Nuance ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking - 10.0 Customizing

Why Customizing Dragon’s Vocabulary is Important

Sample Only

Transcribing a person’s speech presents acoustic challenges, such as accents and ambient noise. There is also a lexical challenge; for the transcription to be precisely accurate, familiarity with the terms used is necessary. Even an experienced legal secretary would have trouble transcribing an insurance executive’s dictation, for instance! And a newly-hired transcriptionist would have to get used not only to the dictators’ voices, but also to learn the correct spelling and formatting of what they mention, including acronyms, abbreviations, special phrases, names of people, places, products, etc.

An unusual name may seem commonplace to you because you use it frequently, but a person who hears it for the first time may not be able to recognize and spell it: that name is not yet a part of this person’s vocabulary. Similarly, if a word or phrase is not in Dragon’s active vocabulary, the software cannot transcribe it correctly without a little instruction.

When you created your User profile, you provided acoustic information which Dragon incorporated into its built-in acoustic model. To get optimal accuracy, you should also let the software adapt its language model. This helps ensure that what you dictate is transcribed with the desired spelling, spacing, and even capitalization; Dragon provides many powerful tools for it, so this important investment need not take much time—you can even benefit from the work done by others.

Key points about Vocabulary customization

 As soon as you have created a User profile, you could start dictating. However, customizing the

Vocabulary right away is efficient since it helps Dragon “get it right the first time” (including spelling, capitalization, and spacing) and it needn’t take much of your time. Personalizing the vocabulary (early and often) is strongly recommended. The following pages will show you how.

 Dragon offers many simple and powerful vocabulary tools, to help you gain time and convenience.

Customizing Your Vocabulary—Using the Vocabulary Editor

Sample Only

Dragon’s Vocabulary Editor lets you view what can be transcribed from the computer’s active memory; it also allows you to add new entries, as well as edit existing entries—including their Spoken Forms and Properties.

Let’s take a look at the Vocabulary Editor’s interface and its capabilities:

Step 1: Say Edit Vocabulary (you can also click View/Edit on the DragonBar’s Words menu or View or Edit

Your Vocabulary from the Accuracy Center). The Vocabulary Editor opens; its scrollable window lists

the entries currently in the active Vocabulary.

Take a moment to scroll through the list. You will see names of people, places, institutions and products, as well as common words, phrases, and abbreviations. Most entries only have a Written Form (left column), but some also have a Spoken form (right column)—this is an important feature, as you will see.

Step 2: Open the Display drop-down list and choose Words Containing Spaces.

Other Vocabulary displays include Words Containing Digits, Words Containing Capitalization, and Words with Special Properties. By browsing these, you can learn more about what the software uses to transcribe your dictation. You also get ideas about what entries you might add or edit.

Adding Vocabulary Entries: Words, Phrases, Acronyms…

You can quickly search for a particular Vocabulary entry by entering it in the Written Form field. If it appears in the scrollable list, it is already in the active layer of the Vocabulary. If not, say or click Add to bring it in.

CAUTION When adding an entry to the Vocabulary, be sure to spell and capitalize it correctly! Otherwise, it

will appear misspelled in your documents every time you dictate it.

Some of the "words" in the Vocabulary Editor aren't single words. Of course is listed. So is as well as. Some of

Sample Only

the multi-words are names of people, places, products, and institutions: Mother Teresa, Madison Square Garden, KitchenAid, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Marine Corps, Library of Congress, Babe Ruth, Accounts Payable, George Washington, Johnson & Johnson, Division I, LAN Server…

These help the software resolve spelling and capitalization ambiguities: if the vocabulary didn’t contain the phrase Mother Teresa, the dictation would probably appear as "mother Theresa"—because the word mother is usually not capitalized, and because Theresa is the more common spelling of the name. Having the phrase in its Vocabulary helps Dragon NaturallySpeaking choose the desired capitalization and spelling.

Also, recognizing long sounds is easier than very short sounds. A and the are acoustically very similar, as are in and an. Longer words, like chrysanthemum, contain more acoustic information.

