And now I can copy from Safari. Disclaimer, I am not sure if this is what fixed the problem but could very well be.
To reset the network settings, go to Settings>Reset>Reset Network Settings
This wipes out all the network settings, so make sure you have your network passwords handy.

Mountain Lion and Speakable Items

Now that I got Speakable Items up and running albeit with a number of bugs (the listening key deactivates that key's normal function- if you use Escape for instance, escape will no longer function in apps, if you use F5 however, you cannot Calibrate as it goes on beeping when you try- has some wrinkles in other words), I'd like to try it with fave applications.
The first one I'm interested in is Safari, but sadly the only command available is 'Make this page speakable'. You can then input things from there, but you're limited to one page. I want the whole application to be speakable- that is, so I can say any of the commands in the menu bar. I know you can make them in Applescript (or Automator I suppose), but I don't know how to do that. If someone knows where I can get batches of them, I'd appreciate it.
Safari is the only application that even has a folder dedicated it under the Applications group. There Global and Menu Bar workarounds- for instance I can say "Window Menu" and the window menu will pop down. Then if I say "Show Next Tab" it works. But if I don't say "Window Menu" first, nothing happens. Obviously, Ctl-Tab/Ctl-Shift-Tab is a lot easier.
You can work around the key bug by assigning a vocal cue- "computer" for example (they use that in Star Trek too so the computer doesn't get confused), but I can't seem to get it to work on my cheapo mic.
I'm experimenting on ML, on my Mac Mini with a USB mic. Haven't tried it on my MBP Mavericks yet.

I've also noticed that Speakable Items works for an indeterminate period of time, and then just dies out. The time usually isn't too long, and perhaps the kapoot occurs after sleep. Anyway, I tried turning it off and on, changing the input key, but nothing works save restarting (logging out should work too). I'd like to know a faster way to quick start it if anyone knows one. Force quitting System Preferences doesn't help either.
Needless to say, Speakable Items is GREAT idea but why so many bugs? I think it worked much better in Tiger or way back when. In fact, if I'm not mistaken the technology (at least in Mac OS as it's not new) began in OS 8. I would love to tell my computer what to do like in the sci fi flicks and give my fingers a break. I notice in Star Trek they don't type anything at all- just push icons (very quickly!). In the Matrix they slide around holographic artifacts in Tai Qi style.
Well I digress. i think it would be great if voice recognition were beefed up all around. I would like talking to my devices- friendlier!

How do I use AppleScript keystroke command as a speakable item?

I am attempting to do what I thought was a rather simple task, but have not had success.
I would like to use the following script as a voice command to speak selected text in a file, opened for example by Preview, when the key is pressed.
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "." using control down
I have placed the script application in the System Preferences, Speech, Speakable Items Folder. The item is being recognized; however, it appears that it is not functioning in the correct window context. I would like this to work regardless of the application text (hence the Text to Speech option). How do I set this up before the keystroke command in the script?
As an aside, is there a way to convert a script file to a SpeakableItems.app document file?

I am not sure if this is what you are looking for.
But have you saved the below workflow as a Service and use a keyboad shortcut?
I have this as a Service and my keyboard short cut is Command-Shift T.
Once I select a paragraph in Preview and press the short cut it speaks the text for me.
Maybe you already thought of this. But here you go.

Pdf link in Safari

Good morning,
I have problems with pdf link in Safari. Tapping on them they don't work.
Thanks for the support.
Danilo

You may like to experiment with this manually first, if it works then finalize it in a script:
1) manually login to you secure site.
2) copy the URL address
3) launch Terminal and type in:
'/System/Library/Automator/Get Link URLs from Webpages.action/Contents/Resources/links' 'http://the.copied.URL'
replace http://the.copied.URL with real URL, it should return a list of links in the URL.
4) If the PDF links is in it, then you'll try to download it using curl command, still in Terminal; type in:
/usr/bin/curl 'http://path.to.PDF.URL' -o ~/foo.pdf
replace http://path.to.PDF.URL with the pdf link, and with any luck you download you PDF to your home folder.

Tip: Speakable Items GONE? Recognition Doesn't Work?

