Chapter 6
Voice Communications

When used with a modem that supports voice features, MacComCenter Plus provides complete voice messaging functions. At its most basic level, MacComCenter Plus acts as an answering machine or voice mailbox, allowing you to receive voice messages when you are away from your phone. You can review, delete or forward messages remotely from any touch tone phone.

MacComCenter Plus allows you to create multiple mailboxes to help separate calls into a more organized format. For example, you could create a business mailbox and a personal mailbox, or create separate mailboxes for each family member. You can assign various features to each mailbox. This chapter describes the voice mailbox setup options available with MacComCenter Plus.

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Voice setup

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Sound Configuration

• Use the Record From and Play Thru options to specify the default devices which will be used to perform these actions. You can also temporarily change these settings from the Voice menu (on the menu bar).
• Enable Call Screening if you wish to listen to your callers message after MacComCenter Plus answers the line.
• Set the Speaker Volume and Audio Playback Gain using the provided fields. Speaker volume is used to set configure how loud the Macintosh or modem speaker will be when playing audio. Audio playback gain is used to specify how much the amplitude (volume) of recorded messages will be increased.
• The Use Script popup menu allows you to specify the script which will be used to process incoming calls. See Chapter 7 for further information on voice script files.

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Adding and Configuring Mailboxes

Fill in the fields to configure the new mailbox. If you leave the Mailbox ID blank, the system will assign the next available ID. If you are using voice messaging, you should assign the mailbox ID's based on the maximum number of users (mailboxes) you will create: For less then ten mailboxes, assign ID's 1 through 9. For less then 100 mailboxes assign ID's 10 through 99. For less then 1000 mailboxes assign ID's 100 through 999. Leading 0's are not used, so ID 03 is the same as 3.

You can also assign a password to the mailbox if you desire. Passwords prevent other users from reading your mail and using your Locale definitions. They are also used for remote message retrieval if voice messaging is enabled.

Each mailbox provides an Inbox to display received files and an Outbox to display files waiting to be sent. Additional folders can be added to a mailbox using the Add Folder command in the Mailbox menu. These folders can be used to archive messages you wish to save.

The Voice Options tab allows you to select or record the greeting message which will be played when the mailbox is either selected by a caller (by entering tones on his/her keypad) or selected via Caller ID matching. This allows each user to have their own personal greeting played to callers who are routed to their mailbox. To record a new message, enable Outgoing Message Recording and then click New. The Voice Options tab appears as follows:

MacComCenter Plus allows you to automatically forward received faxes and voice messages to any phone number you specify. These options are configured from the tabs shown below the Last Name field.

To automatically forward received faxes, use the drop-down list to select the minimum length of time a message must reside on your system before it is forwarded. Next, in the Number field enter the telephone number of the device to which the fax will be forwarded. This phone number is 'dialed as entered' and must contain any outside line or long distance codes needed to complete the call.

Received voice messages can also be forwarded. Click on the Message Forwarding tab to access this option. A dialog similar to the one below will appear:

Select when you would like MacComCenter Plus to forward your voice messages from the provided popup menu. Enter the phone number MacComCenter Plus will dial in the Number field. This phone number is 'dialed as entered' and must contain any outside line or long distance codes needed to complete the call. You can also specify the expected type of response your modem will receive. The available options are Person, Beeper, or Answering Machine.

• If you specify Person, and have a mailbox password, then you must create a Forward Password Recording which the Macintosh will play to prompt the person answering the phone to enter the mailbox password on their phone's keypad. No messages will be forwarded until the correct password is recognized by MacComCenter Plus.
  An example message might be: 'Hello. This is John Smith's Macintosh calling. Please ask John to come to the phone'. Once John hears the recording, he can enter his mailbox password to allow the Mac to play the forwarded message.

• If you specify Beeper, then MacComCenter Plus will dial the number and then hang up. The phone number should contain the required beeper codes and ID's to allow the beeper notification to complete. Use commas in the dial string to adjust the timing for entering the beeper ID code. Once you receive notification on your beeper, You can use remote message retrieval to listen to your messages.
• If you specify Answering Machine, MacComCenter Plus will dial the phone number and then replay the recorded messages, one after the other. You can use commas in the dial string to adjust the timing of the dial operation so that the messages will play when the answering machine is ready.

