Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11.5 End-User Workbook Please see the card that comes in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking box. It includes important notes about installing Dragon, as well as reference tables for punctuation and other special characters, numeric data, and commands.
End-User Workbook revision 3, April 2012 for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11.5 Most of the material in this workbook applies to all editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5. Unless indicated otherwise, the screenshots are from the Professional Edition. For details about the different editions, please see the feature matrix on the Nuance website.
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 maps, news, images, and more. By reducing keyboard and mouse usage, you can gain productivity AND avoid physical strain (on wrists, shoulders, neck, 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 ......................................................................................................................................................... iii Efficiency and Hands-Free Usage ........................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................
New Line and New Paragraph ................................................................................................................................. 36 The Results Display and its Options ....................................................................................................................... 37 Dictating Special Text: Numbers, Dates, Addresses, Units… ...........................................................................................
The Shortcut Commands for Social Media ............................................................................................................ 70 Navigating to and within a Web page ................................................................................................................... 70 Accessing a specific item on a Web page ............................................................................................................. 71 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for E-mail ...........
Getting Started and Creating a User Profile This workbook assumes that Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 is now installed on your computer. Note: If you want to test your microphone independently of Dragon, you can use Sound Recorder, a Windows accessory accessible from the Start menu. You may also wish to check the Sound section under Control Panel. If you use a microphone that connects through a USB port on your computer, we suggest you plug it in before starting Dragon.
You may also wish to check the audio settings at the level of Windows: see the “Recording devices” section of the Control Panel. This is accessible by right-clicking the loudspeaker icon on the System Tray. Note: In the example illustrated here, both a USB and a Bluetooth (Plantronics BT300) are available, and so is the laptop’s built-in array microphone – but use of built-in microphones with Dragon is not recommended because their quality varies.
Some computers, after you connect a microphone, automatically bring up a small window associated with this “audio system event”. (The 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). Some computers offer several places to plug in your microphone, for instance, on the back and on the front. If you get poor results with one, consider the other(s).
The next screen gives you an opportunity to choose from a number of broad accents. If unsure which accent to pick, see the Help. Note: Dragon will later adapt to the sound of your voice, as you dictate more and more and run the Accuracy Tuning process. Step 3: On the next screen, indicate which type of Audio Source you are about to use. (Note: The lower editions of Dragon do not support all the source types, and do not support having multiple sources in one profile.
About audio sources, including smartphones and recorders The Help and the Nuance website contain details on using special audio sources such as a Bluetooth wireless microphone or a smartphone used as a wireless microphone over Wi-Fi. (Note: wireless use is a feature of editions Premium and higher). The Hardware Compatibility List on the Nuance website contains specifics from Nuance’s testing, such as the recommended settings by model.
Some digital recording devices come with special software to manage recordings (including transferring them to a computer and converting their format if necessary). Check your device’s documentation and take the steps required to set up your device, including installing the software it may require.
Step 5: If you did not choose to skip the initial training reading, Dragon then presents a short prompt; click Go, then read it aloud. When the “Select Text” box appears, choose one of the texts and click OK. (If later you wish to read another text to further train Dragon, you can do so from the DragonBar’s Audio menu, or from the Accuracy Center.) The following describes the default “General Training” process, which presents the text one prompt at a time.
Once Dragon has heard enough, it takes a moment to process the acoustic information you just provided. Profile creation is now almost complete! A first opportunity to adapt your profile’s vocabulary Dragon will then offer to start adapting its Vocabulary. This step is just a basic initial customization which analyzes texts in your My Documents folder as well as e-mails sent from your installed email program, if any. (Later, you will be able to designate specific documents for analysis.
Before your profile opens — caution with desktop icons The last screen of the Profile Creation Wizard contains a link to the Help article about changes between this and previous versions (condensed in the What’s New section of this workbook). IMPORTANT: By default, the Dragon Sidebar (a thin resizable window that presents commands and tips) is set to open automatically, docked to the right, when a user profile opens.
