Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11 End-User Workbook
End-User Workbook (revision 1-9, March 2011) for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11 Most of the material in this workbook applies to all editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11. For details about the different editions, please see www.nuance.com. We welcome comments or questions about this workbook and all aspects of Dragon documentation (Tutorial, User Guide, Tip of the Day, Help menu, Accuracy Center, Performance Assistant, Sidebar, etc.) Please use the Feedback form at www.nuance.
Goals and Prerequisites Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you speak naturally to perform actions such as creating or editing documents, using e-mail, searching your computer, finding on the Internet maps, news, images, and more. By reducing keyboard and mouse usage, you can gain productivity AND avoid strain on your wrists, shoulders, neck, and eyes. This workbook aims to efficiently present what an end-user should know — not every aspect of Dragon (the resources in Dragon’s Help menu and on www.nuance.
Table of Contents Goals and Prerequisites Efficiency and Hands-Free Usage iii iii Table of Contents iv Creating a User Profile 1 About dictation sources, including recorders 3 A first opportunity to adapt your profile’s vocabulary 5 Scheduling Dragon's periodic tasks 5 Before your profile opens — caution with desktop icons 6 Important options: Natural Language Commands and Speed vs.
Automatic Text Formatting During Normal Dictation 35 Numbers Mode -- Dictating Numbers Exclusively 37 Spell Mode -- Dictating Letters, Digits, and Other Characters 37 The Spell Command -- Dictating characters within Normal Mode 37 Correcting Dragon’s Errors in Your Dictated Text 39 The Correction Menu 40 Correcting in the Spelling Window 40 Using Playback to Aid Correction 42 Deferring Correction 44 Saving Recorded Dictation (.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Microsoft Word 66 Special note for Windows XP: turning off CTFMON 66 “Voice Notations” in Microsoft Word documents 66 Commands specific to Microsoft Word 66 Microsoft Word 2007 and the Ribbon 67 Dragon 11 and Microsoft Word 2010 69 Dictating and editing in Microsoft Excel 70 Boosting Productivity with Custom Commands 73 Creating Boilerplate Commands (“Text-and-Graphics” Type) 73 “Cloning” Commands and Adding Name Editor Variables 75 “DragonTemplates”: Boilerp
Creating a User Profile Dragon NaturallySpeaking is speaker-dependent software. To recognize your speech accurately, it must have information including how you sound and what words you use often, as well as what optional settings you have and what audio device(s) you use. The data it uses to recognize what you say is stored in a set of files referred to collectively as your “user profile,” or “profile” for short.
• If your model has a mute switch, make sure it is in the ON position! • Some computers, after you connect a microphone, automatically bring up a small window associated with this “audio system event”. That window may be hidden behind other windows. Before closing this window, verify that what is highlighted on it is the Microphone item (and not the Line In item). Step 2: Launch Dragon (you can double-click its desktop icon).
Version 11 has special acoustic models for a number of broad “accents” (this is particularly important for natives of the UK or the Indian sub-continent). If unsure which one to pick, see the Help. Step 5: You are asked to select your Dictation source. The default is a microphone plugged into the Mic-In jack. If you use a USB adapter on a standard headset, be sure to select USB.
About dictation sources, including recorders The Help provides details on using special dictation sources such as portable devices, and the Hardware Compatibility List on the Nuance website contains specific notes from Nuance’s testing, such as the recommended settings for specific recorder models. The Nuance website also contains resources on recorder usage. Recorders can be particularly useful to transcribe notes dictated after a meeting, class, or field inspection.
similar; click its start button and read aloud. Dragon then verifies that your sound system is acceptable for speech recognition. (For details, see Help and the technotes at support.nuance.com.) Step 7: If you did not choose to skip the initial training reading, Dragon then presents a prompt. Click Go, then say the short sentence displayed. When the “Select Text” box appears, choose one of the texts and click OK.
A first opportunity to adapt your profile’s vocabulary Dragon will then offer to start adapting its Vocabulary. This step is just a basic customization which analyzes the texts in your My Documents folder as well as your sent e-mails. Later, you will be able to designate specific documents for analysis; you do NOT need to copy documents into your My Documents folder in order to have Dragon analyze them! Feel free to skip this basic step.
Before your profile opens — caution with desktop icons The last screen of the Profile Creation Wizard gives you the opportunity to jump straight to Dragon's Tutorial (clicking the Tutorial button on that last screen will close that screen and open the Tutorial). It also contains a link to the Help article about changes between 11 and previous versions (condensed and updated in the What’s New section of this workbook).
