Copyright: WinCECILv2.1b ® SIL 1994-5


Main Index

Introduction

How to use WinCECIL help

Overviews

Toolbar buttons

Viewing mode

Files menu

Edit menu

Display menu

Settings menu

View menu

Error messages

Warning messages

Changes from DOS CECIL v2.1

New features in WinCECIL v2.1a and v2.1b

System setup


Introduction

WinCECIL is a speech analysis system produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). It provides facilities to record, analyse, save to disk and replay short sections of speech. WinCECIL requires a 20MHz 80386 computer or better running Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher. It also requires a Windows Multimedia-compatible audio card. WinCECIL is functionally equivalent to DOS CECILv2.1 which uses the SIL speech analysis box.

New users are advised to become familiar with the printed documentation before attempting to use the program. Existing CECIL users are advised to familiarise themselves with How to use WinCECIL help, Overviews and Changes from DOS CECILv2.1 before proceeding. Basic terminology is detailed in the Screen layout overview.

WinCECIL (and CECIL) uses a proprietary format for storing speech data; conversion of these files (which have the .UTT extension) to and from .WAV format may be achieved using the SIL AudioCon program.


Overviews

Screen layout

Utterances

Viewing with the keyboard

Viewing with the mouse

Menus

Frequency graph calculation

Replaying utterance data

Snapshots

Status line

Configuration files

Phonetic characters


Toolbar buttons

The toolbar buttons invoke menu commands as follows. Moving the mouse cursor over a toolbar button causes the command associated with the button to be displayed in the status line.

Main help index

Record utterance

Open utterance

Save utterance

Print

List utterances

Select new screen

Composite frame

Frequency graph derivation

Modify transcription

The above are the toolbar button equivalents of function keys F2 to F10, see replaying utterance data.


Viewing mode

The keys listed below are available to you when a flashing inverted triangle is shown at the top of one of the frames. If a flashing chevron is shown instead in a frame showing a spectrum you are querying the spectrum and can return to normal mode by pressing the ESCAPE key.

Moving the frame cursor

LEFTARROW	Cursor left

RIGHTARROW	Cursor right

CTRL+LEFTARROW	Cursor left adjust

CTRL+RIGHTARROW	Cursor right adjust

TAB	Transcription next

SHIFT+TAB	Transcription previous

CTRL+ENTER	Cursor jump

UPARROW	Previous frame

DOWNARROW	Next frame

Changing the active window

HOME	Set window left

END	Set window right

CTRL+HOME	Shift window left

CTRL+END	Shift window right

ENTER	Centre window

PGUP	Expand window

PGDN	Contract window

CTRL+PGUP	Full window

CTRL+PGDN	Closeup window

CTRL+Z	Zoom data frame

CTRL+B	Backoff data frame

CTRL+E	Equalise utterance scaling

Modifying the transcription

BACKSPACE	Delete left

DELETE	Delete right

INSERT	Modify transcription

Snapshots and the second cursor

CTRL+2	Set 2nd cursor

CTRL+U	Unset 2nd cursor

CTRL+D	Display selected data

CTRL+A	Analyse selected data

CTRL+W	Write selected data

CTRL+T	Toggle current snapshot

CTRL+V	Toggle video spectrum

CTRL+Q	Query spectrum


Error messages

#001:	Not a WinCECIL utterance file

#002:	Not a WinCECIL configuration file

#003:	Can't find file <filename>

#004:	Can't open file <filename>

#005:	Error while reading file <filename>

#006:	Error while writing file <filename>

#007:	Unexpected end of file while reading <filename>

#008:	Disk full while writing file <filename>

#009:	Empty, invalid or inappropriately combined frame(s)

#010:	No suitable printer available

#011:	Utterance(s) locked

#012:	Utterance <a> is locked

#013:	Utterance <a> is empty

#014:	No room for more characters

#015:	No data to rescale to

#016:	No data to copy

#017:	Calculation abandoned

#018:	No suitable audio output device found

#019:	No suitable audio input device found

#020:	Insufficient memory

#021:	Fatal error in <module/routine> - report to ICS at JAARS

#022:	Malformed, missing or invalid text number at line <n> in WINCECIL.TXT

#023:	No more room for user-defined text from WINCECIL.TXT at line <n>

#024:	Selected region too small

#025:	Selected region too large

#026:	Secondary cursor not set

#027:	Spectrogram already appended

#028:	No file-based spectra

#029:	Clipboard empty or data unsuitable

#030:	Inappropriate data for filtering


Warning messages

This will overwrite the existing file

The spectrogram cannot be written to disk with the utterance data

This will end your WinCECIL session

Data samples were missed during this recording


Changes from DOS CECIL v2.1

DOS CECIL users are advised to familiarise themselves with the Overviews pages. The changes are outlined below:

Command-line arguments may no longer be supplied. '-convert' and '-deconvert' batch processing is not supported and you wil need to use DOS CECILv2.1 for this functionality.

The menu structure has been much simplified, individual menu options now appearing grouped within dialogs invoked from the menus. Any menu command ending with ... opens a dialog box. CTRL+KEY combinations are used as hotkeys.

Utterance recording and replay requires a Windows Multimedia-compatible audio card. All recording is done at the standard Windows frequencies of 11025 and 22050 Hz, but utterances recorded at any sampling frequency can be replayed.

Utterance files are fully compatible with DOS CECIL, but configuration (.CFG) and program text (.TXT) files are not interchangeable.

Help uses the standard Windows help system but is similar to DOS CECIL in that context-sensitive help on the F1 function key is supported (see How to use WinCECIL help).

The WinCECIL display window is fully resizable and certain calculated results data may be shown in colour (see Settings/General program settings). Composite frame and printing have been considerably enhanced.

The mouse may be used in viewing mode as an alternative or in addition to the normal viewing mode keys (see Viewing with the mouse). Toolbar buttons may also be displayed to allow shortcut command invocation by clicking on them with the mouse.

All transcription is now added using the View/Modify transcription menu option rather than directly from viewing mode.


New features in WinCECIL v2.1a and v2.1b
New features in WinCECIL v2.1a

The main change in v2.1a is the addition of highpass filtering of waveforms to remove unwanted low frequencies. This has been considered necessary because of deficiencies in most Windows-compatible sound cards compared with the SIL 'bluebox' used by DOS CECIL. An option in the Files/Record utterance dialog controls whether new utterance recordings are filtered or not. A new menu option Edit/Copy & filter utterance permits unfiltered utterances to be filtered.

The term Loudness has been replaced by Magnitude (see note at foot of Screen layout overview).

Two bugs have been fixed (see WINBUGS.WRI for details).

New features in WinCECIL v2.1b

The handling of non-IPA characters in utterance transcriptions has been improved (see Phonetic characters overview and also Modify transcription).

Two further bugs have been fixed (see WINBUGS.WRI).


System setup

WinCECIL requires the following to run successfully:

*	A 20MHz 80386 or better running Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher. A mouse is strongly recommended and is necessary to use the full available functionality.

*	The executable file WINCECIL.EXE.

*	The help file WINCECIL.HLP (in the same directory as WINCECIL.EXE if it is to be accessed from the program). If you have the Microsoft help compiler HC31.EXE you can modify the source of this file to produce your own customised or translated help file.

*	A Windows Multimedia-compatible audio card for recording and replay. All recording and replay is done with 8-bit PCM data at 22050 Hz. [The Windows PC speaker driver can be used to replay through the internal PC speaker, but the quality is very poor].

