11.5

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). This capability can be used to give consistency and clarity to your writings; groups can take

advantage of it to help everyone easily comply with recommendations like avoiding abbreviations and

potentially confusable items.

To add a Spoken Form in the Vocabulary Editor:

Step 1: First, decide what you want to say, and what Dragon should transcribe when you say it.

For example, suppose Central Lexington United High School is often called CLUHS or "cluss". Do you

want Dragon to type CLUHS or Central Lexington United High School?

Step 2: In the Written Form field, type what you want Dragon to write. Be careful with its capitalization,

spacing, and spelling — including symbols or punctuation marks if needed, as in E*TRADE.

Step 3: In the Spoken Form field, type what you will actually say. In some cases (as in our “cluss” example),

you will enter one or more “made-up words” to represent the desired sound.

Step 4: Say Add or press Enter. (If you entered a “made-up word” in the Spoken Form field, Dragon brings up a

dialog box to tell you that it doesn’t know that word and will therefore guess its pronunciation — this

gives you a chance to catch any typo you may have made in the Spoken Form.)

Illustrated below are examples of custom words and their spoken forms, seen in the Vocabulary Editor: