Page 1
USER’S GUIDE
Page 2
August 2000. Version 5. Professional, Preferred, and Standard editions.
This material may not include some last-minute technical changes and/or revisions to the program. Changes are
periodically made to the information described here. Future versions of this material will incorporate these changes.
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. (L&H) 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; 5,428,707; 5,526,463; 5,680,511;
5,715,367; 5,754,972; 5,765,132; 5,794,189; 5,799,279; 5,809,453; 5,818,423; 5,822,730; 5,850,627; 5,903,864; 5,909,666;
5,915,236; 5,920,836; 5,920,837; 5,946,654; 5,949,886; 5,960,394; 5,983,179; 6,029,124; 6,052,657; 6,064,959; 6,073,097;
6,088,671; 6,092,043; 6,092,044.
Specifications subject to change without notice. Appearance of microphone may vary from that shown.
Copyright © 2000 Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.
No part of this material or software may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic or mechanical,
such as photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written
consent of L&H.
Dragon Systems, L&H, NaturallySpeaking, NaturallyMobile, Select-and-Say, BestMatch, MouseGrid, Vocabulary
Builder, Vocabulary Editor, and the L&H and Dragon Systems logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of L&H in
the United States and/or other countries. All other names and trademarks referenced herein are trademarks of L&H or
their respective owners. The L&H Text-to-Speech utility uses the Elan Text-to-Speech engine, which is licensed from
Elan Informatique.
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 Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V is aware of the
trademark, the first occurrence of the designation is printed with a trademark (™) or registered trademark (®) symbol.
Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Corel and WordPerfect are trademarks of Corel Corporation.
Lotus and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.
Microsoft, Outlook, Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Netscape and Netscape Navigator are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation.
Voice It, the Voice It logo, and Voice It Link are trademarks of Voice It Worldwide, Inc.
Yahoo! is a trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
Dave Barry in Cyberspace, © Copyright 1996 by Dave Barry. Published by Crown Publishers.
2001: A Space Odyssey, © Copyright 1968 by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by New American Library.
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
HarperBusiness, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.
Success Is a Journey: 7 Steps to Achieving Success in the Business of Life, © Copyright 1999 by Jeffrey J. Mayer. Published by
McGraw Hill.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, © Copyright 1964 by Roald Dahl. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Penguin
Books.
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, © Copyright 1972 by Roald Dahl. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Penguin
Books.
To Be a Man, © Copyright 1997 by Eugene and Miranda Pool.
Ghost Brother, © Copyright 1990 by C.S. Adler. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
The Captain of Battery Park, © Copyright 1978 by Eugene Pool. Published by Addison-Wesley.
03-216-50-01
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Contents
About This Guide v
CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 1
What’s new in version 5? 2
What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking? 6
Do I still need my mouse and keyboard? 7
CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully 9
How Dragon NaturallySpeaking works 10
Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11
Positioning your microphone correctly 11
Speaking properly to the computer 12
Correcting recognition mistakes 15
Playing back your dictation 23
Using text-to-speech 28
CHAPTER 3 Improving Your Speech Recognition 31
Working with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary 31
Quick and easy ways to add new words 34
Advanced tools for building and editing vocabularies 41
Managing vocabularies 54
Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words 59
Running General Training again 63
CHAPTER 4 Dictating Names, Numbers & Punctuation 65
Dictating names of people, places, and events 65
Dictating abbreviations and acronyms 67
Dictating hyphenated words 68
Dictating compound words 69
Dictating words that end with ’s 70
Dictating e-mail and Web addresses 72
Dictating special characters 73
Dictating foreign words 75
Dictating numbers 76
CHAPTER 5 Editing and Revising Text 87
Moving around in a document 87
Selecting text 90
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Contents
Copying, cutting, and pasting text 95
Capitalizing text 95
Formatting text 98
Deleting text 100
CHAPTER 6 Working With Your Desktop and Windows 103
Starting programs 104
Opening documents and folders 105
Switching between open windows 106
Copying text to other programs 106
Opening and closing menus 107
Selecting buttons, tabs, and options 108
Selecting icons on the desktop 109
Resizing and closing windows 110
Scrolling in windows and list boxes 110
Pressing keyboard keys 111
Moving the mouse pointer and clicking the mouse 115
CHAPTER 7 Working With E-Mail and the Web 119
Working with E-mail 119
Working with Internet Explorer 123
CHAPTER 8 Managing Users 131
Creating a new user 132
Opening a user 133
Renaming a user 133
Deleting a user 134
Backing up a user 135
Restoring a backup copy of a user 136
Multilingual users 137
CHAPTER 9 Creating Your Own Dragon NaturallySpeaking Commands 139
About voice commands 140
Creating and editing voice commands 140
Importing and deleting command files 150
Troubleshooting commands 151
APPENDIX A Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking With a Portable Recorder 153
Installing recorder software 154
APPENDIX B Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 5 Commands List 171
INDEX 207
iv
Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide
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About This Guide
W
elcome to Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, one of the world’s most
widely acclaimed speech-recognition products. Dragon
NaturallySpeaking lets you talk to your computer instead of typing. It
also lets you use your voice to control your computer in other ways.
This guide provides detailed information that will help you get the most
out of using the program. It also explains how to ensure that Dragon
NaturallySpeaking will recognize your speech accurately. Before using
this guide, we recommend that you read the Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Quick Start guide and view the online Tutorial.
This guide covers multiple editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Where information applies to certain editions only, this is clearly noted.
Conventions used in this guide
1 This user’s guide contains many examples of words and phrases you can
say when using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. These examples usually
appear in italics with quotation marks, for instance: “Scratch That.”
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 covers the five dialects of English that ship with Dragon
NaturallySpeaking:
■
US English
Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide
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About This Guide
■
UK English
■
Australian English
■
Indian English
■
Southeast Asian English
US English uses US spelling, punctuation, times, and currency. Dragon
Systems recommends US English for Canadian users since this dialect
formats numbers (including times, telephone numbers, and currency) in
North American formats.
All other dialects use UK spelling, punctuation, times, and currency
(some number settings depend on your Windows Regional Settings).
Dictation examples that differ among dialects appear in a different font,
as in this example:
■
You can also correct a longer phrase by saying “Correct [text] Through
[text]” (
US/Canada
) or “Correct [text] To [text]” (
Other Dialects
).
This user’s guide uses US spelling and punctuation for consistency.
4 This guide also includes helpful tips to improve your dictation, and
notes that require special attention. 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
NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions.
The ability to create your own voice commands is available only in Dragon
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CHAPTER
D
1
Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking
ragon NaturallySpeaking lets you talk to your computer instead of
typing. As you talk, your words are transcribed onto your screen and
into your documents or e-mail messages.
Talking to a computer while it types what you say is called dictating. You
can dictate into Microsoft
personal information organizers, and virtually any other program in
which you normally type.
You can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking for:
■
Composing letters, memos, and e-mail messages. Just think about
what you want to say, and then say it into the microphone.
■
Writing a report, article, or story. Brainstorm out loud and capture
your thoughts on screen. Then edit your work by voice or mouse
and keyboard.
■
“Typing up” notes from a meeting. When you get back to your desk,
simply read your notes into the microphone.
You can also use simple voice commands to revise and format text, move
around your document, and control your computer. Learn the basics in
your Quick Start guide.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking isn’t just for creating documents. You can also
use your voice to start programs, open menus, and click buttons. If you
use Internet Explorer, you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to browse
the Web by voice. Learn how in Chapter 7, “Working With E-Mail and
the Web.”
®
Word, Corel® WordPerfect®, e-mail programs,
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If you share your computer with family members, friends, or colleagues,
they can also use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Simply create a new set of
“user speech files” for each person who wants to talk to the computer.
Find out how in Chapter 8, “Managing Users.”
After you become comfortable talking to your computer, you may want
to take the convenience of dictating a step further by using a portable
recorder with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This option is available if you
have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred or a higher edition. For more
information, see Appendix A, “Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking With a
Portable Recorder.”
If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or a higher edition,
you can expand the power of using speech by creating your own voice
commands. Find out how in Chapter 9, “Creating Your Own Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Commands.”
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions also let you
create and customize additional vocabularies for dictating in different
subject areas. For more information, see “Managing vocabularies” on
page 54.
What’s new in version 5?
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 has many new features to make
your dictation easier and faster to use. Most of these features are
available through the DragonBar. When you see the DragonBar on your
screen, you can dictate into virtually any program.
Welcome to the DragonBar
Dragon icon NaturallySpeaking menu
Microphone icon and volume display
The Dragon icon
Click the icon (or right-click anywhere on the DragonBar) to display a
menu that controls how the DragonBar looks and acts on your screen.
See the online Help for more information.
2
Start DragonPad icon
Show Extras icon
Display Help icon
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Users icon
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CHAPTER 1
Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking
NaturallySpeaking menu
The NaturallySpeaking menu on the DragonBar contains all the menu
commands that you can use while working in Dragon
NaturallySpeaking. Some of these commands are also available from
other parts of the DragonBar, for example opening the online Help.
Microphone icon and volume display
Click the microphone icon to turn speech recognition on and off.
Microphone is off Microphone is on and ready to dictate
The volume display shows how well the program is hearing your voice.
Start DragonPad icon
Click the icon to open the DragonPad, the built-in word processor for
Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Display Help icon
Click the icon to open online Help for Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Extras toolbar icon
Transcribe button Start playback button
Users icon
Click the Users icon to display a menu that contains a list of your users
and a command that opens the Manage Users dialog box.
Playback speed button Correction button
Stop playback button
Skip Backward / Skip Forward
The Extras toolbar is available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred
and higher editions.
Click the double chevron icon to display the Extras toolbar, which
contains the following:
Transcribe a recording button
Click this button to open the Transcribe dialog box, which you use to
transcribe recordings of dictation made on portable recorders.
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Playback toolbar
Contains controls that control the playback of your dictation. For more
information, see “Playing back your dictation” on page 23, or see the
online Help.
Playback speed button
Click this button to speed up or slow down dictation playback.
Correction button
Click this button to open the Correction dialog box and correct a
mistake.
New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Standard and higher editions
Dictate into virtually any application
Whenever you see the DragonBar on your screen, you can dictate into
any application and use many Dragon NaturallySpeaking commands.
See “Which commands work in which programs?” on page 171 for more
information.
Learn hands-on with a new online Tutorial
The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tutorial leads you through basic
dictation techniques. See your Quick Start guide and the online Help for
more information.
Get started promptly
All computers that meet the minimum system requirements of the
software now learn your voice in about 3 to 5 minutes. Your Quick Start
guide takes you step-by-step from installation through your first
dictation. See “Creating a new user” on page 132 of this user’s guide for
more information.
Dictate with improved accuracy
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 continues to improve accuracy,
from a company already recognized for its high recognition accuracy. See
“Improving Your Speech Recognition” on page 31 for more information.
Choose quick and easy ways to correct mistakes
Proofread and correct your work as you dictate with the convenient
Quick Correct list. See “Correcting recognition mistakes” on page 15 for
more information.
4
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Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Never forget a command again
Can't remember a command? Voice commands are readily available with
helpful on-screen reminders, extensive online Help, a detachable
command reference card, and two Top 10 Commands stickers for your
keyboard and monitor. Say “View Command List” to see the Command
List in the online Help, or see the “Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 5
Commands List” on page 171 for a complete list of voice commands.
Add words from your documents quickly and easily
The new Add Words From Documents feature scans your documents for
particular words you use and adds them to the Dragon
NaturallySpeaking vocabulary in a few simple steps. See “Add Words
from Documents” on page 35 for more information.
Manage your e-mail by voice
Dictate into popular e-mail programs with special built-in voice
commands. See “Working with E-mail” on page 119 for more
information.
Find new ways to surf the Web
New features and voice commands enhance your web browser. See
“Working with Internet Explorer” on page 123 for more information.
New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Preferred and higher editions
Enter commonly used text
Create dictation shortcuts to insert multiple lines of text, such as a letter
closing, with only a few words. See “Creating dictation shortcuts” on
page 38 for more information.