Now that your user profile is created, you could start dictating. Before you do, however, we strongly recommend that you take a look at the Tutorial and, if you have used a previous version, the What’s New. Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
It’s also efficient to begin personalizing the Vocabulary as soon as possible, since this plays a crucial role in accuracy and efficiency—this workbook will cover its most important aspects. Key points about getting started with Dragon 11 Each person who wants to dictate with Dragon first needs to have his or her own User profile. Creating one is a short process guided by a series of screens. Profiles from versions 10 and 9 can be upgraded to version 11 thanks to the Upgrade Wizard.
Learning More and Getting Help Dragon NaturallySpeaking offers so many tools, commands, and features that it would be impossible to cover them all in detail in this workbook.
TIP: To save time, you can use the command “search Dragon Help for…” naming the word(s) you wish to search for in the Help: for instance, you could say “search Dragon Help for punctuation and symbols”. Note that the words you name in this command will be considered individually unless you put them in quotes: for instance, you could say “Search Dragon Help for open-quote Firefox commands close-quote.
Step 3: Right-click the Dragon Sidebar. This opens its menu. Note what is available there, including hiding the Mouse tab, hiding the Tips pane, activating Auto-Hide, and printing the content. TIP When a Sidebar pane has the focus, a thin blue line surrounds it. The following illustrations show the Sidebar’s right-click menu, including the monitor switch, and its Mouse tab alongside a Help topic reached from the Sidebar link “Dragging the mouse.” Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
Key points about learning more and getting help This workbook is meant to get you started efficiently. Other resources include the Help, the Sidebar, the Accuracy Center and its Accuracy Assistant, the Performance Assistant, as well as the Nuance website which includes tips, FAQs, and the Knowledge Base of “Tech Notes”.
Why Personalizing the Vocabulary is Important Transcribing a person’s speech presents acoustic challenges, such as accent and ambient noise. There is also a lexical challenge: for the transcription to be precisely accurate, familiarity with the terms used is necessary.
Customizing the Vocabulary—Using the Vocabulary Editor Dragon’s Vocabulary Editor lets you view what can be transcribed from the computer’s active memory; it also allows you to add new entries, as well as edit existing entries—including their Spoken Forms and Properties. Let’s take a look inside the Vocabulary and discover the Vocabulary Editor’s interface: Step 1: Say Edit Vocabulary (you can also use the DragonBar’s Vocabulary menu or the Accuracy Center).
Some of the "words" in the Vocabulary Editor aren't single words. Of course is listed. So is as well as.
The importance of Spoken Forms Radio programs often tell their listeners “let us know how to pronounce your name” because some names could be pronounced in several ways and some are not pronounced “the way they are written” (due to silent letters, for instance). This is true for more than just names. Acronyms are often pronounced letter by letter, but not always: ASAP is pronounced "ay sap" by many people. These facts are addressed by an important Dragon feature: the Spoken Form.
Written Form: Trenton-Mercer Airport Spoken Form: Trenton Mercer Airport Adding Spoken Forms allows you to dictate in the way that is most natural, but also quickest for you. In addition to indicating pronunciation, Spoken Forms can be used for “vocal shorthand” and automatic substitution: you say something short and easy, and Dragon types something longer or “trickier” to say (or to remember). You will many examples in this workbook.
Deleting “Words” and Modifying Word Properties If you find that an item is not transcribed as you would like, remember that it might need a spoken form, or a longer entry in the Vocabulary, and that Dragon may need to learn information about how frequently you use it and next to what words, so it’s useful to let Dragon analyze relevant documents and sent emails, as well as to run the Accuracy Tuning process (see the Accuracy Center).
the ellipsis (…) to NOT trigger capitalization of the next word, the word “figure” to be written as “fig.” when before numbers as in “fig. 3” for instance… IMPORTANT You would also use the Word Properties dialog for the dictation command “new line” if you want it to trigger capitalization of the following word. (See Starting to Dictate.
If a Vocabulary entry you don’t need “competes” for recognition with something you do need to dictate, you can delete that entry from the Vocabulary Editor (for instance, Cassidy and Cassity). To see the words that have been deleted from the vocabulary, you can choose “Deleted words only” from the Display drop-down list.
Importing Lists of Vocabulary Entries You now know how to add words and phrases one by one in the Vocabulary Editor. If you have many entries to add, this is not the most efficient method, particularly if you already have some relevant lists in electronic form. Dragon’s Word Import feature allows adding many Vocabulary entries at once, even if they have Spoken Forms. Observe the sample import list in the illustration below, and identify the motivation behind each entry.
