ScanSoft DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING 6 User Manual

USER’S GUIDE

By Dan Newman

For details on ScanSoft Application Solutions Partners near you, please visit: www.ScanSoft.com/NaturallySpeaking/locator/

Learn more about speech recognition at:

Training and Customization

Professional training and customization services from a ScanSoft-certified Applications Solutions Partner can help you achieve the maximum return on your investment. If you would like to unleash the full potential of Dragon NaturallySpeaking® software, please contact one of our Partners for training, customization, and more.

ScanSoft Application Solution Partners are the best in the industry; distinguished by their expertise, experience, and commitment to providing top-level services

for Dragon NaturallySpeaking

For details on ScanSoft Application Solutions Partners near you, please visit: www.ScanSoft.com/NaturallySpeaking/locator/ or call 800-443-7077

speech recognition products.

About the Author

Dan Newman is president of Say I Can, Inc., a leading reseller of speech-recognition products and training services. A computer expert and skilled teacher, Dan is the author of several books about speech recogni-

tion, including Ta lk to You r Co mp ut er and The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Guide. Dan has written for many publications, including PC Magazine and Speech Technology, and has appeared on the PBS television show Computer Chronicles. He recently created his first instructional video presentation,

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

NaturallySpeaking

speech-recognition software most effectively.

6 Video Guide, which helps people use Dragon

Dan’s Video Guide is a CD-ROM-based video presentation that runs on your computer and is designed for both new and experienced users of Dragon

NaturallySpeaking through key Dragon NaturallySpeaking

software. In the Video Guide, Dan guides you visually

version 6 topics and skills, demon-

strating expert techniques and insider secrets. He shows you how to fix mistakes quickly, automate tedious tasks, browse the Web hands-free, boost accuracy, and more. You can see the complete list of topics covered and download free sample video lessons at www.sayican.com.

In addition to the Video Guide, Say I Can offers many other speech- recognition products and services. Their innovative “Web Training” service provides live one-on-one training over the Internet, allowing you to

conveniently learn how to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking software from an expert. Other items available include digital recorders, spe-

cialty microphones, and volume licenses of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

software. For more information, please call 1-877-Say-I-Can or visit www.sayican.com.

This is a screen shot of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking® 6 Video Guide. For more information,

please visit the Say I Can Web site at www.sayican.com.

May 2002. Version 6.1 Preferred, Standard, and Essentials editions.

This publication may not include some last-minute technical changes and/or revisions to the software. Changes are periodically made to the information described here. Future versions of this manual will incorporate these changes.

ScanSoft, Inc., 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 such patents. The software is subject to one or more of the following U.S. patents, among others: 5,027,406; 5,202,952; 5,526,463; 5,680,511; 5,715,367; 5,754,972; 5,765,132; 5,794,189; 5,799,279; 5,818,423; 5,822,730; 5,850,627; 5,909,666; 5,915,236; 5,920,836; 5,949,886; 5,960,394; 6,064,959; 6,088,671; 6,092,043; 6,092,044; 6,101,468; 6,151,575; 6,163,768; 6,167,377; 6,212,498.

No part of this manual or software may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including, without limitation, electronic or mechanical, such as photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written consent of ScanSoft, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

ScanSoft, the ScanSoft logo, L&H, the L&H logo, the Dragon logo, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, NaturallySpeaking, NaturallyMobile, RealSpeak, Nothing But Speech “NBS,” Natural Language Technology, Select-and-Say, BestMatch, MouseGrid, and Vocabulary Editor are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. All other names and trademarks referenced herein are trademarks of ScanSoft or their respective owners. 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 ScanSoft is aware of the trademark, the designation is printed with a trademark (™) or registered trademark (®) symbol.

Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Adobe and Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Corel and WordPerfect are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation. Lotus and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Microsoft, Outlook, Windows, Windows NT, Visual Basic, and PowerPoint are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation. Netscape and Netscape Navigator are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. Say I Can and the Say I Can logo are trademarks of Say I Can, Inc. Voice It, the Voice It logo, and Voice It Link are trademarks or registered trademarks of VXI Corporation. AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Technology Ltd. America Online is a registered trademark of America Online, Inc., a division of AOL Time Warner. QUALCOMM and Eudora Pro are registered trademarks of QUALCOMM, Incorporated. Yahoo! is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.

Dave Barry in Cyberspace, © Copyright 1996 by Dave Barry, published by Crown Publishers. 3001: The Final Odyssey, © Copyright 1997 by Arthur C. Clarke, published by HarperCollins Publishers. Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook, © Copyright 1996 by United Feature Syndicate, Inc., published by

Books.

120-D150-61

Contents

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

About this guide 1 What’s new in version 6? 3 What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking? 6

CHAPTER 2 Installing and Training 7

System requirements 7 Plug in the microphone 8 Plug in the speakers 9 Install the software 9 Create a new user 13 Audio Setup 16 New user training 19 Training problems and solutions 22

CHAPTER 3 Starting to Dictate 25

Turning the microphone on and off 28 Sleeping and waking up 28 Online Help 29 The DragonBar 30

CHAPTER 4 Correcting and Editing 35

The Correction menu 36 Selecting text by voice 40 Moving around in a document 43 Copying, cutting, and pasting text 46 Copying text to other programs 46 Deleting text 47 Keyboard editing shortcuts 49 Spelling as you dictate 50

CHAPTER 5 Formatting 53

Capitalizing text 54 Formatting text 56

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Contents

CHAPTER 6 Numbers and Punctuation 61

Dictating numbers 61 Punctuation 69 Dictating hyphenated words 70 Dictating compound words 71 Dictating names 72 Dictating abbreviations and acronyms 73 Dictating e-mail and Web addresses 74 Dictating special characters 75 Modes 80

CHAPTER 7 Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer 83

Working with e-mail 83 Working with Microsoft Internet Explorer 87

CHAPTER 8 Using Natural Language Commands 95

Available Natural Language Commands 95 The Sample Commands window 96 The Command Browser 96 Sample Commands 98

CHAPTER 9 Hands-Free Computing 101

Starting programs 102 Opening documents and folders 103 Switching between open windows 103 Copying text to other programs 104 Opening and closing menus 105 Selecting buttons, tabs, and options 106 Selecting icons on the desktop 107 Resizing and closing windows 108 Scrolling in windows and list boxes 109 Pressing keyboard keys 109 Activating commands by saying key names 113 Moving the mouse pointer and clicking the mouse 115 Hands-free tips 121

CHAPTER 10 Automate Your Work 123

Viewing or editing commands 123 Searching commands 124 Creating new commands (Preferred edition only) 125 Deleting custom commands (Preferred edition only) 129 Renaming Text and Graphics commands 130

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CHAPTER 11 Workflow 133

Dictate first, correct later (Preferred edition only) 133 Ways to correct your dictation 136

CHAPTER 12 Speaking and Dictating 143

Composing 146

CHAPTER 13 Improving Accuracy 151

The Accuracy Center 152 Tools to improve your vocabulary 156 The ideal system for best accuracy 168 Some practical ways to improve accuracy 169

CHAPTER 14 Healthy Computing 175

Ergonomics and posture 175 Maintaining good vocal health 176

CHAPTER 15 Using a Handheld Recorder (Preferred edition only) 179

Installing recorder software 180 Creating a user adapted to your recorded speech 181 Dictating into your recorder 185 Transcribing recorded dictation 187 Correcting mistakes 193 Using the Dragon NaturallyMobile recorder as a microphone 194 Better accuracy with a recorder 194

CHAPTER 16 Customizing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 197

The Options dialog box 197

CHAPTER 17 Troubleshooting 211

Testing your sound system 211 Other problems and solutions 213

APPENDIX Commands List 217

INDEX 251

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vii

CHAPTER

Introduction

elcome to Dragon NaturallySpeaking®—the software that lets you talk to your computer instead of typing. As you speak, your words

appear swiftly on-screen just as if you had typed them.

You can talk (“dictate”) into many programs, including Microsoft

Corel and more. For example, you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking

■ Compose letters, memos, and e-mail messages. Just think about

■ Enter data into forms or spreadsheets. Most people can dictate

WordPerfect®, e-mail programs, personal information organizers,

what you want to say and then say it into the microphone.

numbers faster than they can type.

Word,

to:

■ Work on the Web. You can search the Web, access information, and

navigate Web pages by speaking URLs and links.

You can also move text around within your document (“cut and paste”), revise and format text, and control your computer by voice. You can start programs, open menus, and send e-mails by voice.

After you become comfortable talking to your computer, you may want to take the convenience of dictating a step further by using a handheld recorder with Dragon NaturallySpeaking edition only.) With a handheld recorder, you can dictate while away from your computer. When you return to your computer, Dragon NaturallySpeaking

About this guide

This guide provides detailed information that will help you get the most out of using Dragon NaturallySpeaking running with the software, show you how to dictate, edit, and format

. (Available in Preferred

will type out (“transcribe”) what you said.

. It will help you get up and

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Introduction

your text, and discuss the best ways to work for maximum efficiency and accuracy.

While this guide presents all the important features of Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

, it is not intended to be a complete reference to

each feature and function. More extensive information about using

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

is available in the program’s online Help.

This guide covers the Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Preferred, Essentials,

and Standard editions.

Most of the information presented in this guide is applicable to all these editions. When information applies to certain editions only, this is noted.

Conventions used in this guide

1 This guide contains many examples of words and phrases you can say

when using Dragon NaturallySpeaking

. These examples appear in

italics with quotation marks, for example: “Format That Bold.”

2 Some procedures also include sample text for you to dictate. Sample text

appears in a different typeface, with punctuation in square brackets. For example:

US/Canada: When talking to a computer [comma] try to say every word clearly without trailing off at the end of a sentence [period]

Other Dialects: When talking to a computer [comma] try to say every word clearly without trailing off at the end of a sentence [full stop]

3 This guide applies to the five English dialects that ship with Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

■ US English

■ UK English

■ Australian English

■ Indian English

■ Southeast Asian English

US English uses US spelling, punctuation, and time and currency formats. We recommend US English for Canadian users since this dialect formats numbers (including times, telephone numbers, and currency) in North American formats.

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Introduction

All other dialects use UK spelling, punctuation, and time and currency formats (some number settings depend on your Windows Regional Settings). Where multiple dialects are used in dictation examples, those dialects appear in a different font style. For example:

■ You can also correct a longer phrase by saying “Correct [text] Through

[text]” (

US/Canada) or “Correct [text] To [text]” (Other Dialects).

This guide uses US spelling and punctuation for consistency.

4 This guide also includes tips and notes to help you use the software

more effectively. Tips and notes appear like this:

TIP

If you pause correctly, but Dragon NaturallySpeaking® still types a command as dictation, you can force it to recognize what you say as a command by holding down the CTRL key.

NOTE

everything you say as a number. If you dictate words, the results will be unpredictable. However, you can still navigate menus and switch between programs by voice when Numbers Mode is on.

With Numbers Mode on, Dragon NaturallySpeaking

What’s new in version 6?

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® version 6 brings together the best

ScanSoft text-to-speech technology to create more accurate, powerful, and userfriendly speech-recognition software. (Text-to-speech is available only in the Preferred edition.) In addition to assisting users to operate a computer hands-free, the software contains many new features and general improvements.

Tools for greater accuracy

Accuracy Center

The Accuracy Center offers one-stop shopping for all the tools available to improve recognition accuracy: audio settings, additional training, adding words to the vocabulary, and the new Acoustic Optimizer can all be found in this central location. (Some features of the Accuracy Center are available only in Standard and higher editions.) See page 152.

and Dragon NaturallySpeaking® speech-recognition and

tries to interpret

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Introduction

The Accuracy Assistant, which is part of the Accuracy Center, guides the user in selecting the right tool for improving accuracy. See page 152.

Acoustic Optimizer

After you have used Dragon NaturallySpeaking® for a while and some recognition errors may have occurred, the Acoustic Optimizer is a tool

that lets Dragon NaturallySpeaking

process all the recorded data it has collected during training and while corrections have been made. It learns from this data in one sweep, which is much more powerful than gradual adaptation from each correction. Start the optimizer before you leave for a meeting and come back to improved recognition. See page 153.

Add contact names and vocabulary

Add the contact names from your address book to your vocabulary file (Available only in Standard and higher editions.) You can also scan your

sent e-mail to teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking

the words you use. See

page 160.