Dictate in more than one language
Install multiple languages in the same edition of Dragon
NaturallySpeaking (English-as-a-second-language editions only). See
“Multilingual users” on page 137 for more information.
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Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking
New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Professional and higher editions
Dictate now, correct later
Save a recording of your dictation session so that you or someone else
can proofread and revise your work later. See “Dictate now, correct later”
on page 26 for more information.
Work in Lotus® Notes
Use new built-in commands, including Select-and-Say™ editing, in
Lotus Notes. See the online Help for more information.
Organize and file your voice commands
Manage your macro scripts and specialized commands by placing them
into multiple files. See “Creating and editing voice commands” on page
140 for more information.
Customize your own Tutorial
Dragon NaturallySpeaking resellers can customize the online Tutorial to
include specific information about services that they provide.
All editions also feature many additional improvements and bug fixes.
®
What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking?
One reason to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking is to do your writing more
quickly. Another is to reduce the stress associated with keyboarding. Or
maybe you just like the idea of being able to lean back in your chair, put
your feet up on the desk, and still get work done.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is good for all these reasons, but making it
work well requires some effort from you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking
actually learns about your voice and pronunciation as you use it. When
you use words the program doesn’t know, it will make mistakes, and
you’ll have to stop and correct them.
It may take a while before you feel comfortable and productive using
Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You can find out more about how to make
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Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking
the program work well by reading Chapter 2, “Using Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Successfully.”
Do I still need my mouse and keyboard?
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.
If using a mouse and keyboard is an option for you, try experimenting
with using your voice and using your hands for different tasks, to see
what works best. If using a mouse and keyboard is not an option, read
Chapter 6, “Working With Your Desktop and Windows.”
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CHAPTER
I
2
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully
f you followed the exercises in your Quick Start guide, by now you’ve
had a chance to try dictating with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. So, are
you ready to throw away your keyboard? Probably not. Chances are there
are more mistakes in your document than you’d like to see.
Why does the program make mistakes, and what can be done so it makes
them less often? This chapter provides some background information to
help you understand how Dragon NaturallySpeaking works.
It then reveals the “Seven habits for success with Dragon
NaturallySpeaking,” a list of tips and procedures you can follow to make
the program recognize your speech accurately. This discussion is
continued in Chapter 3, “Improving Your Speech Recognition.”
The section on “Correcting recognition mistakes” discusses how to
correct misrecognized words, including ways to train the program to
reduce future errors.
The chapter concludes by introducing dictation playback and text-tospeech (available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and higher
editions), and saving your dictation for later correction (available in
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions).
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How Dragon NaturallySpeaking works
When you talk into the microphone, Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn’t
hear words or phrases. The computer hears your speech as a continuous
stream of sounds. From this stream, Dragon NaturallySpeaking picks out
common sound patterns, known as
To match these sound patterns to words, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
relies on two large sources of data:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses acoustic data about the sound patterns
that make up different words to choose the words that most closely
match what it heard. Since no two people sound exactly alike, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking does a much better job of matching sounds to words
when it knows something about your pronunciation. When you first
trained the program, you provided acoustic data on top of what Dragon
NaturallySpeaking already knows about the sounds of English.
phonemes
acoustic data
.
and
language data
.
10
Sometimes it’s not possible for Dragon NaturallySpeaking to choose the
correct word based on sound alone. Consider these two phrases: “pizza
delivery boy” and “Pete’s a delivery boy.” When spoken, they sound
almost exactly alike. How would Dragon NaturallySpeaking know which
to choose?
Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses language data about the context and
frequency of word use to determine which words were most likely
spoken. The phrase “pizza delivery boy” is more common than “Pete’s a
delivery boy,” so the program would favor this phrase over the other.
Since people write differently, it helps if Dragon NaturallySpeaking
knows something about the frequency with which you use different
words. When you Add Words From Documents, run Vocabulary
Builder
program with language data about how often you use different words.
Knowing that Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses acoustic data and
language data to recognize your speech can help you know what to do to
make the program work better.
™
, or make corrections to your dictation, you’re providing the
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Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully
Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking
The rest of this chapter, and Chapter 3, describe seven habits you can
adopt to make Dragon NaturallySpeaking work well for you. If you make
the techniques and procedures in these chapters a habit, and continue to
use Dragon NaturallySpeaking regularly, you should be able to make the
program recognize your speech more accurately.
Seven habits for success with Dragon
NaturallySpeaking
Chapter 2
Position your microphone correctly
■
Speak properly to the computer
■
Correct recognition mistakes
■
Chapter 3
Add words to the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary
■
Run Vocabulary Builder
■
Train Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words
■
Run General Training again
■
If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, you can also
create specialized vocabularies to enhance recognition accuracy. See
“Managing vocabularies” on page 54.
Positioning your microphone correctly
You’ve already heard a lot about the importance of your microphone
position. If you followed the instructions on the screen when you first
started Dragon NaturallySpeaking, your microphone is probably in about
the right position. But you should continue to think about your
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microphone and check its position frequently to make sure it hasn’t
moved out of place.
If you find that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is making too many mistakes,
experiment with moving the microphone a little closer to or farther from
your mouth.
If extra words, such as “and” and “the,” are often inserted into your
document, Dragon NaturallySpeaking may be interpreting the sound of
your breath as speech. Try moving the microphone slightly to the side, so
it’s not directly in front of your mouth.
Keep in mind that it’s easy for the microphone to move slightly out of
the best position. You might not notice if this happens, because Dragon
NaturallySpeaking may still get most of your words right. But if the
microphone is even slightly out of place, the program may no longer be
able to tell the difference between similar-sounding words, such as “or”
and “all,” and will begin making subtle mistakes.
Make it a habit to check your microphone position regularly. If accuracy
ever seems lower than normal, always start by checking your microphone.
TIP
You can double-check your microphone position at any time by running the Audio
Setup Wizard. On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, then click Check
Audio. Make sure your audio quality is “Passed.”
Speaking properly to the computer
At times the computer will type something that sounds like what you
said but isn’t quite right. People sometimes misunderstand each other in
the same way. But the computer is not a person, so it won’t help to:
SHOUT
t a l k s l o w l y
or. say. only. one. word. at. a. time.
This section provides some guidelines for talking to a computer.
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Speak naturally and continuously, but
pronounce each word clearly
When you talk to another person, you can mumble and run your words
together and still be understood most of the time. For example, if you
say, “Innit cold?” a person will probably understand that you’re asking,
“Isn’t it cold?”
But Dragon NaturallySpeaking has trouble interpreting mumbled or
slurred speech. The computer recognizes speech most accurately when
it can hear each word distinctly.
To understand what it means to speak both clearly and naturally, listen to
the way newscasters read the news. If you copy this style when you use
Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you should see an improvement in how well
the program recognizes what you say.
Make it a habit to say each word clearly when you talk to the computer.
Avoid leaving out words and making extra
sounds (like “um”)
In conversation with another person, it’s okay if you leave out a word
here and there. People are good at filling in the blanks in a sentence.
Unfortunately, the computer is not very good at this. If you leave out
words, Dragon NaturallySpeaking also leaves them out.
Another thing people do well is ignore all those “ums” and “ers” that
show up in conversation. But the computer has no way of knowing which
words are unimportant, so it simply transcribes everything you say.
Make it a habit to avoid leaving out words or making extra sounds. It
may help to compose your thoughts before you speak.
Speak at your normal pace—don’t slow down
When another person is having trouble understanding you, speaking
more slowly usually helps. So it’s not surprising that people often slow
down and begin sounding out each syllable when Dragon
NaturallySpeaking makes mistakes.
It doesn’t help, however, to speak at an unnatural pace when you’re
talking to a computer. This is because the program listens for predictable
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sound patterns when matching sounds to words. If you speak in
syllables, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is likely to transcribe each syllable
as a separate word.
Make it a habit to speak at your normal pace, so Dragon
NaturallySpeaking can learn your normal pronunciation.
Speak in phrases, rather than one word at
atime
Along with the tendency to speak slowly, people often begin saying just
one or two words at a time when Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes
mistakes.
Surprisingly, speaking in very short phrases or individual words can
actually lessen accuracy. This is because Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses
the context of a phrase to help it decide what you said.
Consider the following phrase: “Dear Mr. Jones.” If you were to dictate
this phrase one word at a time (“dear” “mister” “jones”), Dragon
NaturallySpeaking might type “Deer” or “Gear” instead of “Dear.” But
if you were to dictate the whole phrase (“dear mister jones”), the program
can use context to determine that the word you want is most likely
“Dear.”
Make it a habit to dictate in phrases, so Dragon NaturallySpeaking can
use context to help determine what you said. It may help to compose
your thoughts before you speak.
Speak at your normal volume—don’t whisper
or speak too loudly
When you first started Dragon NaturallySpeaking and read the training
text aloud, the program adapted to the pitch and volume of your voice,
along with learning your pronunciation.
For this reason, you should continue to speak at a normal volume (or
slightly louder if this helps). If you shout or whisper, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking won’t understand you as well.
Make it a habit to speak at your normal volume, since Dragon
NaturallySpeaking has adjusted to this volume.
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Prevent vocal strain
When you’re dictating for long periods you should think about
protecting your voice.
Here are some tips for preventing vocal strain:
■
Sit up straight or stand in front of your computer.
■
Don’t speak in a loud voice or in any way that is stressful for you.
■
Breathe deeply from your abdomen and not from the top of your
chest.
■
Loosen up and relax: stretch your arms, shoulders, neck, and jaw
muscles.
■
Take occasional breaks: get up, move around, and stretch.
■
Keep your vocal cords moist: take sips of water and use a straw so
you don’t have to move the microphone out of place.
Correcting recognition mistakes
When Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the wrong words, you should
correct these mistakes. By giving the program the right word, you
actually teach the program not to make the same mistakes again.
Correcting mistakes requires some extra effort, but it saves you time in
the long run by making Dragon NaturallySpeaking more accurate. You’ll
probably need to correct mistakes often when you first start dictating,
and then less frequently as the program learns from your corrections.
Make it a habit to correct mistakes to continue to improve the accuracy
of the program. Make sure you save your speech files when prompted, to
preserve the adjustments the program makes.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 offers two tools for correcting:
■
The Quick Correct list is the quickest and easiest way to make
corrections in the DragonPad.
■
The Correction dialog box is a more powerful tool that lets you
correct text and spell new words.
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Correcting mistakes with Quick Correct
In the DragonPad, correcting a mistake is quick and easy. Just select the
mistake and choose the correct word or phrase from the Quick Correct
list.
To correct a mistake with Quick Correct:
1 Dictate until Dragon NaturallySpeaking misrecognizes a word. For
example, dictate this sentence:
US/Canada: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog [period]
Other Dialects: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog [full stop]
In the following example, Dragon NaturallySpeaking heard the word
“quick” as “dark.”
2 Select the mistake. You can select the text you just dictated by saying
“Select That,” or you can select a specific word or phrase by saying
“Select” followed by the word(s) you see. The Quick Correct list appears.
Quick Correct list
Say “Choose 1” to
replace “dark” with
“quick.”
16
You can also choose
to spell the word,
capitalize it, delete it,
cancel, or ignore the
Quick Correct list and
keep dictating.
In this example, when you say “select dark,” the word “dark” is
highlighted and the Quick Correct list shows you the most likely
matches for the misrecognized word.
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3 Choose the correct word from the Quick Correct list by saying “Choose”
and the number next to your choice. In this example, say “Choose 1,” and
“quick” will replace “dark.”
If the word you want does not appear in the list, say “Spell That” or
“Correct That.” The Correction dialog box will appear for you to spell or
type the correct word. See the next procedure for details.