Repeat as necessary with other lists. (You may find it convenient to make several lists, such as a list of friends and relatives, a list of professional contacts, a list of product names, a list of local landmarks, etc.) Step 3: Say import custom words, or use the DragonBar’s Vocabulary menu to pick “Import list of words or phrases.” Step 4: On the Add Words from Word Lists dialog, click the Add File button. The Add File window appears.
Customizing the Vocabulary from Existing Documents You now know about importing lists of entries into the Vocabulary. Another efficient way to boost your accuracy is to let Dragon analyze text that is similar to what you are likely to dictate: the Add Words From Documents tool use many documents at once to “harvest” potential words to add to the Vocabulary, as well as to “adapt to the writing style” (i.e., learn frequency information).
Step 4: On the Add Documents box, click Add Document. On the resulting window, locate and select the relevant document(s), then click Open. TIP You can select multiple files at once by holding down the Ctrl key or by pressing Ctrl A (the Windows keyboard shortcut to “select all”). Dragon will now analyze the text contained in the designated documents. This may take a moment—if there is a lot of text to analyze, you should run this tool when you do NOT need to use Dragon for something else.
Before the words are added, you are given the option to provide acoustic training for them. Feel free to take this opportunity to pronounce them, but know that you can skip this step and provide training later just for those words that seem to need it, as explained in this workbook and in the Help.
Customizing the Vocabulary from Your E-Mail As you learned, Dragon can adapt its Vocabulary based on designated documents. It also has the ability to quickly learn from your usage of several e-mail programs: Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail. By “studying” the e-mails you sent as well as the recipient names, Dragon can identify potentially useful contact names to add to the Vocabulary, as well as adapt its statistical information on word usage (frequency and context).
Key points about customizing the Vocabulary from e-mail: Dragon can quickly adapt its Vocabulary from your use of e-mail in Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail thanks to a tool available in its Vocabulary menu and Accuracy Center: Increase Accuracy From E-Mail. This tool performs two functions: it finds and lists potentially useful contact names to add, and it also analyzes your sent e-mails to “adapt to the writing style”, i.e.
Starting to Dictate: Controlling the Microphone When ready to dictate, you must ensure that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is able to hear you. Your microphone must be connected and positioned correctly of course, but the software also needs to know whether to “listen”. This lesson shows several ways to turn Dragon’s microphone or on off, and introduces the DragonBar. The DragonBar and the Microphone Icon In Version 11, the DragonBar appears by default docked to the top of the screen.
Note: If you set the DragonBar to "Always on top", it will cover secondary Dragon windows, such as the DragonPad and Help screens. For more details (including using voice commands to switch the DragonBar in and out of “Tray Icon only”), see the Help. Remember that you can quickly search Dragon 11’s Help by voice by naming one or more search words or phrases, as in, for instance: “search Dragon Help for DragonBar display.” Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
The DragonBar includes several menus, a message area, and a microphone icon which is horizontal when the microphone is off. If you click this icon, it becomes vertical: the microphone is on. You can now click the icon to turn the microphone off. This is just one way to control whether Dragon can listen or not. Below is a screenshot of the Floating DragonBar, with its titlebar off and the microphone turned on.
Putting the microphone to sleep is useful when you need to "put on hold" Dragon for a moment. However, leaving it in that state for a long time is not recommended, so do turn the microphone off if you will not be dictating for a while (and are physically able to turn on the microphone manually.) TIP You can set Dragon to have the microphone asleep when your profile opens, waiting for your command to “wake up”, so that no manual action is needed to turn the microphone on.
You can turn the microphone off by saying microphone off, but then the mouse or keyboard need to be used to turn it back on. You can say go to sleep or stop listening to put the microphone into a sleeping state and then say wake up or listen to me when you wish to dictate again. Microphone off, stop listening, go to sleep, listen to me and wake up are all voice commands.
Starting to Dictate: Your First Dictation You can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate into virtually any Windows application. Further in this workbook, you will learn how to start programs by voice (but one doesn’t need to have started a program by voice in order to dictate into it.) What you dictate will be inserted wherever your insertion point (cursor) is located in your document.
only”. Once you’ve highlighted new line in the Vocabulary Editor, say or click Properties, then choose “capitalized” from the drop-down list “Format the next word”. The Results Display and its Options Exercise 2: Study the following text sample then dictate it in a blank document. (Ignore any errors for now.) The more I use it, the software will adapt to the way I sound and the words I use.