*	The SILSophiaIPA and SILDoulosIPA fonts to be installed for utterance transcription to be correctly displayed. The source files are SILSIPAR.TTF and SILDIPAR.TTF and may be installed using the Fonts applet in the Windows Control Panel. SILSophiaIPA is used for screen display and SILDoulosIPA for printing.

*	You will probably want to automatically load a configuration file when you start the program. To automatically load, the configuration file must be called WINCECIL.CFG and be in the same directory as WINCECIL.EXE.

*	If you wish to customise or translate the program texts you will need your own version of WINCECIL.TXT in the same directory as WINCECIL.EXE. The version of WINCECIL.TXT provided with WinCECIL contains the default program texts. You can edit this file to produce a complete new set, or just to provide new texts for a subset of them. Semi-colons introduce comment lines and each program text consists of its number enclosed in curly braces (anything else on the same line is ignored) followed by its text on a subsequent line. See the documentation provided with DOS CECILv2.1 for more details. Note that WinCECIL v2.1 text numbering does not align correctly with that for v2.1a.


How to use WinCECIL help

WinCECIL help (using the standard Windows help system) may be accessed from the Help menu, by clicking on [image] (the toolbar help button) or by pressing the F1 function key (context-sensitive help).

The Help menu has three help options, the first two opening help at the main index and at this topic respectively, and the latter permitting topic selection via a keyword search.

The toolbar button invokes the Viewing mode index, as does pressing F1 when no dialog boxes or menus are open.

The context-sensitive help function key F1 has the following action when pressed. If a menu is open, help on the highlighted menu command is displayed (the cursor keys can be used to highlight a menu command without invoking it). If a dialog box or status box (e.g. 'Printing...' or 'Replaying') is open, help relevant to the dialog box is given. If a message box (error or warning) is open, help is given on the specific error or warning message.

The help system is extensively internally cross-referenced via hotspots (underlined green text). Most topics can be reached via the Main index and a single level of subindex. Many topics are connected into browse sequences and can be sequentially read using the browse buttons.


Overview: Screen layout

The program is able to hold two utterances of up to 65000 data samples each in memory at one time. This gives maximum utterance lengths of a little under 3 and 6 seconds respectively for 22050 and 11025 Hz sampling frequencies. The utterances are referred to as Utterance A and Utterance B.

The main application window is divided into four regions: the menu line, the toolbar (optional), the screen (the main data display area) and the status line. The structure of the screen is dealt with below, for the other window regions see Menus overview, Toolbar buttons and Status line overview.

The screen is divided into frames arranged in a number of possible predefined layouts (see Settings/Screen layouts). The current screen is selected from one of sixteen such screens by Display/Select new screen.

Each frame is defined (by Settings/Frame contents) to show some particular aspect of an utterance or its calculated results. There are two sub-categories of frame: normal frames which show utterance acoustic data or associated calculated results with the horizontal axis as the time axis; and snapshot frames which can either show a static 'snapshot' image similar to a normal frame or a spectrum derived from data at a specific point in time during the utterance.

Normal frames show data defined by the following subcomponents:

*	Utterance A or B.

*	The whole utterance or its active window. The active window may be set using certain keys or the mouse and is delineated on frames showing whole utterances by vertical dashed lines. Some commands specifically act on the active window.

*	The waveform acoustic data or one of the following calculated results:

Fraw	initial independent fundamental frequency estimates

Fchoose	selected approximately contiguous frequency data from Fraw

Fsmooth	smoothed tone contour derived from Fchoose

Magnitude	magnitude (loudness) contour (see note)

Change	index of change of sound quality

SpGram	spectrogram

LChange	change in low-frequency spectrogram data

MChange	change in mid-frequency spectrogram data

HChange	change in high-frequency spectrogram data

The current frame is that occupied by the frame cursor, a vertical line with a flashing inverted triangle at the top. The current frame is always a normal frame. The current utterance is that displayed in the current frame. Vertical line cursors are displayed where appropriate for other frames displaying the current utterance. A second vertical line cursor, the secondary cursor may also be present in such frames.

A flashing chevron within a snapshot frame displaying a spectrum (a query cursor) may be displayed, indicating that a spectrum query is in progress (see View/Query spectrum); pressing ESCAPE ends the query and restores the frame cursor.

After executing a command or keystroke the screen is automatically updated to take account of any changes. The presence of the flashing frame cursor indicates that the program is in viewing mode.

Note: v2.1a has adopted the term Magnitude in place of the term Loudness used in v2.1, since loudness has a specific definition in acoustic phonetics which differs from its use in WinCECIL. In WinCECIL Magnitude (and the earlier use of Loudness) may be defined as 'the short-term average absolute magnitude of the acoustic waveform'.


Overview: Utterances

An utterance is basically a digitized section of an acoustic waveform. To this raw waveform transcription may be added by the user (see View/Modify transcription). The waveform may be analysed semi-automatically, the fundamental frequency analysis parameters being set by Settings/Frequency graph derivation. Spectral data may also be calculated.

The utterance may be saved to disk, along with its transcription, frequency graph derivation parameters and spectrogram (if calculated). Utterances may be opened from disk files or recorded (see Files menu).

Some WinCECIL commands act on the whole utterance, others only on the active window or some other region defined by the cursor(s). An utterance may be locked whilst loaded (Edit/List utterances) to prevent accidental modification of the acoustic waveform.

Utterance files (which have a .UTT extension) may be converted into standard .WAV format files using the SIL AudioCon program.


Overview: Viewing with the keyboard

A large number of keys are available in viewing mode; complete details may be found by browsing through the keys listed in the Viewing mode index. Many of the viewing keys can be emulated more simply by using the mouse (see Viewing with the mouse). A brief overview of the key functions is given below:

The frame cursor may be moved between frames with the UPARROW and DOWNARROW keys. The cursor can be moved horizontally with (CTRL+)LEFTARROW and (CTRL+)RIGHTARROW or jumped to the opposite end of the frame with CTRL+ENTER. The frame cursor may be successively aligned with the character clusters in the transcription using (SHIFT+)TAB.

The left/right ends of the active window may be set at the cursor position using HOME and END. ENTER centres the active window on the frame cursor, CTRL+HOME and CTRL+END shifts it leftwards or rightwards. (CTRL+)PGUP and (CTRL+)PGDN increase/decrease the size of the active window. The vertical magnification of Data frames may be changed with CTRL+B and CTRL+Z.

Transcription clusters may be deleted to the left/right of the frame cursor by BACKSPACE and DELETE. The secondary cursor may be set/unset by CTRL+2 and CTRL+U.


Overview: Viewing with the mouse

Mouse button clicks provide a powerful alternative method to emulate much of the functionality achievable by using the viewing mode keys (see Viewing with the keyboard).

The effect of clicking on a frame with the mouse depends on the mouse button used (left, right or middle) and the part of the frame hit (transcription, data or title (at the bottom)). Many mice do not have a functioning middle button. A middle button click may be simulated by holding down the SHIFT key and clicking the left mouse button, a right button click by CTRL plus a left button click.

Clicking on a snapshot frame with the left mouse button has the following action: the status of the frame as the current snapshot (see Snapshots overview) is toggled (cf. CTRL+T), unless you click on the data area of a snapshot frame displaying a spectrum. In this case a spectrum query is begun with a query cursor displayed at the mouse cursor position, and with a frequency/intensity readoff displayed in the status line (see Query spectrum). The left button may be held down to drag the query cursor across the spectrum.