Easier to use

Nothing But Speech (“NBS”)™

The Nothing But Speech technology filters out some of the fillers between dictation, such as “uhms” and “ahs,” to help avoid insertion of unwanted words.

Faster, easier correction

A new, streamlined correction interface makes it easier than ever to proofread and correct your work. The improved Correction menu is now available wherever you can select text by voice. See page 36.

Correct whichever way you want—by voice, by mouse and keyboard, or

using any combination of these. Dragon NaturallySpeaking

will still learn from your corrections, even if you just type them over the words you’ve selected.

The new correction workflow lets you dictate your entire document and then quickly move along and correct phrase by phrase as needed. See “Ways to correct your dictation” on page 136.

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Find commands easily with Sample Commands and Command Browser

Can’t remember a command? A Sample Commands window displays voice commands for the most popular applications alongside your work. See “Sample Commands” on page 98.

The new Command Browser lets you search for commands by application, making it easy to find what you need. It also allows you to train or modify your commands. See “The Command Browser” on page

96.

Create your own commands

Text and Graphics commands

Create a letter closing and include your signature as a bitmap. You can add this to any document with one simple voice command. This is just one example of how Text and Graphics commands let you automate common tasks. (Available in Preferred edition only.) See “Automate Your Work” on page 123.

More powerful and versatile

Easily edit by voice in more applications

Select-and-Say® functionality, which enables you to make text changes easily by voice, is now available in the Open and Save dialogs in many applications, in the Windows

Award-winning ScanSoft™ RealSpeak™ text-to-speech engine

Let the computer read text to you, such as an incoming e-mail, in the most human-sounding voice available. (Available in Preferred edition only.) See page 141.

More extensive mouse control commands

You can now control the mouse by voice in a variety of ways, for example, by simply saying “Move Mouse Upper Left.” See page 119.

Natural Language Commands

In addition to the commands that worked in version 5, you can now also use Natural Language Commands in your favorite programs. There is no need to learn a specific command—Natural Language Commands let you say what you want in many different ways and still get the software to do just the right thing. See “Using Natural Language Commands” on page 95.

Find dialog box, and in many other places.

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Introduction

Improved hands-free capabilities

Improvements in the user interface of version 6 make it possible to complete almost every task by voice, for users who prefer to work handsfree. See “Hands-Free Computing” on page 101.

What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking?

One reason to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is to create letters, reports, and other documents by voice. Another is to speed up routine tasks, such as entering data, launching applications, sending e-mail, filling in forms, and working on the Web. Or maybe you need or prefer to work on the computer with little or no use of your hands.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking work well requires some effort from you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking learns about your voice and pronunciation as you use it. When you use words the program doesn’t know, it will misrecognize them. To get the best results, you’ll need to correct the mistakes so that the program can learn from its mistakes and improve its ability to recognize your way of speaking.

Do I still need my keyboard and mouse?

Although you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking® to do almost everything on your computer by voice, some things are still easier to do by mouse or keyboard. Feel free to use a combination of voice, mouse, and keyboard to get your work done—experiment to find methods that work best for you. If using a mouse and keyboard is not an option, pay special attention to “Hands-Free Computing.” on page 101.

is good for all these reasons, but making it

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Installing and Training

f you haven’t yet set up Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, this chapter will

guide you through each step of the process, from plugging in the microphone to training the computer to recognize your voice. It also covers dictating your first sentence and explains the Dragon

NaturallySpeaking as you work.

System requirements

The recommended system requirements to run Dragon NaturallySpeaking

■ Intel

Pentium® II 400 MHz processor (or equivalent AMDTM

processor)*

controls, buttons, and menus that appear on-screen

are:

■ 128 MB RAM

■ 300 MB free hard disk space

■ Microsoft

■ Creative

supporting 16-bit recording

■ Microsoft

at www.microsoft.com

■ CD-ROM drive (required for installation)

■ ScanSoft-approved noise-canceling headset microphone (included)

■ Speakers (required for playback of recorded speech and text-to-

speech features available in Preferred edition only).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking popular processors, including the Intel

Windows® XP, Millennium, 2000, 98, 95C, or Windows®

4.0 (with SP-6 or greater)

Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card

Internet Explorer® 5 or higher (free download available

6 has been optimized for a variety of

Pentium® 4, Pentium® III,

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Installing and Training

Pentium® II, Pentium® with MMX™, Intel Celeron®, AMD™ K6®-2, AMD™ K6-III with 3DNow!™, AMD™ Athlon™, and more.

*For optimal performance, in combination with other applications running on your system, a 500 MHz processor or faster and 256 MB RAM are recommended.

Plug in the microphone

Here’s how to set up your regular (non-USB) microphone. (If you have a USB microphone, follow the instructions that came with it instead of this description.) Find the microphone plug at the end of the wire attached to the microphone. If the wire ends in just one plug, that is the microphone plug. If the wire ends in two plugs, one is the microphone plug and the other is for the speaker in the microphone’s earpiece. Check the instructions included with your microphone to figure out which is which. The microphone plug sometimes has a small picture of a microphone imprinted in the plastic base of the plug. If the two plugs are different colors, the brightly colored one is usually the microphone plug.

Next, find the microphone jack in the sound card of your computer. On desktop computers, this small, round opening is almost always on the back of your computer. There will be one, two, or three similar-sized jacks next to it (all are part of your computer’s sound hardware). Each jack should be labeled with words ( Choose the jack with the word labels can be difficult to spot. They may be engraved into the metal plate the jacks are set into or imprinted on the plastic case of the computer. (On many computers the microphone jack has a red circle around it.)

On laptops, the microphone jack may be on the side or front instead of the back of the computer.

MIC, LINE IN, SPKR) or pictures.

MIC or the picture of a microphone. The

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Installing and Training

Plug in the speakers

If you hear chimes or other sounds when Microsoft® Windows® starts up, your speakers are already plugged in correctly. If Windows the sound card jack labeled speaker), and plug in the speakers. This step is not necessary for laptops, which have internal speakers.

If your microphone has a speaker plug, you can listen to the computer’s sound through the earphone on your headset microphone. If you’d rather hear the computer’s sounds through your speakers than the earphone, simply leave the speaker plug unplugged.

Install the software

is silent, find

SPKR (or imprinted with a picture of a

Before installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, close all open applications. Also, turn off or disable any antivirus software that is running. Sometimes installation can trigger a false virus report.

NOTE

Windows however, Administrator rights are not required to use the software after installation. This also applies for an upgrade installation.

To install or uninstall Dragon NaturallySpeaking® on Windows

2000, you must have Administrator rights. After a user has been created,

and

Installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is similar to installing other

Windows

applications. Insert the Dragon NaturallySpeaking® CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. In most cases, the installation program will start automatically.

NOTE

steps: From the Windows

If the installation does not start automatically on your computer, follow these

Start menu, choose Run. The Run dialog box will open. Type

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CHAPTER 2

Installing and Training

E:\setup.exe and click OK. (If your CD-ROM drive is not drive E, use the correct CD-ROM drive letter.)

Upgrading from version 5:

■ Upgrading from English version 5 editions:

If you are upgrading from any edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 to version 6, your user files and vocabularies will migrate automatically to version 6. After the upgrade, version 5 will no longer be available.

■ NOTE: For non-English or multilingual users of version 5:

Installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking® version 6 will delete all user files in non-English languages. Multilingual editions of version 5 will no longer be available after you upgrade to this English

version 6 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Setup Type

The setup program gives you the option of choosing a Typical Installation, Complete Installation, or Custom Installation of Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

▲ US users: choose “Typical Installation.” Non-US users: choose “Custom Installation.”

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Most users in the US should choose “Typical Installation” (as shown)

and click Next. This installs Dragon NaturallySpeaking

with the US (American) English user files. To install non-US English user files, choose “Custom Installation” and follow the instructions below, “Installing non-US user files.”

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Installing and Training

Installing non-US user files

To install user files for UK (British) English, Australian English, Indian English, or Southeast Asian English, choose “Custom Installation” from the setup screen shown above, then click Next. A dialog box appears to let you choose which components to install.

Select the user file for the dialect you want and click Next to continue installation.

The user files for each region contain both spellings and pronunciations specific to that region. The vocabulary installed with the Indian user file, for example, is designed for people speaking English in India and includes spellings and punctuation for that region. It is not possible to install, for example, US English spellings with Indian or Indian-accented pronunciations. All users who wish to dictate US English spellings—including users with accents— should install the US (American) English user files.

If you speak with an accent different from the user files you install, your accuracy will be improved by performing additional training as soon as possible after creating a trained user. See “Perform additional training,” on page 154 for more information.

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NOTE

selecting a Custom installation, you can install them later by running the Setup program again and choosing Modify.

If you decide not to install some Dragon NaturallySpeaking® components by

Continue following the on-screen instructions. The setup program will copy the files for Dragon NaturallySpeaking recommended that you register when prompted during the installation process, so that we can notify you of product upgrades and other offers.

The program may ask you to reboot your computer once installation is complete. After rebooting, click on the Dragon NaturallySpeaking on your desktop to start Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Create a new user

After installation is complete and you launch the software for the first time, the New User Wizard will ask you to choose a user name. Type your name. The software automatically picks the best speech model and vocabulary settings for your system.

to your computer. It is

icon

If you are using a USB microphone, choose the USB Microphone from the “Dictation source” drop-down list. If you are using an array microphone or handheld recorder (with Preferred edition only), you will also need to change the “Dictation source” setting to match your microphone or recorder.

NOTE

commands. To do this, choose “Commands Only” from the Vocabulary list in the New User dialog box.

For special purposes, you can create a vocabulary that contains only

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CHAPTER 2

If this user file will be used with a USB microphone, array microphone, or handheld recorder*, choose the appropriate option from the Dictation source list.

(*Works in Preferred edition only.)

Installing and Training

About vocabularies

▲ Type your name. Change the “Dictation source” and “Vocabulary” settings if you need

to. Then click Next.

A vocabulary in Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is a body of information that includes a word list and a language model. The word list includes information about all the words that the program can recognize. The language model contains usage information about those words. Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

uses a vocabulary to recognize words correctly based not only on the sound of the words, but on their context. When you create a new user, you select the vocabulary on which to base the user. When you create a new user or new vocabulary for an existing user, you select the vocabulary on which to base the vocabulary you create.

Vocabular y

You can select from among the following vocabularies:

■ General: A large vocabulary providing excellent recognition accuracy

for general, business, and professional dictation.

■ Commands Only: A limited vocabulary containing only command

words and phrases. Choose this vocabulary if you want to use

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

only for command and control of

programs and not for dictation.

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■ Teens (US English only): A large vocabulary containing words

selected for a student population and providing excellent recognition accuracy for higher-pitched voices, for example ages 11 through 18.

Vocabular y size

When you create a set of user files, Dragon NaturallySpeaking® recommends the vocabulary that best fits your computer’s speed and memory. For most users, this recommendation should be followed. Experienced users may want to click the Advanced button to specify a different vocabulary size from among the following choices:

■ Extra Small: designed for computers with less than 64 MB of RAM.

■ Small: designed for computers with between 64 and 96 MB of RAM.

■ Medium: designed for computers with between 96 and 128 MB of

RAM.

■ Large: designed for computers with at least 150 MB of RAM.

■ Empty Dictation: a vocabulary with a language model but without

any words. This vocabulary is designed for experienced users or value-added resellers who want to create highly specialized vocabularies.

Multiple users on one computer

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is licensed on a “per individual” basis. Individuals are permitted to install the software on more than one computer (for example, on a desktop and a laptop computer, or a work computer and a home computer) and permitted to create multiple user files, so long as the software is only being used by that individual.

NOTE: There is an exception for educational settings, including primary schools, secondary schools, or colleges. Dragon

NaturallySpeaking multiple users in a classroom, school library, or other shared computing facility in an educational setting.

may be installed on a single computer for use by

If you wish to allow more than one person to use one copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking license agreements are available. For information on Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 15

, you need a license for each user. Volume

sales, see page 259.

CHAPTER 2

Installing and Training

Audio Setup

Now that you’ve chosen your user name, click Next to have the New User Wizard lead you through setting up your microphone.

Positioning your microphone

First, the New User Wizard explains how to position your microphone.

Click Next to continue. The following sections provide detailed information on positioning the microphone. Once you have correctly positioned the microphone, click Next to continue.

Position the microphone

Put the microphone on your head so that the headband goes across the top of your head. Adjust the headband so that it is comfortable and feels like it will stay in place. For additional comfort, most microphones can be adjusted so that the boom extends down from either the left ear or the right ear, as you prefer.