When you have configured all of the options to your satisfaction, click OK.

Playing messages

To find out further information on received voice files, highlight the desired voice file and press the Info button. The dialog shown below will appear.

The Caller text box in the Message Info dialog may be edited by the user as a means of identifying the person who left the voice message. The text the user enters will be automatically matched to records in the phonebook. If a match is found the text will be inserted into the text box. The descriptive name and will appear in the MessageCenter tab item list when the message is listed.

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Changing messages

1. Ensure that the desired recording device is selected for use. This selection is available using the Record From option under the Voice menu.
2. To record a new voice file, select New Recording from the Voice menu. To edit an existing voice file, select Edit Recording and double-click on the desired file in the resulting dialog box. The Recording Studio dialog will appear:

1. Press Record to record a new message, or Play to review the file (if you are editing or reviewing an existing file).
2. If you choose to record a new message, a beep will be played to notify you that it is ready to begin recording your new message. Begin speaking your new message. When finished click on the Stop button to stop recording. You can then play back your message or re-record the message if desired.
3. After completing the new message, select Save to save the outgoing message. Cancel will discard the current recording and return you to the previous dialog.

You can fast forward through a recording with the FF button, or fast rewind with the Rew button. Note that the Rew and FF buttons will only be enabled if your message is over four seconds long and you are playing the audio via your Macintosh's speaker.

The Revert button reverts a file which has been modified back to the last saved version.

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Editing Voice Files

The recordings are visually displayed in the form of audio waveforms and statistics about the recording are provided. Users can Zoom the waveforms in or out by clicking on the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons located to the left of the horizontal scrollbar.

There are three levels of granularity for the waveform display - 7:1, 4:1, and 1:1.

Recordings can be edited by deleting or inserting audio samples into the waveform display. Cut, Copy and Paste operations are supported for moving audio clips into and out of the waveform.

Audio is deleted by selecting samples from the waveform display and pressing the Delete key on the keyboard or selecting Cut from the Edit menu.

Audio is inserted into the recording by selecting samples from the waveform display by choosing Copy or Cut from the Edit menu and then choosing an insertion point and selecting Paste from the Edit menu.

You can amplify your recording by using the Increase Audio popup menu. This will amplify a portion of the waveform if a selection was previously made, or amplify the whole waveform if no selection is highlighted.

Recordings may also be imported or exported using the Import and Export buttons. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), Macintosh Sound Resources, SoundEdit and Smith Micro sound files are supported for importing.

After editing is completed, select Save to save the outgoing message. Recordings may be saved under a new name by selecting SaveAs.

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Voice memos

1. Select New Memo For from the Mailbox menu. The Send Voice Memo dialog appears:

1. Use the Memo Destination Mailbox popup menu to select the destination mailbox for the voice memo.
2. Press Record to begin recording a new memo.
3. A beep will be played to notify you that it is ready to begin recording a new memo. Begin speaking after the beep. When finished, click on Stop to stop recording. You can then play back your memo or re-record the memo if desired.
4. After completing the new memo, select Save to save the outgoing memo. Cancel will discard the current recording and return you to the previous dialog.
   

The Revert button reverts a file which has been modified back to the last saved version.

When you are finished recording your memo, press Send to save the memo and place it in the selected mailbox.

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Remote operation

MacComCenter Plus also lets you check your messages when you're away from the computer! From a touch-tone phone, dial your phone number. You will hear the standard greeting message. Anytime during this message, press * - ⁷ on the telephone keypad. You will hear a new recording play which will request or you to enter your mailbox ID. If the mailbox is password protected another recording will prompt you for the password as well.

Once you are connected to your mailbox, MacComCenter Plus will play all messages which are not archived. Archived messages are messages which you have previously listened to and have specifically been marked as such. After each message, you will hear a single beep tone. After the beep, you can enter one of the following command codes on the telephone keypad:

1 - Replay the current message.

3 - Delete the current message.

5 - Archive the current message.

7 - Play all messages from the beginning.

If you do not enter a valid command code, the message will remain on the active list and will replay the next time you retrieve your messages.

MacComCenter Plus will now continue with the next available message. When all messages have been replayed, you will hear two consecutive beep tones, indicating that the Remote Message Retrieval session is complete.