When the Quick Correct list appears, you can also choose to:
■
spell the word (in this example, say “Spell That q-u-i-c-k”)
■
capitalize it (say “Cap That,” in this example, to get “Dark”)
■
delete it (say “Scratch That”)
■
say “Cancel” to dismiss the list
■
ignore the Quick Correct list and keep dictating (in this example,
just say “quick”)
If you ignore Quick Correct and dictate while text is selected, your new
dictation will replace the selected text: this is called Select-and-Say. This
method, however, does not teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking not to
make the same mistake again. For more information on Select-and-Say,
see “Select-and-Say vs. correction” on page 22.
TIP
If you prefer not to see the Quick Correct list ever y time you select text, you can
turn it off. In the Options dialog box, select the Correction tab and clear the check box
“Select commands bring up Quick Correct.”
The Quick Correct list works in the DragonPad, but not in other
programs. If you select text by voice and the Quick Correct list does not
appear, just say “Spell That” or “Correct That” and continue with the
procedure below.
Using the Correction dialog box
The Correction dialog box is the most powerful and universal way to
correct a mistake so that Dragon NaturallySpeaking won’t misrecognize
the word again.
There are many ways to open the Correction dialog box. Use the method
that is most convenient for you, as described in the following list.
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To open the Correction dialog box:
■
When the Quick Correct list is open, say “Spell That” or “Correct
That.” This method works only in the DragonPad.
■
To correct a mistake immediately after it appears, say “Spell That” or
“Correct That.” This method works in any program.
■
Say “Correct” and then the word or phrase that you see on the
screen. This method works in Select-and-Say applications (see page
171).
■
You can also correct a longer phrase by saying “Correct [text] Through
[text]” (
US/Canada
) or “Correct [text] To [text]” (
[text], substitute the actual word or words at the beginning and the
end of the phrase you want (they must be visible on the screen). For
example, if you want to correct “it was a dark and stormy night,” you
can say “Correct it was through night” (
Other Dialects
night” (
). This method works in Select-and-Say
US/Canada
applications (see page 171).
■
Select text and say “Spell That” or “Correct That.” This method
works in Select-and-Say applications (see page 171).
■
Press the correction keyboard shortcut, the minus (-) key on the
numeric keypad. This opens the Correction dialog box with the last
thing you said, the selection, or the words preceding or following the
insertion point.
■
Say “Spell” to open the Correction dialog box with no text in it.
This allows you to spell a word for the first time. For more
information, see “Spelling as you dictate” on page 22.
Other Dialects
) or “Correct it was to
). For
18
NOTE
(next to each other). You cannot 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
Some people prefer to correct the mistakes in their documents by using
the mouse and keyboard. You can use your mouse to select the wrong
words (or simply place your insertion point somewhere in the mistake),
and then press the minus (-) key on the numeric keypad to open the
Correction dialog box.
To correct a word or phrase:
1 Open the Correction dialog box.
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You can resize the
Correction dialog box by
dragging a corner or
side.
Note: The Play Back
button is only in Preferred
and higher editions.
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully
2 When the Correction dialog box opens, if the correct word or phrase is in
the list of choices, you can simply choose it.
Text b ox
There are several ways to choose the correct text:
■
Say “Choose” and then the number of the correct choice. For
example, say “Choose 9” (or “Choose Numeral 9”).
■
Click the correct choice, and then click or say “OK.”
■
Double-click the correct choice.
This closes the Correction dialog box and enters the text into your
document.
3 If none of the choices exactly matches what you said, you must enter the
correct text. There are two ways to enter the correct text:
■
Start spelling the correct word or phrase. Say the letters
continuously and quickly, not one at a time.
■
Start typing the correct word or phrase into the text box. As you
type, the list shows alternatives that match what you’ve typed so far.
4 When you see the correct choice, choose it by voice or mouse.
5 If the correct choice doesn’t appear, finish spelling or typing it and then
click or say “OK.”For example, try dictating the following text:
US/Canada: I liked your proposal period why don't you webify it and have
the rest of the team take a look question mark
Other Dialects: I liked your proposal full stop why don't you webify it and
have the rest of the team take a look question mark
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Dragon NaturallySpeaking types:
I liked your proposal. Why don't you Web if I it and have the rest of the
team take a look?
To correct the text, say “Select Web if I,” then “Spell That w-e-b-i-f-y.”
Then click or say “OK.”
Spelling in the Correction dialog box
You can either spell text by voice or type it here. You cannot dictate
whole words into the Correction dialog box.
When you’re spelling, this is what you can say:
■
letters (a–z)
■
International Communications Alphabet (alpha, bravo, and so
on)
■
numbers (0–9)
■
punctuation
■
“Cap” (to capitalize the next letter)
■
“Double” (to enter the next letter twice, for example,
“Double a”)
■
“Space Bar” or “space” (to insert a space)
■
“Backspace”
■
“apostrophe ess”
■
special characters (such as @, *, £, ©, and é)
20
For a complete list of special characters and the International
Communications Alphabet, see “Correction dialog box commands”
on page 177 of Appendix B.
When one of the choices in the Correction dialog box is almost correct,
you can select it and use it as a starting point without entering the text
into your document. Just click it or say “Select” (not “Choose”) and then
the number of the choice. For example, say “Select 3” (or “Select Numeral
3”). Then edit the word or phrase.
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Editing in the Correction dialog box
When you’re working in the Correction dialog box, you can use your
voice to move the insertion point and to select and delete words and
characters.
Moving around in the Correction dialog box
You can move the insertion point right or left by words or characters. For
example, you can say “Move Right a Word” or “Move Left 4 Characters.”
See the complete list below:
SAY THEN
Move Right a Word or 1 Word
(o n e )
Forward 2 Words
Left
Back a Character
THEN
(o n e )
2..20
Words
2 Characters
2..20
Characters
or
1 Character
Selecting text in the Correction dialog box
You can select all the text in the text box by saying “Select Line” or “Select
All.”
You can also select right or left by words or characters. For example, you
can say “Select Next Character” or “Select Previous 2 Words.” See the
complete list below:
SAY THEN
Select Next Word
(o n e )
Forward 2 Words
Previous
Back Character
Last 4 Characters
THEN
2..20
2..20
( o n e )
Words
Characters
Deleting text in the Correction dialog box
You can delete selected text in the Correction dialog box by saying
“Delete Selection.”
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You can also delete words or characters. For example, you can say “Delete
Next Word” or “Delete Previous Character.”
See the complete list below:
SAY THEN
Delete Next Word
Spelling as you dictate
With the new Spell command in Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5,
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 vocabulary, such as a
proprietary term or a foreign word.
To spell a word while dictating,
1 Spell the word. Say, for example, “Spell c-i-a-o.”
You must say “Cap” if the word contains a capital letter. For example,
say “Spell Cap m-a-c Cap-m-i-l-l-a-n” to type “MacMillan.”
(o n e )
Forward 2 Words
Previous
Back Character
Last 4 Characters
THEN
2..20
2..20
(o n e )
Words
Characters
2 The Correction dialog box opens and Dragon NaturallySpeaking types
the letters you spell. You can then continue spelling or correct any errors
in the word you spelled.
For more tips on spelling, see the online Help.
Select-and-Say vs. correction
You can always make corrections by selecting your text and dictating to
replace it. You learned about this method, called Select-and-Say, in the
online Tutorial and the Quick Start guide. See “Which commands work in
which programs?” on page 171 for a list of the programs that support
Select-and-Say.
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Selecting text and dictating over it, however, will not correct speechrecognition errors. Only by using the Quick Correct list or the Correction
dialog box can you teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking not to make the
same mistakes again.
For information on using Select-and-Say to revise your dictation, see
“Using Select-and-Say” on page 90.
Playing back your dictation
Dictation playback is available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred
and higher editions.
Playback commands work in the DragonPad, Microsoft Word 97 and
2000, Corel WordPerfect 8 and 9, and Lotus Notes.
Although Dragon NaturallySpeaking never makes a spelling mistake,
the mistakes it does make can be challenging to find and fix. Sometimes,
what the program types looks very different from what you actually said.
To make correcting mistakes easier, Dragon NaturallySpeaking records
your voice as you dictate. You can play back your voice whenever you
cannot tell by looking at your document what you originally said.
NOTE
playback is available only until you close a document. After you close a document,
Dragon NaturallySpeaking deletes the recorded dictation for that document. See page 26
for information on saving dictation for later correction (Professional and higher editions).
Unless you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or a higher edition,
Playing back dictation in the Correction
dialog box
When you’re working in the Correction dialog box, click the Play Back
button or say “Play Back” to play the dictation that goes with the words
you’re correcting. Then edit the text to match what you said.
You can set up Dragon NaturallySpeaking to play back dictation
automatically whenever you open the Correction dialog box. On the
NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, click Options, and then
click the Correction tab. Select “Automatic playback on correction.”
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Sometimes, there’s no dictation to play back. For example, you cannot
play back text that wasn’t entered by voice, such as words you typed or
pasted into your document.
NOTE
have cut it, copied it, pasted it, or otherwise moved it around in the document.
Even when you have entered text by voice, you cannot play it back after you
If you have Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional or a higher edition,
you can save your dictation with your document for later playback (see
“Dictate now, correct later” on page 26). Otherwise, you cannot play
back dictation after closing a document.
If dictation is not available, the Play Back button is dimmed (grayed
out). When playback is not available, you may find text-to-speech useful
for checking your work. See “Using text-to-speech” on page 28.
Playing back dictation in a document
To help you check your work for mistakes, you can play back a line, a
paragraph, a selection, or the whole document. After playback starts, you
can stop it as soon as you notice a mistake and automatically open the
Correction dialog box.
The Playback toolbar is an extra section of the DragonBar that is
normally hidden. To see the Playback toolbar, click the double chevron
icon on the DragonBar to open the Extras toolbar (Preferred and
higher editions).
To play back dictation:
To play back dictation, do any of the following:
■
Select the text you want to play back, and say “Play That Back.”
■
Click the Start Playback button on the Playback toolbar.
24
Start Playback
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■
Move the insertion point to the text you want to play back and say
any of the following commands:
SAY TO
Play Back Line Play back dictation for the current line.
Play Back Paragraph Play back dictation for the current paragraph.
Play Back Document Play back dictation for the whole document.
Play Back Window Play back dictation for the text in view.
Play Back to Here Play back dictation from the top of the document
window to the insertion point.
Play Back from Here Play back dictation from the insertion point to the
bottom of the document window.
To stop playback:
To stop playback, do any of the following:
■
Click the Stop Playback button on the Playback toolbar.
■
Click anywhere in the document window.
■
Press the
(It’s not possible to stop playback by voice, because the computer cannot
hear speech input when it’s playing back dictation.)
To skip backward or forward:
You can skip backward or forward in your document by a few words. To
skip backward or forward, do one of the following:
■
To skip backward a few words, click the Skip Backward button on
the Playback toolbar.
■
To skip forward a few words, click the Skip Forward button on the
Playback toolbar.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking User’s Guide
Stop Playback
ESC
key.
Skip Forward Skip Backward
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To stop playback and correct a mistake:
To stop playback and correct a mistake, do any of the following:
■
Click the Correction button on the Playback toolbar.
Correction
■
Press the minus (-) key on the numeric keypad.
This stops playback and simultaneously opens the Correction dialog
box. There you can correct the text for the last phrase played back.
NOTE
(40 MB). If you want to be able to store more dictation, you can change the amount of
disk space that’s set aside for storing it. On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to
Advanced, click Options, and then click the Miscellaneous tab. Increase the number in the
“Disk space reserved for speech data” box.
Dictate now, correct later
When you dictate into the DragonPad, you can save your dictation with
your text so either you or someone else can correct it later. You must
create and edit your file in the DragonPad to be able to play back
dictation. This feature is available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Professional and higher editions.
You can save dictation with your document if you select the Prompt to
Save Dictation with Document box on the Startup/Shutdown tab of the
Options dialog. The first time you save a document in DragonPad during
an editing session, Dragon NaturallySpeaking asks you whether you
want to save your speech data. If you save your speech data, you can
reopen the document at a later time and play back your dictation. If you
do not save your speech data, your dictation is stored only during the
current editing session.
