WOZ - Wizard of Oz - v2.30

This software is copyright © 2001-08 by Richard Breuer.

 If you find a bug, please make sure you use the latest version from http://www.softdoc.de/woz.
If this is the case, pls contact richard.breuer@gmx.de

For version 1 change history, click here
 

This document gives some hints about the WOZ utility. There's definitely some more documentation to be done... First, some legal stuff.

The WOZ tool is distributed as freeware. You have to pay no money for it (if you did, you were fooled). If you like, please drop me a mail that you are evaluating or using it, so I can see if it is of any use. The drawback of freeware is that you have no warranty at all. If you run WOZ, do it on your own risk and responsibility. I do not promise any support or help. I do not even guarantee that WOZ doesn't harm your computer or other programs. WOZ is a result of my spare time, so just please accept it as it is.

However, if I am asked for help / changes / fixes in a friendly way, we'll see :-)

Contents

WOZ - Wizard of Oz
    1. About Wizard of Oz Tests
        1.1 About Multimodal Design
    2. Installation and Configuration
        2.1 Tcl/Tk
        2.2 WOZ
        2.3 Logging
        2.4 Sample projects
    3. Usage
        3.1 Projects (.woz)
        3.2 Window layout
            3.2.1 Prompts
            3.2.2 Questions
            3.2.3 Concepts
            3.2.4 Connections
            3.2.5 Sample Calls
        3.3 Controls
        3.4 Audio and Picture File Handling
            3.4.1 General Explanation
            3.4.2 Examples
            3.4.3 TTS Configuration
        3.5 VoiceXML Export Features
            3.5.1 BNF to SRGS Grammar Conversion
            3.5.2 Export of VoiceXML Conditions
            3.5.3 Prompts in VoiceXML
            3.5.4 Context Sensitive Help
            3.5.5 VoiceXML Logging Tags
            3.5.6 Tested Platforms
            3.5.7 INLINE Code
        3.6 GML Exports
    4. The Menu
        4.1 The File Menu
        4.2 The Edit Menu
        4.3 The View Menu
        4.4 The Run Menu
        4.5 The Help Menu
    5. The Runtime Module
        5.1 Usage
        5.2 Logging
        5.3 Dialog Logging
    6. Data Exchange
        6.1 Export Facilities
        6.2 Import Facilities
    7 Configuration
        7.1 [Common]
        7.2 [Windows], [Unix], [Macintosh]
        7.3 [Files]
        7.4 [Graphics]
        7.5 [Toolbar]
        7.6 [VoiceXML]
        7.7 [Exports]
    8. FAQ
    9. Known Problems
    10. Credits
    Appendix: Version 1 Change History

1. About Wizard of Oz Tests

I leave this more or less to the experts. Only some few words about these tests:

<WOZ tests> are useful in designing <dialogue systems>, which are driven by human speech , using <Speech Recognition> and sometimes <Speech Synthesis>. In the test scenario one person takes the role of the wizard, a second the role of a caller. Finally, one person just listens and writes a session protocol. My tool is designed to support the wizard at his task of finding the correct reaction of a system to a certain user input. This is normally done with the help of some pieces of paper. The WOZ tool provides the wizard

• with a tool to design the dialogues and
• a tool to replay a system.

There are two principle ways to start designing your applications. You can either start by creating and connecting prompt and question objects, or by writing down some sample calls you have in mind, and generate a design from these calls. Finally, the design can be exported to various formats and imported into other systems. You can also easily create a VoiceXML prototype from your design.

1.1 About Multimodal Design

In 2005, we at Nuance discussed how WOz could be used to design and test <multimodal> applications as well. Multimodal applications are special because the system not only reacts with voice, but additionally with visual feedback. The idea to incorporate this in WOz (without the need to change the tool - which is especially attractive to me :-)) is to store graphic files, e.g. <PNG> images, in the directory prompts (or a different one, if you configure that)..

