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Using the Microsoft Agent Character Editor

ActiveX™ Technology for Interactive Software Agents

Last updated: August 1997

Microsoft Corporation

Note: This document describes the Microsoft Agent Character Editor for Microsoft Agent, which

you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/agent/agentdl.htm.

Note: This document is provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no

warranties, either expressed or implied, in this document. The entire risk of the use or the

results of this document remains with the user.

document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other

intellectual property rights. Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows

logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or

other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks

of their respective owners.

Contents

Introduction

Installing the Agent Character Editor

Starting the Agent Character Editor

Defining a New Character

information about designing a character's animation, see Designing Characters for Microsoft

Agent.

With the Agent Character Editor you can define the character's name and description as well as

output options, including text-to-speech (TTS), synthesized voice output, pop-up menu support,

and the character's word balloon design.

Installing the Agent Character Editor

To install the Microsoft Agent Character Editor, open its self-extracting cabinet file. This will

automatically install the appropriate files on your system. If you are downloading the Agent

Character Editor from the Microsoft Web site, the downloading software gives you the option to

save the file and open it or open it automatically as soon as the download completes.

vendor to confirm their support for Microsoft Agent and for information on their licensing

provisions for use and redistribution.

Starting the Agent Character Editor

To run the Agent Character Editor, choose the Agent Character Editor option from the Windows

Taskbar's Start menu, or double-click the Microsoft Agent Character Editor icon on your

desktop. The Editor's window will open, displaying its menus, a toolbar with frequently used

commands, a tree listing the components that make up a character's definition, and a set of

tabbed pages that change based on your selection in the component tree.

Figure 1. Microsoft Agent Character Editor window

and status information when you build a character.

Defining a New Character

To define a new character, run the Agent Character Editor. If you have an existing character file

loaded, choose the New command from the File menu or the New button on the toolbar. This

action selects the Character icon in the tree and displays its property pages on the right side of

the window. The following sections describe how to set your character's properties and how to

create animations for the character.

Setting Your Character's Properties

To begin defining a character, provide the character's name by entering it in the Name text box

(32 characters maximum). Because Microsoft Agent uses the name to allow users to access

synthesized voice, check the Use Synthesized Speech For Voice Output option. This will add a

Voice page for selecting the characteristics of the voice. Choose the Voice page and use the

controls on it page to select a voice, speed, and pitch of any compatible TTS engines you have

installed. The range of the voice parameters you can select depends on TTS engines. If you

have not yet installed a TTS engine, the Voice ID list will be empty. You must have a TTS

engine installed before you define your character's voice settings in the Agent Character Editor.

If you plan to use a TTS engine for your character's output, you must also install that engine on

the user's system. For more information on how to install the Lernout & Hauspie® TruVoice

engine on a user's system from a Web script, see Programming The Microsoft Agent Control. If

you are using another TTS engine, check with the vendor for appropriate installation

The Use Word Balloon on the character's Properties page enables you to determine whether

you want to support this feature for your character. Once defined, it cannot be changed through

the Microsoft Agent programming interface.

When the Use Word Balloon option is checked, you can access the Word Balloon page. The

options on the Word Balloon page enable you to change the default characteristics of your

word balloon. The Characters Per Line setting enables you to define the width of the balloon

based on the average number of characters per line. You can set the default height based on

either a fixed number of lines you want to display at once or automatically sized to the text you

supply in the Speak method. You can also set whether the balloon automatically hides after a

Speak method is completed and whether the balloon automatically displays or “paces” words to

new identifier for your character. You need to change a character's identifier only if you copied

the character definition file of another character or if you intentionally want to differentiate a

character from a former version. To change a character's identifier, click the New GUID button

and the Editor will generate a new identifier.

Creating Animations

To begin creating animations for your character, select the Animations icon in the tree. This

displays the Properties page with the default settings for all animations. You can alter the frame

size, the default frame duration, and color palette settings on the Properties page. The

fit default display size. If you change the default frame setting, you can display the frame’s full,

non-scaled size by choosing Open Frame Window from the Edit menu.

can change these settings using the buttons in the Palette Information group. Your character's

color palette must not remap the standard system colors. The Editor will automatically reserve

Once you have determined your global animation settings, you can begin creating animations.

To create a new animation, choose New Animation from the Edit menu or the New Animation

button on the toolbar. This adds a new animation icon in the tree under the Animations icon and

assigns the new icon a default name. You can rename your animation by typing in the

Animation Name field. Note that animation names within a character definition must be unique.

Also, avoid using characters in the name that are not valid characters for filenames.

controls that enable you to load and adjust an image for your frame. It also includes a display

area for the frame's appearance.

Figure 2: The Frame Image display and controls

A frame can contain one or more images. To define an image for a frame, click the Add Image