Name of application, version and note are fields for administrative purposes.

The designer starts by entering a new group. A group consists of one or more dialogue states which conceptually belong together and are described by the group. A group or a state may be deleted by selecting it and clicking delete.

A group or a state can be moved up or down in the emerging dialogue structure using the arrow buttons.

New states are entered here and unwanted states may be deleted. One can indicate if there is any priority condition for entering the state, grammars needed for this state, and parameters that can be tested in conditions on states or transitions. No grammars are needed if the state does not take input from the user but continues directly to another state.

A state usually has one or more prompts attached. These are entered by clicking edit. This leads to a window where new phrases can be added and one can compose a prompt for the state. The resulting text is then shown here when one returns to this window.

To get from one state to another, transitions are needed. Some transitions are globally enabled when input from the user is expected. These may include e.g. request for repetition and no input registered. A state may have several possible transitions leading to different new states (targets) where the choice of transition depends on the user’s immediate input or on which information has been achieved so far. Transitions may target states or groups of states. In the latter case state conditions will determine which state to enter. Conditions on transitions express what must be fulfilled in order to select them. Transitions may also be accompanied by a prompt e.g. to provide feedback on the user’s input or bridging to the output for the next state.

When there are several global transitions it may pay off to group them together as done here. (Commands) contain user-initiated meta-communication commands, such as help and repeat, while (Events) contain system triggers for meta-communication, such as no input and nothing understood. (Standard) contains default domain value reactions such as price information which the user may request at any time during the dialogue.

Transition information is entered here where clicking on clone will enable the designer to enter a new transition. Transition prompt texts are entered in the same way as state prompt texts.