One thing must be solved still: currently, the pictures are displayed on the computer used for the WOz session. Under Unix, it would be easy to use a different display, under Windows this is still an open point. I wait for the first real project to address this issue.

2. Installation

Currently, I only describe the Windows installation. WOz runs under Unix as well, though. And probably even better - but who cares... Please note that version 2 has not been tested under Unix  yet.

2.1 Tcl/Tk

WOZ is programmed in <Tcl/Tk> and needs this software to be executed. Therefore, install Tcl/Tk version  8.4 or higher first. Tcl/Tk is available for Windows e.g. at http://www.activestate.com/. Get installation exe and execute it under Windows. The installation is straightforward. Reboot the machine afterwards. BTW, most Linux distributions contain Tcl/Tk as a package already. I did not test the latest WOz version under Linux yet.

Some packages are also necessary (but already compiled into the ActiveState version): "snack" to play audio files, and "iTcl" to run the BNF to SRGS converter created with the great YETI package.

Since ActiveState TCL 8.5, some required packages are no longer part of the Tcl/Tk package. You may need to start tcl/bin/wish85 once and enter the following commands, while being connected to the internet:

2.2 WOZ

You can download WOZ from www.softdoc.de/woz. Please contact me for older versions.

WOZ comes in a ZIP file. Open the archive with WinZip (Linux: gzip). You get that e.g. under www.winzip.com. Unpack the archive to a directory of your choice. I recommend \Program Files\WOZ on your boot drive. Make sure that all subdirectories are created.

2.3 Logging

Whenever you would like to see the actions performed in the WOZ tool, you may check the log file woz.log in the installation directory. It contains all important runtime messages.
 

2.4 Sample Projects

WOz comes with some sample projects:

3. Usage

The following explanations refer to the English version of the front-end. We assume the default settings, color scheme, and toolbar as well.

After you start WOZ, a splash screen comes up. You can get that screen whenever you like with the Help / About menu command :-) <ESC>, <Return>, or a click on the "Close" button will close the splash screen.

3.1 Projects (.woz)

All information is stored in so-called project files with the default extension .woz in the default directory export under WOZ. There are some demo projects already prepared for you. Project files are <ASCII> files. You will find them hard to read, however. The default project loaded at startup time is hotel.woz. You can change this default by modifying the woz.ini file (see chapter 7). Open a project with the menu command File / Open or the appropriate toolbar command. The Open window will look a bit different under different operating systems (the picture below is taken from the Windows version).

3.2 Window layout

WOZ will display all prompts and questions in the current project as graphical boxes on the left hand side, and as text on the right hand side. The name of the project can be modified in the entry field beside the toolbar. At the right hand side of the name entry field, a button allows choosing the language for prompts and grammars. This becomes important when generating VoiceXML code from the design. The label of the button is the current language setting, e.g. en-US.

Different colors are used for start prompt, normal prompts, and questions. There are three more objects: connections, sample calls, and concepts. Connections are shown as arrows, sample calls and concepts are not visible in the graphical display, only in the text list. 

Questions, Prompts, Sample Calls, and Concepts are assigned a unique Id <type><number> by the system. Type is P(rompt), Q(uestion), S(sample call) or C(oncept). Examples are P006, Q002, S002, or C003 for a prompt, a question, a sample call, or a concept respectively. All other information is optional. End states (which have no follow up state) are marked with a small black triangle in the lower right corner. If a question or prompt contains VXML code in the comment field, a small blue triangle in the lower left corner is displayed.

The allocation of the screen to graphical and text display can be modified by shifting the panel button.

You can control some functions with the mouse in the graphical representation.