Clicking on a normal frame makes it current if it was not so already and cancels any spectrum query in progress. Clicking on the transcription area causes the click position to be snapped to the nearest transcription cluster and the click is then treated as though it occurred on the data area.

Clicks on the data area of a normal frame are processed as follows. A left button click moves the frame cursor to the click position. The left button may be held down to drag the frame cursor (cf. (CTRL+)LEFTARROW and (CTRL+)RIGHTARROW). A middle button click moves or sets the secondary cursor position at the click position. The middle button may be held down to drag the secondary cursor (cf. CTRL+2). A right button click selects the section between the mouse cursor click position and the frame cursor position as the new active window for the utterance. The affected frames are redrawn and the frame cursor is centred in the new active window (cf. HOME, END and PGDN).

Clicks on the title area at the foot of a normal frame have the following effects. A left button click moves the frame cursor to the click position and centres the active window on the frame cursor without changing its size (cf. ENTER). A middle button click set the secondary cursor position at the frame cursor position (the same as CTRL+2). A right button click moves the frame cursor to the click position, centres the active window about it, and then expands the active window by about 50% (cf. PGUP).


Overview: Menus

The menu structure is relatively simple, with no sub-popup menus. Many menus open dialogs. For help on a particular menu command, highlight it (use the cursor keys) and press F1. Many menu commands have shortcut key equivalents

The Files menu is concerned with opening and saving utterances from and to disk, recording new utterances and printing. 'Exit program' is also to be found here.

The Edit menu is a varied menu containing commands that modify an utterance in a major way, either its acoustic waveform, or with regard to its associated spectrogram. Commands are also provided to import and export acoustic data via the clipboard.

The Display menu only contains two commands, both accessible alternatively via toolbar buttons or shortcut keys, to change the current screen and to display frames overlaid one on top of the other.

The Settings menu groups together the great majority of program options available via menu commands which invoke dialog boxes. Commands to open and save program configurations are also contained in this menu.

The View menu commands are all alternatively accessible by shortcut keys and provide viewing mode functionality. Many of the commands act on snapshot frames.

The Help menu provides some high-level entry points into the help system.


Overview: Frequency graph calculation

The parameters controlling frequency graph calculation are set from the Frequency graph derivation dialog and affect the results displayed in Fraw, Fchoose and Fsmooth frames. It is important that care is taken over setting these parameters correctly as incorrect results leading to incorrect interpretation of tone may otherwise occur.

The Calculation range parameters (Calc range min/max) are the most important ones. These define the range over which a search is made for the fundamental frequency. If possible these should lie within an octave of one another (the maximum not more than twice the minimum) to prevent erroneous location of fundamental frequency at multiples of the true fundamental frequency, though this will not be possible if the speaker has a wide frequency range. Male speakers generally use frequencies in the lower part of the permissible range (40-500Hz) and female speakers the upper part, but this does not always hold true. You should start with a wide calculation range and narrow it as it becomes clear what range of frequencies is being used. If in doubt you can always look at the acoustic waveform and calculate the length and hence frequencies of various pitch periods visible within the waveform. If the Fraw trace appears to disappear off the top or bottom of the data area, and particularly if it then reappears at the other border, you have probably got the calculation range incorrectly set. These parameters alone define the calculations for the Fraw results. Each Fraw data point is independent of the others.

The Fchoose results are derived by selecting consistent series of points from Fraw and adjusting rogue points. The Voicing threshold parameter (the supplied value is approximately 10x the equivalent magnitude of the voiced component) sets a cutoff point such that frequency data which are associated with a voiced component less than this in magnitude are discarded. Percentage change sets an upper limit to the frequency difference between successive points for them to be regarded as part of a contiguous tone contour. This parameter should be kept small if possible, but will have to be increased if there are very rapid rises or falls in the tone. Group size defines the minimum number of contiguous points required to define a significant section of tone contour. Larger values help remove dubious data. The Fchoose results indicate clusters of frequency data which represent sections of tone contour.

The Fsmooth results are simply the Fchoose results smoothed to form a more visually pleasing tone contour, and with some of the short gaps joined over. The Interpolation gap parameter defines the maximum size of gap between sections of tone contour that can be interpolated across. The gap must represent voiced data and the opposing tone contour ends must lie reasonably close to one another frequency-wise.

In summary, the Calculation range parameters are the most important parameters to set correctly. Setting the other parameters is something of an art form and is primarily concerned with simplifying the interpretation of the Fraw results. If you are at all doubtful about the reality of a section of a tone contour, it is better to set these parameters to strict (i.e. exclusive) values and perhaps omit a genuine section of tone contour, than erroneously introduce a spurious section of tone contour.


Overview: Replaying utterance data

Utterance data may be replayed using the function keys f2 to f10 or their corresponding toolbar buttons:

What is played by each function key or button is defined by the Settings/Speech replay keys dialog box. Moving the mouse cursor over one of the replay toolbar buttons causes the current replay setting of the button to be displayed in the status line.

A small dialog box is displayed during replay and the replay may be terminated by clicking on the Stop button or by pressing ESCAPE. Utterances may also be replayed at normal speed from the Files/Open utterance dialog box.

All utterances are replayed at 22050 Hz. Utterances recorded at other sampling frequencies (in Windows at 11025 or 44100 Hz or by DOS CECIL) are replayed correctly (by interpolation or decimation of data samples) but with the introduction of a small amount of high-frequency error noise which may or may not be audible. With a synchronous speaker driver (e.g. the Windows PC speaker driver) the output acoustic waveform is constructed in its entirety before replay, so there may be a substantial pause before replay begins.

Replaying of utterances at other than normal speed involves a high-speed cutting and pasting algorithm to be employed on the original waveform. This inevitably introduces a small amount of extraneous noise. The quality is considerably improved if the Frequency graph derivation calculation range parameters are correctly set for the utterance being replayed, as these are used internally by the algorithm. Some slower computers may not be able to generate the warped utterance fast enough, particularly when attempting to speed it up (0.5x, 0.7x), leading to poor sound quality.


Overview: Snapshots

Snapshot frames primarily exist for the display of spectra. They also have a secondary function for the temporary display of sections of normal frame displays (see View/Display selected data), but these are transient and are lost if any part of the frame is repainted. When a command is executed which sends output to a snapshot, a snapshot frame must be current to receive the output. A current snapshot frame has a thickened border. Snapshot frames may be made current by using the View/Toggle current snapshot command, or using the mouse (see Viewing with the mouse).

Frames (other than frame 1) can be defined to be snapshot frames by using the Settings/Frame contents dialog. A spectrum may be displayed in a snapshot in one of three ways: by interpolation from spectrogram data (View/Display selected data) on a SpGram frame with the secondary cursor unset); by calculation from the acoustic waveform (View/Analyse selected data) on a Data frame; or by dynamic interpolation by declaring the snapshot to be the video spectrum frame (View/Toggle video spectrum). In this latter case as the main frame cursor is moved through utterances which have attached spectral data, the spectrum at that position is displayed in the video spectrum frame.

The frequency and intensity of a spectrum can be determined by means of the View/Query spectrum command, or by clicking on the spectrum with the mouse; a frequency/intensity readoff is displayed in the status line.


