Nuance ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking - 11.0 End-User Workbook

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Version

End-User Workbook

(revision 1-9, March 2011)

for Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Most of the material in this workbook applies to all editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11. For details about the different editions, please see www.nuance.com.



Version 11

We welcome comments or questions about this workbook and all aspects of Dragon documentation (Tutorial, User Guide, Tip of the Day, Help menu, Accuracy Center, Performance Assistant, Sidebar, etc.) Please use the Feedback form at www.nuance.com/dragon/feature-request.

This workbook reflects the Dragon 11.0 information available at the time of publishing. The Knowledge Base at nuance.com contains the latest information written by Technical Support for Version 11 and previous versions. The Support area of the website also includes printable documentation (User Guides, cheat sheets…) and listings of microphones, recorders, and other hardware tested by Nuance for use with Dragon.

The Nuance website offers many other resources, including tips, videos, Frequently Asked Questions, Customer Service information, and a feature

matrix of Dragon’s editions.

It also lists Value-Added Resellers who provide training and customization services for Dragon (in person or remotely). These Nuance partners can address your environment, equipment, goals and needs; this is particularly efficient for very busy people, people new to computers, children, and in case of issues with hearing, vision, mobility and dyslexia.

No part of this document 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 Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance, the Nuance logos, the Dragon logos, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, NaturallySpeaking, DragonBar and Select-and-Say are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and product names referenced herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Part number: 50-K61A-15020

Goals and Prerequisites

Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you speak naturally to perform actions such as creating or editing documents, using e-mail, searching your computer, finding on the Internet maps, news, images, and more. By reducing keyboard and mouse usage, you can gain productivity AND avoid strain on your wrists, shoulders, neck, and eyes.

This workbook aims to efficiently present what an end-user should know — not every aspect of Dragon (the resources in Dragon’s Help menu and on www.nuance.com contain many details). It aims to help learn how to:

“Type by voice” naturally and efficiently, which includes:

Dictating anything (including prices, dates, phone numbers, URLs, symbols, punctuation, part numbers, acronyms, Roman numerals, etc.)

Personalizing Dragon’s Vocabulary with custom words and phrases, spoken forms (pronunciations) and written forms, to ensure that it is able to transcribe exactly what you want, even if what you said could be written in different ways.

Correcting Dragon’s errors when needed so that the software can learn from them and avoid them in the future.

Formatting, editing, and revising text (however that text was created).

Creating custom commands to insert boilerplate content (commands of the type “Text-andGraphics,” available in editions Premium and higher).

“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.

Efficiency and Hands-Free Usage

We strongly recommend going through this workbook in order. If you used previous versions of Dragon, you may wish to read the What’s New section first.

TIP

When directed to “click” items (buttons, menus, checkboxes…), 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 Help about Dragon’s MouseGrid and commands for moving, clicking, and dragging the mouse.

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, etc.

Table of Contents

Goals and Prerequisites iii

Efficiency and Hands-Free Usage iii Table of Contents iv Creating a User Profile 1

About dictation sources, including recorders 3

A first opportunity to adapt your profile’s vocabulary 5

Scheduling Dragon's periodic tasks 5

Before your profile opens — caution with desktop icons 6

Important options: Natural Language Commands and Speed vs. Accuracy 6 Learning More and Getting Help 9

The Dragon User's Guide 9

The Accuracy Center and Accuracy Assistant 9

The Help and Performance Assistant 9

The Dragon Sidebar: “What Can I Say” 10 Why Personalizing the Vocabulary is Important 13 Customizing the Vocabulary—Using the Vocabulary Editor 14

Adding Vocabulary Entries: Words, Phrases, Acronyms… 14

The importance of Spoken Forms 15

Deleting “Words” and Modifying Word Properties 17 Importing Lists of Vocabulary Entries 20 Customizing the Vocabulary from Existing Documents 22 Customizing the Vocabulary from Your E-Mail 25 Starting to Dictate: Controlling the Microphone 27

The DragonBar and the Microphone Icon 27

The Microphone’s Commands and Sleep State 29

The Importance of Hot Keys, including Microphone On/Off 30 Starting to Dictate: Your First Dictation 31

Dictating Text and Punctuation Marks 31

New Line and New Paragraph 31

The Results Display and its Options 32 Dictating Special Text: Numbers, Dates, Addresses, Units… 35

Automatic Text Formatting During Normal Dictation 35

Numbers Mode -- Dictating Numbers Exclusively 37

Spell Mode -- Dictating Letters, Digits, and Other Characters 37

The Spell Command -- Dictating characters within Normal Mode 37 Correcting Dragon’s Errors in Your Dictated Text 39