Exercise 3: Dictate a paragraph of some four sentences on today’s weather. (For now, ignore any errors.) Did you forget to dictate punctuation in this paragraph? It can be harder to remember when we are “composing out loud” but, with practice, it will become second nature. TIP You can take advantage of Dragon’s option to automatically insert commas and periods as you dictate— see Auto-Formatting under the DragonBar’s Tools menu.
Key points for your first dictation: What you dictate is transcribed at the insertion point (the blinking vertical bar), the place where characters would appear if you started to type. (Before you dictate, make sure that the desired window is not just visible, but also has the focus.) To modify how Dragon indicates that recognition is in progress, use the View tab of the Options dialog (to bring up this dialog, you can say "open Dragon options).
Dictating Special Text: Numbers, Dates, Addresses, Units… As you saw in your first dictation, Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically inserts spaces between words. It also follows spacing and capitalization rules: for example, it inserts a space after close quote but none after open quote, and it capitalizes at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs.
TIP By default, Dragon applies its automatic formatting rules even if you pause within the segment (the option “Allow pauses in formatted phrases” lets you turn this off.) If you need to dictate sequences of 7, 10 or 11 digits and do NOT want them formatted as phone numbers, one trick is to say “numeral” just before. Exercise 2: Dictate the following address.
Numbers Mode -- Dictating Numbers Exclusively When you are about to dictate a sequence of numeric data, consider switch on Dragon’s Numbers Mode. When in this mode, the software tries to recognize everything it hears as number-related (or as a command). Step 1: Say numbers mode on or choose Numbers Mode from the DragonBar’s Modes menu. (Notice the status message in the DragonBar.) Now that Dragon is in Numbers mode, you can: • dictate numbers and punctuation (hyphen, dollar sign…).
TIP The Help topic “Spelling Characters” contains the list of possible pronunciations, including the alphabravo-charlie alphabet and accented characters like “n tilde” and “alpha umlaut”. When spelling out, you can also say “oh” instead of “zero”.
Correcting Dragon’s Errors in Your Dictated Text Human beings sometimes can’t recognize words correctly—especially if the speaker and the listener come from different regions, if the speaker is discussing an unfamiliar subject, or if the words are not well articulated. In addition, when we hear a word for the first time, we may not know how to spell it. Some people’s first or last names can be spelled different ways (like Gene/Jean, Hansen/Hanson). We often must verify how a person spells his or her name.
Note that when performing a correction, it can be useful to provide some context for the word(s) in error: for instance, to correct "a" in "sent a request," you may want to say “correct sent a” or "correct sent a request." The Correction Menu By default, when you say a command starting with the word "correct,” Dragon brings up the Correction Menu, which lists alternative transcriptions. (In the example illustrated below, the speaker said “correct Madison.
Here is an example. Let’s say you dictated "contact person colon Madyssen" but Dragon wrote “medicine” instead of the name “Madyssen”. To correct Dragon’s error, you can say correct medicine. The Spelling Window opens. At its top is what was transcribed, and below is a list of alternate transcriptions, each preceded by a number. Here is what you can do: If what should have been transcribed IS among the choices: say choose n (the number of the correct line).
• To spell a capital letter, just say “cap” followed by the letter. • You can use alternate pronunciations to spell letters: “alpha”, “letter alpha”, “letter a”, “bravo”, “charlie”, “delta”, “echo”, “foxtrot”, etc. (see the Help for the full list) • To insert a space, say “space” or "spacebar". • If one of the choices listed is close, you can save time by modifying it: say modify and its number, which brings it to the top of the Spelling window.
The DragonBar can be expanded (click its chevron or say view extras bar; to hide the extras bar, say hide extras or click the chevron again). Its extras bar gives access to several items (depending on your edition): • The Correction button opens the correction interface (as do the Correction commands and hot key). • The playback icons, similar to those on a music player, allow you to begin playback, speed up playback (useful for large sections of text), stop playback, and skip backwards or forward.
If the word(s) you dictated are not in the Spelling Window’s list of choices, you can spell them or type them. You cannot dictate words directly in the Spelling Window. To be sure of what exactly was said, click or say play back. To proofread using playback, first highlight the relevant text, then say play that back, use the DragonBar’s Audio menu, or click the playback icon on the DragonBar’s Extras bar. Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
Deferring Correction You know now that correcting recognition errors helps Dragon NaturallySpeaking adapt to your speech and recognize it more accurately.
