Nuance ScanSoft Dragon Dictate - 2.5 User Manual

Nuance Communications, Inc.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Installation and Making a Voice Prole 3

Initial Installation 4

Creating a Voice Prole 9

Microphone Setup 13

Voice Training 15

Interface 23

The Proles Window 23

Using the Dragon Remote App as a Microphone 24

Setting Up the Dragon Remote App 25

The Status Window 30

The Available Commands Window 30

The Dock Menu 31

The Status Menu Item 31

Keyboard Shortcuts 31

Speech 32

Modes and the Microphone 33

Microphone Off and On 34

Sleep Mode 36

Learning and Switching Modes 37

Dictation Mode 39

What You Can Say in Dictation Mode 39

Navigation and Editing Commands 41

Capitalization, Spacing, and Numbers 44

Title Case 44

Uppercase 45

Lowercase 45

Spaces 46

Numbers 46

Letter Names in Dictation Mode 52

Letters 52

Diacritical Letters 54

Ligatures and Non-Latin Letters 55

Dictionary Denition 56

Document Search 56

Auto Formatting 57

Addresses 58

Street Addresses 58

Web and Email Addresses 58

Phone Numbers 58

Abbreviated Titles 59

Date & Time 59

Numbers 60

Prices and Currencies 60

Units of Measure 61

Social Security Numbers 61

All Other Numbers 61

Miscellaneous 62

Proofreading 63

Spelling Mode 64

What You Can Say in Spelling Mode 65

Letter Names in Spelling Mode 65

Letters 65

Diacritical Letters 67

Ligatures and Non-Latin Letters 68

Numerals 68

Numbers Mode 69

Punctuation 71

Mouse Control 85

Commands 88

Global Commands 89

Voice Shortcuts 95

The Web 100 Commands 96

Key Commands 96

How to Say a Key Command 97

Generated Commands 99

Launching Applications 99

Email Messages 99

Application-Based Commands 101

Dragon Dictate Commands 102

Finder Commands 106

TextEdit Commands 111

Safari Commands 116

Mail Commands 123

iChat Commands 134

iCal Commands 134

Facebook/Twitter Commands 139

Windows 144

Note Pad Window 144

Proles Window 146

Commands Window 148

Command Types 151

Creating a Command 152

Vocabulary Editor Window 154

Microphone Setup Window 158

Voice Training Window 159

Vocabulary Training Window 160

Status Window 162

Available Commands Window 164

Recognition Window 166

How to Train 168

Preferences Window 170

General Preferences pane 170

Appearance Preferences pane 172

Recognition Preferences pane 173

Dictation Preferences pane 175

Command Preferences pane 175

Shortcuts Preferences pane 176

Sharing Preferences pane 176

Menus 178

Dictate Menu 178

File Menu 178

Edit Menu 179

Speech Menu 181

Tools Menu 181

Format Menu 182

Window Menu 182

Help Menu 183

Tips on Speaking 185

The Cache and the Golden Rule 187

Two Ways of Working 187

Text and the Cache 188

The Golden Rule of Dragon Dictate 189

Why Note Pad and TextEdit Are Special 189

Extra for Experts 189

Cache Commands 190

Cache 190

Purge 192

Note Pad Windows and the Cache 193

Sound Input Troubleshooting 194

What’s Installed Where 196

Credits 197

Introduction

Dragon Dictate is a speech recognition application. This means that you, the user, speak into a microphone and Dragon Dictate interprets your speech as actual

words. It can then respond to those words. It can respond in one of three ways:

• It can interpret your words as a command, in which case it will obey the com-

mand. For example, you can tell Safari to select a link in the text of a page

1IntroductionDragon Dictate

you’re viewing, by saying to the linked page, as if you had clicked that link with the mouse, by saying

Jump to This Link

• It can interpret your words as dictation, in which case it will type what you

said, at the insertion point or selection in the frontmost application. For ex-

ample, you can place the insertion point at the start of a new empty word

processing document and say

will type: Good morning. You can also ask Dragon Dictate to read your words

back to you by saying

Selection

other.

How does Dragon Dictate work? It isn’t magic or mysterious. Behind the scenes, Dragon Dictate interprets the words you speak using a powerful and highly accurate speech recognition engine with an extensive, exible vocabulary. To obey your

commands or type your dictation, Dragon Dictate uses a combination of technologies built into Mac OS X, such as Accessibility and AppleScript.