Overview: Status line

The status line is primarily used to provide a dynamic readoff of the data at the frame cursor position. This consists of the cursor X-offset, in seconds from the start of the utterance, and the Y-value of the results data at that position. Frequency data is given in both semitones and Hertz, magnitude in arbitrary linear units and decibels, and change in sound quality data in arbitrary linear units. If the frame cursor lies between two transcription marks (each of which may be composed of several IPA symbols), the characters in the first transcription mark and the duration of the gap (which would normally correspond to the initial IPA transcription) are indicated. The current sampling frequency for recording is also displayed.

If the secondary cursor is active, the phone duration display is replaced by a display of the time represented by the distance between the two cursors.

During a query spectrum, the readoff is for the query spectrum and indicates the spectral frequency (in Hertz) and intensity (in decibels) at that point.

The status line is also used for confirmatory or informatory messages. Messages indicating why the program is busy are cleared as soon as the work is done; other messages persist until the frame cursor is moved.

A final use of the status line is to display brief context-sensitive helps when the mouse cursor is moved over a toolbar button.


Overview: Configuration files

Configuration files are used to store information about the setup of WinCECIL. This information includes screen layouts, frame contents, the current screen and frame (see Screen layout overview), replay key definitions (see Settings/Speech replay keys), file dialog file specifications, frame display parameters (see Settings/Frame display styles) and various other parameters. The position and state of the main WinCECIL window on the desktop is also stored.

You can explictly open and save configurations using the Settings/New configuration and Settings/Save configuration commands respectively.

There will probably be a standard configuration you want to start WinCECIL in, in which case it should be saved to WINCECIL.CFG in the same directory as WINCECIL.EXE and it will be automatically loaded every time you begin a CECIL session.

Alternatively you may prefer always to start up WinCECIL with the configuration you left it in. This can be done by checking the 'Autosave configuration on exit' option of the Settings/General program settings dialog and causes the configuration to be written to WINCECIL.CFG every time you end a WinCECIL session.

The Settings/New configuration command enables you to change the configuration of WinCECIL in mid-session; for example you might have a modified configuration called FASTPLAY.CFG which when loaded set the speech replay keys to fast playback options.


Overview: Phonetic characters

Transcription is rendered using the SIL Windows IPA fonts SILSophiaIPA and SILDoulosIPA. If these are unavailable, or a specific character is not in the IPA font, the system font is used instead. For details of how to setup the fonts see System setup.

To provide compatibility with utterance files whose transcriptions were added using the IPA fonts provided with DOS CECIL certain restrictions have been made on the characters available for transcription. The transcription is handled as follows:

*	The Modify transcription command only allows you to add characters to the transcription that are available in both the DOS and Windows IPA fonts or are standard ASCII characters with codes in the range 33-126.

*	The transcription is stored in the utterance file using the DOS font sequence. Thus utterance files are enabled to be kept identical on both platforms.

*	When the transcription is displayed, the transcription is mapped to the SILSophiaIPA font. If a character is not available, and is not a lower ASCII code, it is replaced by a square box. Certain non-phonetic characters such as A-Z and European accented characters are mapped to their lower case equivalents.

*	Any transcription you add from the edit transcription window in Windows CECIL will be preserved and correctly displayed with DOS CECIL.


Open file dialog

The standard Open file dialog consists of four components: the file selector box on the left and the filename, directory and drive components to the right. When the dialog box is opened the filename component displays the current file wildcard and files matching this are displayed in the file selector box. At the top of the file selector box the full current file specification is displayed.

To change the drive click on the arrow at the right of the drive combo box and select a new drive from the list offered. The directory is reset to the current directory for that drive and the file selector box refreshed to show the new file selection.

To change the directory double-click on directories in the directory list box as necessary until the directory path is as you require, or press ENTER when the directory list box has the focus.

To change the file wildcard click on the filename edit box, type the new wildcard and press ENTER. The new file selection is displayed in the file selector box.

A file in the currently selected directory may be selected (and the dialog ended) by the following methods: (i) double-clicking on a file in the file selector box; (ii) high-lighting a file in the file selector box and clicking on OK or pressing ENTER; or (iii) clicking on the filename edit box, typing the filename and pressing ENTER.

Any changes to the current file specification are only retained if a file is selected.


Save file dialog

The standard Save file dialog consists of four components: the file display box on the left and the filename, directory and drive components to the right. When the dialog box is opened the filename component displays a suggested filename and any files matching the current file wildcard are displayed in the file display box. At the top of the file display box the full current file specification is displayed.

To change the drive click on the arrow at the right of the drive combo box and select a new drive from the list offered. The directory is reset to the current directory for that drive and the file display box refreshed to show the new file selection.

To change the directory double-click on directories in the directory list box as necessary until the directory path is as you require, or press ENTER when the directory list box has the focus.

To change the file wildcard click on the filename edit box, type the new wildcard and press ENTER. The new file selection is displayed in the file display box.

The file display box is shown for reference purposes only; to supply a filename the user must click in the filename edit box, type the required filename and either press ENTER or click on the OK button.

Any changes to the current file specification are only retained if a filename is returned.


Printing

The program is printing the specified frames, one page at a time. During the 'Drawing frames' stage a metafile containing the graphics commands to draw the page is constructed by WinCECIL. During the 'Printing page <n>' stage Windows converts this into a form specific to the printer. The whole process can take several minutes for a full page, particularly if spectrograms are included.

Click on the Cancel button to abandon printing, or press ESCAPE.


Replaying

To stop the current utterance replay, click on the Stop button or press ESCAPE.


Generating spectra

To abandon spectra calculation, click on the Cancel button or press ESCAPE.


Files menu

Record utterance

Open utterance

Save utterance

Save utterance as

Print

Capture window

Exit program


Edit menu

Copy

Paste

List utterances

Discard utterance ends

Copy utterance

Copy & filter utterance

Erase utterance

Shift utterance

Erase spectrogram from memory

Generate spectrogram

Delete spectrogram


Display menu

Select new screen

Composite frame


Settings menu

Frame display styles

Frame contents

Screen layouts

Frequency graph derivation

Speech replay keys

General program settings

New configuration

Save configuration


View menu

Zoom data frame

Backoff data frame

Set 2nd cursor

Unset 2nd cursor

Display selected data

Analyse selected data

Write selected data

Toggle current snapshot

Toggle video spectrum

Query spectrum

Equalise utterance scaling

Modify transcription


Record utterance

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+R

All recording of new utterances within WinCECIL is done via the Record utterance dialog box. This toggles between two modes: monitoring and recording. When the dialog box is opened it is in monitoring mode.

In monitoring mode the incoming audio signal is sampled and a simplified dynamic waveform is displayed in the dialog box. Clipping off the waveform (recording level too high) is indicated by overshoot lines in the top and bottom borders of the monitoring display. The Sampling frequency box allows you to select the data sampling frequency. Note that all recording is actually done at 22050 Hz, and samples are discarded for the 11025 Hz frequency. To begin recording, click on the Record button. To abandon the dialog click on Cancel.

In recording mode the monitoring and sampling frequency boxes are disabled. Recording continues until either the Done or Cancel buttons are clicked. If you click on Cancel, the recording is scrapped and you are returned to monitoring mode. If you click on Done, up to the last 65000 data samples recorded are retained as the new current utterance.