Important options: Natural Language Commands and Speed vs. Accuracy After you create your profile, the program may present you with a special message if it determined that your computer’s characteristics wouldn’t allow optimal performance. This message informs you that Dragon has adjusted the defaults for two of its options as follows: The Speed versus Accuracy slider was moved toward speed. The Natural Language Commands for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Corel WordPerfect were disabled.
Key points about getting started with Dragon 11.5 Each person who wants to dictate with Dragon needs to have his or her own User profile. Creating one is a short process guided by a series of screens. Profiles from versions 11, 10 and 9 can be upgraded to version 11.5 thanks to the Upgrade Wizard. (After upgrading such a profile, we recommend running Accuracy Tuning), Make sure your microphone is properly connected and positioned, and the appropriate audio source is selected.
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.
You can use the Help window’s Table of Contents, Index, and Search tabs. For instance, entering the word “punctuation” in the Search field brings up topics including “Dictating punctuation and symbols” and “Selecting characters and words.” Note: like in search engines, you can indicate phrases by putting quotation marks around them. From the Help window, you can also print articles of your choice or mark them as favorites.
Step 1: Open the Dragon Sidebar. Voice commands for this include open Dragon Sidebar, show Dragon Sidebar, and what can I say. You can also use the DragonBar’s Help menu. Step 2: Explore the Sidebar and adjust it to suit your preferences. You can make it very thin (doing so may hide some of its content, such as the top-right icons). If you don’t need to use mouse commands, we suggest hiding its Mouse tab.
The Tutorial The Tutorial is available from the DragonBar’s Help menu. You can go through it from start to finish, using the Next link, or you can jump directly to the sections that interest you most. Note: When the Tutorial opens, Dragon automatically turns off its microphone. The Dragon User's Guide The latest User's Guide is available as a PDF on the Nuance website alongside other resources.
Beyond these resources, consulting an experienced Dragon trainer for specific guidance and customizations can be particularly efficient for users who have special environments, workflows, equipment, or challenges (for instance, challenges related to motion, vision, or speech fluency.) Now that you know how to access many resources, let’s learn the most important aspects of using Dragon, starting with an often-overlooked but crucial one: personalizing your profile’s Vocabulary.
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).
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Marine Corps, Library of Congress, Babe Ruth, Accounts Payable, George Washington, Johnson & Johnson, Division I, LAN Server… These help the software resolve spelling and capitalization ambiguities: if the Vocabulary didn’t contain the phrase Mother Teresa, dictating it would probably produce the transcription "mother Theresa"—because the word mother is usually not capitalized, and because Theresa is the more common spelling of the name.
always: ASAP is pronounced "ay sap" by many people. These facts are addressed by an important Dragon feature: the Spoken Form. From the Display drop-down list of the Vocabulary Editor, choose “Words with spoken forms only.” Take a moment to scroll through and look at existing spoken forms; you will get ideas for what kinds of entries warrant them and how they can be written. TIP Vocabulary entries may have more than one spoken form.
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).
Deleting “Words” and Modifying Word Properties If you encounter a word or phrase that Dragon does not transcribe as you would like, remember that it might warrant a spoken form or longer entry in the Vocabulary and Dragon may need to learn about how and how frequently you use it therefore you want to have Dragon analyze relevant text and run Accuracy Tuning (see the Accuracy Center).
For example, you may want: the spelling “colour” instead of “color”, the spelling “email” instead of the hyphenated “e-mail”, the abbreviation “fig.” instead of the word “figure” just before numbers, as in “fig. 3”, the title Professor instead of its abbreviation. The Help contains more details. In particular, take a look at the Help topics “The Vocabulary Editor Dialog Box,” “Deleting words,” and “The Word Properties dialog box.
Key points about the Vocabulary Editor and Properties You can access the Vocabulary Editor with a command like edit vocabulary, through the Accuracy Center, or through the Vocabulary menu of the DragonBar. In the Vocabulary Editor, custom-added entries are marked with a red plus sign; choosing Custom Words Only from the Display drop-down list allows you to see just the custom entries. You can locate an item by entering it in the Written Form field.
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.
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. Locate the file containing your list and click Open; the name of the file you designated is now displayed in the File List. If you have other lists to import, add their files in the same way. Step 5: Click Next. The software will import the listed items into the Vocabulary.