Event	Action
Move the mouse	If you move the mouse above an abject, this will become active, indicated by a different color. If you move it over a connection, the arrow will be highlighted. This is convenient because sometimes you may not see where a connection leads to.
Double click an object	If you double click the left mouse button on an object, the properties dialog will be opened. See below for more information on these dialogs. You can leave the dialog by clickling Apply or Cancel or pressing ESC (=Cancel). If there are changes, you will  be warned. One special case occurs, if there are connections between two objects in both directions. In this case, the zwo properties dialogs are opened after each other.
Right click	This opens a context menu. The contents of the menu depends on the current location. There are four possible locations. The meaning of the menu options should be self explanatory. In 2.28 a function to fill empty fields ("Fill from") has been added to the context menus of prompts, questions, concepts, and sample calls. This allows e.g. to quickly copy event handler prompts from one question to another. Location Context Menu Prompt Question Connection Window Background Concept Sample call (in 2.04 "Export Audio..." has been added)
Drag a prompt or  question	By left clicking one of these objects, and moving the mouse somewhere keeping the button pressed, you change the position of the object on the screen. If you defined an area before using the middle mouse button, the movement will be applied to all objects touched by the area. Connections are repositioned automatically.
Drag using middle mouse button	By this, you can create an area affecting the movement of objects, as described above. In the picture, P004, Q001, and Q004 are touched by the area.

In the textual representation, double clicking on an object opens the respective properties dialog. Some other commands are also available by clicking the right mouse button. Let's take a closer look at the property dialogs of prompts, questions, concepts, and connections now:

3.2.1 Prompts

The prompt screen contains the following information:
 

When you insert a new prompt, WOz will initialize the text fields with the names of audio prompts, if the audioPrefix value in woz.ini is defined. This may safe typing time if you want to use recorded prompts later on. The file name prefix (hotel/ in the standard configuration) can be changed in the resource/woz.ini file (audioPrefix).

See here for details on audio and picture file handling.

3.2.2 Questions

The question screen contains the following information:
 

One general remark about the error and help prompts: WOz assumes that the original question is not repeated after nomatch, noinput, or help. This allows you to modify the wording of the question within the handler prompts. If you want to reuse the original text, you can embed {REPROMPT} in the text of an event handler. When you export the design, the initial text will be inserted here.

When you insert a new question, WOz will initialize the text fields with the names of audio prompts, if the audioPrefix value in woz.ini is defined. This may safe typing time if you want to use recorded prompts later on. The file name prefix (hotel/ in the standard configuration) can be changed in the resource/woz.ini file (audioPrefix).

See here for details on audio and picture file handling.

3.2.3 Concepts

The concept screen contains the following information:
 

When you insert a new concept, the grammarStrategy switch decides what will be used as initial grammar contents.

3.2.4 Connections

The connection screen contains the following information:
 

3.2.5 Sample Calls

The sample call screen contains the following information:
 

Name	The name of a sample call, e.g. "Newbie"
Comment	This field allows you to write a design comment. Typically, you would like to write why you picked that particular call.
Dialog Turns	This list contains the turns of the call. A turn can either be a prompt or a question. You can find several buttons in the sample calls properties window: Delete a dialog turn Undo last sample call operation Shift a turn up in the call flow Redo last sample call operation Shift a turn down in the call flow Undo all sample call operations Create a new prompt at the end Undo all sample call operations Create a new question at the end   Prompt and question turns have a different layout. By clicking on the prompt ID (here P004) you can choose a different prompt from the current design. You can also choose "Pnew" which means the prompt is new and not yet part of the design. Pnew will typically be used when you start the design with a sample call. By clicking on the question ID (here Q002) you can choose a different question from the current design. You can also choose "Qnew" which means the question is new and not yet part of the design. Qnew will typically be used when you start the design with a sample call. By clicking on the subtype (here q_init) you can choose between initial prompt, handler, or context help of a question. A question has - other than a prompt - a caller section. This allows you to document the caller's utterance to that question. The subtype (here 'text') can also be 'dtmf' of 'noinput'. If the text of a prompt or question is red instead of the normal black, it differs from the current prompt or question texts in the WOz design. You can change the text in a sample call independantly from the design of prompts and questions. Later, you can synchronize the calls with the design (Edit / Sync Sample Calls).

