Nuance DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING QUICK START Manual

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Dragon

Quick Start

03-201-40-01

August 1999. Version 4.0.

Dragon Systems® may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. The software is subject to one or more of these U.S. patents: 4,783,803; 4,803,729; 4,805,218; 4,805,219; 4,829,576; 4,829,578; 4,837,831; 4,866,778; 4,903,305; 4,914,703; 5,027,406; 5,202,952; 5,428,707; 5,526,463; 5,680,511; 5,715,367; 5,754,972; 5,765,132; 5,794,189; 5,799,279; 5,809,453; 5,818,423; 5,822,730; 5,850,627; 5,903,864; 5,909,666; 5,915,236; 5,920,836; 5,920,837.

No part of this manual or software may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written consent of Dragon Systems, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and where Dragon Systems is aware of the trademark, the first occurrence of the designation is printed with a trademark (™) or registered trademark (®) symbol.

Dragon Systems, the Dragon Systems logo, and NaturallySpeaking are registered trademarks and BestMatch, Select-and-Say, Vocabulary Builder, and Vocabulary Editor are trademarks of Dragon Systems, Inc.

Corel and WordPerfect are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation.

GoldMine is a registered trademark of GoldMine Software Corporation.

Lotus and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks and Outlook is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

03-201-40-01

Contents

Starting Dragon NaturallySpeaking the first time 1

Welcome 2 Creating a user 2 Selecting a user type 3 Adjusting your microphone 4 Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6

Starting to Dictate 7

Preparing to dictate 7 Dictating 9 What is that small yellow box? 10 How do I add punctuation? 10 How do I start a new paragraph or line? 11 How do I erase the last thing I said? 11 How do I correct mistakes? 12 How do I Select-and-Say to revise text? 21 How do I undo an unwanted change? 22 How do I select the same text again? 22 How do I “unselect” words? 23 How do I go to the end or beginning of the page? 23 How do I capitalize a word? 23 How do I bold, italicize, or underline words? 24 How do I copy text to another program? 25 How do I exit the program? 25 How do I become an expert? 26

Dragon NaturallySpeaking iii

QUICK START

Dragon NaturallySpeaking almost any Windows

lets you talk to

program instead of typing. As you speak, your words are transcribed onto your screen and into your document.

With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can also start programs, open menus, and click buttons by using your voice.

This booklet helps you get started quickly. It describes the steps you need to complete the first time you start the program, and then explains the basics of dictating in “Starting to Dictate” on page 7.

Starting Dragon NaturallySpeaking the first time

Start Dragon NaturallySpeaking from the Windows Start menu.

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The name of your specific product edition (for example, NaturallySpeaking Preferred) appears on your Start menu. The NaturallySpeaking menu may contain other items not pictured here.

The first time you start Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you need to create a “user” before you can begin talking to the computer. A user stores information the program needs to recognize your speech (for example, information about how you pronounce different words).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

QUICK START

Welco me

The New User Wizard guides you through the steps of creating a user. You may be able to complete these steps without difficulty, but if you have trouble you can find answers to common questions in the following sections.

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The “Select user type” step appears only in Dragon

NaturallySpeaking Preferred and Professional.

How long does it take to create a “user”?

Completing the New User Wizard usually takes about 45 minutes.

The step in which you “train” Dragon NaturallySpeaking for your voice may take only a few minutes or up to 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your computer.

While completing the wizard, you can take as many breaks as you want. Just leave the wizard running (and click the Pause button if you’re training the program) and continue when you’re ready.

Creating a user

On the Create User page, enter a name for your user speech files and choose a speech model and vocabulary.

Your speech files store all the information Dragon NaturallySpeaking gathers about you, such as how you pronounce different words and which words you use most frequently.

I don’t know which “speech model” to

choose.

A speech model provides Dragon NaturallySpeaking with acoustical data about the sound patterns that make up different words. The wizard chooses a speech model for you based on your computer’s speed and available memory (RAM). The “BestMatch™” speech models can make the product more accurate but require more computer memory and a faster processor.

We recommend that you accept the speech model the program chooses; however, if you’re age 9 to 15 (or have a high voice), you should select the “Student” version of the recommended speech model. Student models are designed for recognizing higher-pitched voices.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

QUICK START

I don’t know which “vocabulary” to

choose.