The following is an example of third-party correction: Jane has tasked her assistant, Bob, with performing Correction on her dictated documents, using his own computer. IMPORTANT: The dictator’s profile must be accessible from both computers. Copying profiles onto another computer is easy, but if the profiles are in a Roaming configuration, it is not necessary: their Master copy resides on the network, making them usable from any connected computer. Step 1: Jane dictates her reports.
The “Correctionist” must open the speaker’s profile but not speak into it. One can bring up the Correction interface by clicking the DragonBar’s Correction button or pressing the Correction hotkey (by default, the minus key on the numeric keypad). To be used for Correction, the .dra file must be in the same folder as the document itself. Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
Editing Text by Voice Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you use your voice to move around within a document and edit the contents— whether or not that document was originally created by voice. As you learned, the software transcribes your dictation wherever the insertion point is (usually shown as a thin blinking vertical bar some call cursor.) This lesson presents some of the commands to select text and move the insertion point. Mouse and keyboard can still be used, of course.
The select commands let you “highlight” editable text visible on the screen. Below are just some of them.
Full Text Control, “non-standard” fields, and the Dictation Box Commands such as ‘correct ’ and ‘insert after ’, which quote words from the active text field, work thanks to a Dragon functionality called Full Text Control (formerly “Select-and-Say”). This functionality requires the text field to let Dragon be aware of its content—such as where words and sentences begin and end.
2. If you want to dictate something substantial, consider using Dragon’s Dictation Box, an intermediary window containing a text field in which you can create, modify, and correct text as usual, with Full Text Control. (If your edition supports them, you can even use boilerplate custom commands to paste text.) When the text is ready, just say or click the Transfer button: Dragon closes the Dictation Box and transfers your text to where you had the cursor.
Replacing and Inserting Words The select commands are very useful when you wish to change some of the text on your screen. As you would with mouse or keyboard, you select the relevant segment, then you overwrite it—by dictating or typing. For instance, if your text reads "100 Main Street" but you wish to change it to "500 Washington Street", say select 100 Main (pause) 500 Washington.
3) Say select in through week. The words “in Boston for a few days next week” are highlighted. Say in your area on Tuesday. The sentence should now read “I will be in your area on Tuesday…” Let’s say we now want to add a few words inside this paragraph. 4) Observe the insertion point’s current position. Say insert after dinner, then say if you have time. 5) Say insert before exclamation mark (observe the move), then say comma I hope.
At first, uttering the whole command can be tricky for commands that quote words from your text, such as select… through… and insert before…. As usual, deciding what you are going to say before starting to speak is recommended. If you paused mid-command, just say scratch that, pause, and give the complete command again.
Formatting Text by Voice Whether text was originally dictated or typed, Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you use your voice to control font (Arial, Courier…), font style (bold, underline…), font size, alignment (center, right-align…), color, and more. The "X that" Convention Dragon has many commands to tell the computer to perform a certain action on a certain item. Many are phrased as "X that", with X being a verb for the desired action: for instance, italicize that and delete that.
TIP The Command Browser’s Keyword Filter lets you explore additional command wordings for the application(s) you frequently use. For instance, in Word and WordPerfect, you can say “turn bullets on” and “turn bullets off.” The "Format That" Commands Not all formatting commands are worded as "X that", but all follow the same rules about what text the action is performed on: the selection if there is one, otherwise the last utterance (what was said since the last pause.
format that 20 point, format that 12 point, etc. –- gives the selection to the point size specified format that bold italics format that caps bold format that bulleted and plain Exercise: Dictate the following to experiment with giving format commands as you dictate and afterwards. I finally read The Grapes of Wrath. It was TERRIFIC! Although it is long, I read it surprisingly quickly. TIP To undo the last action, say undo that. This is equivalent to Undo in the Edit menu, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl z.
Controlling the Operating System and Applications Dragon NaturallySpeaking can do much more than type and format your dictated text: it lets you start programs, open desktop items, switch between open windows, maximize or minimize windows, choose menu and submenu items, navigate dialog boxes, “voice-click” buttons, “voice-press” keys, move the mouse pointer, and much more, without touching the mouse or keyboard. Of course, when Dragon is running, you can still use your mouse and keyboard.
