Prompts are text that a voice-only application speaks to the user. Prompts serve a number of functions in an application.

• Ask the user a question. For example, "From which city do you wish to depart?"
• Greet the user. For example, "How may I help you?"
• Provide information to the user. For example, "This flight serves dinner."
• Direct the user to take specific action. For example, "Press three on your telephone keypad."

Prompts are the only interface that a voice-only application has with the user. Multimodal applications do not use prompts, because they interact with the user using on-screen text and controls.

Prompt Elements in a Voice-only Application

Each prompt project contains one or more prompt databases. A prompt database contains all the audio and data that define the application's prompts. A voice-only application solution contains references to one or more prompt databases:

• Transcriptions that contain the words to be spoken by the application
• Audio recordings of transcription text
• Alignment data that define where words start and end within recorded audio
• Extraction data that enables an application to form new sentences by mixing and matching parts of recorded audio

Prompt Tools

Speech Prompt Editor, included in the Microsoft Speech Application SDK Version 1.1 (SASDK), provides an interface for creating prompts. Use Speech Prompt Editor to create and maintain every aspect of a prompt database:

• Create transcriptions
• Record audio data for each transcription
• Edit audio data
• Create extractions
• Tune word alignments

Prompt functions contain JScript code that allows an application to generate dynamic prompts at run time. Use Prompt Function Editor to create and edit prompt functions.

For More Information

See Also

Creating Prompts | Prompts