A vocabulary consists of the words the program will recognize when you say them and data about how often different words are used. The wizard chooses a vocabulary for you based on your computer’s speed and available memory (RAM). The “BestMatch” vocabularies can make the product more accurate but require more computer memory and a faster processor.

We recommend that you accept the vocabulary the program chooses; however, if you’re age 9 to 15, you should select the “Student” version of the recommended vocabulary. Student vocabularies contain more of the words younger speakers use and different statistics about how often words are used.

Selecting a user type

If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred or Professional, the wizard asks you to select a “user type” to specify how you intend to dictate.

If you’ll be speaking into a microphone connected to your computer, choose “Directly to the computer.”

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

The other option applies when you’re setting up Dragon NaturallySpeaking for use with a portable recorder. If you’re interested in doing this, you can learn how after you become more familiar with the program. See your Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide for more information.

QUICK START

Adjusting your microphone

The Audio Setup Wizard shows you how to position your microphone and tests that your voice can be heard loud and clear.

How should I hold my handheld

microphone?

If you’re using a handheld microphone, here are some tips for positioning it correctly:

■ Hold the microphone one to three inches

from your mouth.

■ Point the microphone at the side of your

mouth, not at the front (so it won’t pick up the sounds of your breathing).

■ If the volume meter (in the Results box

on the screen) turns red, try holding the microphone slightly farther from your mouth.

The next section provides tips for positioning a headset microphone.

Your software package may include a headset microphone or a handheld microphone. The Audio Setup Wizard prompts you to select the type of microphone you’ll be using.

NOTE

should run the Audio Setup Wizard again to recalibrate the computer’s audio settings. (On the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tools menu, click Audio Setup Wizard.)

If you switch to a different microphone, you

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

QUICK START

How should I position my headset microphone?

The pictures below show how to position a headset microphone.

Whenever you talk to your computer, start by making sure your microphone is in the right position.

The side of the microphone that you should speak into may be marked with a colored dot or the word “Talk.”

If you need to move the microphone out of the way, you can lift the “boom” up and over your head, rather than bending it out of position or removing the headset.

If the microphone is out of place, the program won’t be able to hear you as clearly and may make more mistakes.

Position the microphone in front of your mouth and a little off to the side. The microphone should not touch your mouth, but it can be almost touching (about a half inch from your lips).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

QUICK START

TIP

Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking

No two people sound exactly alike, so you have to spend some time training Dragon NaturallySpeaking to understand your pronunciation.

You do this by reading part of a book or a story aloud into your microphone (you can choose from several texts). As you read, the program learns how you pronounce different sounds and saves this information in your speech files.

I’ve read the same word three times, but

the yellow arrow keeps pointing to it.

If you keep reading the same words, and the yellow arrow won’t advance, just click Skip Word .

I can’t get beyond the first screen (“Welcome to the world of continuous speech recognition”).

To advance through the first two screens, you must say the sentences without pausing. For the rest of the screens, it’s okay to pause in the middle of a sentence.

If you still cannot advance, you can try running the Audio Setup Wizard again. Click Cancel to close the training dialog box (and click “Yes” to close without saving changes), and then click Back to return to the Adjust Microphone page. After running the Audio Setup Wizard again, click Next to return to the training program.

▲

A yellow arrow shows you where to start reading.

I made a mistake. What should I do?

Don’t worry. You should try to read exactly what you see on the screen, but it’s okay if you read something incorrectly. The computer will either ignore the mistake or display the yellow arrow so you can read the text again. You can also click Back Up to reread something you misread, but this is not required.

You can take breaks while you’re

training the computer. Just click Pause.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Starting to Dictate

f you’re new to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, read this section to learn the basics. You can also run the Quick Tour to see Dragon

NaturallySpeaking in action. (On the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Help menu, click Quick Tour.)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking can help you write more efficiently, but making it work well requires some effort from you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually learns about your voice and pronunciation as you use it. When you use words the program doesn’t know, it will make mistakes, and you’ll have to stop and correct them.

It may take a while (perhaps even a few weeks) before you feel comfortable and productive using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You can find out more about how to make the program work well for you by reading your Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide.

Preparing to dictate

Follow the steps in this section whenever you want to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking:

1 Start Dragon NaturallySpeaking from the Windows Start menu, if it’s not

already running.

If there’s more than one Dragon NaturallySpeaking user on the computer, the Open User dialog box appears so that you can choose your user name.

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