Opening and Closing Programs and Windows To close the active window, you can say click close. To start a program by voice, you can say start (or open) immediately followed by the name of the application. For instance, start DragonPad, open Internet Explorer, start Notepad, start Paint, or start Windows Explorer. TIP Do you need to say "start Word", "start Microsoft Word" or "start Microsoft Office Word 2007"? In the Start Menu (on your Windows taskbar), look in Programs.
You can also say the following: • “switch to” followed immediately by the name of the desired application, folder, or document: e.g., switch to DragonPad, switch to Lotus Notes, switch to My Computer, switch to DragonBar, switch to winter projects. • switch to previous window to go back to the previously active window. • switch to next window as many times as necessary to cycle through all the open windows (this is equivalent to pressing Alt +Tab).
say “file tab” (or “click file tab”.) For details on Dragon 11’s support for Office 2010, please see the Help (remember that you can search it directly by naming search keywords in a command such as “search Dragon help for open quote office 2010 close quote”) and the resources on www.nuance.com. . TIP By default, some Microsoft applications show only the most-used menu items.
Dragon comes with large sets of commands that let you order actions directly, and in a natural manner, instead of going through menus, submenus, and dialog boxes: for instance, saying “Insert Page Break” in Microsoft Word instead of opening the “Insert” menu, then choosing the submenu “Break”, then the option “Page Break”. Dragon’s Sidebar contains a sampling of these commands (depending on what application is currently active, and what edition of Dragon you have.
Say press Alt Down to open a drop-down list. To undo a keystroke, you can say undo that. Exercise 2: Observe the Find and Replace dialog box below and its controls: tabs, drop-down lists, checkboxes, and buttons. Answer the following questions (think of “voice-typing” as well as “voice-clicking” options), then open a similar dialog in your word processor and practice navigating it by voice.
To click menus, buttons, and other controls, you can “say what you see” (you can choose to say “click” right before, or not.) You can “voice-press” any key by saying press or type followed by the name of the key. Dragon 10 offers commands to search your computer for items containing the keyword(s) you specify (these commands take advantage of the indexing done by software like Google Desktop, which must be running on your computer).
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking with the Internet Below are some commands for common Internet-related tasks. The Command Browser lists many more, and the Help contains a lot of detail about using your voice on the Web and about Web-related Dragon options. TIP Dragon includes commands you can say anytime to perform general Web searches, Web searches in specific categories (maps, news, products, images, videos) or searches in certain specific sites, like Wikipedia.
Say text field or edit box to move the insertion point to the first text field on the screen. If you want to dictate into the next text field, you can say next control. Say click image to click on an image (on the Web, some items may be designed to look like text buttons, but are actually images.) Say click check box to select (or unselect) a check box. Say click radio button to select a radio button (round option button).
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for E-mail Dictating is in itself a great benefit for e-mail usage. For certain e-mail applications, you can go far beyond dictation. This lesson introduces important commands and tips for using Dragon with e-mail. IMPORTANT Users of Lotus Notes, Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail can take advantage of Dragon’s ‘Increase Accuracy From E-mail’ tool to automatically adapt the Vocabulary based on sent emails and to identify names of Contacts.
Commands for within the email program Note: In e-mail commands, you can substitute message, e-mail, or memo for mail. You can start your default e-mail program by saying Start mail.
check for new mail – checks for new mail/opens your Inbox TIP In lists (of messages, of folders…), you can use navigation commands like move down 3, move up 9… As you create e-mails, you can move between fields by hand, by saying Tab or Tab key, or by saying the following (the word field is optional, and you can substitute go for move): move to To [field] – moves the cursor so that you can then dictate the recipient's address move to CC | BCC |Subject [field] move to Body [field] – moves the cursor to th
Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Microsoft Word In “Controlling the Operating System and Applications”, you learned about Natural Language Commands. Since Microsoft Word is an application many people use, this chapter lists built-in commands for this word processor. Corel WordPerfect has similar commands, so it shares the same Dragon Sidebar content. Remember that if your system resources are low, enabling Natural Language Commands could decrease Dragon’s speed.
Many of Dragon’s commands work for both Word 2003, 2007, and 2010, such as: • New file • Save the file. Save file as. • Create a 3 by 7 table • Add page numbers [at bottom left| center | right] • Delete next sentence • Find a word. Find and replace. • Set page orientation to Landscape • Print pages 3 to 7. Print the selection. Print [this] page • View page layout. Change view to print layout. • Zoom to 50 percent. Zoom to full page.
In addition to the Ribbon Interface (which organizes items by tabs instead of menus), Word 2007 introduced new capabilities for which Dragon now offers Natural Language Commands, including the ones below. Note: To click the Office Button (which replaces Word 2003’s File menu), you can say “Office Button.
