12.0

Controlling the Operating System and Applications

Dragon NaturallySpeaking can do much more than type and format your dictated text: it lets you use your voice

to find information, open a specific website, start programs, open desktop items, switch between open

windows, maximize or minimize windows, choose menu and submenu items, navigate dialog boxes, click

buttons, press keys, move or drag the mouse pointer, and more.

Note: If using Windows 8, keep in mind that this operating system introduced some significant interface

changes (such as the “modern” full-screen interface) and Dragon is designed to work primarily in this system’s

“desktop” (“classic”) interface. See this lesson’s section on Windows 8.

IMPORTANT When Dragon is running, it does not inhibit the use of your mouse and keyboard. Mouse,

keyboard, and voice are just three input options. Use whatever is fastest and easiest for you 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 we thinkis somewhere on our computer but don’t know exactly

where!

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

search for items containing the keyword(s) you specify. They use indexing software such as 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, as follows:

• 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