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.
Finally, Dragon will adapt its word-frequency and context information based on the text analyzed (unless you unchecked the box “Adapt to writing style” on the first screen of this tool); this will allow it to better choose between words that sound alike. Key points about customizing the Vocabulary from documents: Add Words From Documents is accessible from the DragonBar and Accuracy Center.
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.
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. To set this option by voice, say “open Dragon options” then “click Miscellaneous” then “click Have the microphone on but asleep.
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.
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.
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. The Help contains details about this “Natural Punctuation” option and the commands to turn it on and off. IMPORTANT: The location and behavior of the Results indicator can be customized from the Options dialog’s View tab.
screen, you can "anchor" it (check the “Anchor” checkbox, then close the Options dialog and drag the indicator to the desired place). You can also change how long it remains on the screen. Speaking in longer, continuous phrases provides contextual clues and thus helps Dragon choose between homophones like “right” and “write” or “to” and “two”. Punctuation is part of the dictation context—it has an impact on recognition accuracy.
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.
Exercise 2: Dictate the following address. For the line containing the zip code, just say Oakland California 9 1 2 3 5; Dragon automatically uses the postal abbreviation for the state, and precedes it with a comma. 127 Evergreen Terrace Oakland, CA 91235 Exercise 3: Dictate the following dates. (Dragon automatically formats when you say, for instance, “Monday July 16th 2009”. Tip: You can change the default date format to one of the many formats offered on the Auto-Formatting options dialog.
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…). For decimal point, say dot or point. say new line, new paragraph and space say move up|down|left|right to move the focus in your document’s lines or cells.
Exercise 7: Dictate “access code: 75Zq/7”, then practice with similar sequences of your choice. (Pause briefly after the colon, then say “spell 7 5 cap zee cue slash 7”. Try to not pause at all during the sequence; if you paused, just resume by saying “spell” immediately followed by the rest of your sequence.) Key points about dictating numbers and special text Dragon can format dates, times, prices, street addresses, phone numbers, Web addresses, units of measure, and other special text automatically.
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). Often, we must verify how a person spells his or her name.
IMPORTANT: In Dragon’s commands, represents the relevant segment on the screen (which could be one or more words, and could include numbers or punctuation marks). When you give the ‘correct ’ command, be sure to say what appears on the screen, not what you had intended. 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.
With this option set, saying commands that start with “correct” opens the Spelling Window. (So does using the Correction button on the expanded DragonBar, so does pressing the Correction hotkey—the numeric minus by default, as seen in the Options dialog). As you will see, there are many ways to indicate in the Spelling Window what should have been recognized—including typing, or spelling out individual characters, hence the name “Spelling Window.” Here is an example.
The Spelling Window then closes and, in your text, Dragon replaces the misrecognized segment with what you indicated was the correct transcription. Note: In addition to adjusting your document, Dragon also learned a bit of information to refine your profile, and if you entered in the Spelling Window a word that was not in its active vocabulary, Dragon has now added that word to its active vocabulary (you could now see that word in the Vocabulary Editor).
If you see that a certain word or phrase appears incorrectly, use the correct command to open the Spelling Window. Once it appears, click or say Play Back to hear the recording of your voice as you dictated that text. It may be that in fact you had misspoken or mumbled; this happens to everyone, particularly near the end of the day! In that case, close the Spelling window (you can say click cancel) and dictate the word(s) again. TIP You can have playback occur automatically with Correction.
Key points about correcting recognition errors Refining your profile using the features gathered in the Accuracy Center can prevent many recognitions errors, because it helps Dragon become familiar with how you sound and what words and phrases you use often. Be sure to explore the Vocabulary Editor and add words and phrases (with Spoken Forms and/or Word Properties such as alternate written forms, as warranted).
Deferred Correction (editions Professional and above) As you have learned, correcting recognition errors helps Dragon NaturallySpeaking adapt your profile, which allows it to transcribe more accurately for you.