The Correction Menu 40

Correcting in the Spelling Window 40

Using Playback to Aid Correction 42 Deferring Correction 44

Saving Recorded Dictation (.DRA) 44

Making Corrections to Someone Else's Dictation 44 Editing Text by Voice 46

Navigation and Selection Commands 46

Full Text Control, “non-standard” fields, and the Dictation Box 48

Replacing and Inserting Words 50 Formatting Text by Voice 52

The "X that" Convention 52

The "Format That" Commands 53 Controlling the Operating System and Applications 55

Keyword-Searching the Computer 55

Opening and Closing Programs and Windows 56

Resizing Windows and Switching Between Them 56

“Clicking” Menus and Controls 57

“Natural Language Commands” and the Command Browser 58

“Voice-Pressing” Keys 59 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking with the Internet 61

Navigation 61

Accessing a specific item on a Web page 61 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for E-mail 63

Voice Shortcuts 63

Commands for within the email program 64

Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Microsoft Word 66

Special note for Windows XP: turning off CTFMON 66

“Voice Notations” in Microsoft Word documents 66

Commands specific to Microsoft Word 66

Microsoft Word 2007 and the Ribbon 67

Dragon 11 and Microsoft Word 2010 69 Dictating and editing in Microsoft Excel 70 Boosting Productivity with Custom Commands 73

Creating Boilerplate Commands (“Text-and-Graphics” Type) 73

“Cloning” Commands and Adding Name Editor Variables 75

“DragonTemplates”: Boilerplate Commands with [Fields] 75

Managing Custom Commands 76

Finding commands via the Command Browser’s Keyword Filter 77 Performing Audio Checks and Acoustic Training 79

Microphone Check 79

Training Individual Words 79

Reading Text to Train Dragon 80 Creating and Using Multiple Vocabularies 82 Acoustic and Language Model Optimization 84

Launching the Acoustic and/or Language Model Optimization 84

Scheduling the Optimizations—and Data Collection 85 Copying User Profiles 87 Practice Exercise: Creating a Memo by Voice 88

What’s New in Version 11? 89 Index 93

Creating a User Profile

models is not visible unless you lift the foam cover slightly

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is speaker-dependent software. To recognize your speech accurately, it must have information including how you sound and what words you use often, as well as what optional settings you have and what audio device(s) you use. The data it uses to recognize what you say is stored in a set of files referred to collectively as your “user profile,” or “profile” for short.

Your profile is very important; the more personalized it is, the better your experience will be. It’s worth creating it carefully (or upgrading it if eligible) so you can have the best possible start with Dragon, as described in this lesson. (As you will see later, there are many ways for your profile to be refined over time, and some of them don’t even require action on your part.)

Note

: Profiles from Version 9 or 10 can be brought into Version

11. Dragon’s Upgrade Wizard can automatically detect existing

profiles. (It is available any time from the Windows Start menu,

under Dragon NaturallySpeaking tools.)

IMPORTANT: The Wizard will list ALL available profiles; use its

Remove button as needed before clicking Next. After the

upgrade completes, we recommend running Accuracy Tuning.

See the Help for details.

A series of screens will walk you through the profile-creation process. This includes indicating your microphone’s type and verifying your sound system, as well as general training, an optional step where you read aloud for a few minutes so Dragon start adapting its acoustic model to the unique way you sound.

Here are important tips to help you achieve high accuracy right from the start.

Consistency matters! For best results, create your profile in your “normal” environment, with the same •

background noise and equipment as when you will usually do your dictations.

If you want to test your microphone independently of Dragon, you can use Sound Recorder, a Windows •

accessory accessible from the Start menu (usually located at the bottom left corner of the screen).

If you already have a Dragon profile and want to use another type of audio input device, add a source •

to your profile instead of creating a separate profile. (Open the DragonBar’s Profile menu and choose

“Add audio source to current User Profile.” Details are below.)

Step 1: Connect your microphone (all the way in) and position it correctly. If using a

headset, adjust its size so that it feels stable and comfortable (it should not

press your glasses). The microphone’s listening side must face the corner of

your mouth (not the front) about an inch away. It must not touch your hair or

catch breathing sounds. Bend the “boom” if needed. You might experiment a

bit to find what works best for you. When you use Dragon, aim for consistency

in your microphone position!

IMPORTANT NOTES

Noise-canceling microphones only listen on one side; check that your •

microphone’s listening side is parallel to your face, not tilted up. That side is often marked by a (raised) dot or the word TALK, which on some

If your model has a mute switch, make sure it is in the ON position!•

Some computers, after you connect a microphone, •

automatically bring up a small window associated with this “audio system event”. That window may be hidden behind other windows. Before closing this window, verify that what is highlighted on it is the Microphone item (and not the Line In item).