If the Speakable Items folder is empty
"/Macintosh HD/Users/[username]/Libary/Speech/Speakable Items" you can restore the items by adding an new user account with admin rights.
Before loggin in to the newly added user check the Speakable Items directory once again if the files already showed up(this occured on my mac) if so you can remove the created user before even logging in, if not you must log in and go to the "/Macintosh HD/Users/[username]/Libary/Speech/Speakable Items" and copy the files to your main user account witch doesen't have the files.
Recognition doesen't work after the restoration of the files?
Uncheck the Addressbook Command Set or uncheck all the (null) items under the Addressbook configuration.
Hope it helped, it worked for me :P
Have fun talking to your MAC!!

Here is more detailed help , It helped others too .....
I had the same problem but I fixed it and I think I know how .
Go to home then library find the folder Speech , if it is not there , you log out and create anew test user .
From there go to the home folder , then library , then speech folder , make a copy then put it in the Shared file folder .
Log out and log into your normal user and go to the Shared folder get the Speech folder out and drop it into the Home library folder . Now you have the commands .
It still may not work , next open Speech in System Preferences click on the mic , Speech window opens , click commands ,open speakable items to make sure they are there , then uncheck all of the command sets .
Specially the address book one which I believe it to be the cause of this bug .
Start by only checking the app switching command (example: switch to Safari)
Turn on the speakable items and presto the commands should appear .
It is possible that if your address book is messed up , like info not in the proper fields somehow it affects these commands . But as long as I do not have them all checked it worked again for me .
The tech guy gave me another option which did not seem prudent , like reinstall the OS .
Luckily , thanks to the user friendly design of these machines and the OS which helps make it easier to fix problems , after a week of trying to figure it out , I think I did , at least for me .
Please let me know if this helps anyone and pass it along if it does .
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

HT1222 I need some help.... I Have the iPhone 4S and downloaded the new software (6.0) and everything seems great so far except when I try to open a link in safari from a different app (messages, Facebook, ext..) it glitches and won't load. Any advice?

I need some help.... I Have the iPhone 4S and downloaded the new software (6.0) and everything seems great so far except when I try to open a link in safari from a different app (ie..messages, Facebook, ect..) it glitches and won't load. The blue loading bar will just jump back and forth and the page will not load properly if at all....

It sounds like you may have multiple problems, but none of them are likely to be caused by malware.
First, the internet-related issues may be related to adware or a network compromise. I tend to lean more towards the latter, based on your description of the problem. See:
http://www.adwaremedic.com/kb/baddns.php
http://www.adwaremedic.com/kb/hackedrouter.php
If investigation shows that this is not a network-specific issue, then it's probably adware. See my Adware Removal Guide for help finding and removing it. Note that you mention AdBlock as if it should have prevented this, but it's important to understand that ad blockers do not protect you against adware in any way. Neither would any kind of anti-virus software, which often doesn't detect adware.
As for the other issues, it sounds like you've got some serious corruption. I would be inclined to say it sounds like a failing drive, except it sounds like you just got it replaced. How did you get all your files back after the new drive was installed?
(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com, in the form of buttons allowing for donations. Donations are not required to use my site or software.)

Speakable Items not working in Mavericks

The Speakable Items in Mavericks only work about 1 in a 100 commands
Calibrations is working for about 50%
What I don't understand is that my iPhone 5 does a fantastic job with voice commands and my iMac has so far only responded to "what is the time" after saying the command a dozen times.
It looks like the Apple Support Community is not monitored by Apple because I have not seen any answers from Apple.
Has anyone found a way of making it work?

(my post above, user name: siouxsan, was made on a friend's account)
I tried the suggestion above (rtw5), but unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.
To clarify, I can click on the little pop down menu, on the bottom of the round microphone, and select "open speech comands window" and the speech commands window will appear. I can also hold down the selected key and speak a command, ie., "what time is is?" and the little volume lines on the mircophone will register my voice. The problem is, the computer does not respond to any of the commands.
an interesting note: if I go to:
*System Preferences*, then
Speech, then
*Spoken User Interface*, then click on
*Demonstate Settings*
Then, a window pops up that says, "This message demonstrates your settings for talking alerts."
(When the computer was working correctly and responding to speakable commands, if I clicked on
*Demonstrate Settings,* instead of getting that message window, the computer would "speak", actually demonstating the settings.
Currently, the only time the computer speaks now is to announce the time every half hour.

