OFF98: File Name Spelled Out When Assistant Speaks Alert Text

• Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

If you are using the Office Assistant to speak alert text, the Office Assistant may spell out the name of the file that appears in an alert message letter by letter. For example, instead of speaking the following

   Do you want to save the changes you made to Workbook1?

   Do you want to save the changes you made to W-o-r-k-b-o-o-k-one-
   apostrophe?

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

• You specify that you want the Office Assistant to speak alert text. To do this, follow these steps:

      1. Click the Office Assistant. In the assistant balloon, click
         Options.
  

      2. Click the Options tab.
  

      3. Click to select the Speak Alert Text check box. Then, click OK.
  

  -and-

• The name of the active file does not contain any spaces or the name contains words that are not recognized by the speech system, for example:

        Workbook1
        Document1
  

  -and-

• You perform an action that causes the program to display an alert message that contains the name of the file. For example, you click Close on the File menu immediately after you change the file.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, change the name of the file so that it includes a space (for example, "Workbook 1" or "Document 1"). After you rename the file, the file name is spoken correctly when the program displays an alert message that includes the file name.

Note that words that are not recognized by the speech system are spelled out.

STATUS

This behavior is by design of the programs listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The Office Assistant in Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition includes an option that allows each program to speak alert messages. This option is available only if your Macintosh computer is running Mac OS 8.0 (System 8.0) or later.

The speech system is designed to pronounce only the word it recognizes; it cannot pronounce words that it does not recognize. When the speech system encounters a word it does not recognize, it spells out the words, including any punctuation that is associated with them.