, or by telling Dragon Dictate to read from one word through an-

Move to Next Link

Mouse Click

Good morning, period

Read Document,

; then you can tell Safari to go

, and Dragon Dictate

by selecting text and saying

Read

You can get up and running with Dragon Dictate very quickly, but you will have some preparation to do beforehand, and you will have some learning to do as you go along. Here’s why:

PreParation. Before Dragon Dictate can interpret your speech, you must

provide a sample of your speech, so that Dragon Dictate knows what your voice sounds like and how you pronounce your words.

Learning. Dragon Dictate can’t obey just any old commands. When you start out, you won’t know Dragon Dictate’s built-in commands; you’ll learn them as you go along (especially the ones you use most frequently). When dictating, you won’t always know Dragon Dictate’s terms for punctuation that you want to use; these, too, you’ll learn as you go along. (Of course you’ll have plenty of assistance along the way; Dragon Dictate has a window listing its commands and punctuation, plus you can consult this manual and the online help.) You’ll

also learn to speak more clearly and smoothly; speaking to a computer program takes practice.

With time, you’ll become more experienced, and most of the things you do with Dragon Dictate will become second nature. You may even customize Dragon

2IntroductionDragon Dictate

Dictate’s abilities to suit your needs. For example, you might add to its repertory of commands. Dragon Dictate comes with built-in specialized commands for controlling itself plus six commonly used applications, along with a set of general commands for use with any application. You can write your own commands for inserting text, running a script, choosing a menu, and so forth. And you’ll almost certainly customize Dragon Dictate’s understanding of your speech. You can add to Dragon Dictate’s vocabulary, in case you use words that it doesn’t already know. And when Dragon Dictate types what you dictate and gets it wrong, you can

train Dragon Dictate to understand you better, telling it the right interpre-

tation of what you said and improving its ability to interpret your speech correctly

in the future.

You’re probably eager to install Dragon Dictate and provide it with an initial

sample of your speech so that you can start controlling your computer by speaking.

The next chapter will guide you through the steps for doing so.

Installation and Making a Voice Prole

Before you can use Dragon Dictate, you must have two kinds of hardware that conform to its requirements: your computer, and a microphone.

ComPuter requirements

• You must be using an Intel-based Macintosh computer.

• Your system must be Mac OS X “Snow Leopard” version 10.6 or later.

• The computer should have at least 2GB of RAM (preferably 4GB or more).

• Your hard drive should have at least 3GB of free space to install Dragon Dictate and its associated les, and this installation should leave plenty of addi-

tional empty free space.

• As with any software application, a faster processor improves performance.

3Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

• Accessibility must be turned on your Universal Access system preferences.

miCroPhone requirements

• You can use a USB microphone or an iOS device running the Dragon Remote Microphone app. The USB microphone should be of high quality, with

noise-cancelling abilities. Ideally, it should be on the list of USB microphones

certied and supported by Nuance. You can nd a list at the Nuance web site.

• To learn how to set up your iOS device as a microphone, see the section “Using the Dragon Remote App as a Microphone” on page 24.

If you’re using a USB microphone, plug it into one of your computer’s USB ports. If you’re running short of open USB ports, it might be worth investing in a powered USB hub. You can then plug some of your USB devices into the hub, and plug the hub into the computer. Some USB microphones, however, must be

plugged directly into the computer.

In System Preferences > Sound > Input, make certain that the USB microphone is selected as the sound input device. This is crucial. A USB microphone can be

plugged into the computer without being the input device; in such a case, your voice will be input in some other way, such as your computer’s built-in microphone, and Dragon Dictate will be unable to interpret your speech accurately.

Use System Preferences > Sound to make sure your USB microphone is the sound input device.

4Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

note. You should always make certain that your USB microphone is the sound input device before starting to use Dragon Dictate. Dragon Dictate will

ascertain, as it launches, that the USB microphone is plugged in; but it cannot ascertain that the USB microphone is the sound input device. If it is not,

speech recognition will not work correctly.

Initial Installation

Use the following checklist to make certain you are ready to install Dragon Dictate.

 Your USB microphone is connected to your computer.