Step 2: Launch Dragon (you can double-click its desktop icon). If Dragon has never been used before on this

computer, this automatically starts the Profile Creation Wizard (otherwise, choose New User Profile in

the DragonBar’s Profile menu.)

Step 3: Answer the questions presented by the wizard’s screens. (No need to overthink the profile naming, but

you may want to reflect the date or month of creation, for instance MJones-Oct2010).

Since Dragon contains an acoustic model optimized for “young voices,” answering the age question can

really improve your accuracy if you are under 13.

Version 11 has special acoustic models for a number of broad “accents” (this is particularly important for natives of the UK or the Indian sub-continent). If unsure which one to pick, see the Help.

Step 5: You are asked to select your Dictation source. The default is a microphone plugged into the Mic-In

jack. If you use a USB adapter on a standard headset, be sure to select USB.

Note: If you use a docking station, you may get better results if you connect the microphone to the USB port on your laptop itself, not on the station.

About dictation sources, including recorders

enough, c

lick Next. The next screen is

The Help provides details on using special dictation sources such as portable devices, and the Hardware Compatibility List on the Nuance website contains specific notes from Nuance’s testing, such as the recommended settings for specific recorder models.

The Nuance website also contains resources on recorder usage. Recorders can be particularly useful to

transcribe notes dictated after a meeting, class, or field inspection. If your recording was very “rough”,

or if it contained voices other than yours, consider the practice of “echoing” (you dictate while

listening to the recording, pausing it as needed). Dragon works with one voice at a time, so you cannot

transcribe interviews or meetings directly.

Before using Dragon with a recorder, note that:

Some digital recorders come with special software to manage recordings (including transferring •

them from recorder to computer and converting their format if necessary.) Check your recorder’s documentation and install its software if required.

You will want to be familiar with your recorder’s essential functions (starting and stopping •

recordings, for instance) and make sure the recorder is set with the correct time and date as well as optimal settings for speech recognition (see http://support.nuance.com/compatibility).

We recommend first using Dragon for real-time transcription because this gives you a chance to •

practice dictating (and punctuating!) your thoughts, since you get feedback in real time from what you see Dragon transcribe as you dictate. It also gives you the opportunity to personalize your profile, for instance by adding personal jargon or nicknames, and letting Dragon analyze representative text. This prevents many recognition errors. More on this important notion further in this workbook!

IMPORTANT

device, add a source to your profile instead of creating a separate profile: open the DragonBar’s Profile

menu and choose “Add audio source to current User Profile.”

This is important! Having sources within a

profile enables the same Vocabulary to be

used — and refined — each time you use

Dragon, no matter which audio input

device you use. (As you will learn,

personalizing the Vocabulary early and

often is one of the keys to getting Dragon’s

full benefits.)

Step 6: Next, Dragon checks your audio system and

calibrates the volume setting. Click “Start

Volume Check” (at bottom left) and read

aloud the text in the gray box in a clear but

natural voice. Punctuation is not required

here, but feel free to say it to get into the

habit.

: If you already have a Dragon profile and want to use another type of audio input

When Dragon lets you know it has heard

similar; click its start button and read

aloud. Dragon then verifies that your sound

system is acceptable for speech

recognition. (For details, see Help and the

technotes at support.nuance.com.)

Step 7: If you did not choose to skip the initial training reading, Dragon then presents a prompt. Click Go, then

say the short sentence displayed. When the “Select Text” box appears, choose one of the texts and

click OK. (If you wish to read another text later, you can do so from the DragonBar’s Audio menu, or

from the Accuracy Center.)

The following describes the default process, which presents the text one prompt at a time. The Help

contains details on the “Without prompting” alternative, which presents the text as one whole

document for you to read at your own pace, from the screen or from a printed page.

Step 8: Click the Go button (bottom left) and proceed through the training text by reading it exactly as it is

displayed. (Once you finish reading a prompt, Dragon will automatically present the next one.) The

words will turn gray once Dragon has “heard” them, but there is no need to wait for this to happen:

just speak at your normal pace, clearly and naturally.

TIP:

During acoustic training, Dragon learns how you sound when you dictate, therefore using the same tone,

pace and volume you are likely to use day-to-day will help Dragon recognize your future dictations most

accurately.

Saying punctuation isn’t necessary during this reading, but it’s a good idea to say at least the periods, to get into the habit. (Later, you will learn to dictate all punctuation and symbols.)

Take your time. Try to read naturally but precisely what is on the screen.

If Dragon needs to hear you re-read something, a yellow arrow will show you where to resume.