Step 3: When you are ready, start the application in which you dictated the document and open the document. You can now use Playback and correct as usual. Once you have finished correcting misrecognitions in your dictated document, you may delete the associated .DRA file. (You will no longer be able to use playback on this document but you will still be able to edit and format the text.) IMPORTANT When using a .dra file, it is best to proceed in order, from the top of the document.
If not quite sure of what Jane actually said, he clicks Play Back to hear her recorded voice. If the input is not “clean” (people sometimes make unintended sounds, stumble on a word…), he clicks Cancel and deletes the misspoken segment in the document before typing what was intended. If the correct alternate appears in the choice list, he clicks it with his mouse then clicks OK. If the correct choice does not appear in the list, he types it in, then clicks OK or presses Enter.
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. (This position is usually shown as a 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.
Note: You can use similar commands to delete (delete line, delete next three words…) and copy (copy line, copy rest of line…) You can also select the entire content of the field or document: select all. You can “unselect” a selection by saying unselect that or deselect that. (Another way is to move the insertion point with a move right command, for instance.) TIP As with all commands, you must say these as a continuous phrase, with a brief pause before and after.
Remember in particular the possibility of unintended recognition of cut and delete , especially if you dictate without looking at the screen. If you prefer to avoid this risk, disable these commands by clearing their checkbox on the Commands tab of Dragon’s Options dialog.
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. To open the Dictation Box, you can: Say a command such as ‘Open Dictation Box’ Use the DragonBar’s Tools menu Use its hot key: Ctrl+Shift+d There is a lot of flexibility around the Dictation Box.
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.
Edit the third sentence so it reads "on this important project". Edit the third sentence so it reads "by early February", and insert a blank line after it. Change the fourth sentence to “Could you please write up your notes and email them to me ASAP?” Edit the salutation, changing "Ms. Cooper" to "Allison". Edit the last sentence, removing "really", and add a closing line of "Sincerely, Susan Martinez".
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. Note: In order to preserve your train of thought, it’s a good idea to prioritize dictation over formatting: first dictate your document (or at least finish dictating your paragraph, list, or idea), then revise your text if needed, and only then apply formatting.
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 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.
Note: These Desktop search shortcuts, like the Web search shortcuts, can be disabled or enabled on the Commands tab of Dragon’s Options dialog. Opening and Closing Programs and Windows You can use your voice to open any item present on your desktop (including files, folders, and shortcuts): just say open followed by the item’s name. For instance, to open an item called “winter projects”, you could say open winter projects.
Say list all windows then say (or press) the number of the desired window. Note: particularly if many windows are open, you may wish to specify an application: say list windows for , for instance: list windows for Internet Explorer. Say “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.
directly by naming search keywords in a command such as “search Dragon help for open quote office 2010 close quote.”). . TIP By default, some Microsoft applications show only the most-used menu items. For optimal voice usage, consider changing this default. (This may be located in the application’s Tools menu: open the Customize dialog and check the box “Always show full menus.”) Menu items often open dialog boxes, which may contain controls such as buttons, checkboxes, tabs, and radio buttons.
1. Open Dragon’s Options dialog, then its View tab. 2. Select and unselect the radio buttons and checkboxes for the DragonBar. 3. Restore the defaults.
“Voice-Pressing” Keys At times, you may wish to press a key or two on your keyboard; you can use Dragon to “voice-press” them. TIP Common accelerator keys for Windows operating systems include: Esc to close a window, Enter to active the item which has the focus, Tab to move the focus forward, and Shift Tab to move the focus backward.
Key points about controlling your computer by voice You can open an application (or desktop item) by saying start or open immediately followed by the name of the application (or item). You may want to provide easy names for these items. You can switch between windows with commands like switch to DragonPad, switch to next window. To click menus, buttons, and other controls, you can “say what you see” (you can choose to say “click” right before, or not.
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking with the Internet What you can do on the Web with Dragon 11 depends on what Web browser you use. A key difference between Internet Explore and Mozilla Firefox is that Dragon doesn’t have Full Text Control in Firefox. Below are some commands for typical Web-related actions. The Command Browser lists many more. Be sure to see the Help for details about using your voice on the Web and about Web-related Dragon options.