We strongly recommend adding personal multi-words; they will save you time—you will not have to adjust spelling and capitalization after transcription.

Exercise 1: In the Vocabulary Editor, look for a few familiar names such as your own, the names of your town,

company, colleagues or relatives; if necessary, add them.

TIP Consider adding nicknames (alone or in combination) and diminutives as well as formal names,

particularly for names that can be spelled different ways: for instance, one might add Liz Hansen, Elizabeth McGee Hansen, Jennifer B. Addams, Jennifer Addams, Jenny Addams, Jenn Addams, Judge Addams, Scooter Addams…

This idea applies to more than just names; whenever you add an item to the Vocabulary, think of its possible variations: singular/plural for nouns, present/past/gerund for verbs… Remember, if something is not in the Vocabulary, the software cannot recognize it, so don’t hesitate to add!

Exercise 2: In a word processor like DragonPad, start a list of vocabulary entries relevant to you; some

suggestions are below. (Soon you will learn how to import these entries all at once.)

 jargon and phrases specific to your profession (such as distro, site visit and non-State)

 names of places, facilities or organizations (such as Building 52, or County Adoption Center)

 names of products (such as MicroPore tape or Latex Exterior Semi-Gloss)

 acronyms, part numbers, codes (such as FICA, 501c(3) or RX-70y)

 names of people (coworkers, clients, friends, relatives…) including full combinations for names

that could be spelled differently (Kristin, Gene, Steven, McGregor, Wolfe…) or are very short (Kip, Kit, Dee…) since this helps Dragon resolve acoustic ambiguities.

TIP Your employer may be able to give you some lists that could save you time, particularly if they are

already in electronic form: lists of staff or clients, departments, units or divisions, products, trademarks, building names, as well as glossaries of terms and acronyms. Starting from such lists doesn’t just save time, it may also help add these items with their official, correct spelling!

The importance of Spoken Forms

Radio programs tell their callers “let us know how to pronounce your name”; a reason is that some names could be pronounced in several ways, and some are not pronounced “the way they are written”, because of silent letters for instance. Acronyms are often pronounced letter by letter, but not always: ASAP is pronounced "ay sap" by many people. These facts are addressed by an important Dragon feature: Spoken Forms.

From the Display drop-down list of the Vocabulary Editor, choose “Words with spoken forms only”. Take a

Sample Only

moment to scroll through and look at existing spoken forms—you will get ideas for what kinds of entries warrant them and how they can be written.

TIP Vocabulary entries may have more than one spoken form. You may add spoken forms to custom entries

and to existing entries, in order to be able to dictate them as comes naturally to you—for example, to obtain the symbol ©, you might like to say “circle see” instead of the existing spoken form “copyright sign”.

Adding Spoken Forms allows you to dictate in the way that is most natural, but also quickest for you. In addition to indicating pronunciation, spoken forms can be used for “vocal shorthand” and automatic substitution: you say something short and easy, and Dragon types something longer or “trickier” to say or remember. You will many examples in this workbook. This capability can be used to give consistency and clarity to your writings; groups can take advantage of it to help everyone easily comply with recommendations like avoiding abbreviations and potentially confusable items.

To add a Spoken Form via the Vocabulary Editor:

Step 1: First, decide what you want to say, and what Dragon should transcribe when you say it.

For example, suppose your school Central Lexington United High School is often called CLUHS or "cluss". When you dictate "cluss", do you want Dragon to type CLUHS or Central Lexington United High School?

Step 2: In the Written Form field, type what you want Dragon to write. Be careful with its capitalization,

spacing, and spelling — including symbols or punctuation marks if needed, as in E*TRADE.

Step 3: In the Spoken Form field, type what you will actually say. In some cases (as in our “cluss” example),

you will enter one or more “made-up words” to represent the desired sound.

Step 4: Say Add or press Enter.

If you entered a “made-up word” in the Spoken Form field, Dragon brings up a dialog box to tell you that it doesn’t know that word and will therefore guess its pronunciation — this gives you a chance to catch any typo you may have made in the Spoken Form.

+ 8 hidden pages