The Redo button lets you move the arrow back, which you may want to do if you realize you just misread something.

If for any reason you have trouble with a particular word, use the Skip button.

If you need to take a break, cough or sneeze, click the Pause button. That button will then be labeled Go; click it when ready to resume.

Once it has heard enough, Dragon takes a moment to process the acoustic information you just provided. Profile creation is now almost complete.

A first opportunity to adapt your profile’s vocabulary

Dragon will then offer to start adapting its Vocabulary. This step is just a basic customization which analyzes the texts in your My Documents folder as well as your sent e-mails. Later, you will be able to designate specific documents for analysis; you do NOT need to copy documents into your My Documents folder in order to have Dragon analyze them!

Feel free to skip this basic step. We recommend that, as soon as possible after your profile is created, you take advantage of the powerful customization tools described in the following lessons. (For example, you can have Dragon analyze documents located in various folders, and you can import lists of custom words and phrases.)

IMPORTANT:

different style, skip this automatic step and have Dragon learn from specific documents.

If some of your documents and sent emails are in a different language or in a radically

Scheduling Dragon's periodic tasks

The Profile Creation Wizard will then give you the opportunity to schedule Dragon's periodic Accuracy Tuning, a process which, after you start using Dragon, can refine your profile automatically based on what you have already dictated.

IMPORTANT

hibernating) but Dragon is not be active (this includes being open in its QuickStart mode—see the Help for more information).

For Accuracy Tuning, after you click the Change Schedule button, Dragon presents the dialog box Select Time and Frequency; be sure to also click this dialog’s Language Model tab, so you can pick a suitable time for the Language Model Optimization. (Note: Language Model Optimization is typically much faster than Acoustic Optimization.)

: Be sure to schedule Dragon's tasks for a time when your computer will be on (not asleep, not

Before your profile opens — caution with desktop icons

The last screen of the Profile Creation Wizard gives you the opportunity to jump straight to Dragon's Tutorial (clicking the Tutorial button on that last screen will close that screen and open the Tutorial). It also contains a link to the Help article about changes between 11 and previous versions (condensed and updated in the What’s

New section of this workbook).

IMPORTANT

open automatically, docked to the right, when a user profile opens. If you typically keep desktop items on the right side of your screen, the Sidebar may move them, like other Windows sidebars would. For this reason, you may wish to rearrange your desktop items before the Sidebar opens, or set your desktop to Auto-arrange. (See the Sidebar’s Help, including Floating and Auto-Hide.)

This last screen of the Profile Creation Wizard also mentions Dragon's Options dialog, which we encourage you to explore as soon as possible so you can choose the settings that suit your needs and preferences.

As you progress through this workbook’s lessons, you will be introduced to the options that most users should consider, in order to use Dragon as conveniently and efficiently as possible. Below are two of them: the Natural Language Commands built in for specific applications, and the Speed-versus-Accuracy slider.

: By default, the Dragon Sidebar (a thin window that presents commands and tips) is set to

Important options: Natural Language Commands and Speed vs. Accuracy

After you create your profile, the program may present you with a special message if it determined that your computer’s characteristics wouldn’t allow optimal performance. This message informs you that Dragon has adjusted the defaults for two of its options:

The Speed versus Accuracy slider was moved toward speed.•

The Natural Language Commands for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Corel WordPerfect ••••

were disabled. (The lesson “Controlling your Desktop and Applications” addresses these large sets of

flexible commands. Note: not all editions and languages of Dragon support these commands.)

Later, you can easily reverse these changes through Dragon’s Options dialog, depending on your particular needs: you can enable or disable the Natural Language Commands for any of these four applications individually, and you can experiment with various settings of the Speed-versus-Accuracy slider (seen in the picture below). The Help provides more details, and its Performance Assistant offers many suggestions for optimizing Dragon’s speed on your computer.

Now that your user profile is created, you could start dictating. Before you do, however, we strongly recommend that you take a look at the Tutorial and, if you have used a previous version, the What’s New.

It’s also efficient to begin personalizing the Vocabulary as soon as possible, since this plays a crucial role in accuracy and efficiency—this workbook will cover its most important aspects.

Key points about getting started with Dragon 11

Each person who wants to dictate with Dragon first needs to have his or her own User profile. Creating 

one is a short process guided by a series of screens. Profiles from versions 10 and 9 can be upgraded to

version 11 thanks to the Upgrade Wizard.

Make sure your microphone is properly connected and positioned, and the appropriate dictation source 

is selected. The online Help contains details on special sources like recorders and wireless

microphones.

