Abstract: Voice utterances are substituted for manipulation of a pointing device of the kind which is manipulated to control motion of a cursor on a computer display and to indicate desired actions associated with the position of the cursor on the display. Voiced utterances are converted to commands, expressed in a predefined command language, to be used by an operating system of a computer, by converting some voiced utterances into commands corresponding to actions to be taken by the operating system, and converting other voiced utterances into commands which carry associated text strings to be used as part of text being processed in an application program running under the operating system. A table is generated for aiding the conversion of voiced utterances to commands for use in controlling an operating system of a computer to achieve desired actions in an application program running under the operating system.