Blog Post menu • Create a new blog account • Open a blog post • Publish [this/that] post to [the] blog account Mailings menu • Create blank/new envelope/label • How/view/hide merge preview Dragon 11 and Microsoft Word 2010 With Office 2010, Microsoft introduced some changes to the application interface – in particular, the File tab. The other tabs can be accessed by voice by just saying their name, but for the File tab you must say “file tab” (or “click file tab”.
Dictating and editing in Microsoft Excel You can use Dragon to dictate and edit content into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Many Excel-specific commands are built into the higher editions; the Dragon Sidebar window shows some, and the Command Browser lets you discover the full set. In addition, the Help describes commands usable in Excel to fill or hide rows or columns, sort, sum or average values, widen columns, and more (see Help example below.
Full Text Control in Quick Edits You will want to practice entering data into a spreadsheet and navigate around the spreadsheet and within cells, as well as dictate and correct text using commands like “correct ” (see Full Text Control, called Select-and-Say in previous versions). For the exercise below, the content of the spreadsheet is not important. Step 1: Open Excel, say open document and locate the relevant .xls file – or use a blank file. Step 2: Say move to cell C7 (or Charlie seven.
Step 2: Say move right one to move to the next Breakfast entry. Fill in the rest of the row. Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
Key points about editing cells in Excel You can navigate between cells using absolute commands such as move to cell A1 or relative movement commands such as move up one, move right two, etc. If you want to mention a cell in a command (such as move to cell D5 or select cell B3 through cell H3), be sure to say the word “cell”. You can speak the letters as alpha bravo Charlie, etc. instead of A B C.
Boosting Productivity with Custom Commands In previous lessons, you learned various built-in voice commands to perform actions such as formatting text, searching the Internet, creating a new e-mail, creating a new appointment… The higher editions of Dragon also allow the creation of custom commands. There are several types of custom commands; this workbook presents the “Text-and-Graphics” type, which allows you to define boilerplate for Dragon to paste wherever you utter the command.
IMPORTANT: If desired, you can always assign the command to another group later. Since the Sidebar’s MyCommands tab only shows custom commands that are in the User-Defined group, you can choose which commands to display there by making a “clone” of the desired command and assigning it to the User-Defined group. (See this lesson’s section on cloning.) Step 5: In the Content field, enter what you want Dragon to paste when you say your command.
Optional: If desired, format the text entered in the Content field: you can use the buttons (bold, leftalign, center…) below it. Clicking the Aa button opens the Font window, where you can choose the desired font style, size, color, etc. IMPORTANT: In cases where you want the content to match the formatting of what preceded it in your document, check the Plain Text checkbox (see the bottom right of the MyCommands Editor).
“DragonTemplates”: Boilerplate Commands with [Fields] (Higher editions only) Dragon 10 added to the Text-and-Graphics command type a new capability which gives a very simple way to paste a “voice template” containing fillable fields. To create a field in a command’s Content box, click the Variable button at the bottom of the MyCommands Editor. By default, each field appears between square brackets as "[default value]".
To Script (which at that point will be available in the Task pane.) This takes you to the Command Browser’s Script display, which shows all the modifiable commands. Step 6: With your command highlighted, click Edit in the Task pane (or use the Script menu). The MyCommands Editor will open, displaying the command’s attributes and content; you can now edit the command as desired.
To practice, pick your usual word processor in the Context drop-down list, and use the Filter to find commands on items you often use in this application. Key points about custom commands You can quickly create custom commands to insert blocks of text and/or graphics in your documents. This is done in the tool MyCommands Editor, which you can bring up by saying add new command.
Performing Audio Checks and Acoustic Training As described earlier, personalizing Dragon’s vocabulary is a small investment of time that makes a big difference in how accurately the software can work for you. In addition, when misrecognitions do happen, using proper correction technique allows Dragon to learn from its mistakes. In certain cases, you may also want to perform additional acoustic training to improve accuracy.
Step 1: In the Vocabulary Editor, locate the word you wish to train by entering it in the Written Form field. (If you have just added the word, this will not be necessary, as the word will already be displayed at the top of the list.) Step 2: Click the word in the list so it is highlighted, then say or click Train. The Train Words window opens.
IMPORTANT: Try to speak clearly but naturally and read exactly what is on the screen. If the software needs to hear you read something again, a yellow arrow will show you where to resume reading. If necessary, click Pause, then click Go when you are ready to resume.
