Creative TextAssist DDE Server

Developers' Corner - Programmer's Handbook

Creative TextAssist DDE Server

Creative has made intense effort in providing many features in the TextAssist software. A comprehensive set of APIs is also available for developers to add text-to-speech capabilities into their applications. Now, let us look into how to incorporate the power of TextAssist into the existing applications.

There are three defined methods of inter-application communication for Windows. They are Dynamic Data Exchange(DDE), shared data segment of the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) and the Windows Clipboard. The selection of the most appropriate mechanism will depend on your requirements and the capabilities of your programming environment. The Text Reader that is being bundled with the TextAssist software package uses the Windows Clipboard. Therefore, it will offer a wider choice to the developers if we have the TextAssist DDE server.

DDE is supported widely by applications such as Excel, Lotus 123, Access, etc. It is a message-based protocol that enables two applications to communicate and exchange data with each other. Client applications will initiate the conversation with the TextAssist DDE Server by specifying the server application name and topic. After establishing the link, the client can send the data to the server by using the Poke command and end the link by using the Terminate command.

Below is an example of the macro for Microsoft Excel. One use would be to calculate a series of numbers and pronounce the result using TextAssist via DDE Link.

The advantage to having the TextAssist DDE Server is to add the power of Text-to-Speech capabilities to the existing applications that support DDE.

You can download the TextAssist DDE Server here.