 Your USB microphone is your computer’s sound input device, as shown in

System Preferences > Sound > Input.

 Your computer is connected to the Internet. You will need an Internet con-

nection in order to enter your registration number and license your copy of Dragon Dictate.

 Accessibility is turned on in System Preferences > Universal Access. Check

now that this true. Choose System Preferences > Universal Access, and make certain that Enable access for assistive devices (near the bottom of the window) is checked.

In System Preferences > Universal

Access, “Enable access for assistive devices” must be checked.

5Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

When you’ve completed the above checklist, you’re ready to begin installing Dragon Dictate.

Dragon Dictate comes in two parts: the application (on a CD), and the speech recognition engine data (on a DVD).

Insert the CD into the computer and copy the Dragon Dictate application onto your hard disk. The Applications folder is a good place, and the CD includes an alias for your Applications folder so you can drag the Dragon Dictate application

icon onto the Applications folder icon as a way of installing the application into your Applications folder. But you can put Dragon Dictate anywhere you like.

6Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

Eject the CD.

Launch Dragon Dictate from your hard drive. Dragon Dictate requests the DVD containing the speech recognition engine data (“Dragon English Data”). Leave the

dialog up.

Dragon Dictate asks for the DVD containing the speech recognition data.

Insert the DVD into the computer. When it has mounted, return to Dragon Dictate and click OK in the dialog. Dragon Dictate copies the data from the DVD to your hard drive, reporting its progress as it does so.

Dragon Dictate copies the data from the DVD to your hard drive.

When Dragon Dictate has nished copying the data to your hard drive, it asks whether you’d like to eject the DVD. Click Eject.

Click Eject to remove the DVD containing

the speech recognition engine data.

Installation is now complete, and Dragon Dictate displays the license agreement. Click Accept after reviewing it.

Click Accept after reviewing the license

agreement.

Dragon Dictate now asks for your license. A license is a license le. You presumably don’t have such a le yet, so you need to enter your registration number in order to get it. Click Register This Software to summon a dialog where you can enter your registration number and obtain a license le.

7Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

If you inadvertently deleted your license le, click Retrieve License Key and follow the instructions to obtain a new license key via the Internet.

Click Register This Software to summon the

registration dialog.

If you do have a license le, Dragon Dictate should nd it automatically at this point, and the entire Register This Software step will be skipped. In that case, you will see a dialog informing you that your license has been found and is valid.

The dialog that you see at this point if you

already have a license le.

Since you don’t have a license le yet, you have clicked Register This Software, and the registration dialog appears. Fill in the required information. (Dragon needs this information to set up an account for you at the Dragon web site; your information will remain private.) Type or copy your registration code into the appropriate eld of the dialog. The registration code, which you can nd on the registration code sticker, is roughly of this form: AB11-ABCD-EFGH-I123.

8Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

Fill out the registration dialog and

click Register Now. Your computer

must be connected to the Internet.

When you’ve lled out the dialog, make sure your computer is connected to the Internet and click Register Now. Dragon Dictate goes out over the Internet, connects to

Dragon’s server, and downloads and installs your license le. If this operation is

successful, Dragon Dictate informs you of the fact. Click OK.

Dragon Dictate has downloaded and installed

your license. Click OK.

Dragon Dictate’s installation is now complete.

In order to use Dragon Dictate, you need a voice prole. Since you have only just installed Dragon Dictate, you have no voice prole. Therefore, Dragon Dictate im-

mediately offers to create one.

Creating a Voice Prole

A voice prole is a complete set of data on how you speak: what your voice sounds

9Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

like, and what vocabulary you use. In order to speak into Dragon Dictate, you must have at least one prole.

In many cases, one prole is all you’ll need. But you’ll need multiple proles if different people are using Dragon Dictate. Each person will need to train their prole

to their voice.

Every prole has a name, which uniquely identies it. When you create a prole,

you start by giving it a name.

10Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

note. The data for a prole lives on your hard disk as a package whose le

extension is .ddictateprole. You are offered the chance to set a prole’s loca- tion at the time you create it. You may place it anywhere you like, but a good idea is to put all proles together in a known location; for example, you might create a folder ~/Documents/Dragon Proles. This allows the prole data to be backed up easily. A symbolic link to each prole will be found in ~/Library/

Application Support/Dragon/Proles.