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Next, bend or adjust the boom so that the foam windscreen, which shields the microphone element from excess noise, is near your mouth. Correct positioning is crucial for recognition accuracy. Start with the microphone at the corner of your mouth, about a thumb’s width away.

At the corner of your mouth

If the microphone is too close to the center of your mouth, it may pick

up breathing sounds, which Dragon NaturallySpeaking

may mistake for “the,” “a,” or other small words. In this case, move it closer to the corner of your mouth.

The right distance away

The windscreen should not touch your face, hair, or beard. The proper distance from your mouth to the microphone is roughly between onehalf and one inch—about the width of the thick part of your thumb.

Place your thumb between the microphone and your mouth. One side of your thumb should be touching your mouth, the other should be just brushing the windscreen. Checking this distance with your thumb is a good way to get a feel for proper microphone positioning. While you work, the microphone may shift, degrading recognition accuracy. Doing a quick “thumb check” ensures that the microphone is where it should be.

Pointing toward your mouth

To pick up the best sound, the microphone element should be pointed toward your mouth. The microphone element, covered by the foam windscreen, is the electronic part that actually hears your voice. On most microphones a small dot just outside the windscreen indicates the direction in which the microphone hears best. Be sure that dot is pointed toward your mouth. (On some microphones you may need to partially

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CHAPTER 2

remove the windscreen to find the dot. Other microphones have a flat edge near the microphone element rather than a dot—point the flat edge toward your mouth.)

Positioned consistently

Consistent microphone placement is vital for accurate speech recognition. Position the microphone exactly the same way each time you use the software. If the microphone drifts, your voice will sound different to the computer and your dictation might come out garbled.

Adjust Your Volume

From the screen “Adjust Your Volume” (shown below), click the Start Volume Check button and read the text that appears.

Installing and Training

After Dragon NaturallySpeaking Next to continue.

adjusts your volume setting, click

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Sound quality check

Click the Start Quality Check button and read aloud the text shown on the screen.

Installing and Training

As you read, the computer is evaluating your sound setup. After about half a minute, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Noise ratio,” which indicates the clarity of your sound system. If Dragon NaturallySpeaking to go on—click the Next button to continue. If not, see “Testing your sound system” on page 211.

New user training

Follow the on-screen prompts to begin the process of training Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Training takes place in two parts. For most microphone users, the first part consists of reading two sentences aloud (see illustration). Click Go to turn on the microphone and then read the sentences shown in the

will display a “Speech-to-

labels this measurement “PASSED,” you’re ready

to recognize your voice.

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successive screens. The Demo button gives you an example of how to read aloud during training.

Next, the software will ask you to choose a training text to read. Select the text you prefer and click OK.

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For the next few minutes you’ll read passages that appear on-screen. You can take a break at any time by pressing the Pause button. Press Go to resume. You’ll be reading for about five minutes.

As you speak, the words you say turn from blue to black, showing that Dragon NaturallySpeaking

hears them. If you stop speaking, a yellow arrow will show you where to begin speaking again. Occasionally, you’ll read a sentence or paragraph but the yellow arrow will point you back again to the start of what you already read. This indicates that something in the passage you read did not match what Dragon NaturallySpeaking

expected to hear. Read the passage again, pausing after each sentence. If you cannot get past a particular word after saying it three times, click the Skip button to continue.

NOTE

misspeak or mispronounce a word during training, don’t worry about it—just continue reading.

During training, dictating punctuation is not necessary. Also, if you happen to

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When you’ve read enough, this message will appear:

Click OK to adapt your user files. Depending on your computer, this will take from one to five minutes or more. When adaptation is complete, follow the on-screen instructions to finish setting up your user files. The DragonBar will appear at the top of your computer screen, waiting for you to start talking. Congratulations—you’re ready to dictate!

TIP

For best accuracy, be sure to complete a second session of general training as soon as possible. Do this by clicking on the Tools menu on the DragonBar, then clicking Accuracy Center.After the Accuracy Center window opens, click “Perform additional training.” This second training session will take a bit longer than the first, but the improvement in accuracy will be well worth the additional time spent.

Training problems and solutions

Symptom: Nothing changes on the screen as you speak and the yellow volume bar never turns green.

Cause: Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Solution: Check that the microphone is plugged in correctly. If the

volume bar still does not move as you speak, test your microphone by recording a wave file using your Windows it back.

Symptom: The yellow volume bar changes to red as you talk.

is not hearing your voice.

Sound Recorder and playing

Cause: The sound signal is too loud.

Solution: Make sure you are speaking at the same volume as you were

during the Audio Setup Wizard and that your microphone is still positioned correctly.

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Symptom: You are not able to complete the first two enrollment screens

(the first two sentences that Dragon NaturallySpeaking

asks you to read). This may be because you are not able to speak continuously, due to a disability or other reason.

Solution: Have another person read these two sentences to Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

so that the program can progress to the next part of

training.

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ow that you’ve installed your software and created and trained your user files, you’re ready to dictate your first sentence.

First, start your word processor, such as Microsoft

WordPerfect should be at the start of your new document, as if you were going to begin typing.

, and begin a new document. The text insertion point

DragonPad

If you don’t have a word processor installed or if you’d prefer not to use it, you can use the DragonPad, a simple word processor included

with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tools menu on the DragonBar, click DragonPad.

. To open the DragonPad, from the

Word or Corel®

Microphone

For Dragon NaturallySpeaking turn on the microphone. The microphone on/off control is located on the DragonBar, the horizontal bar that appears on-screen whenever you are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking

NOTE

The Sound menu is available only in the Preferred edition.

to recognize your voice, you need to

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Click the microphone button to turn the microphone on. The button and the volume meter next to it change to show if the microphone is off or on.

▲ Off—the computer can’t hear you.

▲ On—the computer is listening. It will type whatever it hears.

Dictate a sentence about the weather. Or read this:

I am now able to talk to my computer!

(Say “exclamation point” for “!”).

Did it work?

If no words appear, check that the microphone is plugged in correctly and is turned on (by pressing the microphone button on the DragonBar, as described above). If only one or two words appear, your microphone may be set up incorrectly or your sound settings may need to be changed. See page 211 for instructions on how to test your sound system.

If words did appear, but many are not what you said, that’s okay.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Go ahead and dictate whatever you like. Remember to say punctuation. Here is what to say for the most common punctuation marks. (For a complete list of punctuation, see page 240.)

TO ENTER SAY (US/Canada) SAY (Other Dialects)

,commacomma . period full stop

will improve as you use it.

! exclamation point or

exclamation mark

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For a new paragraph, say “New Paragraph” run together as one word, with no pause after “new.” For a new line, say “New Line.”

After dictating a paragraph or two, go back and correct any recognition errors with the keyboard and mouse, just as you would usually correct errors in a word-processed document. You’ll learn to correct by voice in chapter 4, “Correcting and Editing.”

Key tips for dictating

TO ENTER SAY (US/Canada) SAY (Other Dialects)

? question mark question mark

- hyphen hyphen : colon colon

■ Pronounce each word clearly—even short words.

■ Speak all punctuation (“comma,” “period,” and so on).

■ Say commands without pausing between the individual words of the

command (as if you were saying “NewParagraph”). Do not pause while saying the command.

■ Do pause, however, before and after saying the command.

Commands require a pause before and after the command (“This is a test [pause] Select Last 3 Words [pause] Bold That”). The pauses

enable Dragon NaturallySpeaking

to separate commands from

words to be typed (dictation).

■ Although talking to a computer is not like talking to a person,

speech with lively inflection tends to be processed more accurately than speech in a dull monotone. For more tips on how to dictate, see “Speaking and Dictating” on page 143.

■ Looking at the screen while speaking can be distracting. Try looking

away from the computer as you speak, or close your eyes.

■ To maintain your line of thought, dictate a paragraph or two at a

time. Then go back and correct with what you said still in mind.

■ Drink lots of water. Sipping it through a straw will help avoid

moving the headset and will help keep your microphone in the right position.

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Turning the microphone on and off

Any of these three methods will switch the microphone between on and off:

■ Press the numeric (+) key on your keyboard. This key is at the far

right of most keyboards. (It’s not the plus [+] key that appears above the equal [=] sign on your regular keyboard).

■ Click the microphone button on the DragonBar.

■ Click the small microphone icon in the bottom right corner of the

screen, next to the clock:

Saying “Microphone Off” will also turn the microphone off. You cannot, however, turn the microphone on by voice.

Whenever you’re not using Dragon NaturallySpeaking microphone. This prevents the computer from mistaking background noise for words and filling your screen with useless text.

If you have a laptop computer, you may have to press several keys at once to generate a numeric (+) keystroke. You may want to define another key to turn off your microphone. See “Customizing Dragon NaturallySpeaking” on page 197.

Sleeping and waking up

Saying “Go To Sleep” or “Stop Listening” without pausing will put Dragon

NaturallySpeaking speech, but the only phrases it will respond to in this mode are “Wa ke Up” or “Listen to Me,” which turn the microphone on.

into sleep mode. The program still listens to your

, turn off the

When in sleep mode:

■ The volume meter on the DragonBar (next to the microphone

button) will show a dark gray volume bar (instead of yellow or green).

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■ The microphone button on the DragonBar and the microphone icon

at the bottom corner of the screen will turn yellow and slant to the side:

Saying “Go To Sleep” or “Stop Listening” can be useful for taking phone calls or for other short interruptions. If you leave the computer for a longer period of time, turn the microphone all the way off, so that

Dragon NaturallySpeaking accidentally.

Many people find that pressing the numeric (+) key is the simplest on/ off method.

does not hear “Wa ke U p” or “Listen to Me”

Printing and saving your dictated text

Now that the words you said are on the computer’s screen in your word processor, you can print and save them, just as if you had typed them.

Printing

From the File menu of your word processor, use the mouse to choose Print. Or say “Click File,” pause, and say “Print.” You can also simply say “Print Document” or “Print File” if Natural Language Commands are enabled and available in your edition. See “Using Natural Language Commands” on page 95. Also see “Startup/Shutdown options” on page

200.

Saving

From the File menu, choose Save. Or say “Click File,” pause, and then say “Save.” If the Natural Language Commands have been enabled, you can say “Save Document.”

Online Help

To access the online Help for Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, click the Help menu on the DragonBar and choose Help Topics. Alternately, you can say “Give Me Help.” You can print individual Help topics with the Print button in the Help window. To open the online Help links, just say their names. The links will be displayed next to the application window

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and will give you examples of the most common commands that work in the application you are currently using.

“What Can I Say?”

Saying “What Can I Say” will bring up some Sample Commands. This information is also summarized in the Appendix. To see additional voice commands that you can use, click Command Browser from the Tools menu of the DragonBar. The Command Browser is described in more detail on page 96.

The DragonBar

The DragonBar is a narrow horizontal window that allows easy access to Dragon NaturallySpeaking

functions and features.

Change position

position

Microphone Menus Status Extras

NOTE

The Sound menu is available only in the Preferred edition.

Changing the DragonBar position

To change the position of the DragonBar, click the small red Dragon icon at its far left. A menu will appear, which lets you move the DragonBar to the bottom of the screen, make it a floating window that you can position freely, or make it a “clinging” window, where the DragonBar appears just above whatever window into which you’re dictating. You can also hide the DragonBar completely by clicking Tray Icon Only Mode from this menu.

NOTE

To make a hidden DragonBar reappear, right-click on the small microphone in the lower right corner of the screen (next to the clock, usually in the Windows Restore Previous DragonBar Mode.

You can also hide the DragonBar by saying “Switch to Tray Icon Only Mode.”

task bar). From the menu that appears, click

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Microphone button and volume display

Click the Microphone button to turn the microphone on and off. When the microphone is on, a colored bar in the Volume Display shows the current sound level. Yellow indicates silence or speech that is too soft, green indicates a proper speech level, and red indicates sound that is too loud to be processed.

Extras toolbar (Available in Preferred edition only)

Click the Extras button on the far right of the DragonBar to open the Extras toolbar. The Extras toolbar includes buttons for transcribing from a recorder and for proofreading your dictation

Start Playback Skip ForwardStop Playback

Correction

Fast Playback Skip Back Transcribe

To hide the Extras toolbar, click the Extras button again.

Correction

Clicking the Correction button opens the Correction menu to teach the computer what you said. See chapter 4, “Correcting and Editing.”