Creating and Using Multiple Vocabularies Every Dragon NaturallySpeaking user automatically has at least one Vocabulary. The Professional, Legal, and Medical editions of Dragon allow you to have several Vocabularies, although it is relatively rare for a person to need more than two or three. The advantage of having several Dragon vocabularies is being able to customize each one to perform best for very different topics or different styles of dictation.
From there, you can also Export a Vocabulary (to burn it to a CD or save it to a USB drive, for instance). This would allow you to share it with other users; the recipient user would also access the Manage Vocabularies dialog, choose Import and browse for the exported Vocabulary’s .top file. (See the Help for more details.) NOTE: If you have multiple Vocabularies for the same User profile, this will be reflected in the Open User Profile window, which will appear when you start Dragon.
Acoustic and Language Model Optimization Vocabulary customization and proper correction of recognition errors both help Dragon recognize your dictations more accurately. “Accuracy Tuning” is a functionality you can use to further “tune” your profile’s accuracy for your specific usage: • It refines your User profile using the latest acoustic data archived from any corrections and acoustic training you performed.
Step 2: Check the Acoustic and/or Language Model checkbox as desired, then click Go. (Note that Language Model optimization is typically much faster than Acoustic Optimization.) Scheduling the Optimizations—and Data Collection For convenience, Dragon lets you schedule a specific time and frequency for these optimizations.
The Data tab of the Options dialog. Note that it includes the setting for the frequency at which Dragon makes a backup of your profile (by default, Dragon does it every five times your profile is saved). Key points about Acoustic and Language Model Optimization The Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer can automatically “tune” Dragon by making it review all the acoustic data and/or text data it has gathered from your usage.
Copying User Profiles As you learned, each person who uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking creates a User profile, which the software holds in a set of files that contains, among other things, acoustic and lexical data. When you add a personalization to the Vocabulary (spoken form, alternate written form, capitalization property…), correct a recognition error, read a training text, or change an option, Dragon can save these changes in the open profile.
editions), which presents administrative advantages and is particularly useful for people who frequently dictate from different PCs connected to the same network. Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
Practice Exercise: Creating a Memo by Voice Bring up DragonPad or your usual word processor. Using your new dictation and formatting skills, try to create the following document entirely by voice. After you have created the sample signature block shown in the sample below, replace it with your own information. Take this opportunity to practice looking up keywords in the Help to find out more ways to accomplish a particular task.
What’s New in Version 11? Ellipsis (dot dot dot) triggers capitalization of the following word You can modify this default through the Vocabulary Editor’s Properties button. If your usage of ellipsis is mostly for the end of sentences (as opposed to within a sentence), you can keep this default; to handle the cases when you do NOT want the ellipsis to trigger capitalization, you can say “no caps” right after the ellipsis.
dialog box. New Sidebar displays commands and tips An enhancement of the former Sample Commands window, the Dragon Sidebar provides important commands and tips at any time. You can dock it on the left or right side of the screen, set it to auto-hide, or set it to "float" like other windows, place it anywhere, and more. The Sidebar's top pane contains commands, including a tab for mouse commands, and the lower pane contains tips.
with this hardware. See Advanced - Choose Models for details about Advanced settings. Don't Recognize That Word Dragon now enables you, right from the Correction Menu, to prevent certain words from being recognized. For example, if you dictate the name "Cassity" often and Dragon always hears "Cassidy," you can use Don't Recognize That Word on Cassidy. Audio-quality alerts Many misrecognitions are actually caused by poor audio input.
Index accents, 3, 13 Accuracy Tuning, 5, 87, 90, 91, 92 Acoustic Optimization, 5, 91 acronyms, iii, 13, 15 age, 2 audio system event, 2 backup, 92, 96 Boilerplate Commands, 78, 80 choose all, 41 Command Browser, 10, 12, 52, 57, 59, 62, 65, 69, 70, 74, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 Natural Language Commands, 6, 7, 62, 63, 70, 74 nicknames, 15, 44 Office 2007, 61 Options dialog, 6, 7, 9, 28, 31, 35, 36, 42, 44, 96 Outlook, 26, 27, 63, 67, 69 overwriting, 53 paren, 35 pause, 32, 33, 34, 38, 40, 46, 50, 53, 54, 56, 58, 6
Vocabulary Editor, 14, 18, 20, 33, 35, 87 Word Properties, 19, 37, 87, 93 Voice Notation, 70 Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