Correcting your own dictation
If you save your dictation, you can open your file later and play back and
correct the text as if you had just dictated it.
By default, Dragon NaturallySpeaking stores about 30 minutes of dictation
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Correcting someone else's dictation
You can play back someone else's dictation and correct the text to match
the dictation. You can do this in two ways:
■
You can correct the dictation using your user files.
■
You can correct the dictation using the document author's user files.
Correcting with your user files
You should use this correction technique if you regularly correct another
person's text by voice and it is not important to maximize the author's
recognition accuracy.
When you use your user files, you can correct the dictation just as you
would correct your own dictation, using any combination of voice
commands and keyboard typing. Even though you are correcting
someone else's dictation, your work won't reduce recognition accuracy
for either you or the person who dictated the text. But your corrections
to the other person's dictation won't improve recognition either.
Correcting with the document author's user files
You should use this correction technique if you do not need to correct by
voice and it is important to maximize the author's recognition accuracy.
TIP
This technique works if all work is done on a single computer. Consult your
Dragon NaturallySpeaking reseller about ways to dictate on one computer and correct
on another.
If you correct dictation using the author’s user files, you must not correct
by voice, or you may reduce that person’s recognition accuracy. You can,
however, improve the author’s recognition accuracy if you make
corrections by using the keyboard and mouse with the Quick Correct list
or Correction dialog box. See the following procedure for details.
To correct using someone else's user files:
1 Make sure you are not wearing the microphone headset, or that the
microphone is not turned on or plugged in. This will ensure that you
don't accidentally reduce the accuracy of someone else's user files by
using your voice.
2 Make sure the DragonPad Extras toolbar is displayed so you can see the
playback command buttons.
3 Open the user files of the person whose text you will correct.
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4 In DragonPad, open the document to correct.
5 Use the buttons on the Extras toolbar to play back dictation.
6 Select the text you want to correct by mouse or keyboard.
7 Press the correction hot key (normally the minus [-] key on the numeric
key pad) or click the Correct button on the DragonBar Extras toolbar.
The Quick Correct list or Correction dialog box appears with the
selected text.
8 Use the keyboard to correct the text.
9 Save the text and the user's speech files when you are done.
Using text-to-speech
Text-to-speech is available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and
higher editions.
28
You can use text-to-speech to have text on your screen (not your current
dictation) read aloud in a computer voice. For example, you can have a
document that you (or someone else) dictated read back while you listen
for mistakes and sections you may want to revise.
Text-to-speech is available only in the DragonPad, Microsoft Word, and
Corel WordPerfect. You can, however, copy and paste text from other
programs and then use text-to-speech.
To start text-to-speech:
To start text-to-speech, do any of the following:
■
Select the text you want to hear (a line, a paragraph, and so on), and
then say “Read That.”
■
Select the text you want to hear, and then select Read That from the
Advanced submenu (or right-click in your document and click Read
That from the shortcut menu).
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■
Move the insertion point to the text you want to hear and say any of
the following commands:
SAY TO
Read Line Read back the current line.
Read Paragraph Read back the current paragraph.
Read Document Read back the whole document.
Read Window Read back the text in view.
Read to Here Read back from the top of the document window to the
insertion point.
Read from Here Read back from the insertion point to the bottom of the
document window.
To stop text-to-speech:
To stop text-to-speech, do any of the following:
■
From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click
Stop Playback/Reading.
■
Right-click in your document and click Stop Playback/Reading from
the shortcut menu.
■
Press the
ESC
key.
You can control the speed, pitch, volume, and other text-to-speech
settings. From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, click
Options, and then click the Text-to-speech tab.
Notes on correcting with another author’s user
files
This technique works if all work is done on a single computer. Consult
your Dragon NaturallySpeaking reseller about ways to dictate on one
computer and correct on another.
To display the DragonBar Extras toolbar, click the double chevron icon
on the DragonBar. You cannot display the Extras toolbar if the
DragonBar is in cling mode.
In the Quick Correct list, you can use the mouse or keyboard to select
any of the commands displayed below the correction choices. For
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example, you can click “Spell That” to open the Correction dialog box
and spell the word.
You may want to select the following on the Correction tab of the
Options dialog box:
■
“Correct” command brings up Correction dialog box
■
Automatic playback on correction box
With these settings, Dragon NaturallySpeaking will automatically play
back the author's dictation for each text selection you correct. The Quick
Correct list does not play back dictation.
When you correct someone else's dictation, make sure that the amount
of disk space you have reserved for storing dictation is at least as large as
the amount allocated for the user that created the text. You alllocate the
disk space on the Miscellaneous tab of the Options dialog box.
Saving dictation with documents can take up a lot of disk space, typically
more than a megabyte per minute of dictation. To save this space, delete
any dictation you no longer need. Dragon NaturallySpeaking saves
dictation in a file with the same name as the document, but with the
extension .dra. For example, if you dictate a document called MyDoc.rtf
and save your dictation, Dragon NaturallySpeaking saves your dictation
in a file called MyDoc.dra in the same directory as your document.
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CHAPTER
3
Improving Your Speech Recognition
Working with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking gets a word wrong, it could be that the
word is not in the program’s
to teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking the new word so that it can
recognize it when you say it.
This chapter talks about the vocabulary used by Dragon
NaturallySpeaking, which contains both active words and backup words.
Version 5 has quick and easy ways to add new words to your vocabulary.
As well as adding words when correcting mistakes, you can now:
add an individual word
■
add words from documents
■
create dictation shortcuts for frequently used text (Preferred and
■
higher editions)
vocabular y
. When this is the case, you need
Dragon NaturallySpeaking also offers more powerful tools for more
advanced vocabulary building. Vocabulary Builder™ (see page 44) and
Vocabulary Editor™ (see page 41) give you more control for customizing
your vocabulary. In Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher
editions, you can create, import, and export multiple vocabularies. See
the section on “Managing vocabularies” on page 54 for details.
The next section discusses how to train Dragon NaturallySpeaking to
recognize problem words, including voice commands. Finally, the
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chapter concludes by explaining when and how to run General Training
again to improve your recognition accuracy.
About the vocabulary
The Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary contains the words the
program can recognize when you say them. The vocabulary contains
thousands of words and their common pronunciations. It also contains
language data about how frequently words are used alone and in
combination with others.
When you first start Dragon NaturallySpeaking, it creates a standard
vocabulary on your computer. A vocabulary contains active words (the
active vocabulary) and backup words (the backup dictionary).
Active words
The most commonly used vocabulary words are kept active (stored in
computer memory). When you dictate these words, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking is likely to get them right on the first try (that is,
without requiring you to do anything extra, such as correcting the
words).
32
For example, all the words in the following sentence are active
(including “Mbeki”), so Dragon NaturallySpeaking should be able to
recognize them all correctly on the first try.
Today [comma] the Prime Minister met President Mbeki of South Africa
Don’t worry that the words you want to say won’t be active. The list of
active words is very long and continually changes (as you correct
mistakes) to always include words you’re likely to use.
Backup dictionary words
All the vocabulary words that are not currently active are kept in the
backup dictionary (stored on your computer’s hard disk, not in memory).
Dragon NaturallySpeaking can recognize words in the backup dictionary,
but not on the first try.
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking has trouble recognizing a word, it may
mean that this word is only in the backup dictionary. You can add a word
to the active vocabulary by correcting it (see “Correcting recognition
mistakes” on page 15).
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To add a word by correcting it:
1 Dictate the following sentence. The word “Punxsutawney”
(pronounced punks-ah-tawny) is in the backup dictionary, not the active
vocabulary, so Dragon NaturallySpeaking won’t recognize it correctly on
the first try.
Meet me in Punxsutawney [comma] Pennsylvania
When the program makes a mistake (for example, types “punk said
Tony” instead of “Punxsutawney”), correct the mistake.
2 (In the DragonPad) Select the mistake by saying “Select punk said Tony.”
The Quick Correct list will appear with the most likely choices for the
word you selected.
NOTE
(see page 16), but steps 1–3 may not work in all programs. To correct a word and make
it active in any program, you can always select the word by voice or mouse and then say
“Spell That” (steps 4 and 5).
“Select” commands and the Quick Correct list are available in the DragonPad
3 If the word you want appears in the Quick Correct list, say (for example)
“Choose 2.” You can say any number that appears in the list.
If the word you want does not appear in the Quick Correct list, or if the
Quick Correct list does not appear at all, select the word by voice or
mouse and use steps 4 and 5 below.
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4 Say “Spell That” or “Correct That.” The Correction dialog box opens.
5 Type or spell the correction in the Correction dialog box.
Since “Punxsutawney” is in the backup dictionary, it should appear in
the list of alternatives before you finish entering it. (The list of
alternatives always displays possible endings for the text in the text box.)
Text b ox
6 Say, for example, ““Choose 2.” You can also select the correct word and
click or say “OK.”
The Correction dialog box closes and “Punxsutawney” becomes an
active word. The next time you dictate “Punxsutawney,” Dragon
NaturallySpeaking should get it right.
7 Save your speech files to add the word to your active vocabulary.
Quick and easy ways to add new words
When Dragon NaturallySpeaking gets a word wrong, often it’s because
the word is not in the vocabulary at all. This is likely if the word is an
uncommon name or specialized term. You must teach Dragon
NaturallySpeaking these new words, so it can recognize them when you
say them.
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Version 5 has quick and easy ways to add new words to your vocabulary.
You can:
■
Add words when correcting mistakes (see previous procedure)
■
Add and train individual words
■
Add words from documents
This next section describe how to add and train an individual word, and
how to add words from documents. This section also tells you how to
create dictation shortcuts for commonly used words and phrases (see
page 38).
The section on “Advanced tools for building and editing vocabularies”
on page 41 discusses more powerful ways to work with vocabularies.
Make it a habit to teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking new words to
continue to improve the accuracy of the program. Make sure you save
your speech files, when prompted, to preserve these changes to your
vocabulary.
Adding an individual word
To add and train an individual word:
1 From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Words and click Add
Individual Word. Spell or type the word you want to add to the
vocabulary. If you want to train the pronunciation of the word (usually a
good idea), leave the check box selected. Then click or say “Add.”
2 The Train Words dialog box will open with the word you have added.
Click or say “Record” to begin recording, then say the word as you
normally pronounce it. Click or say “Done” to close the dialog box and
add the word to your vocabulary.
Add Words from Documents
Add Words from Documents is a quick and easy way to add any new
words in a document or folder to the vocabulary. For example, if you
have an online address book or a list of employee names, you can use
Add Words from Documents to quickly identify all the words that are not
in the vocabulary and add them.
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This procedure will add:
■
Words that match backup dictionary words with the same
capitalization, for example, Punxsutawney or jackstraws
■
Unexpected capitalizations of words found in the active or backup
dictionaries, for example, “I’ll see you at the Meeting today”
■
Words with at least one uppercase letter that are not in the backup
dictionary, for example, eBusiness and Brooklynese, or a name, such as
Rusinow
NOTE
sequence of words that are all capitalized or have initial caps, such as a book title. It
does not expect to find capitals in the middle of words or sentences.
The program expects to find capitals at the beginning of sentences, or in a
This procedure will not add all-lowercase words that are not in the
backup dictionary.
You have more choices over which words are added when you run
Vocabulary Builder (see page 48), but Add Words from Documents is
quicker and designed more specifically to process proper names, such as
a company e-mail list.
TIP
Before running Add Words from Documents, you may want to prepare your
documents as described on page 45 to make sure that they are in readable format and
free of spelling errors.
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To Add Words from Documents:
1 From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Words and click Add Words
from Documents. The Add Words from Documents dialog box opens.
▲
The Add Words from Documents dialog box lets you add all the documents in a folder or
add documents one at a time. Select any document in the list to remove or view it.
2 Click or say “Add Document.” Navigate to the documents you want to add
and select them.
3 (optional) Click or say “Add Folder.” This will add all the documents in
the folder you select.
TIP
You can often achieve very good results by skipping directly to Step 6.