Transcribe (Available in Preferred edition only)

Use this button to transcribe your speech from a handheld recorder. See chapter 15, “Using a Handheld Recorder (Preferred edition only).”

Start Playback, Fast Playback, and Stop Playback (Available in Preferred edition only)

Select a word, sentence, or paragraph, then click the Start Playback button to hear a recording of what you said. A yellow arrow points to the text during playback to show you how the computer interpreted your words. This button is useful for editing when you don’t remember what you said. Click the Fast Playback button to play the recording at a faster speed. Click the Start Playback button to return to a normal speed. Click the Stop Playback button to stop the recorded speech playback.

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Skip Back and Skip Forward

These buttons skip backward or forward one utterance. To Dragon NaturallySpeaking without pausing.

The Extras menu items can be displayed in the main DragonBar. See “View options” on page 201.

The microphone in the taskbar

When Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is running, one of three small graphics will appear next to the clock in the Windows click on these graphics to switch the microphone on or off.

▲ Microphone is on.

, an utterance is a group of words said together

task bar. You can

Results box

▲ Microphone is off.

▲ Microphone is sleeping.

Right-click the microphone icon to access the same menus that are found on the DragonBar, where you can access all Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

functions. Also use this menu to make the DragonBar appear if it’s hidden (click Restore Previous DragonBar Mode).

The Results box is a small yellow window that appears on-screen as you dictate. It looks like this:

As you speak, the Results box displays the words that Dragon NaturallySpeaking

thinks you said. These words may change as the program considers different interpretations of the utterance it heard. After Dragon NaturallySpeaking

types the text into your document, the

Results box shows what was typed.

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When Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is recognizing a command, the Results box has a bold blue border, so you can tell that it is recognizing your utterance as a command.

A line at the bottom of the Results box changes color from yellow to green as you speak. This line is a volume meter that duplicates the functions of the microphone volume meter on the DragonBar.

You can move the Results box anywhere on the screen by dragging it

with the mouse. To stop Dragon NaturallySpeaking

in the middle of a recognition process and switch off the microphone, click on the small red circle in the upper-left corner of the Results box.

The Results box is useful in three ways. When you notice the volume meter change to green, you know the computer is actually hearing you. When you see the Results box fill with words, you know that Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

is processing what you say. And finally, after you

finish a command or phrase, the Results box shows you what Dragon

NaturallySpeaking Dragon NaturallySpeaking

thought you said. You can then determine whether

You can also anchor the Results box permanently in one place. From the Tools menu of the DragonBar, click Options, then click the View tab and enable the respective option.

Controlling Dragon NaturallySpeaking® with voice commands

You can access the functions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking® with voice commands. For example, to show the Extras toolbar, say “Show Extras Bar.”(Available in Preferred edition only.) For a list of other voice commands that control Dragon NaturallySpeaking the DragonBar” in the Appendix, page 218.

recognized your dictation correctly.

, see “Controlling

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Correcting and Editing

You may have already noticed that the words Dragon

NaturallySpeaking correct the program’s errors, though, it learns more about how you speak and its accuracy improves.

Using the keyboard and mouse, it’s easy to correct the mistakes that Dragon NaturallySpeaking would with any word processor. You don’t have to worry about whether you are modifying a mistake made by Dragon NaturallySpeaking fixing some text where you said the wrong word, or revising your document because you changed your mind about what you want to say. Make all these edits just as you normally would, with keyboard and mouse.

types are not always the words you said. As you

makes. Just edit your text the way you

, or

You must be sure, however, to select a word before typing over it. Using the backspace key and retyping (or saying “Scratch That”) will not enable the software to learn from corrections and improve recognition accuracy. For accuracy to improve, you must first select text and then correct it or overwrite it with the words you said.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking adapts (changes) your user files so that the software can recognize your speech more accurately. The program keeps track of all the corrections you make, whether you type, dictate, or use the Correction menu (described later in this chapter). It uses sophisticated techniques to determine when to learn from your editing and when to ignore it. For example, the program takes into account how closely your edits match the sound of the words you dictated.

keeps track of the corrections you make and

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New in version 6

If you’ve used earlier versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, this new correction approach in version 6 is a significant change and major improvement. You don’t have to figure out whether errors were misrecognized or misspoken, or whether you are correcting a misrecognition or editing your dictation. Whenever you select a word, phrase, or sentence, then type or dictate the correct word or

words over it, Dragon NaturallySpeaking correction automatically, while knowing when not to adapt when you rewrite your text.

will learn from the

The Correction menu

When you select text by voice, or select text by mouse and then press the Correction key, the Correction menu appears. This menu shows the software’s best guesses of alternatives to the words you have dictated and selected.

To correct a mistake with the Correction menu:

1 Select the word or words you want to correct, then press the Correction

key (by default, this is the [ “Select” plus the words you want to select. To correct the last words you dictated, simply say “Correct That.” The Correction menu appears.

-] key on the numeric keypad). Or say

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Say “Choose 2” to replace “clinic” with “quick.”

You can also say “Spell That” to spell a word or “Cap That” to capitalize it.

Correcting and Editing

2 In the following example, Dragon NaturallySpeaking® heard the word

“quick” as “clinic.”

Correction menu

3 Choose the correct word from the Correction menu by saying “Choose”

and the number next to your choice. In this example, say “Choose 2,” and “quick” will replace “clinic.”

TIP

You can change the number of choices displayed to you. In the Options dialog box, click the Correction tab and increase the number in “Show no more than n choices.” If you want to display your choices without the Correction menu taking up too much space on the screen, select the “Show only the choices” option. See “Correction options” on page 198.

If the word you want does not appear in the list, just type the correct word. To spell a word by voice, say “Spell That.” The Spell dialog box will appear for you to spell or type the correct word (see page 50 for details).

When the Correction menu list appears, you can also choose to:

■ spell the word (in this example, say “Spell That q-u-i-c-k”)

■ listen to a recording of what you just said (say “Play That Back”)

(Available in Preferred edition only.)

■ capitalize it (say “Cap That,” in this example, to get “Clinic”)

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■ say “Unselect That” to cancel the selection and close (dismiss) the

Correction menu

■ ignore the Correction list and keep dictating (in this example, just

say “quick,” which replaces the selected text)

TIP

If you prefer not to see the Correction menu every time you select text by voice, you can turn it off. In the Options dialog box, click the Correction tab to display the Correction options, then clear the check box “‘Select’ commands bring up Correction menu.”

To help you quickly find the alternative you want, the recognition choices in the Correction menu appear in boldface where they differ from the word you’ve selected. (This is only applicable when you’ve selected more than one word at a time.)

The words that are different from the selection appear in bold, to help you find the correct alternative quickly. In this example, choice 4 is the correct choice.

Using the keyboard or mouse commands

You can choose items in the Correction menu by keyboard or mouse as well as by voice. To choose one of the alternatives on the menu, press

DOWN ARROW key to move to the proper choice, then press ENTER.

the If you want to correct several groups of words with the Correction menu open, press the menu will move to the next utterance and the next group of words in your document will be selected automatically.

RIGHT ARROW key (instead of ENTER). The Correction

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Correcting and Editing

To choose a recognition alternative by mouse, just click on the choice you want.

Many people find it convenient to dictate their document first, then go back and correct mistakes afterwards. For a discussion of the fastest ways to work, see “Speaking and Dictating,” on page 143.

The Correction menu is designed to make correcting mistakes faster and easier, but you don’t have to use it. Feel free to disregard it and make corrections by keyboard, mouse, or voice, just as you would edit any word-processed document.

Accuracy improves only when you select, then correct

To get the most accuracy improvement when making corrections to your document, you must first select the word or words before correcting them. Using, for example, the

BACKSPACE key and

retyping or saying “Scratch That” will correct the text in your

document, but will not make Dragon NaturallySpeaking

learn from

its mistakes and improve recognition accuracy.

It is sometimes fastest to get your work done using the

DELETE key, “Scratch That,” and other editing methods

key,

BACKSPACE

different from “select, then correct.” It is fine to use these techniques and any other ways that you prefer to edit your documents. Your accuracy will not improve, but it will not get any worse either.

For best results, make corrections by selecting, then correcting as often as you can, but don’t be concerned if you’re correcting your documents in other ways as well.

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Selecting text by voice

Using Select-and-Say

To edit your dictation by voice, just say “Select” plus the words you want to change. Then dictate the new words you want and they will replace the text that was selected. This Select-and-Say many applications, including Microsoft DragonPad, and many other places where you can format text.

Be careful not to overwrite your selection

When text is selected, be careful not to breathe loudly, clear your throat, or make other sounds. Dragon NaturallySpeaking interpret such noises as speech and replace the selection with new text. If this happens, say “Undo That” to reverse the action.

feature is available in

Word, Corel® WordPerfect®, the

may

To Select-and-Say®:

1 Dictate the sentence below:

US/Canada: Let’s meet for lunch on Tuesday [period]

Other Dialects: Let’s meet for lunch on Tuesday [full stop]

2 Say “Select lunch on Tuesday.” The words “lunch on Tuesday” should be

highlighted on the screen.

3 Say “dinner on Wednesday.” These words should replace “lunch on

Tu e s d a y . ”

Since “Tuesday” and “Wednesday” sound completely different, Dragon

NaturallySpeaking mistake but rather revising your dictated text.

TIP

You can also select punctuation marks.

4 Say: “Select period” (US/Canada) or “Select full stop” (Other Dialects). If

there’s more than one period or full stop, you can say “Select Again” to select a different one.

will know you are not correcting a recognition

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5 To replace the period or full stop with an exclamation mark, say

“exclamation mark.”

TIP

It is often easier for Dragon NaturallySpeaking® to find the matching text if you select a short phrase rather than individual words. If you select some words that are already correct, just say them again along with the ones you want to change.

Selecting the same text again

If the words you’re trying to select appear more than once on the screen and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Again.” The program then looks for another instance of the same word or words.

You can also say “Select Again” if Dragon NaturallySpeaking word that sounds like the word you want, but is not the correct one (for example, “two” instead of “too”).

selects the wrong ones, just say “Select

selects a

Unselecting words

To undo the selection, say “Unselect That.”

You can also “unselect” words by moving your insertion point (by mouse or voice) to another part of your document. For example, say “Go to End of Line” or click somewhere else in your document.

Selecting a longer phrase

You can select a longer phrase by saying “Select [text] Through [text]” (US/

Canada

the actual word or words at the beginning and the end of the range of wrong words. For example, you could correct the underlined words in the following sentence:

With a little practice, who will develop a habit of dictating an unclear steady voice, and the computer will understand you better.

by saying:

) or “Select [text] To [text]” (Other Dialects). For [text], substitute

(US/Canada) “Select who Through unclear” or “Select who will Through an

unclear”

(Other Dialects) “Select who To unclear” or “Select who will To an unclear”

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Then dictate the correct text:

“you will develop the habit of dictating in a clear”

The final corrected sentence reads:

With a little practice, you will develop the habit of dictating in a clear, steady voice, and the computer will understand you better.

NOTE

(next to each other). You can’t use a single command to correct words that are in different parts of your document.

If you’re correcting more than one word, the words must all be in sequence

Selecting your whole document

To select all the text in your document, say “Select Document” or “Select All.” This command is especially useful when you want to change the

font or the way text is aligned.

When you want to copy all the text in a document to another window, the easiest way to do it is with the “Copy All to Clipboard” command. (See “Copying text to other programs,” on page 46.)

NOTE

don’t work, nor can you overwrite the selection by dictating new text. This prevents you from accidentally deleting a large part of your document. To remove a large selection, you can say “Delete That” instead.

When a lot of text is selected, the “Scratch That” and “Cut That” commands

Selecting an entire paragraph or line

You can select the current paragraph by saying “Select Paragraph.” To select the current line, say “Select Line.”

You can also select a number of paragraphs or lines (up to 20). For example, you can say “Select Previous 5 Paragraphs.” See the complete list below:

SAY THEN THEN

Select Next Paragraph

Previous 2...20 Paragraphs

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SAY THEN THEN

Forward Line Back 2..20 Lines Last

Selecting a word or character

You can select the current word by saying “Select Word.” To select a character, say “Select Next Character” or “Select Previous Character.”

You can also select a number of words or characters (up to 20). For example, say “Select Previous 2 Words.”