The rst time you use Dragon Dictate, you will be prompted to create a new prole. If you previously used MacSpeech Dictate, the proles associated with that application will automatically appear when you launch Dragon Dictate. However, to use them, you will need to upgrade them by double-clicking the prole name or clicking the “Upgrade” button in the bottom right corner of the window. Proles that have not been upgraded have this warning icon next to the prole name. A prole without a connected audio source displays a lightning bolt inside a triangle.

Any commands and vocabulary you previously added to a prole will be preserved when you begin the upgrade process, which cannot be undone. After the software updates the older prole, you’ll see the Voice Training window. You must complete a new Voice Training session. As in previous versions of the software, Dragon Dictate will stop the training session when it has collected enough speech, and you can always return to Voice Training any time to read more stories and improve the application’s accuracy.

If you need to create a new prole, you’ll start with a File Save dialog (“Name a New Prole”). Give the new prole a name. Specify a folder in which to keep this prole. Click Choose.

11Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

The Name a New Prole dialog. Give the prole a name, specify a folder in which to

save it, and click Choose.

Dragon Dictate next presents a dialog describing the proper positioning of your

microphone. Position the microphone as shown. A checkbox lets you skip this dialog in future, but don’t ignore the advice in this dialog! The microphone should

be near your mouth but not too close, and it should be slightly off to one side so that puffs of breath, either from breathing or from articulation, are not interpreted

as speech. You should position the microphone correctly, and you should attempt to recreate its position each time you use Dragon Dictate. Click OK when you’re

ready to proceed.

Dragon Dictate shows you the

correct microphone position. Read

it, do what it says, and click OK.

Dragon Dictate now displays the Proles window, where you will set the characteristics of this prole. You have three characteristics to set up: Microphone, Spelling,

and Accent.

12Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

miCroPhone. Dragon Dictate has already detected your USB microphone, and unless you have more than one USB microphone plugged into the com-

puter, this will be the only choice offered. If you start up Dragon Dictate and a microphone is not detected, the Proles window will report this fact and your only choice will be to quit. You can add another microphone after you create your prole by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the Audio Sources box in the Proles dialog box.

sPeLLing. Choices are US and UK. aCCent. Choices depend upon your choice of spelling.

The Proles window is where you manage your proles. Here, you’re about to nish creating a new prole. Choose the correct settings

and click Continue.

When you’ve set the Microphone, Spelling, and Accent pop-ups, click Continue. While your prole is created, Dragon Dictate puts up a progress dialog.

While creating a prole, Dragon

Dialog puts up a progress dialog.

After you create a prole, Dragon Dictate automatically proceeds to microphone

setup.

13Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

tiP. You are about to begin speaking to Dragon Dictate. It might be a good

idea to read the “Tips on Speaking” section now. If your microphone is a

headset, put it on! Position the microphone correctly.

Microphone Setup

Microphone setup takes place in the Microphone Setup window, and involves adjusting the sound input level. You must go through the setup process for each new microphone you associate with a prole.

The Microphone Setup window is where you adjust your sound

input level. To begin, click the

microphone icon with the red “stop sign.”

To begin adjusting your sound input level in the Microphone Setup window, click the microphone icon with the red “stop sign.” The window changes to display a

paragraph of text for you to read aloud.

14Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

Read aloud the paragraph displayed in the box in the

Microphone Setup window. As you read, Dragon Dictate will adjust

your microphone sound input level.

Read the paragraph of text aloud. Speak slowly, naturally, clearly, and continuously, but do not worry about enunciation, because Dragon Dictate is not listening to your words; what’s important is how loudly you speak. Try to speak at a natural, consistent loudness, representative of how you will normally speak to Dragon Dic-

tate in your current environment. As you speak, the level indicator to the right of

the microphone icon shows your sound input level, a combination of how loudly you speak and how Dragon Dictate has adjusted the microphone sound input lev-

el; and the horizontal gain indicator slider moves left and right as Dragon Dictate

experiments with different sound input levels. When Dragon Dictate has heard enough, and has set your microphone sound input level optimally, it will turn off the microphone and switch away from this window automatically. If you reach the

end of the paragraph before that happens, start reading aloud from the beginning again.

note. You can check Manual Gain Setting if you want to operate the slider yourself, but Dragon Dictate should be able to do a better job of adjusting your microphone sound input level than you would.