3.3 Controls

Besides typing any text you like into the respective fields, the following special controls are possible:

<ESC> in texts will be replaced by ASCII 27 for TTS control.

3.4 Audio and Picture File Handling

3.4.1 General Explanation

In text fields with prompts and in the caller utterances of sample calls you can use expressions like [A:<name1>,<name2>,...] for audio files and [P:<name1>,<name2>,<name3>,...] for picture references may be used. Audio files can be played by pressing the play button (if the snack package of Tcl/Tk is installed), all picture files will be shown in the runtime frontend. If you mention more than one file, the files will be offered in a dialogue box for choosing.

If you enclose the file list in {} instead of [], the runtime frontend will randomly choose one of the files automatically.

If a text starts with a [] file name, this is considered the standard audio file name for the prompt. Standard audio file names can easily be added or removed using the dedicated functions in the Edit menu.

One special case is [A:TTS]. If a prompt contains this, TTS mode is switched on no matter whether it has been allowed. Another special symbol in TTS mode is [A:...], meaning that the wizard will be prompted for the string to output via TTS. If you append a string, this will be used as the default string in the text input field. Example: [A:...1-2-3-4] will make "1-2-3-4" appear (selected) in the text field. The actual output after the wizard's input will be logged separately.

In a question, {REPROMPT} will be replaced with the contents of the initial prompt of the question, when you export the design.

3.4.2 Examples

Let's make all that clearer using examples. In the following table WOz's reaction to some prompts is explained. We speak of TTS mode when SAPI TTS is used to play a prompt, record  mode if prerecorded mode is used. TTS mode is used if it is (a) installed and configured properly (see below) and (b) switched on in the Run menu. Currently, the two modes cannot be used together for one prompt.

Many samples are available in the default application "Malibu Hotel Reservation" delivered with WOz.

3.4.3 TTS Configuration

When the admin or the runtime tool is started and the initial setting "common.tts" is set to 1, it checks whether a default SAPI 5.1 voice is available on the computer. If yes, a menu entry "text-to-speech" is enabled. The initial setting "common.tts_on" controls whether TTS is initially switched on (1) or off (0). TTS cannot be interrupted (no barge in)!

3.5 VoiceXML Export Features

3.5.1 BNF to SRGS Grammar Conversion

WOz contains a built-in parser to convert BNFG style grammars into SRGS grammars. The parser is invoked if all of these conditions are true:

1. the project is exported as VoiceXML program,
2. the grammarStrategy switch is bnf_2_srgs,
3. the contents of the grammar is not already in XML format (determined by a leading "<?xml"), and
4. the grammar skeleton file exists

The following syntax rules are applied:

 Here are some examples of valid BNF style grammars:

And here is the created SRGS grammar for the first sample:

In the second sample, <0> and <1> will become ECMA Script tags filling the SWI_meaning value when returning the recognition result. Here's the corresponding code:

3.5.2 Export of VoiceXML Conditions

If the configuration value generateCondition is set to 1 (see here for details), the contents of attributed connections is exported in VoiceXML as a condition for the respective transition. An example: If you attribute the connection from Q001 to P002 with the value "{VALUE:Q001} &lt; 20", and the transition from Q001 to P003 with "{VALUE} &gt; 19", the resulting VoiceXML code will be:

As you can see in the example, quotes like &lt; must be included in the text. {VALUE} is replaced with the value of the question before the transition. This is only done, if the connection comes from a question (since prompts have no value). {VALUE:Qxxx} is replaced with the value of Question Qxxx.

3.5.3 Prompts in VoiceXML

Embededded prompts, as explained above, will be exported to VoiceXML as well, if not reqested otherwise. Both manual prompt choices as [A:prompt1.wav,prompt2.wav] and random prompt choices as {A:prompt1.wav,prompt2.wav} are exported as random prompt choices in VoiceXML (because the wizard has no chance to control the dialog). TTS input's {A:...} are ignored.