If recording or monitoring appears to have locked up, clicking on a button should clear the condition.

v2.1a includes the facility to highpass filter the recorded waveform to remove unwanted low frequencies. When you start a WinCECIL session, filtering is on, as indicated by the Hipass filter box which is checked. In general you will get slightly better pitch analyses with filtering on, so you should only switch filtering off if there are special reasons why you need the unfiltered signal. Unfiltered waveforms may be filtered using Edit/Copy & filter utterance. Utterance files written from v2.1a have +f or -f in the first line of the file header to indicate whether they are filtered or not. Utterance filtering status is also shown in the Info/List utterances dialog.


Open utterance

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+O

This dialog enables you to load a new current utterance from disk into memory. The dialog box is an enhanced version of the standard WinCECIL file dialog box. For details of file selection see Open file dialog.

The Open utterance dialog contains additional components in the lower half. The Replay button replays the currently selected utterance file (in the file selector box) at normal speed. If the Load spectra box is unchecked, spectral data is skipped when loading the utterance data. This saves time reading the file. If the Show info box is checked, the header of the currently selected utterance file (in the file selector box) is displayed. You will probably want to leave this option on unless you are working with floppy disks.

Clicking on OK causes the currently selected file to be loaded to become the current utterance.


Save utterance

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+S

This command saves the utterance under the name of the file from which it was loaded, overwriting the original version. If there is no file associated with the utterance, or if the acoustic data associated with the utterance has been modified, the Files/Save utterance as dialog is invoked to prompt the user for a filename.


Save utterance as

This dialog allows the user to specify a filename to which to write the data associated with the current utterance. If the file already exists the user is prompted whether the file operation should continue or not. For details of file selection see Save file dialog. The utterance acoustic data, transcription and frequency graph derivation parameters are written to the utterance file, along with the spectral data if calculated.


Print

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+P

The print dialog allows the user to define a sequence of frames for printing, and to control their layout on the printed page.

The Print list (which has the same syntax as the frame list for Display/Composite frame) specifies the contents of one or more frames. The print list is made up of frame definitions. A frame definition is either a single frame number (to draw a single frame), or a 'B' (to draw a set of Bark axes) or multiple frame numbers enclosed in some form of brackets ([], {}, () or <>) (to draw a compound frame). The frame numbers given must refer to frames displaying valid data (any data for a normal frame, spectra only for snapshot frames). The frame numbers for a compound frame must either all be normal frames or all snapshot frames. An incorrect frame list will cause an error when printing is invoked.

The Frame layout specifies how many frames can be printed on one page, and how they are arranged. The page margins define the region of the page used for printing relative to the total printable area. Page size and orientation and printing resolution may often be changed from Options/Printer Setup/Setup in the Print Manager.

If the Print details... boxes are checked brief details of the specified utterance(s) are printed at the head of the page. Checking Use maximum shades... causes an 8x8 matrix to be used for spectrogram shading, rather than the value used for display on the screen, and is recommended for plotting spectrograms on high resolution printers at half-page size or larger. Checking Use thick linestyle causes graphics to be drawn in a thicker linestyle. This considerably slows printing, but may be useful when preparing material for photocopying or OHP acetates.

Checking Re-use previous page is a powerful option which must be used carefully to obtain correct results. Windows always prints a whole page at a time, which can be a nuisance if you wish to print small frames one at a time. Checking this option allows you to print on the previously printed page such that space is left for the previous printing. This option cannot be used with the Print details... options. It will also give incorrect results if you have changed the page margins or changed the printer setup, or if you do not correctly re-align the page for the second pass. You may, however, change the frame layout and thus mix frame sizes on a page, or print first a left column of frames and then a right column. The option is always cleared when the print dialog is opened and must be explicitly checked each time you wish to reprint on a page.

When you invoke printing the dialog box closes and is replaced by a small dialog box which informs you of printing progress and permits you to cancel printing. When this box closes, printing has been taken over by the Print Manager. The printing jobs are labelled WinCECIL 01 and upwards.


Capture window

This command copies the screen image of the whole of the WinCECIL main window to the clipboard as a bitmap. Programs such as PaintBrush may be used to import the image from the clipboard and save it to a .PCX file or similar for subsequent use in a document. Individual frames may be copied using the Display/Composite frame dialog.


Exit program

Shortcut key: CTRL+X

This command prompts for confirmation from the user before ending the WinCECIL session. If autosaving of the configuration is enabled (see Settings/General Program Settings) the current program configuration is saved to WINCECIL.CFG. The session may also be closed via the application's system menu, which does not prompt for confirmation.


Copy

This command copies the acoustic data, and the associated frequency graph derivation parameters and transcription for the active window of the current utterance to the clipboard. This command may be used in conjunction with Edit/Paste to transfer data between multiple sessions of WinCECIL. A private clipboard format is used.


Paste

This command pastes the clipboard contents, provided they are of the correct format, to become the current utterance. This command may be used in conjunction with Edit/Copy to transfer data between multiple sessions of WinCECIL, or in future to import acoustic data from SIL's Speech Analyser program (SA). To transfer within a single session of WinCECIL, use Edit/Copy utterance as this also transfers spectral data.


List utterances

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+L

This dialog box displays information on the currently loaded utterance(s). The first two components for each utterance may be modified. If the Lock option is checked the utterance is protected against modification of its acoustic data (the transcription may be edited and the frequency graph derivation parameters changed however). A WinCECIL session cannot be terminated until any locked utterances have been unlocked. The edit box contains the utterance title, if any, which may be edited by the user.


Discard utterance ends

This command deletes the current utterance acoustic data which lies outside the active window. The end of the left-hand discard is adjusted to a multiple of 100 data samples to prevent the necessity to recalculate analyses or spectra.


Copy utterance

This command copies the non-current utterance into the current utterance. If you wish to have multiple views of the same utterance you can use this command, but you may prefer to run multiple copies of WinCECIL to achieve the same effect instead.


Copy & filter utterance

This command performs highpass filtering on the non-current utterance to remove unwanted low frequencies and copies it into the current utterance. The non-current utterance must be unfiltered. Utterance files written from v2.1a have +f or -f in the first line of the file header to indicate whether they are filtered or not. Utterance filtering status is also shown in the Info/List utterances dialog.


Erase utterance

This command deletes the current utterance from memory.


Shift utterance

This dialog allows you to shift the acoustic data for the current utterance up or down in order to adjust the utterance baseline to zero. Your audio hardware should produce recordings which are correctly zeroed; if it doesn't it may be possible to adjust it. The WinCECIL analyses are relatively insensitive to baseline errors, but an error of greater than +/-2 may significantly distort Magnitude graphs and will decrease the effectiveness of the Voicing threshold parameter during frequency graph calculation. To check the baseline of an utterance, select a period of silence as the active window and use View/Zoom data frame three times to get x8 vertical magnification, at which magnification the zero line is also displayed.


Erase spectrogram from memory

This command deletes from memory the spectrogram data for the current utterance. It does not affect the spectrogram data in the source utterance file.


Generate spectrogram

This command calculates a spectrogram (and the associated change indices LChange, MChange and HChange) for the current utterance and appends them to the file associated with this utterance. If there is no file associated with the utterance the user is prompted to supply one by means of the Save file dialog.

Spectrogram calculation may take several minutes on a slow machine for a full-length utterance. The user may prefer to add spectrograms to several utterance files at once, which may be done using the '-convert' command-line option of DOS CECILv2.1.