SAY THEN THEN

Select Next Word

See the complete list below:

Previous 2...20 Words Forward Character Back 2...20 Characters Last

Moving around in a document

When you’re editing a document, you can move around in it by voice. After you place the insertion point where you want it, you can dictate more text, select text, copy and paste, or apply formatting.

Going to the top or bottom of a page or document

You can move to the top or bottom of the current page by saying “Page Up” (equivalent to pressing the

(equivalent to pressing the

You can move to the top or bottom of your document by saying “Go to Top ” or “Go to Bottom.”

PAGE UP key) or “Page Down”

PAGE DOWN key).

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You can use any command from the list below:

SAY THEN

Go to Top Move to Bottom

Top of Document Beginning of Document Start of Document Bottom of Document End of Document

Going to the beginning or end of a line

You can move to the beginning or end of the current line by saying “Go to Beginning of Line” or “Go to End of Line.”

You can use any command from the list below:

SAY THEN

Go to Beginning of Line Move to Start of Line

End of Line

Placing the insertion point before or after a specific word

You can place the insertion point before a specific word by saying “Insert Before” and then the word or words. You can place the insertion point

after a word by saying “Insert After” and then the word or words.

After you move the insertion point where you want it, you can dictate more text, paste text, add punctuation, and so on.

To place the insertion point before a specific word:

To move the insertion point before the word “lets” in the sentence below, say “Insert Before lets” (or “Insert Before lets me talk”). Remember not to pause between any of the words.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

lets me talk instead of type.

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To place the insertion point after a specific word:

To move the insertion point after the word “talk” in the sentence below, say “Insert After talk” (or “Insert After lets me talk”).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

lets me talk instead of type.

Moving up or down a paragraph or line

You can go up or down a paragraph by saying “Move Up a Paragraph” or “Move Down a Paragraph.” You can also move up and down a number of

paragraphs (up to 20). For example, you can say “Move Up 3 Paragraphs.”

You can move up or down a line by saying “Move Up a Line” or “Move Down a Line.” You can also move up and down a number of lines (up to

20). For example, you can say “Move Down 3 Lines.”

See the complete list below:

SAY THEN THEN

Move Up a Paragraph or 1 Paragraph

Back 2...20 Paragraphs Down a Line or 1 Line Forward 2...20 Lines

Moving right or left a word or character

You can move to the right or left of a word by saying “Move Right a Word” or “Move Left a Word.” You can also move right or left a number of words (up to 20). For example, you can say “Move Right 3 Words.”

You can move to the next or previous character by saying “Move Right a Character” or “Move Left a Character.” You can also move forward and backward a number of characters (up to 20). For example, you can say “Move Left 4 Characters” or “Move Back 6 Characters.”

See the complete list below:

SAY THEN THEN

Move Right a Word or 1 Word

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SAY THEN THEN

Forward 2...20 Words Left a Character or 1 Character Back 2...20 Characters

Copying, cutting, and pasting text

You can move text from one place to another by using the “Copy That,” “Cut That,” and “Paste That” commands.

To copy, cut, or paste text:

1 Select the text you want to copy or cut.

2 Say “Copy That” or “Cut That.”

3 Move the insertion point to where you want to paste the text.

4 Say “Paste That.”

NOTE

Clipboard.” This is especially useful when you want to copy text to another window or program.

You can copy your entire document to the Clipboard by saying “Copy All to

Copying text to other programs

When you’ve finished dictating, you can copy your text to another window. For example, if you dictate a note in Microsoft

then copy it into Microsoft here, both the program you are copying from and the program you are copying to must already be open.

Outlook®. To use the procedure described

Word, you can

To copy text to another program:

1 Say “Copy All to Clipboard” to copy your entire document.

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2 Switch to another program, such as Microsoft® Outlook® (say “Switch to

Microsoft Outlook”). Say “Paste That.”

3 To return to Microsoft

additional ways to switch between programs by voice, see “Switching between open windows” on page 103.)

Deleting text

Deleting the last words you dictated

You can erase the last words you dictated by saying “Scratch That.” When you say this command, Dragon NaturallySpeaking it typed into your document. This may be a full sentence, a phrase, or just one word, if that’s all you said before pausing.

Word, say “Switch to Microsoft Word.” (For

deletes the last thing

You can say “Scratch That” up to 10 times to delete the last few things you said. If you repeat the command, you must pause before saying it again. You can also say, for example, “Scratch That 5 Times.”

Going back as you dictate

When you’re dictating, sometimes you may hesitate or think of a better way to say something right after you’ve said it. When this happens, you can use the “Resume With” command to return to where you were before the mistake.

Just say “Resume With” followed immediately by the word or words to which you want to return. Then, continue dictating. Any text after the new position of the insertion point will be replaced with your new dictation.

NOTE

middle. Say “Resume With” and then immediately say the words to which you want to return. These words must be in the last three or four sentences (100 characters) you said; you can’t use “Resume With” to return to an earlier part of your document.

When using the “Resume With” command, remember not to pause in the

To go back as you dictate:

1 Suppose you dictate this sentence: “I have a deadline this week, but we could

meet for lunch… um… er… next Wednesday.”

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2 To correct the sentence, return to the last correct words you remember

dictating. For example, say “Resume With meet for lunch.” (Remember not to pause in the middle.)

3 Then, dictate the rest of the sentence. For example, say “next Wednesday

at noon.”

Deleting specific words

You can delete text by selecting it and saying “Delete That.”

To delete text:

1 Select the text you want to delete.

2 Say “Delete That.”

You can also say “Scratch That” to do the same thing.

Deleting the next or previous paragraph or line

You can delete the next or previous paragraph by saying “Delete Next Paragraph” or “Delete Previous Paragraph.” You can delete the next or

previous line by saying “Delete Next Line”

You can also delete a number of paragraphs or lines (up to 20). For example, you can say “Delete Previous 5 Paragraphs.” See the complete list below:

SAY THEN THEN

Delete Next Paragraph

Previous 2...20 Paragraphs Forward Line Back 2...20 Lines Last

or “Delete Previous Line.”

Deleting the next or previous word or character

You can delete the next or previous word by saying “Delete Next Word” or “Delete Previous Word.” You can delete the next or previous character by saying “Delete Next Character”

or “Delete Previous Character.”

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You can also delete a number of words or characters (up to 20). For example, you can say

“Delete Previous 5 Words.”

See the complete list

below:

SAY THEN THEN

Delete Next Word

Forward 2...20 Words Previous Character Back 2...20 Characters Last 2...20 Characters

NOTE

equivalent to pressing the BACKSPACE key. You can “press” it multiple times (up to 20) by saying, for example, “Backspace 5.”

Another way to delete the previous character is by saying “Backspace.” This is

Keyboard editing shortcuts

If you prefer to edit by typing, you can speed up your work by using keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are not specific to Dragon

NaturallySpeaking program. These shortcuts can dramatically slash the time and keystrokes you spend editing. Take the time to learn them—ten minutes spent practicing with these keys can save you many hours in editing.

PRESS THESE KEYS TO DO THIS

CTRL

CTRL+LEFT (Left Arrow key) CTRL+RIGHT (Right Arrow key)

—they are built-in and work in almost any Windows®

Hold down the CTRL key to move by jumps, instead of one character at a time

Move insertion point by one word at a time

CTRL+UP (Up Arrow key) CTRL+DOWN (Down Arrow key)

CTRL+BACKSPACE

CTRL+DELETE

SHIFT

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 49

Move insertion point by one paragraph at a time

Delete word to the left of insertion point

Delete word to the right of insertion point

Hold down the SHIFT key to select as you move

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PRESS THESE KEYS TO DO THIS

SHIFT+LEFT, SHIFT+RIGHT Select one character at a time SHIFT+UP, SHIFT+DOWN Select one line at a time CTRL+SHIFT Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT

keys together to select one word or paragraph at a time

CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT

CTRL CTRL+SHIFT+UP

CTRL BACKSPACE Delete left DELETE Delete right HOME Skip to start of line END Skip to end of line SHIFT+HOME Select to start of line SHIFT+END Select to end of line CTRL+HOME Skip to start of document CTRL+END Skip to end of document CTRL+SHIFT+HOME Select to start of document CTRL+SHIFT+END Select to end of document

+SHIFT+RIGHT

+SHIFT+DOWN

Spelling as you dictate

Select one word at a time

Select one paragraph at a time

With the Spell command in Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, you can easily spell a word or phrase you want to dictate into your document. This can be useful if you are dictating a word that is not likely to be in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking name, or a non-English word. Say, for example, “Spell b-u-o-n space g-i-o- r-n-o.” The word you spelled appears right in your document.

You must say “Cap” if the word contains a capital letter. For example, say “Spell Cap R-u-m-p-e-l-s-t-i-l-s-k-i-n” to type “Rumpelstilskin.”

vocabulary, such as a proprietary term, a proper

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If you say “Spell” by itself, without any letters after it, the Spell dialog box opens.

▲ The Spell dialog box, waiting for you to spell.

You can then spell letters and Dragon NaturallySpeaking® will type them or correct any errors in the word you spelled. This makes it a bit easier to correct errors when spelling.

When spelling, you can say numbers and special characters as well as letters. For example, to dictate an automobile license plate number, you

could say “Spell v-j-r-5-8-1.” Dragon NaturallySpeaking

would type “vjr581.” Say “Spell Cap-e-z-b-r-a-i-n-trademark” to get “Ezbrain™” in your document.

Spelling a word adds that word to the active vocabulary with the exception of words that contain numbers; words with numbers are not added to the vocabulary.

To dictate unusual text such as automobile license plate numbers or product

TIP

codes, you can also switch to Spell mode by saying “Switch To Spell Mode,” and then dictate letters.

For a list of what to say to spell special characters, see the Spelling topic in the online Help or “Commands List” on page 217.

By default, the Spell dialog box appears only when you say “Spell” by itself, not when you say “Spell” plus the letters you are spelling. Optionally, you can make the Spell dialog box appear whenever you use the Spell command. You can set this option from the Correction tab in the Options dialog box. See page 198 for more information.

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CHAPTER

Formatting

ou can bold text, change font sizes and styles, capitalize text, and apply other formatting, all by voice. This chapter explains how.

Many Dragon NaturallySpeaking that is selected (highlighted) in your document. To select text by mouse, simply drag the mouse pointer over the text you want to select, as you normally would when editing in your word processor. To select text by voice, say “Select” plus the words you want to select. See “Selecting text by voice” on page 40 for more detailed instructions and additional ways to select by voice. See also the list of keyboard editing shortcuts on page

49.

formatting commands work for text

NOTE

NaturallySpeaking capitalized in a title) by using the Word Properties dialog box, described in “Changing word properties” on page 166.

You can change the formatting properties of a word (such as whether Dragon

should type a space before or after the word, or whether the word is

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Formatting

Capitalizing text

Types of commands

Most of the commands listed in this chapter are global—they are available in virtually every application. In addition to the global commands listed here, Dragon NaturallySpeaking commands for editing and formatting that work in common applications such as Microsoft These extra commands are called Natural Language Commands. For more information on Natural Language Commands and a list of the applications where they are available, see page 95.

includes many

Word® and Corel® WordPerfect®.

Capitalizing the first letter of the next word you dictate

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® capitalizes many words automatically. It capitalizes the first word in a sentence (following a period, question mark, or exclamation mark). It capitalizes the first word after you say “New Paragraph” (though not when you say “New Line”) and it capitalizes proper names (when these words are already in the Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

NOTE

Properties dialog box. See “Changing word properties“ on page 166 for more information.

You can change the spacing and capitalization rules for a word in the Word

When you’re dictating, you can capitalize words that aren’t automatically capitalized by saying “Cap” and then the word. For example, say “Cap fluffy” to get “Fluffy.”

TIP

To dictate the word “cap,” for example, in this sentence: “The company is putting a cap on salary increases,” you must say “the company is putting a” then say “Spell c-ap,” and then say “on salary increases.” In this way, Dragon NaturallySpeaking® knows that you do not want to capitalize any of the words within the sentence.

vocabulary in capitalized form).

Capitalizing consecutive words

When you want to capitalize consecutive words (for example, if you’re dictating a book title), you can turn capitals on and then turn them off when you’re finished. This is usually easier than saying “Cap” before

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Formatting

each word. Another way to do consecutive capitalization is to dictate the words, pause, and then say “Capitalize That” or “Cap That.”

To capitalize consecutive words:

1 Say “Caps On” to turn capitals on.

NOTE

means it capitalizes all words except for articles and prepositions (such as “the” and “to”).