The second form of audio prompts are the Default Audio Prompts. These are generated by WOz automatically. There is always one prompt per possible prompt in the dialog states. The following list shows the file names used for these, for one example prompt and question:

Besides the audio prompts, there are Text Prompts, which are used in VoiceXML whenever the associated audio prompt cannot be found by the VoiceXML browser. WOz generates these texts as an alternative for the default audio file of the prompt.

Let's look at an example. If you have the prompt "Your reservation ID is 0-1-1-2-2. [A:hotel/P002.p_prompt.wav] [A:hotel/0.wav] [A:hotel/1.wav] [A:hotel/1.wav,hotel/2.wav] {A:hotel/1.wav,hotel/2.wav} [A:hotel/2.wav] [A:...]", the following VoiceXML code will be rendered, if ttsStrategy is set to "both". See here for details on ttsStrategy.

If ttsStrategy is set to "audio_only", the text ("Your reservation ID is 0-1-1-2-2.") is omitted, if it is "text_only", only the first line is created.

3.5.4 Context Sensitive Help

A context senstive help prompt can be designed for each question using the Context help field of that question (see here). If you want that prompt to be played in VoiceXML after a recognition, you must activate a concept that returns help as result. An example for such a concept is contained in en-US.woz (C003, used in Q001).

3.5.5 VoiceXML Logging Tags

WOz inserts some <log> tags in the generated VoiceXML code to allow debugging and evaluation of an application. E.g., the following information is logged:

3.5.6 Tested VoiceXML Platforms

Currently, the VoiceXML export runs on the German T-Com hosting platform that can be reached via the "Voice Test Center" (http://www.voice-community.de), running Nuance OpenSpeech Recognizer 3.0, Nuance Speechify 2.1, and Genesys GVP:NE 6.5.4.

So the VXML code will work best on this platform. If you have problems running the code on other platforms, pls fix them and send me the fixed VXML code along with name+version of your target platform. Maybe I can add support for other platforms as well.

If you want to check out the en-US demo coming with WOz, feel free to call +49 1805 330320 0031 5. Since this is my test number, there's no access garantee.

3.5.7 INLINE Code

In prompt and question texts you can use {INLINE text} to avoid that text is made XML save by replacing reserved characters. This is very useful if you want to export your design to VoiceXML, and need to include variable values in your prompts. Example:

3.6 GML Exports

GML exports provide a convenient way to produce wallpapers and documentation of your designs in very high quality. The approach is to export your design as a GML file, import that file in a graph layout tool, compute a layout, and proceed from there. I recommend using the yEd tool. It is free, and produces the most impressive graph layout results I have seen so far. You can get more information about it under http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.htm.

Hint: When I produce graphs for my work at Nuance, I perform the following steps:

1. Export a WOZ project to GML, normally including prompt texts (unless you only need an overview)
2. Start yEd, loading the GML file (you can do this directly from WOZ if yED is installed properly)
3. The layout looks messy, because (a) the node size is not yet adapted and (b) the layout coordinates are simply copied from WOZ [screenshot]
4. In yEd, start Tools / Fit Node to Label, uncheck "ingnore widths" if necessary [screenshot 1] [screenshot 2]
5. Start Layout / Hierarchical / Interactive, in the "Labeling" tab choose "Consider Node Labels", "Hierarchic", and "Best" [tab 1] [tab 2] [tab 3] [tab 4]
6. Click OK [screenshot]. You can also see the impressive result as a PDF here.

yEd Screenshots with kind permission from yWorks GmbH, Vor dem Kreuzberg 28, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.

4. The Menu

You find some the menu commands in the (configurable) tool bar as well.