The spectral data may be removed by the Edit/Delete spectrogram command. An utterance file with spectra attached is about three times as large as the same utterance file without the spectra.


Delete spectrogram

This command removes any spectral data from the file from which the current utterance was loaded. The spectrogram may be regenerated by the Edit/Generate spectrogram command.


Select new screen

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+N

This dialog displays a summary of the available screens with their frame layouts and contents. The previously visited screen is indicated with an asterisk. The required screen may be selected by double-clicking on it, or by highlighting it and clicking on the OK button.


Composite frame

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+C

This dialog is primarily intended to allow the viewing of frames overlaid one on top of the other (a compound frame), and as a means of capturing screen images of single or compound frames.

The Frame list, which has the same syntax as that for Files/Print, is made up of frame definitions. A frame definition is either a single frame number (to draw a single frame), or a 'B' (to draw a set of Bark axes) or multiple frame numbers enclosed in some form of brackets ([], {}, () or <>) (to draw a compound frame). The frame numbers given must refer to frames displaying valid data (any data for a normal frame, spectra only for snapshot frames). The frame numbers for a compound frame must either all be normal frames or all snapshot frames. An incorrect frame list will cause an error when display is invoked.

If the Copy image to clipboard option is checked, every time the composite frame window is repainted, the screen image is copied to the clipboard as a bitmap. This bitmap may be imported into a suitable image editor (e.g. PaintBrush) and saved as a .PCX file or similar for subsequent inclusion in a document. The appropriate option in the image editor should be set such that the image is written to disk in monochrome format unless colour is required, in order to greatly reduce image file size. To capture the screen image of the whole of the main WinCECIL window, use Capture window.

When the OK button is clicked, the first of the frames specified in the frame list is displayed in a window the same size as the main WinCECIL window. The Next and Prev buttons or the cursor keys may be used to move forwards and backwards between any subsequent frames in the frame list. For example a frame list of '1(23)' would cause frame 1 to be displayed first and then, when the Next button is pressed, a compound frame composed of frames 2 and 3 overlaid on one another.

Each component in an overlaid frame is named in the frame title. The utterance name is only given if it is different from the previous component. Transcription is displayed for each utterance the first time it occurs in the overlaid frame.

If colour  is enabled (by Settings/General program settings) components for which the bright shade has already been used are drawn in the equivalent dark shade (black first, then grey for Data frames). Grey is used for the transcription of the second utterance referenced.


Frame display styles

This dialog controls the display styles used for the display of the various calculated results data. The dialog is divided into four sections:

Frequency (Fraw, Fchoose & Fsmooth)

Display range selects the vertical scaling of frequency results. The options are 'Manually set' in which case the 'Manual display range bounds' values are used; 'Autoscale', which uses the calculation range specified in the Frequency graph derivation dialog; and 'Octave/...' which uses the 'Autoscale' frequency range, but expands the range to a full octave if necessary. The range may be padded such that the results are displayed at the top, middle or bottom of the plot.
Scaling selects either normal linear scaling or logarithmic scaling of frequency displays.
Manual display range bounds sets the range of values over which frequency results are shown when 'Display range' is set to 'Manually set'.

Magnitude (loudness)

Display mode selects the vertical scaling of the magnitude graph. The options are 'Manual' in which case the 'Manual display upper bound' value is used; 'Autoscale', which displays the results at as large a scale as possible; and 'Auto/half' which is similar to the above but uses only the lower half of the display frame.
Manual display upper bound sets the upper bound for the display of magnitude results when 'Display mode' is set to 'Manual'.

Spectrogram  (SpGram)

Shading selects the shading mode used when displaying spectrograms. More shading gradations requires a larger shading matrix size, i.e. increasing grey-scale resolution decreases image resolution, and vice versa. 3x3 is recommended for most screens, though 4x4 may be preferred for SuperVGA and higher resolution. Spectrograms are drawn slightly faster with a larger matrix size. When printing either 4x4 or 8x8 should be used; the latter can be selected as the default for printing, see Files/Print.
Maximum displayed frequency sets the upper bound for the display of spectrograms.
Whiteness upper bound determines the maximum spectrogram data value which is displayed unshaded. The spectrogram data is stored as integers in the range 0 to 127. Use as low a value as will get rid of most general background noise; a value of 1, 2 or 3 is likely to be suitable.
Blackness upper bound determines the minimum spectrogram data value which is displayed in the darkest (solid) shade. The intervening shades are distributed in fixed ratios between the remaining data values.

Change in sound quality (Change & L/M/HChange)

Display mode selects the vertical scaling of sound quality. The options are 'Manual' in which case the 'Manual display upper bound' value is used; 'Autoscale', which displays the results at as large a scale as possible; and 'Auto/half' which is similar to the above but uses only the lower half of the display frame.
Manual display upper bound sets the upper bound for the display of sound quality results when 'Display mode' is set to 'Manual'.


Frame contents

This dialog allows you to change what is displayed in each of the frames for the current screen. The top list box shows the current settings for the frames. The lower box components are initially set to the components of the highlighted frame in the upper box. To change the highlighted frame's components, select a new set of components by highlighting them with the mouse in the lower box and click on the Modify button. The components of the highlighted frame in the upper box will be modified to show the changes. To select a new frame for modifying, click on it in the upper box to highlight it. Note that frame 1 cannot be made a Snapshot frame. The changes you have made are not made to the current screen frame settings until you click on the OK button to end the dialog.

For details of frame components see Screen layout overview.


Screen layouts

This dialog enables you to change the number and arrangement of frames displayed on each of the available screens. Click on a screen in the upper box to select it for modification. Double-click (or highlight and click on Modify) on the new layout you require to reset it. The changes you have requested do not occur until you click on OK to end the dialog. Changing screen layouts is usually performed as part of setting up a configuration file (see Configuration files overview).


Frequency graph derivation

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: CTRL+G

This dialog permits modification of the frequency graph derivation parameters for the current utterance, and of the analysis mode used. When the dialog is ended by clicking on the OK button, the appropriate results for the current utterance are immediately recalculated and redisplayed to reflect the changes made. For an overview of how to produce accurate frequency graphs see Frequency graph calculation overview.

Calc range min and Calc range max allow you to set the range of frequencies over which a search is made for the fundamental (voicing) frequency.

Voicing threshold defines the minimum amplitude of the voiced component of the utterance at a particular point for it to be considered to be voiced, and hence for the frequency estimate to be retained for display in 'Fchoose' frames.

Percentage change sets the maximum percentage change between adjacent frequency estimates for the tone contour to be considered to be continuous between them.

Group size sets the minimum number of calculated frequency estimates that must be associated with a section of continuous tone contour for them to be retained in 'Fchoose' frames.

Interpolation gap sets the maximum number of consecutive missing frequency estimates that can be interpolated across (given that the estimates on either side are within a range related to that specified by 'Percentage change') before final smoothing and display in 'Fsmooth' frames.

Analysis mode selects the degree of intonation analysis performed. The options are Off (no analysis performed), Magnitude (calculate magnitude only), and Full (full intonation analysis).


Speech replay keys

This dialog is used to modify the definitions of the speech replay keys (function keys F2 to F10 and their associated toolbar buttons). To edit a key definition highlight it in the upper box. The lower box components are reset to the current settings for the replay key. Click on the appropriate elements to highlight them and then click on the Modify button to reset the definition for the replay key highlighted in the upper box. The changes to the key definitions are not made until the dialog is ended by clicking on the OK button. The components of a key definition are described below (note that not all combinations are meaningful). See also Replaying utterance data overview.