In the higher editions of Dragon, you can add a dictation source to an existing profile (for instance, if 

after using Dragon with your USB microphone you wish to also have Dragon transcribe what you dictate

into a digital recorder). Whatever source is used, you will benefit from the same vocabulary

customization (special words and phrases, pronunciations, etc.) Starting with a regular source is

recommended before you use Dragon with a recorder.

When reading the acoustic training text, speak clearly but naturally, using the same volume, pitch and 

pace you are likely to use day-to-day. Try to read what is prompted as if you were dictating it. Use the

Pause button if you need to clear your throat or speak to someone… (When its microphone is on,

Dragon listens to every sound coming from the microphone’s listening side!)

During profile creation, Dragon can perform a basic adaptation of your profile’s vocabulary based on 

text it finds in your My Documents folder as well as on sent e-mails. Feel free to skip that step but be

sure to use Dragon’s more targeted and powerful tools as soon as possible after profile creation

finishes.

Dragon's scheduled tasks are designed to help improve accuracy over time. Be sure to schedule them 

for a time when your computer will be on (not asleep or hibernating) but Dragon will not be running

(this includes running in QuickStart mode). Please see the Help for more information.

Learning More and Getting Help

Dragon NaturallySpeaking offers so many tools, commands, and features that it would be impossible to cover them all in detail in this workbook. This lesson presents several ways to find more information as you start using the software—be sure to take advantage of the available resources!

Note that we welcome comments about this user workbook and all aspects of Dragon’s documentation and user interface (User Guide, Tutorial, Tip of the Day, Help menu, Performance Assistant, Sidebar...). Please use the

Feedback/Feature Request form at www.nuance.com/dragon/feature-request.

IMPORTANT

you typically keep many desktop items on the right side of your screen, know that the Sidebar may move them, like other Windows sidebars. Before the Sidebar opens, you may wish to rearrange your desktop items, or set your desktop to Auto-arrange.

: By default, the Dragon Sidebar is set to open automatically when your user profile opens. If

The Dragon User's Guide

The latest User's Guide is available as a PDF on the Nuance website along with other resources. (When viewing the PDF file, you can click chapter headings to jump to specific topics, and you can print out sections as well as the entire file.)

The Accuracy Center and Accuracy Assistant

The most important features and tools of Dragon are accessible directly from the DragonBar's menus. The Accuracy Center offers a central location to access many of them and get guidance on which one to use when.

Step 1: Say Open Accuracy Center. You can also click the DragonBar’s Help menu (or say Switch to DragonBar then Help or Click Help) then Improve my Accuracy.

Step 2: Click the link that interests you. You can also say its name immediately preceded by the word "click”. ("Require 'click' for HTML" is an option enabled by default in new Dragon 11 profiles. Enabling it helps prevent unintended recognitions. See the Commands tab of the Options dialog.)

TIP

You can activate links without saying their whole name: for instance, instead of add a list of words to

your vocabulary, you could say just add a list.

The link “Which tool to use first?” opens the Accuracy Assistant, which presents a set of questions to help determine what you can do to increase accuracy in a given situation.

The Help and Performance Assistant

The DragonBar’s Help menu gives you access to the on-screen Help topics and the Performance Assistant (as well as the Accuracy Center, the Dragon Sidebar, the Tutorial, and the Nuance website.) You can also open the Help at any time by saying commands such as give me help.

You can browse the Help topics, or search for specific keywords—for instance, entering the word “punctuation” brings up topics including “Dictating punctuation and symbols” and “Selecting characters and words.” You can also print topics of your choice.

TIP:

To save time, you can use the command “search Dragon Help for…” naming the word(s) you wish to

search for in the Help: for instance, you could say “search Dragon Help for punctuation and symbols”. Note that the words you name in this command will be considered individually unless you put them in quotes: for instance, you could say “Search Dragon Help for open-quote Firefox commands close-quote.”

Dragon also provides contextual help: from its dialog boxes, the Help button or links take you directly to the relevant topic in the Help.

The Dragon Sidebar: “What Can I Say”

At any time, you can ask Dragon to display its Sidebar, a thin vertical window meant to help users discover and remember important tips and commands. When a major application such as Microsoft Word or Excel is active, this window will show in its Home tab commands for that application. Otherwise, it will show a list of commands that are not specific to one application. In addition, the Sidebar contains a hideable tab for mouse commands, as well as a tab for custom commands (a feature of the higher editions).

CAUTION

typically keep many desktop items on the right side of your screen, the Sidebar may move them, like other Windows sidebars; you may wish to rearrange your desktop items before the Sidebar opens, or set your desktop to Auto-arrange.

Step 1: Open the Dragon Sidebar. Voice commands for this include open Dragon Sidebar, show Dragon

Step 2: The Sidebar opens, displaying some of the commands available in the current context, as well as tips.