4 (optional) To view any document in the list, select it and click or say
“View Document.”
5 (optional) Click or say “Preview Words” to see a checklist of words (from
all the documents in the list) that are not in your current vocabulary.
■
Add only words you think you’ll use frequently, not ones you’re
unlikely to need.
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■
Don’t add capitalized words unless you plan to dictate the
capitalized form of the word often (for example, a pet’s name
“Fluffy”).
To remove a word from the list of words to be added to your active
vocabulary, clear the check box for that word in the Preview Words
dialog box.
▲
The Preview Words dialog box in Add Words From Documents lets you select or remove
words from the list to be added. Clear any check box to remove a word from the list.
6 Click “Done” to scan the documents for the words you want to add to
the vocabulary. Your speech files will be updated and saved
automatically.
Creating dictation shortcuts
A dictation shortcut is a quick way to insert frequently used text into your
document. You can create dictation shortcuts for text that you use often
or text that is complicated to dictate. In Dragon NaturallySpeaking
version 5 (Preferred and higher editions), you can even create dictation
shortcuts for multiple lines of text.
For example, you could create a shortcut that types your name and
address whenever you say “My Signature.” In the example below, the
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written form for the dictation shortcut appears on the left, and the
spoken form is “My Signature.”
WRITT EN FO RM SPOKEN FORM
Michael D. Bowman
25 Main Street
Wilmington, DE 12345
This message was dictated with
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Professional on a Dragon
NaturallyMobile recorder.
my signature
my mobile signature
To create a dictation shortcut:
1 From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Words and click Dictation
Shortcuts.
2 In the Spoken form box, type the phrase you want to say to insert the
written form text.
Spoken form box
Written form box
3 In the Written form box, type the text you want typed into your
document. Text can be up to 1,000 characters and may include line and
paragraph breaks.
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Here are some guidelines for selecting a spoken form:
■
Try to use unique phrases—don’t use a phrase you might want to
use in your writing.
■
Don’t use a single word as the spoken form.
■
Make the spoken form something easy to remember.
■
Use real words; otherwise, Dragon NaturallySpeaking may not know
how they are pronounced and will prompt you to train them.
■
If you use letters, put a space between them and a period (
Canada
) or full stop (
Other Dialects
) after each one (for example,
J. V. O.).
■
(optional) For consistency with other Dragon NaturallySpeaking
commands, capitalize each word in the dictation shortcut name.
4 Click or say “OK.”
Dragon NaturallySpeaking adds the dictation shortcut to the vocabulary.
When you dictate the spoken form, the program now enters the written
form into your document. For more information on spoken vs. written
forms, see “More about spoken forms” on page 43.
US/
40
TIP
Dictation shortcuts are commands, so you must pause before and after saying
them. If you have a word or short phrase that fits on one line, and you want to be able to
dictate it differently from the way it’s spelled, you should enter a spoken form for the
word in Vocabulary Editor rather than creating a dictation shortcut. See “To create a
spoken form for a word:” on page 43.
With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions, you
can also create your own voice commands for inserting frequently used
text and controlling your computer by voice. See Chapter 9, “Creating
Your Own Dragon NaturallySpeaking Commands” on page 139.
You may want to train Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize words you
add to your vocabulary by pronouncing them correctly. See “Training
Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words” on page 59 for
information on the many ways to train words.
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Advanced tools for building and editing vocabularies
The NaturallySpeaking Words submenu offers quick and easy ways to
add and train words. For more powerful tools to work with your
vocabulary, you can turn to the features of the NaturallySpeaking
Advanced submenu. You can use Advanced vocabulary tools to:
edit your vocabulary with Vocabulary Editor
■
build your vocabulary with Vocabulary Builder
■
manage vocabularies (if you have more than one, for Dragon
■
NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions)
The following sections describe each Advanced tool and how to use it.
Editing your vocabulary
The Vocabulary Editor shows you all the
commonly used words) in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary.
You can open Vocabulary Editor to find out whether a word is in the
active vocabulary. If it’s not there, you can add it. If it is, you can create a
different spoken form.
active
words (the most
TIP
Want to check to see if a word is already in the vocabulary? Type the first few
letters of the word into the Written form box. If the word is in the vocabulary, it will
appear on the screen.
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To edit your vocabulary:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, then click Edit
Vocabulary.
▲
Vocabulary Editor lists all the active words in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary.
A word’s written form is what Dragon NaturallySpeaking types when
you say the word. The spoken form is how you say the word. For
example, the spoken form for “Sgt.” is “Sergeant.”
Words you have added are marked with a colored star (not including
any words that were previously in the backup dictionary). To see only
the words you have added, click “Show custom words only.”
2 Type the new word or phrase into the Written form box. Leave the
Spoken form box empty, unless the word or phrase is not pronounced
the way it’s spelled (as in the example pictured). If so, see “To create a
spoken form for a word:” on page 43.
NOTE
characters—even multiple lines—that you use frequently. You can learn about dictation
shortcuts on page 38.
You can use the Dictation Shortcuts tool for phrases longer than 128
3 Click Add.
Some special words (for example, “New Paragraph”) have a blank
written form. These words are built into Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You
cannot add your own words with a blank written form.
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More about spoken forms
Perhaps your vocabulary contains proprietary words with unusual
capitalization, or proper names with unusual spellings. Some phrases,
such as company names, have particular punctuation. Or, you might
want Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write out a person’s name when you
say their initials. You can teach the program to type the word or phrase
correctly when it recognizes the spoken form.
TIP
You can also create a spoken form for a word you’re having trouble getting
Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize (for example, if the program often types “Lara”
when you say “Laura” and correcting and training the word doesn’t help). In the last
example in the table, the written form for the word would be “Laura” and the spoken
form should be a unique phrase, such as “Laura my office mate.”
For any word or short phrase that is less than 128 characters and fits on a
single line, you should create a spoken form rather than a dictation
shortcut (see page 38).
Here are some examples of words with different written and spoken
forms. Look in the Vocabulary Editor window for more examples.
WRITTEN FORM SPOKEN FORM
eBusiness ee business
Daniell Daniel with two ells
Niamh Nev
CINCPAC sink pack
mdbowman@company.com my e-mail address
Robert F. Kennedy R. F. K.
Waldron, Lichtin & Foust Waldron Lichtin and Foust
(617) 965-5200 my phone number
To create a spoken form for a word:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, then click Edit
Vocabulary.
2 Find the word you want in the list by typing the first few letters in the
Written form box.
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NOTE
word isn’t in the active vocabular y. You need to add it to the active vocabulary before
you can edit it. (See “Editing your vocabulary” on page 41.)
If the word you want to edit doesn’t appear in Vocabulary Editor, it means the
3 Select the word.
4 Type the new spoken form into the Spoken Form box. Make sure you
type it exactly as is it pronounced.
5 (optional) Make any changes, such as punctuation or capitalization, to
the Written Form box.
6 Click Add. This adds the word with your changes.
7 If the word was already in the active vocabulary before you edited it, you
should then delete the original word.
To delete a word from the vocabulary:
Normally, you don’t need to delete words from the vocabulary. But if a
word is regularly confused with another one that you never use, you
might want to delete the one you don’t use.
To delete a word, select it and click Delete. (You can select multiple
words by holding down the
holding the
SHIFT
key will select consecutive words.)
CTRL
key while you click. Clicking while
Some common words (like “the”) cannot be deleted, since Dragon
NaturallySpeaking wouldn’t understand you very well without them.
Building your vocabulary
Running Vocabulary Builder teaches Dragon NaturallySpeaking about
your vocabulary and writing style. If Dragon NaturallySpeaking knows
what words you use in your writing and how you put them together, it
can do a better job of recognizing what you say when you dictate.
Like Add Words from Documents, Vocabulary Builder works by
“reading” documents you’ve already written on the computer. It uses
these documents to gather language data about the frequency of words
you use and the order in which they typically appear. For example, if
Vocabulary Builder were analyzing this guide, it would learn that the
word “Dragon” is used frequently and the words “by voice” often
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appear together. Dragon NaturallySpeaking would then know to favor
these words over similar-sounding words.
Vocabulary Builder also gives you more control than Add Words from
Documents over how words are added to your vocabulary. By building
your vocabulary, you can:
■
add words from a predefined list
■
add words that are not in the backup dictionary
■
filter and sort words before you add them
■
choose whether to adapt to your document style
■
view a statistical summary of your Vocabulary Builder session
You may want to run Vocabulary Builder if Dragon NaturallySpeaking is
still making many mistakes, or any time you have documents you’d like
to analyze. You can run Vocabulary Builder as often as you like without
overwriting language data gathered previously.
To run Vocabulary Builder, you need to complete the following steps:
■
Prepare documents (see page 45)
■
Add words from a list (optional; see page 46)
■
Run Vocabulary Builder
■
Add words found in documents
The following section describes each step.
Preparing documents
Start by finding documents on your computer that are good examples of
the kind of text you’ll be dictating when you use Dragon
NaturallySpeaking.
For example, if you plan to dictate memos and e-mail messages, find
some correspondence you’ve already written. Your e-mail outbox is a
good source of text. Any documents you’re working on currently are also
good ones to use. The more documents you can use, the better.
NOTE
style to your own writing (for example, a report written by a colleague in the same
profession).
It’s okay to process documents you didn’t write, but only if they are similar in
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To prepare documents:
1 Make sure documents are in the following formats:
■
.TXT (Text)
■
.RTF (Rich Text Format)
■
.DOC (Microsoft Word version 6.0 or later)
■
.WPD (Corel WordPerfect version 8 or 9)
■
.HTM or .HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
■
.SHTM or .SHTML (Server-side include Hypertext Markup
Language)
TIP
Dragon NaturallySpeaking can process.TXT (text) files faster than other formats.
Consider using text files whenever possible.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking can process Microsoft Word and Corel
WordPerfect files only if you have the corresponding word processor
installed on your computer. If it’s not installed, convert the documents to
another format, such as .TXT.
If you want to process your e-mail messages (a good idea if you’ll be
using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write e-mail), you’ll need to either
export the text into one of the formats listed above, or copy and paste
messages into a new document.
NOTE
cannot process. If the program cannot process your e-mail text, try deleting all the
header information from the file.
E-mail headers may contain characters that Dragon NaturallySpeaking
2 Use a spelling checker to correct any spelling mistakes in the
documents. This will prevent misspelled words from being identified as
new words to be added to the vocabulary.
Once you’ve prepared your documents, you’re ready to add them to your
vocabulary.
Adding words from a list
If you’re new to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can skip this step or do
it later. After you become familiar with adding words to your vocabulary,
you may find adding words from a list to be a helpful feature.
When Dragon NaturallySpeaking analyzes your documents, it starts by
displaying a list of all the new words found, so you can select the ones
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you want to add to the vocabulary. If the list is very long, selecting and
editing words can be time-consuming. Therefore, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking also gives you the option of adding a list of words
directly to the vocabulary. You can add this list as a document in Add
Words from Documents (see page 35), or by selecting “Add words from a
list” in Vocabulary Builder before processing documents.
Adding words from a list saves you time and also offers other advantages.
You can include frequently used phrases in your list to improve
recognition of these phrases. For example, if Dragon NaturallySpeaking
has trouble recognizing the name “Ellen Cohen” even though both
“Ellen” and “Cohen” are in the vocabulary, you can add the phrase
“Ellen Cohen” to the vocabulary.
To create a list of words:
Create a text (.TXT) file and enter each word or phrase you want to add
to the vocabulary on a separate line. Make sure words are spelled
correctly.
TIP
To include a spoken form, type a backslash (\) and then the spoken form. The
spoken form will appear in the Spoken form box in Vocabulary Editor after the word is
added. See page 42 for an illustration of written and spoken forms.
Following is an example of a correctly formatted list:
Each line is added to
the vocabulary as a
single item. In this
example, the phrases
“Ellen Cohen,” “Fluffy
the Cat,” and so on,
will be added.