When “Caps On” is active, Dragon NaturallySpeaking® uses title case. This

2 Dictate the words you want capitalized. For example, say: “success is a

journey [colon] seven steps to achieving success in the business of life”

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

types: “Success Is a Journey: Seven Steps to

Achieving Success in the Business of Life”

3 Say “Caps Off” to turn capitals off.

Dictating the next word in all capital letters

When you’re dictating, you can enter a word in all capital letters by saying “All Caps” and then the word.

For example, say “All Caps please” to get “PLEASE”

Dictating consecutive words in all capital letters

When you want to dictate consecutive words in all capitals, you can turn all capitals on and then turn them off when you’ve finished.

To dictate consecutive words in all capitals:

1 Say “All Caps On” to turn all capitals on (like pressing the CAPS LOCK

key).

2 Dictate the words that you want to appear in all caps. For example, say

“the end”. Dragon NaturallySpeaking

3 Say “All Caps Off” to turn all capitals off.

Dictating the next word in all lowercase letters

When you’re dictating, you can enter a word in all lowercase letters by saying “No Caps” and then the word.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 55

types “THE END”

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Formatting

For example, say “No Caps Jennifer” to get “jennifer.” (Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

normally capitalizes this and other proper names.)

Dictating consecutive words in all lowercase letters

When you want to dictate consecutive words in lowercase letters (for example, names of computer files or e-mail addresses), you can turn the “no capitals” feature on and then turn it off when you are finished. This is usually easier than saying “No Caps” before each word.

To dictate consecutive words in all lowercase letters:

1 Say “No Caps On” to turn no capitals on.

2 Dictate the words you want to appear in all lowercase.

3 Say “No Caps Off” to turn no capitals off.

Capitalizing (or uncapitalizing) text already in your document

You can change the capitalization of text already in your document by selecting it and then saying “Capitalize That,” “Cap That,” or “All Caps That,” or “Uncapitalize That,” “Uncap That,” or “No Caps That.”

To capitalize or uncapitalize text:

1 Select the text you want to change.

2 Say “Capitalize That,” “Cap That,” or “All Caps That,” or “Uncapitalize

That,” “Uncap That,” or “No Caps That.”

Formatting text

You can use voice commands to specify any combination of font name, size, and style, in that order. These commands change text you dictate from then on or text you have selected.

To set a new style for text you are about to dictate, use the “Set Font” and “Set Size” commands. To change the style of text you have already selected, use the “Format That” command.

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Changing the font as you dictate

When you’re dictating, you can change the font face, size, and style by saying “Set Font” followed by the font attributes you want.

For example, you can say “Set Font Times” or “Set Font Arial 12 Bold.” When you continue dictating, the new text appears with the font attributes you set.

Changing font face

SAY THEN

Set Font Arial

Courier Courier New Garamond Helvetica Palatino Times Times New Roman

Changing font size

Say “Set Size” and then a size from 4 to 100 points. For example, say “Set Size 18.” Then, continue dictating.

Changing font style

SAY THEN

Set Font Bold

Italics Bold Italics Underline Strikeout

Changing a combination of font face, size, and style

Say “Set Font” and then the attributes you want (listed in the previous sections). You can specify any combination of font face, size, and style,

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 57

Plain or Plain Text or Normal or Regular

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Formatting

but you must specify these attributes in that order (font face, then size, then style). See the list of examples below:

■ “Set Font Arial”

■ “Set Font Arial 12” or “Set Font Arial 12 Point”

■ “Set Size 12 Bold”

■ “Set Font Arial Bold”

■ “Set Font Bold”

NOTE

“Set Font” command.

If you’re changing only the font size, use the “Set Size” commands, not the

Changing the font later

You can go back and change the font face, size, or style of text by selecting it and then using the “Format That” works on selected text with the same combinations of font face, size, and style as the “Set Font” commands (see the tables in the previous section.)

To change the font:

1 Select the text you want to change.

2 Say “Format That”

described in the previous section. For example, say “Format that Arial

18.”

Bold, italics, and underlining

You can apply formatting to text in your document by selecting it and then saying “Bold That,” “Italicize That,” or “Underline That.” You can also say “Strikeout That.”

commands. “Format That”

and then the font attributes you want to apply as

To add bold, italics, and underlining:

1 Select the text you want to change.

2 Say “Bold That,” “Italicize That,” Underline That,” or “Strikeout That.”

To remove formatting:

1 Select the text you want to change.

2 Say “Restore That” to remove formatting.

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Aligning text

Bulleted text

Formatting

You can change how text is aligned by placing your insertion point in the text and saying “Center That,” “Left Align That,” or “Right Align That.”

To align text:

1 Move the insertion point to the text you want to align.

2 Say “Center That,” “Left Align That,” or “Right Align That.”

You can also use the following commands on selected text: “Format That Centered,” “Format That Left Aligned,” and “ Format That Right Aligned.”

To add bullets to text, place your insertion point in the text and say “Format that Bullet Style.” To remove bullets, say “Format that Bullet

Style” again.

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CHAPTER

Numbers and Punctuation

his chapter describes how to dictate numbers, punctuation, Web addresses, and a few other special items.

NOTE

can change the formatting properties of the word by using the Word Properties dialog box. See “Changing word properties” on page 166.

If DragonNaturallySpeaking® is not formatting a word as you would like, you

Dictating numbers

To dictate a number, just say it. Dragon NaturallySpeaking® will type either the number (“5”) or the word (“five”), usually determining this choice from the context. To force Dragon NaturallySpeaking number instead of a word (for numbers 0 to 9), say “numeral” plus the number (“numeral 2”). This is especially useful when dictating the numbers 2 and 4, which are sometimes mistaken for the words “to” and “for” unless you say “numeral 2” and “numeral 4.”

TIP

If you want to dictate only numbers, you can switch to “Numbers Mode.” See “Modes” on page 80 for more information.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® adds commas to numbers of five digits or more (such as 21,469), but not to four-digit numbers (2146). To add a comma to a four-digit number, say “comma” where you want the comma. See the table below for examples. For a decimal point, just say “point.” If you dictate a US ZIP code, Dragon NaturallySpeaking add a comma and formats the ZIP code correctly.

to type a

knows not to

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Numbers and Punctuation

TO ENTER SAY

315 three hundred fifteen

three one five three fifteen

809 eight hundred nine

eight zero nine eight oh nine

1485 one thousand four hundred eighty five

fourteen eighty five

1,485 one comma four hundred eighty five

one comma four eight five one comma four eighty five

809,212 eight hundred nine thousand two hundred twelve

eight zero nine comma two one two

51.2 fifty one point two five one point two

.2 point two

point numeral two

0.102 zero point one oh two

500 five hundred 5000 five thousand 90,210 ninety thousand two hundred ten 75% seventy five percent sign $99 ninety nine dollars [US/Canada] $99.10 ninety nine dollars and ten cents [US/Canada] $8.2 million eight point two million dollars [US/Canada]

£250.95

pound sterling sign two hundred and fifty point ninety five [All Dialects]

TIP

You can say “and” as part of any number, for example, “three hundred and

fifteen” or “one thousand and twelve.”

ninety five euros

NOTE

would like, check your Windows formatted. To view these settings, point to Settings from the Windows Control Panel, and double-click the Regional Settings icon. For example, if you set the

If numbers, currency, times, or dates are not being formatted the way you

Regional Settings, which affect how numbers are

Start menu, click

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Numbers and Punctuation

region to Jamaica, saying “seven dollars” displays as J$7. If you set the region to something other than English (United States) or English (Canada) and you want a dollar sign ($), you have to say “dollar sign.” For example, saying “dollar sign 99” displays $99. For more information, see “Dictating special characters” on page 75.

Changing the format of a number

If Dragon NaturallySpeaking® enters a number in a format you don’t want, you can use voice commands to convert it to a numeral or to spell it out.

For example, you can change “seven dollars” to “$7” “seven pounds” to “£7” (

And you can change “$7” to “seven dollars” “seven pounds” (

Other Dialects) by saying “Format That Spelled Out.”

Other Dialects) by saying “Format That Number.”

(US/Canada) or “£7” to

(US/Canada) or

These commands change the last number dictated or a selected number.

SAY TO CH A N GE

Format That Number one to 1

first to 1st nineteenth to 19th 5 million to 5,000,000 five million to 5,000,000 eight dollars to $8 (US/Canada) seven pounds to £7 (Other Dialects)

Format That Spelled Out 4th to fourth

27 to twenty-seven 5,000,000 to five million

NOTE

for numerals and currency, but not for dates, times of day, telephone numbers, and most fractions.

Using Numbers Mode

Any time you need to dicate a series of numbers and do not want Dragon NaturallySpeaking® to recognize them as words, you can turn on Numbers Mode. This could be useful, for example, if you are dictating in a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 63

The “Format That Number” and “Format That Spelled Out” commands work

Excel®.

CHAPTER 6

Dates

Numbers and Punctuation

To turn on Numbers Mode, say “Start Numbers Mode” or “Numbers Mode On.” To turn off Numbers Mode, say, “Stop Numbers Mode” or “Numbers Mode Off.”

For more information on Numbers Mode and more ways to turn Numbers Mode on and off, see the section “Modes” on page 80.

You can dictate most dates the way you would normally say them. Say “oh” or “zero” to enter 0. In dialects other than US/Canada, you can also say “nought.”

TO ENTER SAY

22 January 1999 twenty two January nineteen ninety nine April 9, 2001 April 9 [comma] two thousand and one

Times of day

14/07/85 fourteen [slash] oh seven [slash] eighty five 3/11/02 three [slash] eleven [slash] zero two 3/11/2002 three [slash] eleven [slash] two thousand and two April 1st April first March 22nd March twenty second the 1980s the nineteen eighties

Dictate the time of day the way you would normally say it.

US/Canada: Dragon NaturallySpeaking

automatically types the colon (:) if you say “a m” or “p m” when dictating the time. Say “o’clock” or “colon zero zero” to enter :00.

TO ENTER SAY

8:30 eight [colon] thirty or eight [numeric colon] thirty 7:45 AM seven forty five a m 10:22 PM ten twenty two p m 3:00 three o’clock or three [colon] zero zero 5:00 PM five o’clock p m

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TIP

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® will recognize times more accurately if you say

“numeric colon” instead of “colon” when dictating times.

Other Dialects: Dragon NaturallySpeaking® automatically types the point (.) if you say “a m” or “p m” when dictating the time, depending on the regional setting. Say “o’clock” or “point zero zero” to enter .00.

TO ENTER SAY

8:30 eight [point] thirty

7.45 AM seven forty five a m

10.22 PM ten twenty two p m

3.00 three o’clock

5.00 PM five o’clock p m

NOTE

Windows

Telephone numbers

North American phone numbers

Say US and Canadian phone numbers as you normally would, pausing briefly between each group of numbers.

You don’t need to dictate hyphens for most phone numbers (numbers that are 7, 10, or 11 digits long). Dragon NaturallySpeaking them automatically.

The format of “a.m.” and “p.m.” depends on your computer’s regional

settings.

will add

TO ENTER SAY

965-5200 nine six five fifty two hundred 617-965-5200 six one seven nine six five fifty two oh oh 1-800-555-1212 one eight hundred five five five one two one two (617) 965-5200 [open parenthesis] six one seven [close

parenthesis] nine six five five two zero zero

1-212-555-1212 one two one two five five five one two one two

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Telephone numbers outside North America

To dictate other phone numbers, including European phone numbers, you must say all the punctuation, including the hyphens, spaces, and parentheses.

TO ENTER SAY

(01628) 894150 [open parenthesis] oh one six two eight [close

parenthesis] eight nine four one five oh

027 629 8944 oh two seven [space bar] six two nine [space

bar] eight nine four four

61-7-4695-2055 six one [hyphen] seven [hyphen] four six nine

five [hyphen] two zero five five

(65) 2778590 [open parenthesis] six five [close parenthesis]

two seven seven eight five nine zero

Fractions

TIP

In dialects other than US/Canada, you can say “bracket” instead of

“parenthesis.”

You can dictate most common fractions the way you would normally say them. To dictate 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, and 1/16 or a multiple of these fractions, just say the fraction normally.

TO ENTER SAY

1/2 one half 1/4 one fourth or one quarter 15/16 fifteen sixteenths or fifteen over sixteen 3 7/8 three and seven eighths or three and seven over eight

If the denominator (bottom number in the fraction) is greater than 10, you can enter the fraction by saying “slash” or “over” between the two numbers.