Alternative keyboard layouts + Speakable Items

Speakable Items is a great idea I'd like to use since I frequently use a tablet to sketch art and am out of reach of the keyboard. For some commands, Speakable Items works great (e.g. "Switch to Safari"), but many commands don't.
This puzzled me, especially since some commands seemed to do something outrageously different than what I command. I cracked open some applescripts to take a look at what was going on, and it appears that Speakable Items makes use of very specific keycodes to emulate keypresses. The problem is the keycodes are only valid when using a standard U.S. "qwerty" layout. I use "dvorak", so pretty much all of the commands that utilize key mappings will fail.
I'm not a lazy man, but I am quite busy. I would love to go through and modify the scripts to use the correct key codes if I had the time, but alas, it seems I am at the mercy of Apple fixing this unexpected bug in their software when ever they feel like it. There doesn't seem to be any place on the Apple web site to submit bug reports ala "Bugzilla", which is a shame. The only workaround I can think of is to temporarily switch back to a "qwerty" layout when ever one wants to issue commands, but this is a kludgey solution at best.
So, if you ever wondered why Speakable Items would not work, and you're using a different keyboard layout, now you know.

You can report the problem by emailing [email protected] with details. If you have an apple developers connection account you can report it at bugs.apple.com if I recall the address correctly. Please email the feedback address even if it seems futile - they probably won't reply but they do pay some attention to the messages. Since it's an accessibility related one, you could also report it to [email protected] where you're more likely to get some answer!
r

Speakable items is giving me trouble

hello there,
I wonder if someone can help me. I want to use speakable items while i'm doing other stuff in front of my mac (reading, referance etc.) and it doesn't like the way I speak.
I have a strong regional accent (Very South Yorkshire) and I tried speaking more clearly, turning up the microhone, and all it likes to respond to is 'what time is it?' and 'tell me joke' (gets no further than that as it doesn't understand me)
If anyone can help I'd be much obliged,
Thanks in advance

To Apple Discussions!
Get an external mic. Apple PlainTalk Microphone works best w/G3 iMacs.
If I were you, I would shop around for a cheaper price. I only paid $5 for mine back in 1999 w/my Apple coupon. I think the actual price was around $10.
Speakable Items works best w/external mics. The external mics will handle your "Very South Yorkshire" accent w/no problem.

Is there a problem with Speakable Items in Lion?

I have long enjoyed talking to my Mac. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard I encountered a conflict between Speakable Items and the Screen Saver and Energy Saver Preferences. What happens is that immediately following a first spoken command to Speakable Items, my system would no longer obey the System Preferences I had set for the Screen Saver and Energy Saver. I spent many hours discussing with Apple Support, assuming the the problem lay within my own system, all to no avail. After my own experiments and the technician's experiments at Apple Support, we found that the problem seems to occur on any Mac running Snow Leopard, that it is a bug in the OS. I have had to work without using Speakable Items since then, very annoying.
I anticipated that this bug would get cleared with Lion, but I have just upgraded to Lion and one of the first things I tried is to resume using Speakable Items. Before my first spoken command, Sceen Saver and Energy Saver correctly obeyed the preferences I had set. After my first spoken command, Sceen Saver and Energy Saver failed to activate just as with Snow Leopard. Is this a persisting bug carried over from Snow Leopard into Lion or a problem within my own system?

Ted, I've tried multiple things from multiple forums, none of them worked. I did find a solution though. I knew using a Time Machine backup could modify some important files in the new OS. I made sure Speaking was switched off. Then I opened my library directory and opened my preferences folder. When I had it open I entered time machine. I chose the most past backup and scrolled through till I found the speech preferences. (com.apple.speach..... Etc) There should be about 6 files. Select only those 6 files and restore them. When finder asked it it should delete the old files or keep both, delete the old files, they are your current preferences. Then I did this to the speakable items folder just in case. When I turn Speach Recognition back on it was right as rain.
Hope that helps, not everyone uses Time Machine.

Speakable Items: Speak Links in Safari (Surftalk Replacement?)

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