The utterance replayed is either the Current utterance (that for which the flashing frame cursor is displayed) or the Other (non-current) utterance.

The section of the utterance for replay is either the Whole utterance, the portion of the acoustic data denoted by the Active window, or that lying between the main and secondary Cursors.

The utterance is either replayed at Normal speed, slowed by some factor 0.5x ... 4.0x, or Repeatedly at normal speed. (Repeat does not work with synchronous audio drivers).

The region of the selected section actually replayed can either be that to the Left of the main frame cursor, that to the Right, all of the selected section with a Pause at the cursor, or All of the selected section without a pause.


General program settings

This dialog controls various miscellaneous WinCECIL settings.

Show toolbar controls display of the toolbar buttons.

Beep on error determines whether the appropriate system sound (or beep) is played when an error occurs.

If Autosave configuration on exit is checked the current program configuration is saved in the file WINCECIL.CFG when the WinCECIL session is ended (see Configuration files overview).

If Use colour is checked colour graphics is used for many of the frame displays. In general brighter shades are used for Utterance A frames and darker shades for Utterance B frames (but black and grey respectively for Data frames). Colour is also used by Display/Composite frame and is helpful when distinguishing compound frame components.

Ctrl/PgDn width determines the width of the active window generated by pressing the CTRL+PGDN key combination. It is also used by snapshot commands to determine the window size to use when this is not explicitly done by means of the secondary cursor (e.g. View/Display selected data).


New configuration

This dialog selects and loads a new program configuration (see Configuration files overview). The configuration file to be loaded is selected using the standard File open dialog. The program is reconfigured according to details previously saved in the configuration file. It keeps any utterances that are already in use by the program.


Save configuration

This dialog saves the present program configuration (see Configuration files overview) to a file. The configuration filename is obtained using the standard File save dialog.


Zoom data frame

Shortcut key: CTRL+Z

This command when applied to a Data frame magnifies the waveform vertically by a factor of 2, up to a maximum of x8.


Backoff data frame

Shortcut key: CTRL+B

This command only applies to a Data frame that has previously been magnified vertically using the Zoom data frame command. It reduces the vertical magnification by a factor of 2.


Set 2nd cursor

Shortcut key: CTRL+2

This command sets (or resets) the secondary cursor to the current (main) frame cursor position. This may also be done using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Unset 2nd cursor

Shortcut key: CTRL+U

This command unsets the secondary cursor.


Display selected data

Shortcut key: CTRL+D

This command copies whatever lies between the (main) frame cursor and secondary cursor and displays it in the current snapshot frame. For a SpGram frame without a second cursor, the frequency spectrum at the cursor position is displayed instead. For other frames without a second cursor the region copied is the 'Ctrl-PgDn width' (Settings/General program settings) centred on the main frame cursor.


Analyse selected data

Shortcut key: CTRL+A

This command when applied to a Data frame calculates and displays a frequency spectrum in the current snapshot frame. The data used for calculation is that between the (main) frame cursor and secondary cursor, or, if the second cursor is unset, a 128 data sample window centred at the cursor.


Write selected data

Shortcut key: CTRL+W

This command writes data derived from the current frame to an ASCII text file for subsequent analysis. For any frame type other than SpGram the (main) frame cursor and secondary cursor specify the selected region, the calculated results being written out for that region, or the transcription for a Data frame; for SpGram frames the spectrum at the main cursor position is written.


Toggle current snapshot

Shortcut key: CTRL+T

This command toggles the current snapshot frames between off (none current) and each of the snapshot frames on the screen in turn. A snapshot frame may also be made current using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Toggle video spectrum

Shortcut key: CTRL+V

This command toggles the status of the current snapshot frame as the video (animated) spectrum display frame, and clears any existing video frame.


Query spectrum

Shortcut key: CTRL+Q

This command enables the reading of frequency and spectral intensity information at the cursor position of a spectrum displayed in in the current snapshot frame (derived from View/Analyse selected data, View/Display selected data or View/Toggle video spectrum). A spectrum may be queried more simply using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).

The flashing frame cursor is replaced by a query cursor in the snapshot frame (with a flashing chevron). The status line displays a readoff off the frequency and spectral intensity at the cursor position. The cursor may be moved using the (CTRL+)LEFTARROW and (CTRL+)RIGHTARROW keys. The spectrum query may be ended by pressing ESCAPE or any other viewing mode key.


Equalise utterance scaling

Shortcut key: CTRL+E

This command attempts to adjust the right boundary of the active window of the current utterance so that this active window is at the same scale as that of the non-current utterance.


Modify transcription

Toolbar button:

Shortcut key: INSERT

This dialog box enables you to edit the transcription for the current utterance. If the cursor is exactly aligned with a transcription cluster (using TAB or SHIFT+TAB or with the mouse (see Viewing with the mouse)) this transcription cluster is edited, else a new transcription cluster is begun. (A transcription cluster is one or more IPA symbols aligned at a single point).

Characters for the transcription may be selected by clicking on the desired characters within the dialog box. They will then be shown in a box at the top of the dialog box. The characters are arranged in groupings of related characters. The lower-case alphabetic characters (a-z) and, from v2.1b, other lower ASCII characters (33-126) may also be selected by typing them from the keyboard, though note that some of these are mapped to phonetic characters when displayed. Characters may be deleted by clicking on the Del box or by pressing the Backspace key.

See Phonetic characters overview for information on the phonetic character sets used.


Cursor left

Key: LEFTARROW

This key moves the frame cursor left by about two character widths. If the frame cursor is on the left bound of the active window, the boundary is dragged leftwards. The frame cursor may also be moved using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Cursor right

Key: RIGHTARROW

This key moves the frame cursor right by about two character widths. If the frame cursor is on the right bound of the active window, the boundary is dragged rightwards. The frame cursor may also be moved using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Cursor left adjust

Key: CTRL+LEFTARROW

This key combination moves the frame cursor slightly to the left.


Cursor right adjust

Key: CTRL+RIGHTARROW

This key combination moves the frame cursor slightly to the right.


Transcription next

Key: TAB

This key moves the frame cursor level with the next character or group of characters in the text transcription. A similar result can be achieved using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Transcription previous

Key: SHIFT+TAB

This key combination moves the frame cursor level with the previous character or group of characters in the text transcription. A similar result can be achieved using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Cursor jump

Key: CTRL+ENTER

This key combination jumps the frame cursor to the opposite end of the frame. The cursor may also be moved using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Previous frame

Key: UPARROW

This key selects the previous numbered frame (other than a snapshot frame) as the current frame. The current frame may also be changed using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Next frame

Key: DOWNARROW

This key selects the next numbered frame (other than a snapshot frame) as the current frame. The current frame may also be changed using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Set window left

Key: HOME

This key sets the left boundary of the active window at the position of the frame cursor. A new active window may also be selected using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Set window right

Key: END

This key sets the right boundary of the active window at the position of the frame cursor. A new active window may also be selected using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Shift window left

Key: CTRL+HOME

This key combination keeps the active window the same size but shifts it leftwards so that the right boundary is set at the position of the frame cursor. The position of the active window may also be shifted by using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Shift window right

Key: CTRL+END

This key combination keeps the active window the same size but shifts it rightwards so that the left boundary is set at the position of the frame cursor. The position of the active window may also be shifted by using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Centre window

Key: ENTER

This key keeps the active window the same size but centres it on the frame cursor. The position of the active window may also be shifted by using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Expand window

Key: PGUP

This key expands the size of the active window for the current utterance by about 50%. The active window may also be expanded by using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Contract window

Key: PGDN

This key contracts the size of the active window for the current utterance by about 30%. The active window may also be contracted by using the mouse (Viewing with the mouse).