4.1 The File Menu

In the File menu you find the following commands:
 

4.2 The Edit Menu

In the Edit menu you find the following commands:
 

4.3 The View Menu

In the View menu you find the following commands:
 

4.4 The Run Menu

In the Run menu you find the following commands:
 

4.5 The Help Menu

5. The Runtime Module

You can export a WOZ project as a Tcl/Tk program of its own. This program runs without the WOZ frontend itself. It is well suited for sending it to a customer without giving him the possibility to modify the system easily. The export itself is rather simple. Use File / Export / As Tcl/Tk Program or Run / Create Session. The default directory for the export is export under the WOZ folder. Just keep care that the share folder is shipped together with the resulting Tcl program! And: Tcl/Tk must be installed on that target machine as well (see here).

5.1 Usage

The frontend itself is rather simple. In general, the Wizard sees the current prompt or question on the left hand side and can move to follow ups on the right hand side.

On the left hand side, he can also see which concepts should be recognized by him at that point ("recognizable concepts"), and can play and stop prompts. If TTS is switched on (in the Run menu), SAPI TTS is used to play back prompts, otherwise prerecorded files are played. A prompt can only be stopped if Barge-In is allowed.

On the right hand side, the Wizard can restart the application or go back one step (in case of mistakes). Under the follow ups there's are radion buttons to sort the follow-ups, and a graphical overview of the design that may make it easier to navigate. Finally, there's a text input field that the wizard can fill with the caller's answers or other comments. These inputs will be logged.

Please note the following differences to the WOZ editing frontend:
 

If WOZ is fully configured (see the play and stop commands), the Play and Stop buttons replay a prompt (prerecorded from $woz/prompts or via TTS) and stop the replay.

5.2 Logging

During a running WOZ session, the tool logs each dialog step in a <name>.log file in the same directory of the session tcl file itself. So you will find a hotel.log file in export/ containing all dialogue turn of a hotel session. Each action is logged with a timestamp.
 

Since version 1.04 also the actions "play" and "stop" are logged. If you equip your WOz test with sound files, this means that you can follow the dialog flow by looking for "play" logs, and detect barge-in by "stop" logs. Additionally, any message logged with the Log! button is entered here.

5.3 Dialog Logging

Whenever you start a new session in the runtime frontend, along with <name>.log a new file <name>.<timestamp>.log is created. This file contains the current session as a dialog log that can be included into documents easily to illustrate a sample application dialog. The columns (system/caller and prompt) are separated by a tab character. The caller's utterances can be created by pressing the "Log!" button in the runtime frontend, the system's utterances are created automatically.

Since the dialog logging contains the unique dialog objects IDs (P004 and so on) and the context (e.g. p_prompt), they can be updated when the prompts have changed during the system design. You can use the Run / Update Dialog Logfiles menu command in the WOz admin frontend to do this.

Additionally, a dialog log can be used to update the design (File / Import / Design from Sample Call) or to create a Sample Call (File / Import / Sample Call).

6. Data Exchange

6.1 Export Facilities

One of the most important issues in the design phase is the possibility to re-use the data and work you put into that process. Therefore, WOz offers various ways to export data to other formats for further processing. The import facilities are limited. The export commands ask for a filename (phrase, text, Tcl/Tk, xml etc.) or a directory (RTF, sample calls) to write to. See here for questions about the configuration of the export functions.

6.2 Import Facilities

The possibilities to import data from other systems or files are still a bit limited.

7. Configuration

There are two files which can be edited to adjust the system behaviour. The one (resources/text-language.dat) can be edited and renamed to support a different language than English or German. If you ever translate text*.dat to another language, I would be happy if you returned text*.dat to me and allow me to include it in the distribution. The contents of the file should be self-explaining.

The other, resources/woz.ini, contains several settings in the usual Windows INI format. The values are organized in different categories described below. The flags used in the tables below mean:

Since 2.05, a file default.ini is distributed with WOz. This allows you to reuse your woz.ini file from older versions. Simply copy it into the resource folder, replacing the woz.ini from the current distribution.

7.1 [Common]

This category contains all values with a kind of global meaning.