TIP

To see commands beyond those presented in the Sidebar, you can use the Help (use the command

“search Dragon Help for…” or the speakable links in the Sidebar itself) as well as the Command Browser, accessible from its icon on the top right of the Sidebar and commands such as Open Command Browser.

: By default, the Dragon Sidebar is set to open automatically when your user profile opens. If you

Sidebar, and what can I say. You can also use the DragonBar’s Help menu.

You can make it wider or thinner as well as access its links and tabs by hand or by voice. One way to

access details about the Sidebar and its usage is to use the question mark icon on the top right of the

Sidebar. (You can also say a search-keyword command such as “search Dragon Help for Sidebar

commands.”)

To access the tabs by voice, you can say “Dragon Sidebar Home,” “Dragon Sidebar Global,” “Dragon

Sidebar MyCommands.”

Step 3: Right-click the Dragon Sidebar. This opens its menu. Note what is available there, including hiding the

Mouse tab, hiding the Tips pane, activating Auto-Hide, and printing the content.

TIP

When a Sidebar pane has the focus, a thin blue line surrounds it.

The following illustrations show the Sidebar’s right-click menu, including the monitor switch, and its Mouse tab alongside a Help topic reached from the Sidebar link “Dragging the mouse.”

Key points about learning more and getting help

This workbook is meant to get you started efficiently. Other resources include the Help, the Sidebar, 

the Accuracy Center and its Accuracy Assistant, the Performance Assistant, as well as the Nuance

website which includes tips, FAQs, and the Knowledge Base of “Tech Notes”.

You can open the Help at any time with generic commands (give me help…) or “shortcut” commands 

that include the word(s) to search for, such as “search Dragon Help for Roman numerals…”

The Sidebar, which you can bring up through the Help menu or by direct voice commands, displays 

many commands and tips. You may use mouse or voice to access its panes, tabs, and links. Its right-

click menu gives access to options to change the display (including hiding the tips, hiding the Mouse

tab, and auto-hide) as well as print its content. To see all its commands, use the Command Browser.

Beyond these resources, consulting an experienced Dragon trainer for specific guidance and customizations can be particularly efficient for users who have special environments, workflows, equipment, or challenges (related, for instance, to motion, vision, or speech fluency.)

Now that you know how to access many resources, let’s learn Dragon’s most important aspects, starting with with an often-overlooked but crucial one: personalizing the Vocabulary.

Why Personalizing the Vocabulary is Important

Transcribing a person’s speech presents acoustic challenges, such as accent and ambient noise. There is also a lexical challenge: for the transcription to be precisely accurate, familiarity with the terms used is necessary. For instance, even an experienced medical secretary would have trouble transcribing for an attorney’s office! And a newly-hired transcriptionist would have to not only get used to the voices of the various dictators, but also to learn what spellings and formatting they want, 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 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 information which Dragon incorporated into its acoustic model. To get optimal accuracy, you should also help the software adapt its language model and Vocabulary. Lexical customization ensures 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. The Help contains much information about personalizing the Vocabulary—including how you can even benefit from the customizations done by others.

Key points about Vocabulary customization

As soon as you have created a User profile, you can start dictating, but note that taking a moment to 

start customizing the Vocabulary for you is a good investment to make right away, 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 allow you to make your dictations faster 

and more convenient.

Customizing the Vocabulary—Using the Vocabulary Editor

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 inside the Vocabulary and discover the Vocabulary Editor’s interface:

Step 1: Say Edit Vocabulary (you can also use the DragonBar’s Vocabulary menu or the Accuracy Center). The

Vocabulary Editor opens; its scrollable window lists the entries currently in Dragon’s 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 at least one Spoken form — an important feature, as you will see.

Step 2: Open the Display drop-down list (located at the bottom) 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

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

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

Some of the "words" in the Vocabulary Editor aren't single words. Of course is listed. So is as well as. There are also 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, dictating it would probably produce the transcription "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 know that the words “Mother” and “Teresa” are likely to occur together, and hence helps Dragon 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”; this will later save you time since you will not have to adjust their spelling and capitalization after transcription.

Exercise 1: In the Vocabulary Editor, search for a few familiar names such as your own first and last names,

your town, company, colleagues or relatives; if necessary, add them using the Add button.

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When adding names of people, consider nicknames and diminutives as well as formal names, particularly

for names that are very short or 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 items even if you think you will not dictate them very often!

Exercise 2: Open a word processor (such as DragonPad, available from the DragonBar’s Tools menu or from the

command “open DragonPad”) and 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.

