11.5

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. Mouse, keyboard, and voice are

just three input options. Use whatever is fastest and easiest for a given task.

Let’s start with a frequent task made fast and easy thanks to Dragon: searching your computer.

Keyword-Searching the Computer

Available in the higher editions, the “Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Desktop Search” help speed up a process many

of us go through often: finding information that we know is somewhere on our computer!

At any time, no matter what application is currently active on your screen, these commands let you launch a

search for items containing the keyword(s) you specify. They use indexing software including Google Desktop

(freely downloadable from Google’s website).

They have flexible wordings (the Command Browser lets you see all the possible ways to say them) and can be

general (“search computer for <xyz>”-- <xyz> being any word or words), or specific:

• Search emails for <xyz>: searches for the keyword(s) <xyz> in just the e-mails indexed on your

computer

• Search [the] documents for <xyz>: searches just the indexed files

• Search [the] history for <xyz>: searches just the indexed Web pages visited