Name	Example	Flag	Meaning
initialProject	./project/hotel.woz	?	This project file will be read directly at startup time. If you continuously work on one project, you should enter it here
textDisplayLength	40	-	With this value you can influence how many of the contents of an object is shown in the list on the left hand side in the admin frontend. Longer texts will be hidden behind ...
audioPrefix	hotel/	X	The prefix used if you initialize question or prompt fields with an audio name. If AudioPrefix is not set at all, no audio file names will be initialized for new objects. AudioPrefix may be empty.
conceptBubbleLength	40	-	Max Length of a bubble help text
colorC colorP colorQ colorO colorP1 colorS colorSwarn	#78ffd2 #ddff78 f#fa850 #9fbfff yellow #ffffcb red	-	Hex <RGB> values or names for the colors used for concepts, prompts, questions, connections, start prompt, sample calls, and sample call warnings respectively. If you modify these values, you might want to change the icons c.gif , p.gif , s.gif , sync.gif and q.gif according to your colors.
tts tts_on	1 1	X	tts controls whether it is tried to use text-to-speech for prompts. If 1, the computer's standard voice will be used if possible (as set in control panel / speech in/output). If tts_on is 1, TTS will initially be active if possible. If tts=0, tts_on will be ignored.

7.2 [Windows], [Unix], [Macintosh]

Each of these categories contains OS specific values. If you execute WOz, the settings for the current OS are used.

7.3 [Files]

Here you can set several values for directory and file handling, as well as choose skeleton files for some export processes.

7.4 [Graphics]

Here, you can configure the graphical display.

Name	Example	Flag	Meaning
canvasDisplayLength	15	-	Max length of text within the objects
connectionDisplayLength	25	-	Max length of connection details displayed in the context menu
conceptDisplayLength	20	-	Max length of concept details displayed in the context menu
sampleCallDisplayLength	20	-	Max length of sample call details displayed in the context menu
gridX gridY	20 20	-	Grid sizes, makes positioning easier. Set to 1 to turn off
boxSizeX headerBoxSizeY boxSizeY	100 20 40	-	Width and heights for the boxes. The header is the part where the object type and name are shown, the rest is the body.
colorHeader colorHeaderFont colorBodyFont fontHeader fontBody	black white black Helvetica 9 bold Helvetica 8	-	Some colors and fonts
connType connSmooth	rectangular 0	-	Controls the layout of connections. Note: the display of connections can be switched off (details). This is best illustrated with some pics:   connType=rectangular connSmooth=0 default connType=direct connSmooth=0 connType=rectangular connSmooth=1 connType=direct connSmooth=1
connColorAttributed connColorNoAttribute connWidth	blue black 2	-	Connection colors and thickness
connFactX1 connFactX2 connFactY1 connFactY2	1 1 1 1	-	Factors for connection proportions in x and y directions. 1/1 means connections are divided 50/50. TZhe factors are used only if the connection type is not direct. Again, a pictures illustrates this better than words. The connections here are drawn with the factors 1,3,1,3.
selfConnFactX1 selfConnFactX2 selfConnFactY1 selfConnFactY2 selfConnDistX selfConnDistY	1 3 3 1 15 15	-	These settings control the layout of connections of an object with itself (P003 in our demo pics). The picture here is draw with the settings 1,1,1,1,30,30.
scOffsetX scOffsetY scPQlength scClength	5 5 70 80	-	These setttings control the look of the sample calls properties window. See here for details.

7.5 [Toolbar]

This section in the INI file allows you to configure the toolbar. You can configure Tool00...Tool05, Tool10...Tool15, and Tool20...Tool25. Between the groups is a small visible space on the screen.

