13.0

Goals and Prerequisites

Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you speak naturally to perform actions such as creating or editing documents,

using e-mail, finding online maps, news, images, and more. By reducing keyboard and mouse usage, you can

gain productivity AND avoid physical strain (on wrists, shoulders, neck, eyes…)

“Speaking to” your computer may feel strange at first. Be patient with yourself! This workbook aims to efficiently

present what an end-user should know. Most importantly, this entails how to “type by voice” efficiently, which

includes:

 Dictating anything: punctuation marks, prices, dates, URLs, phone license plate numbers, abbreviations,

acronyms, Roman numerals, etc.

 Personalizing the Vocabulary with custom words and phrases, pronunciations, capitalization properties

and more, so that Dragon can transcribe exactly what you want even if what you said could be written in

different ways.

 Correcting Dragon’s errors so that it can learn from them.

 Formatting, editing, and revising text (whether or not the text was created by voice).

 And creating custom commands to insert boilerplate text and/or graphics.

In addition, you can learn how to “command and control” your computer by voice, which includes:

 Saying commands to use the Internet and e-mail, search your computer, open programs, click menus and

buttons, close or minimize windows, switch between windows, etc.

 “Voice-pressing” a key (or key combination) on your keyboard.

To perform the exercises in this workbook, you should have basic familiarity with:

 Using Microsoft® Windows® to start or exit applications, open or save files, maximize windows, close

dialog boxes, copy or move items, browse to folders, cut and paste, etc.

 Simple word-processing concepts such as bullets, font size and font style, bolding and italicizing, right-

aligning and centering.

Efficiency and hands-free usage

We strongly recommend going through this workbook in order. (If you are familiar with Dragon, consider reading

the What’s New section first.)

When a lesson directs you to click an item (button, menu…), feel free to instead use your voice, or keyboard

shortcuts (underlined letters, Tab, spacebar…). If hands-free usage is important to you, start by reading the

lesson Controlling the Operating System and Applications and see the Dragon’s Help about MouseGrid and

commands for moving, clicking, and dragging the mouse.

IMPORTANT: Starting the Microphone Check or the Interactive Tutorial automatically turns off Dragon’s

microphone, which means a manual action is then needed to resume using Dragon. If this is a concern for you,

we recommend having someone present when you create or upgrade a profile, or use the Interactive Tutorial or

the Microphone Check.