Re: windows to Macintosh collaborative writing problem

Hei ESJ

esj wrote:
I'm sending content to my editor and I need a way of being able to see
his changes and then decide what to include or argue about. I'm a
handicapped NaturallySpeaking (speech-recognition) user on Windows
He's on a Mac.

Which type of speech software do you use on your Windows - Jaws for Windows, InfoVox or Apollo?

here is what hasn't worked:

Microsoft Word. for about seven years, I broke every single release of
word within about a week of use. I really resent Microsoft's
philosophy, quality, and customer hostile attitude and I will not spend
any more money than I actually have to with that company. I use open
office if I have a choice.

Hm, for the moment I don't use OpenOffice, - instead I'm using NeoOffice, which is a similar OS X native edition of the OpenOffice suite. I also have the MSWord X 10.1.x (Office 2003 on Windows), and this piece of software is not speech compatible neither on Mac nor on Windows. If you're using Jaws for Windows, you can have it set up to recognize Word 2003 speak-only, but it's not possible to use it in the mode 'speak as you type'.

open office: Works great if you run Windows or Linux. On the Mac, my
editor reports serious instability, performance problems, display
problems and usually triggers a removal within five minutes of starting
open office

If he wants to use an OpenOffice version, the most stable - and fastest - on Mac OS X is the ver. 1.1.4. There are lots of problems with the ver.2.x, - it's really buggy and very slow, so if your writing works are of more than 10-12 pages, it easily crashes OpenOffice 2.x.

Instead of OpenOffice, he should download and install NeoOffice 2.0a3 for PowerPC macs or 2.0a2 for Intel Macs. NeoOffice is 100% compatible with OpenOffice, but by using NeoOffice he'll avoid the use of the X11 'Unix engine' on his Mac.
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/download.php
Direct download link to NeoOffice 2.0a3 PPC
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/mirrors.php?file=NeoOffice-2.0_Alpha_3-PowerPC.dmg

I presume that both of you use English as your native language, - else there are different language packages on the same pages for a lot of languages. just use the first link and select 'Languages', if needed.

Hm, It's too long ago, since I've been using a speech recognition on a Windows machine, but if I'm not all too wrong, Jaws for Windows is able to differ between inserted changes, if inserted/changed text is in cursiva/italics. (I'm visually handicapped myself, but only needs enlargement systems until now, but my now passed away fiancee used speech recognition on her Windows machine. She was totally blind).

abiword: it works fine as an editor if you use the right version.
Doesn't show differences between two separate documents and does not
allow you to import changes.

No, neither on Mac, so this is no solution. I've just been testing the latest ver. of Abiword 2.4.4 for Mac...

Emacs/VI: total nonstarter. Paragraph justification ruins your ability
to detect and import changes.

Doesn't work good on Macs either.

open office <-> Microsoft Word. Kind of works.but when you import a
Microsoft Word document and compare it to an open office document, you
are told that everything changed.

If this should work, you both must use MSWord - your editor must have the Office 2004 and you the Office 2003, and both must be setup in the prefs file to show changed text. This is easy to do in both versions. Changed text is just shown in a differnt color - fx. read instead of black. Changed text can also be shwon in both italic and bold. - And again - Jaws can differ here...

So, I would appreciate any suggestions about how to interoperate at
what should be a really basic level. I just want to write and I want
to get editor feedback. Suggestions would be much appreciated.

I think the best solution will be that your editor switches to NeoOffice, or both of you are using the latest OS X/Windows version of Word. There are as far as I know no incompatibility between Word 2003/windows and Word 2004/Mac

A quite another solution might be that you yourself is switching to WordPerfect and your editor to NeoOffice, and that both of yu use the RTF file format. WordPerfect is still the best textprocessor for handicapped people and it's fully compatible with nearly all types of speech recognition software. And WP also supports speeking of changed text - either color and/or in style.

Or you might go quite another way round by getting a special file comparison tool like the:

"File Compare & Folder Synchronization Software 6.0
compare, merge, sync two file folders from any computer" (for Windows. It's $20USd shareware)
http://www.sobolsoft.com/filecompare/

"zsCompare 3.02
file/folder comparison & sync utility" (Mac OS X, $25USd ahreware, normally $35USd)
Extract from the webpage:
"ZsCompare allows you to perform line by line comparisons of text files, Microsoft Word documents, and PDF documents, and then merge the files to include only the changes you want. Using predefined options for common comparisons, zsCompare provides additional control over how the comparison is performed. Also, zsCompare permits direct editing of the contents of a file from the results."
http://www.zizasoft.com/products/zsCompare/index.shtml?src=vta

"The 'File Compare & Folder Synchronization Software' and 'zsCompare' work in similar ways, but you then need always to save either in RTF or .doc files.

Hm, it's the best that I can comu up with right now...
cheers, Erik Richard

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KMLDenmark by Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC
<kmldenmark_NOSP@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Music Recording, Editing & Publishing - Also Smaller Quantities
*Software - For Theological Education - And For Physically Impaired
*Nisus - The Future in Text & Mail Processing <http://www.nisus.com>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Where are all the glowing posts?
    ... Mail is very simple and fairly minimal sort of mail client, ... If you have a good site with a Flash I will test on Mac and Windows... ... Windows in virtualization. ... that is why I say compare similar machines... ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Someone Surveyed Maccies
    ... Compare, for instance: ... single clear answer to that "What desktop software do I use?" ... The same sort of logic applies to the iPhone and the Mac, ... of that functionality is available on Windows. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Review of Vista Speech Recognition september 3, 2009
    ... The Infovox has been known way back from the DOS days, and along with 'Jaws for windows' been the two most used speech synthesis systems since 1988/89 - Jaws for windows from windows 3.x. ... There is at least one very distinct voice for each language - mostly two - both a male and a female voice. ... The really strange here is that the Windows speech system also are using the acapella voices, but the same voice on a Mac sounds very different towards the same voice used on windows. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.system)
  • Re: Maccie To Maccie - What You Need
    ... >>> with a Mac versus with a PC? ... >then you are reduced to core operating system, which would then compare, say, ... >a boxed retail version of Windows to a boxed retail Tiger. ... first Earth Day featured alarms about the danger of a ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Photoshop CS Performance
    ... > performance issues are there while running Photoshop CS for Windows? ... > How does this compare with running Photoshop CS for Mac on the G5? ... MUCH faster than on Windows on the very same machine! ... there was a comparable product for running Windows programs on the Mac ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.virtualpc)