The Shortcut Commands for Social Media Dragon 11.5 introduces commands to quickly post to Facebook or Twitter. Just select some text you dictated or some text in an editable document, then say "Post that to Facebook," "Post that to Twitter," or "Tweet that." You can also append dictation directly to your command, as in the Web search shortcuts: "Post to Facebook ," "Post to Twitter ," or "Tweet ," where represents something you dictate along with the command.
Say page down or start scrolling down to see more of the web page. (You can then say stop scrolling.) Say add a new tab, open new tab, switch to previous tab, close tab… Say next frame, previous frame, next pane… Say click close or press Escape to close a popup window. Accessing a specific item on a Web page These commands require the setting "Enable commands in HTML windows," which is on by default and can be found on the Commands tab of the Options dialog.
Say click 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. (Note: on the Web, some items may be designed to look like text 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 should take advantage of Dragon’s ‘Increase Accuracy From E-mail’ tool, which adapts the Vocabulary based on sent emails, as well as identifies Contact names to add.
Commands for your installed 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.
TIP: In Microsoft Outlook, you can also use your voice to move the selected email to a particular folder: When working in a message, you can move between its 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 the body of the e-mail so that you can dictate the
the particular settings you have in your browser or your Web application, and what browser (and what version of that browser) you use. In Mozilla Firefox, Dragon doesn’t have Full Text Control For Google Chrome, Dragon doesn’t have Full Text Control, browser commands such as “go to address”, or ability to click links by saying their name.
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 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.
Note: To click the Office Button (which replaces Word 2003’s File menu), you can say “Office Button.
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”.) For details on support for Office 2010, please see Dragon 11’s Help and website resources. Note for Windows 7 users: In Windows 7, WordPad has an unnamed button instead of a File menu. To click it, you can say “application menu”.
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.
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.
Step 5: In the Content field, enter what you want Dragon to paste when you say your command. (You may find it helpful to enlarge or even maximize the Editor’s window so that a larger Content field is visible.) TIP If the text you want already exists in electronic form, you can save time: highlight the desired segment in the original document, then say “make that a command”. Dragon will automatically open the Editor and paste the selection in the Content field.
Step 6: Once the command is named, edited, described, grouped, and formatted as you want it, click Save. Let’s test your command. Say start DragonPad, then say your command’s name. (Commands you create yourself follow the usual rule: you must pause before and after, but not in the middle!) You may realize now that you could make your command even more convenient: for instance, by adding a blank line before the content so your pasted content automatically starts as a new paragraph.
After saying the command name, which pastes the “DragonTemplate”, you can: type or dictate a specific value in each placeholder —> The placeholder is overwritten, and delimiters are removed. accept the default value —> Delimiters are NOT automatically removed; you can say "clear variable delimiters". To navigate a DragonTemplate’s Fields, you can select the desired Field with the mouse, or use the voice commands "Next Field" or "Previous Field.
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. Remember: the Description field is useful for entering comments such as where and when the command should be used, or reminders like “make variations of this ASAP” or “change this after we move”.
Key points about custom commands In the higher editions, 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. If the boilerplate text already exists in an electronic document, you can copy and paste it into the MyCommands Editor’s Content box, or say make that a shortcut.
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 2: Click the word in the list so it is highlighted, then say or click Train. The Train Words window opens. Are you ready? (If you need to clear you throat, do it first!) Click Go, and read the prompt in your normal speaking voice, as if you were saying this word in the middle of a sentence. Step 3: You may have to wait a second for this acoustic information to be incorporated -- be patient! Then you can say or click Done to close the Train Words window.
Key points about acoustic training In general, the best thing you can do to make Dragon recognize your speech even better is to use the software regularly, personalizing the Vocabulary (editing Spoken Forms or Word Properties as warranted, designating specific documents for Dragon to analyze, running or scheduling the Accuracy Tuning process…) and correcting misrecognitions as warranted.
