Can't edit dictionary.voice inside voice.zip without corrupt

Hi everyone,

I followed Yurbuh Tuggly's instructions on
http://www.navitotal.com/showthread.php?6958-Complete-Nuance-Primo-1.2-TTS-Pro-dictionary.voice-file-for-Driver-Alerts
and I'm somewhat desperate: When ever I touch a dictionary.voice file inside the voice.zip (not unzipping it, working inside the zip with 7-Zip), I loose the TTS Pro features in Primo 1.2 with the Dimka 1.3.8 skin. It starts that every command in the dictionary.voice file has a square at the end when viewed with Notepad while the commands are displayed line by line without square when viewed in Wordpad. It seems that this is UNIX format (linefeed only, no carriage return) so I use an editor capable of saving in UNIX format. But that doesn't help. When ever I add a line or several lines to the dictionary.voice and update the zip file, it won't work with the TTS Pro features any more. Once I copy the original voice.zip back to the GPS device, it works again. I tried this on two computers (one with Win XP, the other one with Win 7): Same result/ behaviour on both machines.

I'd really like to put a German TTS Pro dictionary.voice together, but it seems useless before I'm sure that Primo accepts my dictionary.voice.

How did you handle that? Any tips?

Many thanks in advance!

fu_zhou

Try using WinRar instead of 7-Zip, and don't ever use Wordpad or any other "word processor" to open/edit the dictionary.voice file within the (voice).zip.
You must edit with a plain text editor that adds no formatting or anything else to the file. Notepad works for this. Also be sure you do not change anything to the left of the "=" in the file. Only the command/lines to the right may be changed, and must remain in quotes.

FYI, you can use "Textpad." Google is your friend here.

Thanks so far for your help, but I don't get it working. Here's what I see (installed WinRAR and TextPad):
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If I view the dictionary.voice with the Windows-internal Notepad it shows two weired characters in front of [word]:ÿþ, and there is a space after every single letter

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When opening the dictionary.voice in Textpad, spacing and weired characters in front of [word] are gone.

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Having edited the file and having updated the archive (all inside WinRAR, never unzipped), viewing the dictionary.voice with Windows-internal Notepad, the spacing is still there, but the weired characters in front of [word] are gone now. That seems to cause the trouble, but I have no clue how to work around...

Don't really know what to tell you, my friend, except that many dozens of people (including myself) have edited the dictionary.voice file many dozens of times successfully using just WinRar and Windows Notepad (from within Winrar and choosing Windows Notepad as the app to open the file in).

Can you post the voice you're having trouble with so we can try..?

When you try to edit a voice file, you break the format unless you place the edit at the beginning of the file. If you try to place the edit anywhere else, you lose the voice. From my experience.

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Here's the modified ZIP archive - no surprise, it doesn't provide TTS Support any more. I added the row
You can increase speed.= "You can increase the speed."
at the end. Worked inside the ZIP File with a plain text editor.

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And that's the original with working TTS Pro

Strange enough: The dictionary.voice inside the archive grew by a couple of bytes (of course adding a line) but the Zip file is a little smaller...

When i first edited mine i dragged dictionary.voice out of the WinRAR window into Notepad and deleted everything, Then copied all the text from Yurbuh Tuggly's post here into Notepad (dictionary.voice) and edited that to suit my requirements, rather than edit the original.

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I opened Notepad first and then I dragged the dictionary.voice to Notepad. It looks like the picture above: Not one line per command, all commands are displayed as continuous text.

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Then I replace the commands with the ones found here and every command has its dedicated line.

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I save the file as dictionary.voice, drag it back into the zip file, replacing the original one. The sanity checks look like above: No contionous text, one line per command and the TTS Pro features are gone.

I get mad....

Would it be possible that I put together a translation for a German TTS Pro voice and someone here incorporates that into the voice.zip to make it work, as it seems as this is out of my skills?

That brings me to another question: Is it possible to download or generate a German lang.zip for the dimka 1.3.8 skin?

fu_zhou wrote:Would it be possible that I put together a translation for a German TTS Pro voice and someone here incorporates that into the voice.zip to make it work

Post your (translated) dictionary.voice file (just the contents of the file), and I will do that for you.
Specify which German voice(s) you want it done for.

fu_zhou wrote:That brings me to another question: Is it possible to download or generate a German lang.zip for the dimka 1.3.8 skin?

You may have to check with the people who work on the skin for that.

@Yurbuh Tuggly: Will do, thanks in advance!!!

I'm currently using and want to keep on using your US and German TTS Pro file from
http://www.navitotal.com/showthread.php?6962-iGO-Primo-1.2-Nuance-TTS-Pro-Voices

I found out that
Traffic jam*ended.
You can increase speed.
Limit% s
Quick~Home
Quick~Work
Quick~Third favourite
Quick~Fourth favourite
Fixed station
are missing in the US voice, so I will also extend the US dictionary.voice

There are 3 US English voices...which did you want 'fixed'...or all 3?
And, when you post the German translated dictionary.voice text (which I am assuming is what you want to do?), there are 2 German voices..which do you want?

Please use Samantha (TTS v5) v172646 and Steffi (TTS v5) v172646 with:
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Since the dictionary.voice seems to be the same for each voice, you can also fix all 5 of them (2x German, 3x US)

Thanks in advance and feel free to use the files for your next update.

OK, I will get on that shortly and post the results here.
One other consideration:
Since the US English voices are optimized by default for America, they sometimes do not pronounce "Meters" correctly for all TTS features.
I have, and can include for you if you intend to use the voices in Europe (or any Metric-Centric place), modified some elements to include the components from UK voices to correct this small inaccuracy.

For example (unmodified US Voice):
"After [color=#FF0000]200 M[/color], speed camera. 50 kilometers per hour."
(modified US Voice):
"After [color=#FF0000]200 meters[/color], speed camera. 50 kilometers per hour."

In other words, the unmodified US voices may say "em" instead of "meters" in some situations.
If you want these corrections also, post here ASAP. Otherwise I will not include them.
These corrections, if applied, may make the voices unsuitable for American roads, however.