▲
You can use the DragonPad to create your text file.
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Running Vocabulary Builder
Prepare your documents and create a list of words to add (optional),
following the procedures described in the previous step. Once you have
one or more documents prepared, you’re ready to run Vocabulary
Builder.
To run Vocabulary Builder:
1 Open the user and vocabulary you want to personalize.
NOTE
have more than one vocabulary. From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced
and click Manage Vocabularies. Then select the vocabular y you want to personalize and
click Open.
In Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or higher editions, each user may
2 From the Dragon NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click
Build Vocabulary. The Vocabulary Builder Wizard appears.
3 Follow the instructions on the screen.
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To add words from a list (optional):
1 In the Add Words from a List dialog box, specify a file containing words
you want to add to the vocabulary. (See “Adding words from a list” on
page 46 for more information about this step.)
2 If you specify a file, click Add Words from List and then click Next to
continue.
TIP
You can add word lists from multiple files. The wizard tells you how.
To skip this step, just click Next.
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Select a document
and click “Remove” to
remove it from the list
to be analyzed.
Improving Your Speech Recognition
To analyze documents:
1 In the Analyze Documents dialog box, click Add.
▲
Vocabulary Builder uses documents you’ve written to teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking
how you write.
2 In the Analyze Documents dialog box, find and select the documents
you want to process,
NOTE
while you click. To select a range of documents, hold down the SHIFT key while you click.
To add documents from a different folder, click Add again.
You can select multiple documents in one folder by holding down the CTRL key
*
and then click Open.
Documents you select are added to the Analyze Documents dialog box.
If you need to remove a document, select it and click Remove.
3 To start processing the documents, click Analyze Documents.
NOTE
more of your files is not in the correct format (see the list of acceptable formats on
page 46) or that the program used to create one of your files is not installed on your
computer.
* Although there’s no limit on the size or number of documents you can analyze, Vocabulary
Builder analyzes only the first 500,000 words each time you run it.
If Vocabulary Builder displays an error message, it may mean that one or
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Click to select
words to add to the
vocabulary
Improving Your Speech Recognition
After a document is processed, the word “Yes” appears in the Analyzed
column.
4 When you’re finished processing documents, click Next.
After Vocabulary Builder analyzes documents, it displays the Add New
Words dialog box with a list of the new words found.
If there are words on the list that you use frequently, you can add them
to the vocabulary to improve accuracy, but this step is not required. The
Add New Words dialog box displays all the words found that are not in
the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary (neither the active vocabulary
nor the backup dictionary).
To add new words found in documents (optional):
1 Use the Filter and Display options if you want to show or hide words in
the list.
■
Select “Show unknown words” to view words found that are not in
the vocabulary in any form (for example, “Anelka”). This option
filters out words such as “Fluffy,” where the lowercase form of the
word (“fluffy”) is already in the vocabulary.
■
Select “Show known words with capitalizations that do not exist in
the vocabulary” to view words that are in the vocabulary but were
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found with unusual capitalization (for example, “Fluffy” and
“joan”).
NOTE
as “War and Peace”) don’t appear in the list.
■
Any capitalized words found at the beginning of a sentence or in a title (such
Clear the “Include words added in this session” box if you want to
hide any words that you have added since you began running
Vocabulary Builder this time.
2 Click to select the words you want to add to the vocabulary.
■
Add only words you think you’ll use frequently, not ones you’re
unlikely to need.
■
Don’t add capitalized words unless you plan to dictate the
capitalized form of the word often (for example, a pet’s name
“Fluffy”).
3 If a word you want to add contains a spelling or capitalization error, select
the word and click Edit (or double-click the word).
TIP
There’s no need to edit a misspelled word and add it to the vocabulary if it’s
already in the vocabulary with correct spelling.
In the Edit Word dialog box, correct the written form of the word. Leave
the Spoken form box empty unless the word is not pronounced the way
it’s spelled. To remove capital letters automatically, click Lowercase.
52
▲
Use the Edit Word dialog box to correct spelling and capitalization errors before adding
words to the vocabulary.
When you have finished editing, click OK to return to the Add New
Words dialog box.
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4 After selecting and editing words you want to add, click Add Checked
Words to Vocabulary.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking will add the new words to your vocabulary
(marked with a star in the list). A dialog box appears asking if you
want to train the new words now. You should train any words that are not
pronounced the way they are spelled.
To train the new words, click Yes and follow the instructions on the
screen. For more information, see “Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking
to recognize problem words” on page 59.
To skip this step, click No.
5 Click Next to continue.
The Adapt to document style dialog box opens.
To adapt to document style:
1 For the first option, select “Yes” to have Vocabulary Builder modify your
speech files based on the language data gathered in analyzing your
documents. If you select “No,” the data won’t be used. You could select
“No” if you were using Vocabulary Builder only to find new words (for
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example, if you were processing documents you didn’t write but which
contain words you use).
2 For the second option, select “Yes” to preserve previously gathered
language data. If you select “No,” this data will be lost. You could select
“No” if you wanted to overwrite data gathered previously (for example,
if you processed the wrong documents the last time you ran Vocabulary
Builder).
NOTE
Builder, since there are not yet any previous sessions.
This option will be dimmed (grayed out) the first time you run Vocabulary
3 Make your selections and click Next to continue.
4 On the final dialog box of Vocabulary Builder, review the summary
information and click Finish to save your changes.
NOTE
Vocabulary Builder, you can restore a backup copy of your user. See “Restoring a
backup copy of a user” on page 136.
If you ever make unwanted changes to your speech files when running
Managing vocabularies
If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or a higher edition,
you have the option of creating additional vocabularies with specialized
words.
An additional vocabulary can improve recognition accuracy if you have
different and distinct writing styles and if the writing you do requires a
large vocabulary of specialized terms. For example, a doctor who uses
Dragon NaturallySpeaking for dictating medical reports and also for
sending e-mail to friends and family may be able to enhance recognition
accuracy by having two different vocabularies: a vocabulary for
professional writing and one for informal correspondence.
54
Whether or not you need an additional vocabulary depends on how
many words you would need to add to your current vocabulary to make it
effective for all the writing you do. Unless this number is greater than
10,000 words (as it might be for a doctor), you should be able to add all
the specialized terms you use to your current vocabulary without
compromising the recognition accuracy of other words.
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Keep in mind that a single vocabulary is easier to maintain. If you have
different vocabularies, you may have to add and delete words in multiple
places.
Language data gathered when you run Vocabulary Builder is specific to a
single vocabulary. But acoustic data—information about how you
pronounce different words—applies across vocabularies. When you
correct a word in the Quick Correct list or the Correction dialog box, or
train it in the Train Words dialog box, Dragon NaturallySpeaking adjusts
the acoustic data for that word and all other words with similar sound
patterns.
The one case in which acoustic data isn’t shared across vocabularies is
when a spoken form is added for a word. For example, if you edit the
written form of “Laura” to add a spoken form of “Laura my officemate,”
as in the example on page 43, this pronunciation information is stored in
the vocabulary along with the word, so it’s specific to a single vocabulary.
You can create, open, delete, rename, import, and export vocabularies in
the Manage Vocabularies dialog box. See the next section for details.
Creating vocabularies
This procedure applies only to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and higher editions.
To create a vocabulary:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies. The Manage Vocabularies dialog box opens.
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2 Click New. Enter a name for the new vocabulary and select a vocabulary
on which to base it.
You can base the new vocabulary on one of the standard Dragon
NaturallySpeaking vocabularies (which begin with the word “Base”) or
on one of your current vocabularies.
3 Click OK to create the vocabulary.
4 To start using the new vocabulary, you need to open it first. See the
following section, “Opening vocabularies.”
5 Run Vocabulary Builder to customize the new vocabulary. See “Building
your vocabulary” on page 44.
NOTE
vocabulary, it’s available only to the current user. However, you can export and import
vocabularies to transfer them between users. See “Importing and exporting
vocabularies” on page 57.
Opening vocabularies
This procedure applies only to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and higher editions.
To open a vocabulary:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies.
2 Select a vocabulary and click Open.
TIP
NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Open Recent Vocabularies.
56
Vocabularies are associated with specific users. If you create an additional
You can also open a vocabulary that was open recently. From the
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Deleting vocabularies
This procedure applies only to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and higher editions.
To delete a vocabulary:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies.
2 Select the vocabulary you want to delete and click Delete.
If you want to delete the open vocabulary, you must close it first by
opening a different one.
There must be at least one vocabulary for each user, so if you’ve got only
one, you cannot delete it.
NOTE
from the NatSpeak\…\Users folder on your hard disk. Using the Delete button is the
only way to properly remove all information about a vocabulary from your computer.
Always use the Delete button to delete vocabularies; don’t remove folders
Renaming vocabularies
This procedure applies only to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and higher editions.
To rename a vocabulary:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies.
2 Select a vocabulary and click Rename.
3 In the Rename Vocabulary dialog box, type a new name for the
vocabulary and click OK.
4 Click Cancel to close the Open Vocabulary dialog box.
Importing and exporting vocabularies
These procedures apply only to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and higher editions.
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Vocabularies are associated with specific users. You can, however, copy
vocabularies between users by importing and exporting them. For
example, if you create another user for use with a portable recorder, you
may want to copy your current vocabulary to the new user. You can do
this by exporting the vocabulary from your current first user and then
importing it to the new user. The following sections provide instructions.
To export a vocabulary:
1 (optional) Create a folder in which to store the exported vocabulary files.
(The folder can be anywhere on your hard disk.)
2 Open the user that has the vocabulary you want to export. Select it from
the list in the DragonBar Users menu. Or, point to Users, click Manage
Users (to open the dialog box), then select the user you want and click
Open.
3 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies.
4 Select the vocabulary you want to export and click Export. (You may be
prompted to save changes to your speech files.)
58
5 Open the folder you created for storing the exported vocabulary files.
6 Click Save.
The exported vocabulary is saved as five files, all with the same name
but with different extensions (.TOP, .TO1, .TO2, and so on). These five
files must remain in the same folder. When you later import the
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vocabulary, the file with the extension .TOP (for topic) is the one to
select.
To import a vocabulary:
1 Open the user to which you want to import the vocabulary. (On the
DragonBar Users menu, click Manage Users. From the Manage Users
dialog box, select the user you want and click Open.)
2 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click Manage
Vocabularies.
3 Click Import and then open the folder that contains the exported
vocabulary files. (You can only import vocabularies that have been
exported.)
4 Select the vocabulary you want to import by selecting the file with the
extension .TOP, and then click Open.
5 In the Import Vocabulary dialog box, enter a name for the imported
vocabulary.
6 Click OK to save the vocabulary.
7 Click Cancel to close the Open Vocabulary dialog box.
Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking continues to get the same word or phrase
wrong, it probably doesn’t recognize the way you pronounce it. When
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Improving Your Speech Recognition
this happens, you should teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking how you say
it. This is known as training the word or phrase.
Typically, correcting a word is all you need to do for Dragon
NaturallySpeaking to get it right the next time. But if you find yourself
correcting the same word or phrase over and over, you need to train
Dragon NaturallySpeaking to understand it. Training is the most
effective way to teach the program your pronunciation.
You can train Dragon NaturallySpeaking after making corrections, after
adding a new word, or from Vocabulary Editor. The Train Words dialog
box opens when you:
■
click the Train... button in the Correction dialog box
■
add an individual word, if you select the check box “I want to train
the pronunciation of this word”
■
click the Train... button in Vocabulary Editor
TIP
You can select more than one word to train in Vocabulary Editor by holding down
the CTRL key while you click.
60
To train a word:
1 Open the Train Words dialog box to display the word or phrase to train.
Text b o x
▲
Train Words helps you teach Dragon NaturallySpeaking your pronunciation for a word or
phrase it continues to get wrong.
2 Click or say “Record.”
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3 Pronounce the word or phrase.
The text disappears, and if Dragon NaturallySpeaking successfully
recognized the word, the dot below the text box lights up briefly. (You
may be prompted to say the word more than once.)