In the next window, Dragon Dictate pauses and plays back a recording of the last

little bit of your speech. Listen to make sure that your speech level is clear and

15Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

undistorted. Press Play to hear the recording again. Make sure there is no static, excess noise, or hum. Such problems are probably a sign of faulty microphone

hardware or a bad connection. If you think there’s a problem with the recording, and you’d like to perform the microphone sound level adjustment again, click the left-arrow button at the lower right to return to the previous window. (See “Sound

Input Troubleshooting” for tips on diagnosing sound input problems.)

Dragon Dictate has adjusted your

microphone sound input level.

If you’re creating a prole, click

Voice Training to proceed.

The next step in creating a prole is to do a session of voice training. This is where you read aloud a little story, so that Dragon Dictate can learn how your voice sounds and how you pronounce your words. Click Voice Training to proceed. You’ll be taken to the Voice Training window.

Voice Training

Voice training is a process where you read aloud a little story. It takes place in the Voice Training window.

tiP. This would be a really good time to read the “Tips on Speaking” section if you haven’t done so already. Or maybe read it again. If your microphone is a headset, put it on! Position the microphone correctly.

16Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

During voice training, Dragon Dictate listens to your speech, matching it up with the words of the story. In this way, Dragon Dictate learns how your voice sounds and how you pronounce your words. Voice training is the most important step in creating a prole. This is why you need a different prole for each different person and microphone. You might even need to create a new prole if your voice chang-

es temporarily — because you catch a cold, for instance.

Dragon Dictate presents the Voice Training window, containing a description of what’s about to happen. Click the right-arrow button, at the lower right, to pro-

ceed.

When you do voice training in an existing prole, you are shown a window where you can select from among three stories to read from; stories you’ve previously read are marked with a “green circle” icon. But when you rst create a prole, the rst story is automatically selected for you.

The Voice Training window,

before reading a story. To proceed,

click the right-arrow button at lower right of the window.

Dragon Dictate presents the window in which it will show you the story. The microphone is off, signied by a red “stop sign” icon, and training will not begin until

you click the icon.

17Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

The Voice Training window, ready

for you to start reading a story.

Click the microphone icon (with the red “stop sign”) to begin.

Here’s what’s going to happen when you click the microphone icon. Dragon Dictate will turn on the microphone (the icon will change to a green circle) and will present you with a short page of text to read aloud — usually just a sentence or two. You must read all the text, including punctuation (because that’s what you do when you dictate). To help you with this, punctuation is printed in capital letters, but you don’t read it any special voice. You should read in fairly brief utterances, pausing after each utterance. Dragon Dictate signies its understanding by turn-

ing each utterance green. When you reach the end of the page (all text has turned

green), Dragon Dictate automatically “turns the page” for you.

If Dragon Dictate has trouble with what you said, it turns the current utterance

red. If this happens, you need to read the red text again. If Dragon Dictate still

doesn’t understand (the same text remains red), you can click Skip Word to proceed past that text. If you feel that things are really going badly and that you’d like to begin reading this story all over again, click the left-arrow button.

As you read, keep an eye on the sound input level indicator (the vertical bar to the

right of the microphone icon). Speak at a level that keeps this at about the middle

of the green section.

18Installation and Making a Voice ProﬁleDragon Dictate

Warning. The speech recognition engine has no experience with your voice to build on during the rst few pages of a new prole’s Voice Training story, so your utterances must be quite short and careful, and the pauses between them

must be long, to give the engine a chance to catch up and turn the text green.

You will probably need to read like this: “We. Would like. You. To read aloud. For a few minutes.” After the rst couple of pages, you will nd that you can

start speaking much more naturally.

The rst page of the Voice Training story for a new prole. The rst few words have been

read, and have turned green.

As your reading of the story proceeds, Dragon Dictate “turns the page” for you. Progress from page to page is shown by the horizontal progress indicator above the text. If you need to pause at any time (to clear your throat, get a drink of water, sneeze, stretch, whatever), click the microphone icon to turn it to a red “stop sign”; when you’re ready to proceed, click it again to turn it into a green circle once

again, and carry on reading.

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