TO ENTER SAY

9/12 nine [slash] twelve or nine over twelve 5 3/56 five [space bar] three [slash] fifty six 130/70 one thirty over seventy

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Roman numerals

Numbers and Punctuation

A few common fractions can also be displayed on your computer as special characters (such as ¼, ½, or ¾) instead of two numbers separated by a slash character (such as 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4). For information about dictating fraction characters, see “Dictating uncommon special characters” on page 76.

Dictate Roman numerals by saying “Roman” and the number. For large numbers, say the number in small combinations (as in the examples shown here).

TO ENTER SAY

IRoman one IV Roman four VRoman five X Roman ten LRoman fifty C Roman one hundred DRoman five hundred M Roman one thousand XXIV Roman twenty Roman four XXXI Roman thirty Roman one MCMXCVII Roman one thousand

Roman nine hundred Roman ninety Roman seven

TIP

Don’t pause after the word “Roman” when you’re dictating a Roman numeral. If you pause, Dragon NaturallySpeaking of “III.”

may enter, for example, “Roman three” instead

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Postal and ZIP Codes

US ZIP Codes

You can dictate US five-digit ZIP codes just as you dictate any group of numbers. When dictating nine-digit ZIP codes, you must say the hyphen.

TO ENTER SAY

02134 oh two one three four 94704-1150 nine four seven oh four [hyphen] one one five oh

UK and Canadian Postal Codes

You can dictate UK postcodes by saying “Postcode” followed by the letters and numbers that make up the postcode. For Canadian postal codes, say “Postal code” followed by the letters and numbers that make up the postal code. Spacing and formatting will happen automatically.

NOTE

must first activate this feature in the Options dialog box. Click Options from the Tools menu on the DragonBar, then click the Formatting tab to see the formatting options, and select “Format Postal Codes.”

TO ENTER SAY

NG3 2HX Postcode n g three two h x E10 7BD Postcode e ten seven b d EC2Y 4LK Postcode e c two y four l k K1A 0M5 Postal code k one a zero m five X0A 0H0 Postal code x oh a oh h oh

To have Dragon NaturallySpeaking® format postal codes automatically, you

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Punctuation

Here’s what to say for the most common punctuation marks. For a list of all punctuation marks, see page 240 in the Appendix.

Numbers and Punctuation

TO ENTER SAY

,comma . period

dot point

[each one has different spacing characteristics] ?question mark ! exclamation mark (All Dialects)

exclamation point (US/Canada) “ open quote

close quote ‘ open single quote

close single quote ( open paren (US/Canada)

left paren (US/Canada)

left parenthesis (All Dialects)

open parenthesis (All Dialects) ) close paren (US/Canada)

right paren (US/Canada)

right parenthesis (All Dialects)

close parenthesis (All Dialects)

‘ apostrophe ‘s apostrophe-ess

-hyphen

minus sign

-- [double hyphen]

dash

You can use the Vocabulary Editor properties of the punctuation. For more information, see “Changing word properties” on page 166.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 69

space bar

to view or change the formatting

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Numbers and Punctuation

Words that end with ’s

To dictate a word ending with (apostrophe) ’s, just say it as you normally would. Dragon NaturallySpeaking NaturallySpeaking

TO ENTER SAY

We went to Jennifer’s office

that’s enough that’s enough it’s time to go it’s time to go

Including ’s as you dictate

When you want to make sure that Dragon NaturallySpeaking® types a word with ’s, say “apostrophe ess” after saying the word. For words that already end in “s,” say “apostrophe” after the word, as in the second example shown here.

will often add it. If Dragon

doesn’t include the ’s, you can add it later.

We went to Jennifer’s office

TO ENTER SAY

Peter’s brother returned to New York

I met my friends’ children I met my friends [apostrophe] children

Peter [apostrophe ess] brother returned to New York

Dictating hyphenated words

Many hyphenated words and phrases are already in the Dragon

NaturallySpeaking usually hyphenated, just say it as you normally would.

TO ENTER SAY

long-lasting long lasting up-to-date schedule up to date schedule Chicago-based

company nine-year-old boy nine year old boy

vocabulary. To dictate a word or phrase that is

Chicago based company

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Numbers and Punctuation

Including hyphens as you dictate

To hyphenate words that Dragon NaturallySpeaking® doesn’t hyphenate automatically, just say “hyphen” wherever you want a hyphen.

TO ENTER SAY

speech-recognition software speech [hyphen] recognition software power-sharing agreement power [hyphen] sharing agreement Elizabeth Walker-Smith Elizabeth Walker [hyphen] Smith

You can hyphenate words you just dictated with the command “Hyphenate That.” Select the words you want to hyphenate and say “Hyphenate That.” If you say this command when no words are selected, Dragon NaturallySpeaking that you said.

will usually hyphenate the last few words

Removing hyphens

You can remove a hyphen by selecting it and replacing it with a space.

To remove a hyphen:

1 Say “Select hyphen.”

2 Say “Space Bar.”

Preventing hyphens

You can prevent Dragon NaturallySpeaking® from entering a hyphen by pausing where the hyphen would normally be.

For example, to type “long lasting” (normally hyphenated) say “long,” then pause for a moment, and then say “lasting.” Or you can say “long space bar lasting” without pausing, to insert a space in place of the hyphen.

Dictating compound words

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® joins compound words (such as “notebook”) automatically, based on standard usage. To dictate a compound word, just say it as you normally would.

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Compounding words as you dictate

To compound words that Dragon NaturallySpeaking® doesn’t join automatically, just say “No Space” between the words.

TO ENTER SAY

unitednations united [No Space] nations WorldWide Web [Cap] world [No Space] [Cap] wide [Cap] web

You can also dictate consecutive words without spaces by turning “no spaces” on and then turning them off when you’ve finished.

To dictate consecutive words without spaces:

1 Say “No Space On” to turn spaces off.

2 Dictate the words you want to appear without spaces.

3 Say “No Space Off” to turn spacing back on.

Compounding words later

You can compound the last words you said or compound selected words by saying “Compound That.” This command removes all spaces between selected words. Or, if no words are selected, it removes all spaces in the last utterance. Any tabs or line breaks are also removed.

To compound words:

1 Select the text you want to join. For example, if you want to join the

words “Web TV,” say “Select Web TV.”

2 Say “Compound That.”

Dictating names

Many names of people, places, and events are already in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Luther King,” “New York Times,” and “San Francisco.” Just say the name and Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically capitalizes the names it knows, so you don’t have to say

“Cap.”

vocabulary. For example, you can dictate “Martin

will type it. Dragon NaturallySpeaking®

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If Dragon NaturallySpeaking® types a name incorrectly, correct it by keyboard or by voice (see “Correcting and Editing” on page 35). The program will add the name to its vocabulary.

If the program continues to type a name incorrectly after you’ve corrected it several times, train the word individually using the Train Word dialog box. See “Training a word or command” on page 167.

Dictating abbreviations and acronyms

Dragon NaturallySpeaking® knows many common abbreviations (such as NYC and BBC) and acronyms (such as NATO). To dictate an abbreviation or acronym, just say it as you normally would.

TO ENTER SAY

US/Canada: Dr. Other Dialects: Dr

UK U K (say each letter) RSVP R S V P (say each letter) HTML H T M L (say each letter) 8 cm eight centimeters US/Canada: pp. 27–33

Other Dialects: pp 27–33 NATO NATO (say as one word) NASDAQ NASDAQ (say as one word)

If Dragon NaturallySpeaking abbreviation or acronym, enters the wrong word, or includes incorrect punctuation, just correct it in your document by voice or by keyboard.

types the full word instead of the

Doctor

pages 27 hyphen 33

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Dictating e-mail and Web addresses

Dictate e-mail and Web addresses as you would normally say them.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

TO ENTER SAY

Virginia@aol.com Virginia at a o l dot com info@samplecompany.com [No Caps On] info at sample

http://www.samplecompany.com [No Caps On] h t t p w w w dot

formats them for you automatically.

company dot com [No Caps Off]

sample company dot com [No Caps Off]

Here are some guidelines for dictating e-mail and Web addresses:

■ When you say “h t t p” or “w w w,” Dragon NaturallySpeaking

knows to format the next words you say as a Web address.

■ Say the following abbreviations by pronouncing them as words:

“co,” “com,” “edu,” “gov,” “mil,” “net,” and “org.”

■ Say the following abbreviations by saying each letter:

“a c,” “b n, “c a,” “ie” “h k,” “i d,” “i n,” “j p,” “m y,” “p h,” “s g,” “t h,” and “u k.”

■ Use the “No Caps On” and “No Caps Off” commands to enter an

e-mail or Web address in all lowercase letters. For more information about controlling capitalization, see “Dictating consecutive words in all lowercase letters” on page 56.

TIP

You can create Text and Graphics custom commands for e-mail and Web

addresses you use often. See “Automate Your Work” on page 123.

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Dictating special characters

Dictating common special characters

The following special characters are in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking® vocabulary. To dictate these characters, just say their names.

TO ENTER SAY

euros or euro sign

% percent sign

§ section sign ™ trademark sign

+ plus sign

-minus sign

« open euro quote » close euro quote

# All Dialects: hash sign or sharp sign

£ US/Canada: pound sterling sign

:-) smiley face

registered sign

US/Canada: number sign or pound sign

Other Dialects: pound sign or pound

:-( frowny face ;-) winky face

For more complete lists of special characters, see “Entering punctuation and special characters” on page 240 or the online Help.

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Dictating uncommon special characters

If you use uncommon special characters in your writing (for example, a double-dagger sign ‡), you can enter them by voice using the Spell command. If you use a special character frequently, you can also add it as a new word using the Vocabulary Editor™. This section explains how to do this.

To dictate a special character:

1 Just say “Spell”plus the name of the character. For example, if you want

to enter a double-dagger sign (‡) into your document, say “Spell double dagger.”

For the complete list of special characters and their names, see the Special Characters topic in the online Help and the following sections in the Appendix:

■ “Publishing symbols” on page 223

■ “Accented and international characters” on page 226

■ “Mathematical symbols” on page 226

■ “Currency symbols” on page 224

To add a special character to the vocabulary:

If you frequently want to dictate a double-dagger sign (‡) into your document, you could add “double dagger” as a new word in the Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

1 In your document, dictate the phrase you want to use to enter the special

character (for example, say “double dagger”). Dragon NaturallySpeaking enters the words into your document. In this example, it would enter “double dagger.”

2 Say “Spell That” to open the Spell dialog box.

vocabulary. Follow these steps:

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3 Say the name of the special character. (In this example, say “double

dagger” to enter ‡.)

The special character you dictated is shown in the Written form column.

4 Click or say “OK.” Dragon NaturallySpeaking

types the special

character (‡) in your document and adds it to your vocabulary.

5 You need to give this special character a spoken form and then train it.

To do this, open the Vocabulary Editor™. From the Words menu on the DragonBar, choose View/Edit.

6 From the Display drop-down list at the bottom of the Vocabulary

Editor™ window, choose Custom Words Only. You will see the special character you just entered under the Written form column, as shown in this illustration.

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Type the character’s name (for example, “double dagger”) in the “Spoken form” field.

Numbers and Punctuation

7 Click on the special character to select it. In the illustration above, the

special character is already selected.

8 In the Spoken form field, type the name you want for this character.

9 Click Add.

10 Click Train. The Train Words dialog box opens.

11 Click Go.

12 Say the name of the character, as shown in the Train Words dialog box.

For example, say “double dagger.”

13 Click Done to close the Train Words dialog box.

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Click the word (the special character) with no spoken form.

Numbers and Punctuation

14 Now there are two words in your vocabulary with the same written form.

One has a spoken form and one does not. To select it, click on the word that does not have a spoken form.

15 Click the Delete button to delete this word, leaving the word that does

have a spoken form in your vocabulary.

The remaining word has both spoken and written forms.

16 Click Close to close the Vocabulary Editor™.

Congratulations, you’ve added a word that contains a special character! Now when you dictate the character name (in this example, “double

dagger”), Dragon NaturallySpeaking

should enter the special character,

not the words.

NOTE

NaturallySpeaking Properties dialog box. See “Changing word properties” on page 166.

You can change the formatting properties of a word (such as whether Dragon

should type a space before or after the word) by using the Word

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Modes

Numbers and Punctuation

When you start working in Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, you are in normal mode by default. You can dictate words, numbers, and commands, and the program will recognize them.