Using Multiple Vocabularies (editions Professional and up) Every Dragon NaturallySpeaking user automatically has at least one Vocabulary. Editions Professional and above, allow you to have several Vocabularies. The advantage of having several Vocabularies is being able to customize each one to perform best for very different topics or styles of dictation. (It is relatively rare for a person to need more than three or four.
automatic process may take a while, and is not as powerful and targeted as the other vocabulary tools. You can choose Cancel, then customize your new vocabulary using what you learned in previous lessons. Remember that designating documents for Dragon to analyze is particularly important for good accuracy, in addition to adding written forms and spoken forms to the vocabulary… (see the Accuracy Center).
The Open User Profile window also shows the different dictation source(s) that may be available for the User profile(s) present on your computer. You can pick the line containing the Vocabulary (as well as User Profile and Source, if applicable) you wish to open. Key points about multiple Vocabularies If you dictate on two or more very different topics, using different customized Vocabularies will maximize your recognition accuracy (in supported editions).
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 has two aspects: It can refine your User profile using the latest acoustic data archived from any corrections and acoustic training you performed.
Step 2: Check the checkbox for Acoustic Optimization and/or Language Model Optimization as desired, then click Go. Note: 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.
In addition to Accuracy Tuning, Dragon allows you to enable and schedule another periodic task: the automatic sending of anonymous data on your usage of Dragon (such as which optional settings you have, which commands you use often, how often you make corrections, which language you use, which processor is on your computer, what version and edition of Dragon you have), over the Internet.
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 Scheduled Tasks Acoustic and Language Model Optimization can automatically “tune” your profile by “reviewing” the acoustic data and/or text data it has gathered from your usage of Dragon so far.
Copying or Transferring a User Profile 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.
Practice Exercise: Creating a Memo by Voice Open DragonPad or another supported 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 signature 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 11.5? If upgrading from a version prior to Dragon 11, please also see What's New in Dragon 11, below. Reminder: The Feature Matrix, available on the Nuance website, lists the feature differences between the editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Improved User Profile Upgrade wizard: The wizard makes it easier to see how many profiles will be updated.
Link to Support: The DragonBar's Help menu now includes a direct link to the Web page for Nuance Customer Service and Support. Updated application support: Internet Explorer 9 commands are added for using the One Box (which combines Web address entry and the search box) and for pinning shortcuts to Web pages to the Windows Start menu. After Dragon 11 introduced support for OpenOffice.org Writer 3.1 and 3.2, Dragon 11.5 extends that support to 3.3.
Modes Words Audio Sound Help (includes Accuracy Center) Help Note: To access the DragonBar menus by voice, say "Switch to DragonBar" then the menu name. Once a menu is open, you can open any of its items by saying its name. Dragon's control menu, accessible by clicking the Dragon logo to the left of the microphone icon, provides clearer choices (Docked to Bottom, Floating…) and direct access to the Dragon Options. The former "Close" choice is now labeled "Exit Dragon.
New Results Display, and the former Results Box When dictating, there’s no need to wait for Dragon to “catch up” with you — dictating in long phrases allows Dragon to transcribe more accurately than dictating slowly and with numerous hesitations. As you speak, Dragon 11 indicates that it is processing by displaying a small Dragon logo at your insertion point, and when you pause, your dictated words appear in your document.
Dragon 11 includes enhancements to the Command Browser that make it faster to use filter the display of commands by keywords. Also, to shorten the list of commands displayed for specific contexts, Global Commands are omitted by default. You can easily include them in the list by selecting the check box for "Include Global" on the Command Browser toolbar.
Index abbreviation, 22 Office 2007, 66 accents, 3, 16 Options, 38, 39, 40, 41, 49, 51, 56, 57, 60, 65, 67, 68, 73, 75, Accuracy Tuning, 7, 94, 98, 99, 100, 102 Options dialog, 9, 12, 32, 35, 40, 46, 49, 109 Acoustic Optimization, 7, 99 Outlook, 30, 31, 69, 75, 77 acronyms, iii, 16, 18 paren, 39 audio system event, 2 pause, 36, 37, 38, 42, 44, 50, 55, 58, 59, 61, 63, 66, 88 backup, 101, 109 phone number, 41, 42, 44 Boilerplate Commands, 86, 88 punctuation, 5, 6, 13, 19, 20, 24, 37, 39, 43, 44,
Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc.