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If you are using Dragon for work, 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 often tell their listeners “let us know how to pronounce your name” because some names could be pronounced in several ways and some are not pronounced “the way they are written” (due to silent letters, for instance). This is true for more than just names. 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: the Spoken Form.

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

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

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

Spoken forms must not include punctuation, abbreviations, or symbols. Here are a few examples:

Written Form: The Man from U.N.C.L.E Spoken Form: the man from uncle

Written Form: St. Clement's Hospital Spoken Form: Saint Clements Hospital

Written Form: Soddy-Daisy, TN. Spoken Form: Soddy Daisy Tennessee

Written Form: Trenton-Mercer Airport Spoken Form: Trenton Mercer Airport

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 to 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 in the Vocabulary Editor:

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

suppose Central Lexington United High School is often called CLUHS or "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.)

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Entries containing symbols, digits, or unusual spacing are particularly likely to warrant a Spoken Form. If

the written form of a word contains any punctuation, consider providing a spoken form so that there is no doubt as to how the item will be pronounced.

If you add e-mail addresses to the Vocabulary, giving them a Spoken Form can make them quicker to dictate: for instance, “Amy and John at yahoo dot com” or even just “Amy and John at yahoo” for

AmyT&JohnB@yahoo.com.

Deleting “Words” and Modifying Word Properties

If you find that an item is not transcribed as you would like, remember that it might need a spoken form, or a longer entry in the Vocabulary, and that Dragon may need to learn information about how frequently you use it and next to what words, so it’s useful to let Dragon analyze relevant documents and sent emails, as well as to run the Accuracy Tuning process (see the Accuracy Center). Also, particularly if the pronunciation

contains non-English sounds, you may want to help the software with some acoustic “training”—see "Training

Words".

You may also run into cases where a word you need is consistently transcribed as another word; if that other word is not important to you, deleting it from your profile’s active Vocabulary will solve the conflict by removing your desired word’s “competition.” For instance: the names Schaeffer, Shaffer, Schaefer and Shafer all sound alike, so if you want Dragon to write “Schaefer” but it typically writes “Shafer” even though you have already corrected the recognition error, you may want to delete “Shafer” from the Vocabulary.

You can do this by finding and deleting the word in the Vocabulary Editor, or you can do it by bringing up the Correction menu over the undesired word after Dragon transcribed it.

Note: Dragon’s active Vocabulary comes with literally thousands of entries; as you browse the Vocabulary Editor, you will see many you are very unlikely to ever dictate, but don’t spend time deleting them unless they actually cause a conflict!

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There’s more you can do in the

Vocabulary Editor! For instance, by clicking the Properties button, you can view or change the capitalization, spacing and numeral properties of an entry.

In the Word Properties dialog box, you can also choose one or even two alternate written forms. For example, you may prefer:

the spelling “email” over the hyphenated “e-mail”,

the ellipsis (…) to NOT trigger

capitalization of the next word,

the word “figure” to be written as “fig.” when before numbers as in “fig. 3” for instance…

IMPORTANT

want it to trigger capitalization of the following word. (See Starting to Dictate.)

Your documentation provides more details; in particular, take a look at the Help topics “The Vocabulary Editor Dialog Box,” “Deleting words,” and “The Word Properties dialog box.”

You would also use the Word Properties dialog for the dictation command “new line” if you

Key points about the Vocabulary Editor

You can access the Vocabulary Editor with a command like edit vocabulary, through the Accuracy  Center, or through the Vocabulary menu of the DragonBar.

In the Vocabulary Editor, custom-added entries are marked with a red plus sign; choosing Custom  Words Only from the Display drop-down list allows you to see just the custom entries.

You can locate an item by entering it in the Written Form field. By using the Display drop-down list,  you can also browse subsets like “Custom words only” and “Words containing punctuation.”

Spoken Forms are an efficient way to help Dragon transcribe “special words.” You can view many  examples of Spoken Forms in the Vocabulary Editor. In addition to clarifying pronunciation (particularly useful for items that contain digits, symbols, or silent letters), Spoken Forms can be used to allow the speaker to say something quite different, and much shorter and easier, than their associated written form: you say just “E O B stat”, for instance, and Dragon types “Explanation of Benefit (EOB) statement.”

A Vocabulary entry can have several spoken forms, and can have one or two alternate written forms.

If a Vocabulary entry you don’t need “competes” for recognition with something you do need to  dictate, you can delete that entry from the Vocabulary Editor (for instance, Cassidy and Cassity). To see the words that have been deleted from the vocabulary, you can choose “Deleted words only” from the Display drop-down list.

You can view or change the special Properties of Vocabulary entries, including spacing and  capitalization; for instance, you may wish to change whether Dragon uses the spelling “email” or “email”, whether the ellipsis (…) and the “new line” dictation command trigger capitalization of the next

word…

In the Vocabulary Editor, entries whose properties were modified are marked with the letter P in a blue  square.