NOTE
prompted to say both the correct and incorrect word. This helps Dragon
NaturallySpeaking learn the difference. If both words are pronounced exactly the same
(for example, “write” and “right”), there’s no need to train either one.
When you train a word after correcting it in the Correction dialog box, you’re
4 If you want to train the word or phrase again (if you misspoke, for
example), click the Record button again and repeat the word or phrase;
otherwise, click Done.
You can also train any voice command that Dragon NaturallySpeaking
consistently misunderstands.
Training a voice command
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking often gets a specific voice command wrong
(for example, it hears “Correct That” as
recognize your pronunciation for the command.
Before you spend time training a command, make sure the phrase you’re
saying is a real command. Consult the online Help, or check the
Command Quick Reference card or the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 5
Commands List on page 171.
If the command you want to train appears in the following list, you can
train it from Vocabulary Editor (these commands are stored as words in
the vocabulary):
■
New-Line
■
New-Paragraph
■
Next-Line
■
Next-Paragraph
■
Cap
■
Caps-On
■
Caps-Off
■
All-Caps
■
All-Caps-On
“Correct the”), you can train it to
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■
All-Caps-Off
■
No-Caps
■
No-Caps-On
■
No-Caps-Off
■
No-Space
■
No-Space-On
■
No-Space-Off
To train a command in the previous list:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, and then click Edit
Vocabulary.
2 Scroll to the top of the list where the commands are listed. (To get there
quickly, click in the list and press the Home key.)
3 Click the command you want to train. The spoken form won’t become
highlighted, but the space in the Written form column will.
4 Click Train.
For further instructions, see steps 2–4 beginning on page 60.
TIP
You can select multiple commands to train by holding down the CTRL key while
you click. It’s a good idea to train any similar-sounding commands at the same time. For
example, if you’re training “New Paragraph” also train “New Line.”
To train a command that doesn’t appear in the list on page 62, follow the
procedure below.
To train other commands:
1 On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Words and click Train Words.
2 In the Train Words dialog box, type the command you want to train.
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Enter the command with the exact capitalization shown on your
Command Quick Reference card or in Appendix B of this guide. For
example, to train “Correct That,” capitalize the words exactly as shown.
3 Click OK.
For further instructions, follow steps 2–4 beginning on page 60.
Running General Training again
If you’ve been following the procedures in this chapter, but Dragon
NaturallySpeaking continues to make a lot of mistakes, you may need to
spend some more time teaching the program how you pronounce words.
You can do this by running General Training again and reading another
training text aloud.
Doing more General Training can also help if your speaking style has
changed since your first experience with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. If
you spend some more time training the program and make an effort to
speak the way you do when you dictate, you should see an improvement
in accuracy.
The first time you do additional training, you must read for at least 18
minutes; after that, there is no fixed time limit. You should read at least
one complete selection from the General Training texts, until you can
click the Finish button. If you click Cancel, your training will be lost.
Even if you’re getting good recognition accuracy, consider running
General Training again after you’ve been dictating long enough to have a
dictation style (a few weeks). Doing more training can further improve
accuracy if your speaking style has changed at all since your first
experience. Running General Training again is also a good idea if you
move to a noisier environment or change your microphone or sound card.
To run General Training:
1 From the Dragon NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced and click
Train User. The General Training dialog box appears.
2 Select the text you want to read (you can select a different text than the
one you read the first time) and click Train Now.
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3 Follow the instructions on the screen.
TIP
As you read, speak clearly, as if you were dictating the text into a document. This
will allow the program to learn how you sound when you dictate.
4 When you’ve read as much as you want (or at least one complete text),
click Finish.
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Y
4
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our Quick Start guide explains the basics of dictating.
This chapter describes how to dictate:
■
Names of people, places, and events
■
Abbreviations and acronyms
■
Hyphenated and compound words
■
Words that end with ’s
■
E-mail and Web addresses
■
Special characters (such as é and ¥)
■
Foreign words
■
Numbers (including telephone numbers and dates)
Dictating names of people, places, and events
Many names of people, places, and events are already in the Dragon
NaturallySpeaking vocabulary. For example, you can dictate “Martin
Luther King,” “Papua New Guinea,” and “Boston, Massachusetts.” Your first
step should always be to try dictating the name.
To dictate names:
US/Canada: Dictate your name and your town. For example, say “My
name is Carol Macintosh [period] I live in Chicago [comma] Illinois [period]”
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Other Dialects: Dictate your name and your town. For example, say “My
name is Harriet Timms [full stop] I live in Marlow [comma] Buckinghamshire
[full stop]”
NOTE
English) use the same commands for punctuation, selection, number formatting, and so
on.
All non-US/Canada dialects (UK, Australian, Indian, and Southeast Asian
Say the words as clearly as possible. (Dragon NaturallySpeaking
automatically capitalizes the names it knows, so you don’t have to say
“Cap.”)
Did Dragon NaturallySpeaking get your name and town correct? If not,
it may mean that your name, town, or both aren’t in the vocabulary. Not
all proper names are in the vocabulary, but you can easily add them. See
“Quick and easy ways to add new words” on page 34.
When you dictate a name that can be spelled more than one way (for
example, “John” or “Jon”), Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the most
common spelling. If this isn’t the spelling you want, just correct the word
(as described in “Correcting recognition mistakes” on page 15). The
Correction dialog box displays any alternative spellings that are already
in the vocabulary. If none of the choices are what you want, type or spell
the name the way you want it to appear.
If the name is a popular one, Dragon NaturallySpeaking may continue to
use the more common spelling. If this is a problem, you can create a new
spoken form in your vocabulary for entering the spelling you want (see
“Editing your vocabulary” on page 41). Or, if you never use a particular
spelling, you can delete it from the vocabulary.
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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 E N T E R SAY
US/Canada: Dr.
Other Dialects: Dr
UK U K
RSVP R S V P
HTML H T M L
8 cm eight centimeters
US/Canada: pp. 27–33
Other Dialects: pp 27–33
NATO NATO
NASDAQ NASDAQ
Doctor
(say each letter)
(say each letter)
(say each letter)
pages 27 hyphen 33
(say as one word)
(say as one word)
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the full word instead of the
abbreviation or acronym or enters the wrong word, just correct it (as
described in “Correcting recognition mistakes” on page 15). The
Correction dialog box should display the abbreviation or acronym on the
list of alternatives. If none of the choices are correct, type it or spell it by
voice.
If you want to include periods or full stops in an abbreviation (for
example, U. K. instead of UK), just correct it. When the Quick Correct
list or Correction dialog box opens, you may see a version that includes
periods or full stops. If not, edit the corrected text to include them.
NOTE
acronym, it may not be in the vocabulary. If you use it often, you should add it to the
vocabulary (as described in “Quick and easy ways to add new words” on page 34).
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking continues to misrecognize an abbreviation or
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Dictating hyphenated words
Many hyphenated words and phrases are already in the Dragon
NaturallySpeaking vocabulary. To dictate a word or phrase that’s
hyphenated based on standard usage, just say it as you normally would.
TO E N T E R SAY
long-lasting long lasting
up-to-date schedule up to date schedule
Tokyo-based company Tokyo based company
nine-year-old boy nine year old boy
Including hyphens as you dictate
To hyphenate words that Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn’t hyphenate
automatically, just say
TO E N T E R SAY
speech-recognition software speech [hyphen] recognition software
power-sharing agreement power [hyphen] sharing agreement
Elizabeth Walker-Smith Elizabeth Walker [hyphen] Smith
“hyphen”
wherever you want a hyphen.
Adding hyphens later
You can hyphenate the last words you said or hyphenate selected words
by saying
NOTE
DragonPad, Microsoft Word, and Corel WordPerfect, but not work in all programs. See
the online Help Command List, or “Which commands work in which programs?” on
page 171.
To add a hyphen:
1 Select the words you want to hyphenate.
For example, if you want to hyphenate “speech recognition” in the
following sentence, say
I’m using speech recognition software
68
“Hyphenate That.
Commands that act on the last thing you said or on selected text work in the
“Select speech recognition.”
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2 Say “Hyphenate That.”
This command adds a hyphen between the selected words. To move
back to the end of the line, you can say “Go to End of Line.”
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 Names, Numbers & Punctuation
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.
Compounding words as you dictate
To compound words that Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn’t join
automatically, just say “No Space” between the words.
TO E N T E R SAY
dragonsystems [No Caps] dragon [No Space] systems
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.
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To dictate consecutive words without spaces:
1 Say “No Space On” to turn no spaces on.
2 Dictate the words you want to appear without spaces.
3 Say “No Space Off” to turn no spaces off.
Compounding words later
You can compound the last words you said or compound selected words
by saying “Compound That.”
*
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.”
This command removes all spaces between selected words. (Any tabs or
line breaks are also removed.)
TIP
If the command doesn’t work (for example, if the words “compound that” are
typed into your document), you may need to say the command more clearly. Say “Undo
That” (or press
you can press the
recognize what you say as a command.
CTRL
+Z) to undo the last action, and then try the command again. Or
CTRL
key while dictating to force Dragon NaturallySpeaking to
Dictating words that end with ’s
When you dictate a word that should end with ’s (apostrophe ess),
Dragon NaturallySpeaking adds it if it can hear the “ess” sound and if
the ending makes sense in the context.
70
* This command works in the DragonPad, Microsoft Word, and Corel WordPerfect, but it
doesn’t work in all programs. See the online Help Command List, or “Which commands work
in which programs?” on page 171.
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To dictate a word ending with ’s, just say it as you normally would. (For
some words, you may need to emphasize the “ess” sound.) If Dragon
NaturallySpeaking doesn’t include the ’s, you can add it later.
TO E N T E R SAY
We took Mary’s car We took Mary’s car
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, just say “apostrophe ess” (or “apostrophe” for words that
already end in s) after saying the word.
TO E N T E R SAY
We took my brother’s car We took my brother [apostrophe ess] car
I met my friends’ children I met my friends [apostrophe] children
Lois’s car Lois [apostrophe ess] car
Adding ’s later
You can add ’s to a word by selecting it and then saying it again with
“apostrophe ess.”
To add ’s later:
1 Select the text to which you want to add ’s. For example, say “Select
brothers.”
2 Say the word followed by “apostrophe ess” (for example, say “brother
apostrophe ess”).
This changes “brothers” to “brother’s.”
Or, you can use the “Insert After” command (see page 88). For example,
say “Insert after brother,” pause, and then say ““apostrophe ess.”
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Dictating e-mail and Web
addresses
You can dictate e-mail and Web addresses as you would normally say
them. Dragon NaturallySpeaking formats them for you automatically.
TO E N T E R SAY
Virginia@aol.com [Cap] virginia at a o l dot com
info@dragonsys.com [No Caps On] info at dragon sys dot
http://www.dragonsystems.com [No Caps On] h t t p w w w dot
com [No Caps Off]
dragon systems dot com [No Caps
Off]
NOTE
you must keep the “Format Web and E-mail addresses automatically”
the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Options dialog box (Formatting tab).
To be able to dictate e-mail and Web addresses as described in this section,
option selected in
Here are some guidelines for dictating e-mail and Web addresses:
When you say
■
“h t t p,” “w w w,”
or
“web,”
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,”
Say the following abbreviations by saying each letter:
■
and
“org.”
“a c,” “b n, “c a,” “c o,” “e d u,” “h k,” “i d,” “i n,” “j p,” “m y,” “p h,”
“s g,” “t h,”
Use the
■
and
“u k.”
“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 97.
If the address you’re dictating contains an unusual word (for example,
“tiac” or “juno”), Dragon NaturallySpeaking will make mistakes. You
should correct the mistake (as described in “Correcting recognition
mistakes” on page 15) and train the program to recognize the address (as
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described in “Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem
words” on page 59).
TIP
You can create dictation shortcuts for e-mail and Web addresses you use often.
See “Creating dictation shortcuts” on page 38.