Suppose, though, that you want to work in a spreadsheet, dictating only numbers. In this case, you can turn on numbers mode. With numbers

mode on, Dragon NaturallySpeaking

tries to recognize everything it hears as a number. If you are dictating only numbers (including currencies), working in this mode will increase recognition accuracy.

There are four special modes, in addition to normal mode:

■ Numbers mode—The software recognizes only numbers,

commands, and punctuation.

■ Spell mode—The software recognizes only letters, numbers,

commands, and punctuation.

■ Command mode—The software recognizes only commands.

■ Dictation mode—The software recognizes only words in its

dictation vocabulary, plus a few commands such as “New Line” and “New Paragraph.”

To switch modes, from the Words menu on the DragonBar, click the name of the mode you want. Or, to switch modes by voice, say one of these commands:

■ “Switch to Numbers Mode”

■ “Switch to Spell Mode”

■ “Switch to Command Mode”

■ “Switch to Dictation Mode”

■ “Switch to Normal Mode”

You can turn modes on and off by voice. When you turn a mode off, this is the same as switching back to normal mode.

NOTE

You cannot dictate fractions in number mode.

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MODE TO TURN ON, SAY TO TURN OFF, SAY

Numbers Mode Numbers Mode On or

Start Numbers Mode

Numbers Mode Off or Stop Numbers Mode

Spell Mode Spell Mode On or

Start Spell Mode

Command Mode Command Mode On or

Start Command Mode

Dictation Mode Dictation Mode On or

Start Dictation Mode

Spell Mode Off or Stop Spell Mode

Command Mode Off or Stop Command Mode

Dictation Mode Off or Stop Dictation Mode

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Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer

magine answering your e-mail and navigating the Web as easily as you answer the telephone: by voice. Dragon NaturallySpeaking

with most popular e-mail applications and browsers.

Working with e-mail

works

You can dictate outgoing e-mail messages and have your computer read

incoming messages to you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking popular e-mail applications—you can dictate and edit your messages right in your e-mail software. In several e-mail applications you can also

use a set of built-in Dragon NaturallySpeaking print, and work with e-mail more easily. These applications are:

■ America Online

vary depending on the edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

■ Qualcomm

■ Microsoft

and higher editons only.)

versions 5, 6, and 7. (Supported AOL versions may

Eudora Pro® 5.1 (Available in Preferred editon only.)

Outlook® Express versions 5 and 6 (Available in Standard

commands to send,

works with most

. )

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The e-mail commands described in this chapter are designed to work in these applications. To use them, make sure Dragon NaturallySpeaking

and your e-mail application are both running.

If you use a different e-mail program

If you use an e-mail application that is not on the list above, you can still compose, edit, and send e-mail using the global commands described in chapters 3 and 4. You can send and print e-mail by voice too, but instead of having built-in commands available to do this you’ll need to say the names of menus, menu choices, and dialog boxes, as described in chapter 9, “Hands-Free Computing.”

TIP

If you use Lotus® Notes®, Microsoft ® Outlook®, or Microsoft ® Outlook® Express, you can add the contact names in your address book to your vocabulary, which improves accuracy when you dictate these names. You can also have Dragon NaturallySpeaking your writing style. For instructions on how to do this, see “Add contact names to the vocabulary” on page 160.

automatically scan your sent e-mail messages so it can better learn

Checking for new e-mail

To check for new mail, say “Check For New Mail” or “Check For E-Mail.” You must be connected to the Internet to check your e-mail.

TIP

You can say “Mail,” “Message,” “Memo,” or “E-Mail” interchangeably in any of the e-mail commands.

Opening and closing e-mail

To open an e-mail message, select it and say “Open Mail” or “Open That.” To close an open message, say “Close Mail.”

TIP

You can also move to the message and select it by “pressing” function and arrow keys by voice (see “Pressing keyboard keys” on page 109) or using the mouse movement commands (see page 115).

Composing e-mail

To compose a new message, say “New Mail” or “New Message.” Once the new blank message appears, you can navigate to any field by voice and start dictating.

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To navigate e-mail fields:

SAY THEN

Go to or To Field Move to CC Field

BCC Field Body Field First Field Last Field Next Field

To dictate an e-mail message:

1 Say “New Mail.” The new message opens on your screen.

2 Say “Go to To Field.” Pause (to make sure you are in the correct field),

then dictate the recipient’s e-mail address, for example, “jeff at a-o-l dot com.” If you are entering more than one address, separate each one by saying “comma.”

3 Say “Go to CC Field” or “Go to BCC Field,” pause, and dictate the

addresses of the people who should receive copies or blind copies of your message (optional).

TIP

In many e-mail programs, you can also say just “Subject” or “BCC” to move to the respective field by that name.

4 Say “Go to Subject Field,” pause, and dictate the subject of your message,

for example, “Planning a trip to see you.”

5 Say “Go to Body Field,” pause, and begin dictating the body of your

message.

TIP

For instructions on dictating e-mail addresses and Web URLs, see “Dictating e-mail and Web addresses” on page 74.

Transferring dictation into your e-mail

If you have dictated text into another program, such as your word processor, or have transcribed text from a handheld recorder (available in

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Preferred edition only), you can transfer your text into an e-mail message.

To transfer dictation from Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, or DragonPad into e-mail:

1 Say “Switch to Microsoft Word” (or “Switch to WordPerfect” or “Switch to

DragonPad.”) Dictate your message or open a previously transcribed

document.

2 Say “Copy All to Clipboard.” The entire document is selected and

transferred to the clipboard.

3 Say “Switch To” followed by the name of your e-mail program. For

example, say “Switch to Eudora.”

4 Say “Go to Body Field” to move the insertion point to the message body.

5 Say “Paste That” to transfer your text into your e-mail message.

Sending and printing e-mail

Once your message is ready to send, you can simply say “Send Mail” to send your e-mail on its way. To print a message, say “Print Mail” and the message will be sent to your printer.

Forwarding and replying to e-mail

To forward a message selected in your Inbox, simply say “Forward Mail,” then dictate the recipient’s address in the To Field of the new

message.

Select a message and say “Reply to Mail” to create a new message addressed to the sender. To reply to everyone on the mailing list, say “Reply To All.” Then move to the Body Field and dictate your reply.

Deleting mail

You can delete the currently selected message by saying “Delete Mail.” This command will work on all selected messages, so make sure you have selected only those you want to delete.

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Working with Microsoft Internet Explorer

You can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking® to control Microsoft® Internet

Explorer click on it. To use this feature, you must have Microsoft Explorer

When Dragon NaturallySpeaking are running, you can use voice commands to:

■ Go to any Web page on the Favorites menu

■ Enter a Web address (URL) in the Address bar

■ Go back to the previous Web page or forward to the next

and browse the Web by voice. Just say the name of a link to

version 5.0 or later installed.

and Microsoft® Internet Explorer®

Internet

■ Click links, buttons, and images

■ Scroll in a Web page

■ Select check boxes and other options

■ Enter text in a text box (such as a Search box)

Follow these steps whenever you want to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking

To use Microsoft Internet Explorer

Microsoft

NOTE

as the Dragon NaturallySpeaking used by voice.

Internet Explorer® ‘‘by voice, say “Start Internet Explorer.”

Any program that embeds the Microsoft

Going to favorite Web pages

Favorites are Web sites that you bookmark in your browser in order to find them again easily in the future. In Microsoft you can click on the “Favorites” button to see the sites in this list.

with Microsoft® Internet Explorer®.

Internet Explorer® by voice, simply start Microsoft®

while Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is running. To start

online Help or the Command Browser, can also be

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer®,

application, such

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Say “Go to Favorite” plus the site name, exactly as it appears in the Favorites menu. For example, you could say “Go to Favorite United

Nations” if United Nations was one of the items in your Favorites list.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide 87

lets you jump to any of these sites easily.

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Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer

TIP

If Dragon NaturallySpeaking® misunderstands your command and opens the wrong page, you can return to where you were by saying “Go Back.”

To add a page to the Favorites menu:

1 Go to the page you want to add to the Favorites menu.

2 Say “Click Favorites” to open the Favorites menu.

3 Say “Add to Favorites” to open the Add Favorites dialog box.

4 Type or dictate a name for the page. Select a short name, so it will be

easy to open the page by voice.

5 Save the page anywhere on the Favorites menu.

6 Click or say “OK” to close the Add Favorites dialog box.

Entering a Web address in the Address bar

You can dictate Web addresses (URLs) by saying “Go to Address.” Follow these steps.

To enter a Web address:

1 Say “Go to Address” to move to the Address bar.

Address bar

2 Dictate the Web address (for example, say “w w w dot swimming dot org”).

Most URLs are not case sensitive, but you may need to say “Cap” if the Web address contains capital letters.

For more information about dictating Web addresses, see “Dictating e-mail and Web addresses” on page 74.

3 Say “Go There” to open the page (same as pressing the

TIP

ENTER key).

You can also say “Click Go” instead of “Go There.”

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Going back to the previous Web page or forward to the next

The Back and Forward buttons on the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® toolbar move you backward or forward through the Web pages you’ve visited. Say “Go Back” or “Go Forward” to do the same thing by voice.

Here’s a list of all the voice commands you can use to control the

Microsoft

SAY TO

Go To Address Move the insertion point to the Address box.

Internet Explorer® toolbar.

Click Go or Go There

Go To Favorite

United Nations

Go Back Go back to the previous Web page (same as clicking

Go Forward Go forward to the next Web page (same as clicking the

Stop Loading Stop a Web page from loading (same as clicking the

Refresh or Reload

Go Home Go to your home page (same as clicking the Home

Entering text in a text box

When Dragon NaturallySpeaking® is running, you can dictate text into Search boxes and other text boxes on a Web page.

Go to the Web address in the Address box.

Load a page that is on your Favorites list, in this example, United Nations.

the Back button).

Forward button).

Stop button). Refresh the current Web page (same as clicking the

Refresh button).

button).

To enter text in a text box:

1 Say “Type Text” to move to the first text box on the page.

TIP

2 If the page has more than one text box, they will be numbered like this

. (See the following procedures for examples.) Choose the number

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You can also say “Edit Box” or “Text F ield” instead of “Type Text .”

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Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer

you want, or move to the next or previous text box by saying “Next” or “Previous.”

3 When the insertion point is in a text box, you can dictate text.

In text boxes, you can also correct recognition mistakes by voice, just as you do when you’re dictating into a document.

Clicking links, buttons, and images

You can click the text links and buttons on a Web page simply by saying the link or button name.

If the text link or button name is long, you don’t need to say all of it. Just say enough to distinguish it from other links on the page.

To click a text link:

1 Say the text link (it must be visible on the screen). For example, to click

the link Finance and Budget on the Web page pictured below, say

“Finance and Budget.”

2 An arrow appears briefly to indicate which link was selected and then

the page opens.

TIP

You ca n al so s ay “Click” and then the link text. For example, you could say “Click News and Events.” Sometimes saying “Click” first is more reliable than just saying the link text alone.

3 If more than one link matches what you said (for example, if there are

two links on the page that contain the word “Internship”), Dragon

NaturallySpeaking

numbers all the links on the page like this .

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Say “Choose 1” to click the first link containing “Internship,” or say “Choose 2” to choose the second link.

Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer

4 Say “Choose” plus the number of the link you want. For example, say

“Choose 2.”

NOTE

secure pages by voice.

On secure Web pages this feature is disabled. You cannot select links on

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Some Web pages, like this one, display text as graphic images. When you say “Image,” Dragon NaturallySpeaking numbers each image.

To click th e “Travel resources” link, say “Choose 10.” To click the Spanish flag, say “Choose

13.”

Using E-Mail and Microsoft Internet Explorer

To click an image:

1 When you say “Image” (or “Click Image”), Dragon NaturallySpeaking®

numbers all the images on the page like this .

2 Click the image you want by saying, for example, “Choose 3.”

TIP

If Dragon NaturallySpeaking® misunderstands your command and opens the wrong page, you can return to where you were by saying “Go Back.”

To click a button:

Say the button name. For example, to click the button pictured below, say “Search.”

Speech recognition

You can also say “Click” and then the button name. For example, you could say “Click Search” (or “Click Search Button”).

To unselect the button, you must select a different one.

To click a check box, list box, or radio (option) button:

1 Say “Check Box,” “List Box,” or “Radio Button” to number the buttons

like this . Then choose the number you want, as in the previous procedure.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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