Many actions in Express Dictate can be controlled by a hand-held or foot pedal controller. Each button or pedal on the controller can be mapped to a command that is triggered when that button or pedal is pressed.

Foot pedal controllers allow you to trigger commands without removing your hands from the keyboard or mouse, in a more intuitive way than keyboard short-cuts or hot-keys. Hand-held controllers usually contain an in-built speaker and / or microphone, in addition to several buttons, designed to simulate the experience of a traditional hand-held dictation recorder.

See Controllers ~ Compatible Controllers for a list of controllers that are compatible with Express Dictate.

Button or pedal presses on controllers are detected regardless of whether or not Express Dictate is in the foreground or has focus. The controller will continue to function even when Express Dictate is minimized, or while using a document in another application.

The "active controller" is the controller that has been configured for use.

See Foot Pedal and Hand-Held Controller Setup Guide and Options ~ Controller for information about configuring the active controller.

Note that if the active controller is unplugged and moved to a different port, it will no longer be detected as the active controller. You must either reconnect the controller to the original port, or run the Controller setup wizard again.

An icon representing the status of the active controller appears on the right-hand side of the status bar. The icon has four possible states:

Hover the mouse cursor on top of the status icon for a text description of the controller status.

If the controller feature is enabled but no active controller is configured, a message may appear in the notification tray area when you attach a plug and play controller. Click on this message to launch the Controller setup wizard and configure it as the active controller.