Importing Lists of Vocabulary Entries

You now know how to add words and phrases one by one in the Vocabulary Editor. If you have many entries to add, this is not the most efficient method, particularly if you already have some relevant lists in electronic form. Dragon’s Word Import feature allows adding many Vocabulary entries at once, even if they have Spoken Forms.

Observe the sample import list in the illustration below, and identify the motivation behind each entry. You can then make and import one or more lists of your own, as described below.

To create and import lists of “words”:

Step 1: Create a document (or edit an existing document) listing entries you want to add to the Vocabulary.

You can do it in any word processor as long as you can save this document as plain text.

Have each entry on a separate line. • Make sure everything is spelled, capitalized and spaced correctly.• To include a Spoken Form, follow the Written Form with two backslash characters then the Spoken •

Form: for example, Grb II\\grab two.

Step 2: Save this document as a .txt file (from the File menu, choose Save As and, depending on the word

processor, choose Text Document, Text Only, or Plain Text), then close the file.

Repeat as necessary with other lists. (You may find it convenient to make several lists, such as a list of friends and relatives, a list of professional contacts, a list of product names, a list of local landmarks, etc.)

Step 3: Say import custom words, or use the DragonBar’s Vocabulary menu to pick “Import list of words or

phrases.”

Step 4: On the Add Words from Word

Lists dialog, click the Add File button.

The Add File window appears. Locate the file containing your list and click Open; the name of the file you designated is now displayed in the File List.

If you have other lists to import, add their files in the same way.

Step 5: Click Next. The software will

import the listed items into the Vocabulary.

The imported entries will be viewable in the Vocabulary Editor, where a red plus-sign appears next to them (like for entries that were added by means other than an import list).

Key points about importing Vocabulary lists:

You can add whole lists of Vocabulary entries at once. Prepare the list(s), then open Dragon’s list  import dialog (you can say import words, or choose from the Accuracy Center or the DragonBar’s Vocabulary menu).

Word lists must be saved as plain text, and closed, before they can be imported.

Each word list entry must be on its own line.

To specify a spoken form in a word list, use two backslashes to separate it from the written form.

Customizing the Vocabulary from Existing Documents

You now know about importing lists of entries into the Vocabulary. Another efficient way to boost your accuracy is to let Dragon analyze text that is similar to what you are likely to dictate: the Add Words From Documents tool use many documents at once to “harvest” potential words to add to the Vocabulary, as well as to “adapt to the writing style” (i.e., learn frequency information). The greater the amount of relevant text Dragon gets to analyze, the better it can adapt its Vocabulary to what you usually need to dictate. (This is similar to giving a just-hired transcriptionist many documents in which to observe the terms used, their spellings, the words that often appear before or after, etc.; doing so would help the transcriptionist get ready to transcribe your dictations most accurately, right from the start.)

Dragon can perform its text analysis on files of the following types: .txt (plain text), .rtf (Rich Text), .doc(x) (Microsoft Word), .wpd (Corel WordPerfect), and HTML formats.

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If significant text exists only in an application that doesn’t normally produce files of these types (PowerPoint is an example), see whether this application lets you copy text so you can paste it in the DragonPad and save it from there, or whether it offers a way to extract plain text (it could be called “export” or “save as outline” for instance.) Also, if essential text only exists as PDF or in paper form, consider using Optical Character Recognition software such as OmniPage to convert into one of the accepted formats.

Step 1: Locate some electronic documents you have written—think of reports, letters, memos, proposals... (As

long as they are similar to what you intend to dictate, you can also use documents written by someone else.) The more closely these documents match the dictation you will usually be doing, the better.

Step 2: Spell-check the documents if necessary (since Dragon would detect misspellings as unknown words.) In

addition, remove any foreign-language sections that might be present. Then, make sure the

documents are closed. The Help contains more details on this tool, including how to best prepare

documents for analysis.

Now that you have a sample of text similar to your intended dictations, let’s designate this sample for analysis. (If you obtain more documents later, you can designate them to Dragon later.)

Step 3: Say "switch to DragonBar", then "vocabulary" to open the menu, then "learn from specific

documents."(There are other ways to do, by voice or by hand.)

Make sure that the box “Preview the list of unknown words” is checked, and click Next.

Checking the box “Adapt to writing style” will make Dragon learn frequency information, which increases accuracy since it helps differentiate between homophones like “world” and “whirled”. Leave this box checked unless you only want to

“harvest” potential custom words— for instance, if the text is very different from your normal style, or contains a foreign language.

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