Full window

Key: CTRL+PGUP

This key combination restores the active window to the whole of the current utterance.


Closeup window

Key: CTLR+PGDN

This key combination changes the active window to the 'Ctrl-PgDn width' (see Settings/General program settings) and centres it on the frame cursor.


Delete left

Key: BACKSPACE

This key deletes the character or group of characters in the text transcription centred at or to the left of the frame cursor. See also View/Modify transcription.


Delete right

Key: DELETE

This key deletes the character or group of characters in the text transcription centred at or to the right of the frame cursor. See also View/Modify transcription.


About WinCECIL

WinCECIL is the Windows 3.1 version of CECIL and runs with Windows-compatible audio hardware. It is functionally equivalent to DOS CECILv2.1 which uses the SIL speech analysis box. Copies of the software may be taken for private use but users who publish results derived from WinCECIL should acknowledge such use in their publications.


Warning: This will overwrite the existing file

If you continue with this command (by selecting OK) you will overwrite the existing file with the name you have just specified.


Warning: The spectrogram cannot be written to disk with the utterance data

The current utterance was loaded from a file containing a spectrogram, but the spectrogram is no longer intact. If you continue with this command, the utterance will be rewritten to disk without the spectrogram. (You can always regenerate it using Edit/Generate spectrogram).


Warning: This will end your WinCECIL session

If you continue with this command you will exit WinCECIL and any unsaved changes to the utterances in memory will be lost.


Warning: Data samples were missed during this recording

The recorded data samples may not represent a continuous recording and there may be discontinuities in the acoustic waveform. In general you should re-record the utterance. If this error occurs repeatedly, your computer is running too slowly to do the recording. Unless your computer is extremely slow (a 20MHz 386 is quite adequate) this is most likely to be due to a background process taking up significant amounts of CPU time. Note that both 11 and 22kHz recording frequencies actually use a sampling rate of 22050 Hz.


Error #001: Not a WinCECIL utterance file

You tried to access a file which the program recognised as not being an utterance file. Note that DOS CECIL and WinCECIL utterances are fully interchangeable.


Error #002: Not a WinCECIL configuration file

Your tried to load a file which the program recognised as not being a WinCECIL configuration file. Note that DOS CECIL configuration files are incompatible with WinCECIL and will cause this error if you attempt to read them.


Error #003: Can't find file <filename>

The file <filename> does not exist. Check spelling and directory path.


Error #004: Can't open file <filename>

The file <filename> cannot be created.


Error #005: Error while reading file <filename>

The file is apparently corrupted and cannot be read by WinCECIL.


Error #006: Error while writing file <filename>

An error occurred while writing the file. The disk may be faulty. If you were overwriting an existing file, the existing file will either have been restored under its original name, or will be present on the disk with a .BAK extension.


Error #007: Unexpected end of file while reading <filename>

The file is apparently corrupted and cannot be read by WinCECIL.


Error #008: Disk full while writing file <filename>

The file could not be written because there is insufficient space on the disk.


Error #009: Empty, invalid or inappropriately combined frame(s)

The print or compose list is incorrect and has been corrected by the program to remove invalid components. Edit the list as necessary and re-issue the command. Possible causes of this error are illegal characters in the list, mismatched bracket characters, inclusion of illegal or empty frame numbers, or illegal combination of frame types. You can only include snapshot frames if they contain spectra. Snapshot frames and normal frames may not be combined in an overlaid frame.


Error #010: No suitable printer available

Either there is no currently selected printer, or the printer does not support bit image graphics. Use the Print Manager utility to select a suitable printer.


Error #011: Utterance(s) locked

You tried to exit the program with one or more utterances locked. Unlock them using the Edit/List utterances command (and save them to disk if required) before reattempting to exit the program.


Error #012: Utterance <a> is locked

You tried to invoke a command which changes the contents of the specified utterance, but the utterance is locked. To unlock it, use the Edit/List utterances command.


Error #013: Utterance <a> is empty

You tried to invoke a command which requires the specified utterance to contain data, but it is currently empty.


Error #014: No room for more characters

You tried to exceed the limit of 200 transcription characters and 80 transcription clusters for the utterance.


Error #015: No data to rescale to

You tried to rescale the current utterance active window to that of the other utterance, which does not exist.


Error #016: No data to copy

You tried to copy the non-current utterance into the current utterance, but the former does not exist.


Error #017: Calculation abandoned

You have abandoned the generation of a spectrogram for the current utterance. The original file, if any, will be intact.


Error #018: No suitable audio output device found

The program was unable to obtain a suitable output channel for the requested replay command. The error value returned by the Windows Multimedia waveOutOpen() function is given, along with its corresponding error text.

Note that all replay is done using 8-bit PCM data at 22050Hz.


Error #019: No suitable audio input device found

The program was unable to obtain a suitable input channel for recording. The error value returned by the Windows Multimedia waveInOpen() function is given, along with its corresponding error text.

Note that all recording is done using 8-bit PCM data at 22050Hz.


Error #020: Insufficient memory

Insufficient memory is available. If this occurs during program initialisation it causes a hard error and the program does not continue. You should not continue working in Windows if memory is this limited if you can avoid it. If this error occurs but you think you still have plenty of memory, re-booting Windows and starting again will deal with any rogue memory allocations that may have caused the problem.

The error may also occur when copying data to the clipboard or when printing. Printing, particularly of full-page spectrograms to high-resolution printers, may require large amounts of memory. If you cannot make this memory available by closing other applications, have a look at the Printer Setup menu for your printer (using Print Manager) and see if you can print at a lower resolution. It is also possible to increase the virtual memory available to Windows from the 386 Extended applet in the Control Panel.


Error #021: Fatal error in <module/routine> - report to ICS at JAARS

This signifies an internal programming error and should be reported to ICS, noting the module and routine names specified.


Error #022: Malformed, missing or invalid text number at line <n> in WINCECIL.TXT

There is an error in your WINCECIL.TXT file. Check the text at the specified line number to find the problem. If you cannot fix it, rename WINCECIL.TXT to something else so that WinCECIL can still be run.


Error #023: No more room for user-defined text from WINCECIL.TXT at line <n>

The texts defined in your WINCECIL.TXT file require too much space (the maximum is 8000 bytes total for all the texts which are longer than their default versions).


Error #024: Selected region too small

The main and secondary cursors are too close together for the command to be performed.


Error #025: Selected region too large

The main and secondary cursors are too far apart for the command to be performed.


Error #026: Secondary cursor not set

The command, when applied to this frame type, requires the second cursor to be set.


Error #027: Spectrogram already appended

The current utterance was loaded from a file which already has utterance data appended.


Error #028: No file-based spectra

Either the utterance does not correspond to a disk-based utterance file, or there is no spectrogram appended to the file.


Error #029: Clipboard empty or data unsuitable

The current data in the clipboard, if any, is not of the appropriate type for import into WinCECIL.


Error #030: Inappropriate data for filtering

The data in the non-current utterance has already been highpass filtered.