Make sure that a matching GIF file in resource/icons exists and that Cmd is one of these commands:

file,new file,open file,save file,close file,merge file,saveas file,exit file,export file,export,html file,export,phr file,export,ps file,export,rtf file,export,osdm file,export,nuance_rtf file,export,stw file,export,tcl file,export,vdx file,export,xhmi file,export,xml file,export,gif file,export,gml file,export,scall file,export,vxml file,import file,import,txt file,import,scall

edit,compact edit,group edit,opt edit,rename edit,ungroup edit,updlog edit,newaudio edit,remaudio edit,autocalls edit,concept edit,prompt edit,question edit,scall edit,undo edit,undo_all edit,redo edit,redo_all edit,sync

view,refresh view,showconn

run,layout run,tts run,analyze run_sc_analyze run,run run,session

help,about help,log

7.6 [VoiceXML]

This category defines values controlling the VoiceXML export.

7.7 [Exports]

This category contains values for the configuration of exports.

8. FAQ

Q: How can another display language be configured?
A: By default, WOz is configured for English. Another language can be activated only, if a corresponding resource/text-language file exists. You can activate this file by modifying the resource/woz.ini parameter resourceFile. Currently, besides English German is available.

Q: Creating a session fails.
A: The parameter wish in resource/woz.ini must be set correctly for your operating system. Then wish can be started.

Q: How can I start WOz with a different autostart project than hotel.woz?
A: You have two possibilities (besides copying a different project file to the name hotel.woz :-)): You can either modify the initialProject setting under [Common] in resource/woz.ini or pass the file name of your project as parameter to woz.tcl. Under Windows, this can be done in a program link as illustrated here (German Windows):

To start WOz with no project at all, simply remove or comment the parameter initialProject in resource/woz.ini.

Q: What (the hell) is xHMI?
A: xHMI is an XML based application development language invented by Nuance. It aims to become a standard for a higher-level programming of voice applications than VoiceXML. See http://www.nuance.com/xhmi/ for more information.

Q: Why can MS Visio not load my Visio export?
A: Woz does not contain a complete MS Visio skeleton VDX file, because these can easily be 17MB or more. You must provide such a file yourself. The filke coming with WOz illustrates only the possible replacements in a VDX file. You will have to provide a real file and edit this accordingly.

Q: Where are HDDL and SSL exports?
A: They were removed in Version 1.13, since I think noone really used them. Please use version 1.12 if you need them.

Q: Why is my language xy-AB not supported?
A: Because there is no corresponding xy-AB.dat file in resource/languages. If you create one, you can add your language to supportedLanguages in woz.ini and use it. It would be very kind to send that file to me, so I can include it in the next WOz release.

Q: Why are the prompts played only using TTS, and not recorded files?
A: Because TTS is switched on in the Run menu. Switch it off, and files will be played if available.

9. Known Problems

These are the problems I currently know of:

• TTS prompts cannot be interrupted (no barge in)
• File / Merge is currently disabled, it will not work with sample calls
• File / Export / Visio is currently disabled. It should be possible now to export object positions and connections as well

If you desperately need one of these functions, please let me know.

10. Credits

I'd like to thank the UI Design Group of Nuance (former Philips Speech Processing, ScanSoft) and especially Brigitte Giese and Peter Vranken for their superb introduction to the world of Human Factors in Dialogue Systems. If you like to know more of this, I highly recommend the Nuance training courses! Furthermore, I would like to thank Peter again for his most valuable input in various areas of the WOZ tool.. My Nuance colleague Per Gyllensvard was (afaik) the first to make heavy use of WOZ. He gave me a lot of ideas and urged me to fix several glitches :-) My colleagues Klaus Reiter, Klaus Allwicher, and Joe Brachoki helped me improve the usability and functionality of WOz. Last but not least Jamal Borno and Alexander Huggings allowed me to support Arabic and French.

More thanks go to Stewart Allen for his Tcl/Tk GUI Builder VisualTcl and Frank Pilhofer for his YETI package.

Finally I would like to thank my wife Marita for her patience during all those hours when I sat there with my notebook, especially in my holidays.

Appendix: Version 1 Change History