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 E N T E R SAY
&ersand
* asterisk
@at sign
` backquote
© copyright sign
^ caret
° degree sign
$ dollar sign or dollar*
euros
% percent sign
® registered sign
§ section sign
™ trademark sign
+ plus sign
-minus sign
« open euro quote
» close euro quote
# All Dialects: hash sign or sharp sign
US/Canada: number sign
£ US/Canada: pound sterling sign*
Other Dialects: pound sign or pound
or
or
euro-sign*
and-sign
or
pound sign
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TO E N T E R SAY
:-) smiley face
:-( frowny face
;-) winky face
* For more information about dictating currency in different dialects, see “Currency and coin”
on page 81.
For more complete lists of special characters, see “Entering punctuation
and special characters” on page 194 or the online Help.
Dictating uncommon special characters
If you use uncommon special characters in your writing (for example, the
yen sign ¥), you can also enter them by voice. You must, however, use
the Correction dialog box the first time you dictate them, to add them to
your vocabulary.
For example, if you want to enter the Japanese currency symbol for yen
(¥) into your document, you could dictate “yen sign” and then correct the
result to be ¥ instead of the words “yen sign.” The next time you say “yen
sign,” Dragon NaturallySpeaking should enter the symbol, not the
words.
74
For the complete list of special characters you can enter by using the
Correction dialog box, see the following sections in Appendix B:
■
“Publishing symbols” on page 178
■
“Currency symbols” on page 179
■
“Accented and international characters” on page 179
■
“Mathematical symbols” on page 181
To dictate an uncommon special character:
1 In a document, dictate the phrase you want to use to enter the special
character (for example, say “yen sign”). (Make a note of the phrase you
use.)
Dragon NaturallySpeaking enters the words into your document. In this
example, it would enter “yen sign.”
2 Say “Correct That” to open the Correction dialog box.
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3 Say the name of the special character (for example, say “yen sign” to enter
¥).
For the complete list of special characters, see page 194 in Appendix B,
or the online Help.
4 Click or say “OK.”
Dragon NaturallySpeaking enters the special character (for example, ¥)
and also adds it to the vocabulary. Now when you dictate the phrase (in
this example, “yen sign”), Dragon NaturallySpeaking should enter the
special character, not the words. If the program enters words instead, just
correct the mistake (as described in “Correcting recognition mistakes”
on page 15). The Correction dialog box should display the special
character in the list of alternatives.
Dictating foreign words
Some foreign words that are regularly used in English (such as
“laissez-faire”) are in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary.
If you dictate a foreign word, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn’t
recognize it, try correcting it. The Correction dialog box may display the
word you want on the list of alternatives.
If the foreign word contains an accented character, add it to the
vocabulary with the accented character in the written form. See “Adding
an individual word” on page 35.
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Dictating numbers
You can dictate most numbers as you would normally say them. Many
number formats in DragonNaturallySpeaking are controlled by your
Windows Regional Settings. To view these settings, point to Settings
from the Windows Start menu, click Control Panel, and double-click the
Regional Settings icon.
Numerals
NOTE
sure that your Regional Settings match the language (dialect) you selected when you
created your user. For more information on choosing a dialect, see your Quick Start
guide.
US/Canada: You can enter $250.95 by saying
dollars and ninety five cents,”
If you are having problems dictating numbers, currency, times, or dates, make
“two hundred and fifty
and you can enter 4:05 PM by saying
“four oh
five p m.”
Other Dialects: You can enter £250.95 by saying
pounds and ninety five pence,”
and you can enter 4.05 PM by saying
“two hundred and fifty
“four
oh five p m.”
If you ever have trouble getting Dragon NaturallySpeaking to type a
numeral rather than a word (for example, “4” instead of “four”), just say
“
numeral
” before saying the number. For example, say
“numeral four.”
This forces the program to enter the number as a numeral.
NOTE
keep the “Automatically format telephone numbers, currency, times, and other numbers”
option selected in the Formatting tab of the Options dialog box.
To be able to dictate numbers as described in the following sections, you must
You can dictate most numerals, including ZIP codes and other numeric
postal codes, as you would normally say them.
76
TO E N T E R SAY
1one
5 five or numeral five
17 seventeen
23 twenty three
179 one hundred seventy nine
or
numeral one
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TO E N T E R SAY
5423 five thousand four hundred and twenty three
5,423 five [comma] four twenty three
12,537 twelve thousand five hundred and thirty seven
142,015 one hundred and forty two thousand and fifteen
35.23 thirty five [point] two three
0.03 All Dialects: zero [point] zero three
Outside US/Canada: nought [point] nought three
43.28% forty three [point] twenty eight [percent sign]
02460 oh two four six zero
02460-1458 oh two four six zero [hyphen] one four five eight
Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically includes a numeric comma (a
comma without a trailing space) in numbers with five or more digits (for
example, 12,537). To include a comma in a four-digit number, you must
say “comma.”
NOTE
digit grouping symbol specified in your Regional Settings in the Windows Control Panel.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses the decimal separator (dot or comma) and the
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
Other Dialects
) by saying “Format That Number.”
US/Canada
) by saying “Format That Spelled Out.”
US/Canada
) or “£ 7” to
) or
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These commands change the last number dictated or a selected number.
SAY TO C H A N G E
Format That Number one to 1
first
to
1st
twenty-fifth
5 million
five million
US/Canada: eight dollars
Other Dialects: seven pounds
Format That Spelled Out 4th to fourth
27
to
5,000,000
Start Numbers Mode/
Numbers Mode On
Stop Numbers Mode/
Numbers Mode Off
Tell Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize all
your dictation as numbers, typed as numerals.
Resume normal dictation of text and numbers.
to
25th
to
5,000,000
to
5,000,000
twenty-seven
to
five million
to
$8
to
£7
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 dictate 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 speadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel®.
To turn Numbers Mode on and off:
1 From the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Words and then click
Numbers Mode. You can also say “Start Numbers Mode” or “Numbers Mode
On.”
A check appears beside the menu command to indicate that Numbers
Mode is on.
2 Click Numbers Mode again. You can also say “Stop Numbers Mode” or
“Numbers Mode Off.”
The check disappears, indicating that Numbers Mode is off.
The “Format That Number” and “Format That Spelled Out” commands work
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Dates
NOTE
everything 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 tries to interpret
You can dictate most dates the way you would normally say them. Say
“oh” or “zero” to enter 0. In dialects outside US/Canada, you can also say
“nought.”
TO E N T E R SAY
22 January 1999 Twenty two January nineteen ninety nine
April 9, 2001 April 9 [comma] two thousand and one
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
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the date in the wrong format, just
correct it (as described in “Correcting recognition mistakes” on page 15).
When the Correction dialog box opens, the format you want may be on
the list of alternatives.
Times of day
US/Canada: Usually, you can dictate the time of day the way you would
normally say it. Say “o’clock” to enter :00. Dragon NaturallySpeaking
automatically types the colon (:) if you say “a m,” “p m,” or “o’clock”
when dictating the time. Otherwise, say “colon zero zero” to enter :00.
TO E N T E R SAY
8:30 eight [colon] thirty
4:45 AM four 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
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Other Dialects: Usually, you can dictate the time of day the way you
would normally say it. Say “o’clock” to enter .00. Dragon
NaturallySpeaking automatically types the point (.) if you say “a m,”
“p m,” or “o’clock” when dictating the time. Otherwise, say “point zero
zero” to enter .00.
TO E N T E R SAY
8.30 eight [colon] thirty
4.45 AM four 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
PM symbol specified in your Regional Settings in the Windows Control Panel.
Telephone numbers
North American phone numbers
You can say U.S. and Canadian phone numbers (of 7, 10, or 11 digits)
naturally, by pausing briefly between each group of numbers. You don’t
need to dictate hyphens between groups of of 7, 10, or 11 digits.
However, when dictating eight-digit numbers starting with 0 or 1 (for
example, 1-965-5200), you must say all the punctuation, including the
hyphens, spaces, and brackets.
NOTE
Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses the time separator (dot or colon) and the AM/
TO E N T E R SAY
965-5200 nine six five fifty two hundred
617-965-5200 six one seven nine six five fifty two hundred
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 hundred
1-212-555-1212 one two one two five five five one two one two
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Currency and coin
Dictating Names, Numbers & Punctuation
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 E N T E R SAY
(01628) 894150 [open parenthesis] oh one six two eight [close
parenthesis] space bar 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
TIP
In dialects outside US/Canada, you can say “bracket” instead of “parenthesis.”
You can dictate your own currency as you would normally say it.
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Currency in US/Canada (US English dialect)
TO E N T E R SAY
$58.00 fifty eight dollars and zero cents
$1.75 one dollar and seventy five cents
$5.25 five dollars and twenty five cents
$3.9 billion three point nine billion dollars
£ 45 pound sterling sign forty five
£ 99.50 pound sterling sign ninety-nine point five oh
£ 2.20 pound sterling sign two point two oh
£ 5 million pound sterling sign five million
Currency in Other Dialects (UK, Australian, Indian, and Southeast Asian
English)
TO E N T E R SAY
$58.00 fifty eight dollars
$1.75 one dollar and seventy five cents
$4.25 four dollars twenty five
$3.9 billion three point nine billion dollars
£ 45 forty five pounds
£ 99.50 ninety nine pounds and fifty pence
£ 2.20 two pounds twenty
£ 5 million five million pounds
82
NOTE
specified in your Windows Regional Settings as your default currency.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses the currency symbol ($, £, and so on)
Dictate other currencies by first saying the currency symbol followed by
the digits.
US/Canada: If your Regional Settings are set to the United States or
Canada, your default currency is $ (dollar). If you want to dictate a dollar
currency amount, dictate it the way you normally do. If you want to
dictate a pound sterling currency amount, say, for example, “pound
sterling sign fifty eight” (to enter £ 58), and so on.
TIP
In US/Canada, you must say “pound sterling sign” to enter £, since “pound sign”
means # in the U.S. vocabular y. In all other dialects, you can say “pound sign” to type £.
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Other Dialects: If your Regional Settings are set to the United Kingdom,
your default currency is £ (pound sterling). If you want to dictate a
pound sterling currency amount, dictate it the way you normally do. If
you want to dictate a dollar currency amount, say, for example, “dollar
sign fifty eight” (to enter $58) and so on.
Fractions
NOTE
Australian default currency is $ in Windows Regional Settings.
Australian users can say “fifty eight dollars” to dictate $58, since the
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 E N T E R SAY
1/2 one half
1/4 one fourth or one quarter
or
15/16 fifteen sixteenths
3 7/8 three and seven eighths or three and seven over eight
fifteen over sixteen
If Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the fraction as a word (for example,
“one-third”), you can correct it as described in “Correcting recognition
mistakes” on page 15.
If the denominator is greater than 10, you can enter the fraction by
saying “slash” or “over” between the two numbers.
TO E N T E R 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
For information about dictating fraction characters (¼, ½, ¾), see
“Dictating uncommon special characters” on page 74.
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Roman numerals
Dictating Names, Numbers & Punctuation
You can dictate Roman numerals by saying “Roman” and the number.
For large numbers, say the number in small combinations (as in the last
three examples).
TO E N T E R SAY
I Roman one
IV Roman four
V Roman five
X Roman ten
L Roman fifty
C Roman one hundred
D Roman 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
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TIP
Don’t pause after the word “Roman” when you’re dictating a Roman numeral. If
you pause, Dragon NaturallySpeaking may enter “Roman three” instead of “III” (for
example).
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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. You must say the hyphen when dictating nine-digit ZIP codes.
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.
TO E N T E R 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 o
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5
Editing and Revising Text
f you followed the online Tutorial and the Quick Start guide, you
learned a few useful commands for editing a document by voice.
I
You learned how to use Select-and-Say to revise text, move to the top and
bottom of your document, capitalize a word, and apply bold, italics, and
underlining.
This chapter describes other ways to edit and revise text in a document
by voice. It explains how to:
■
Move around in a document
■
Select text
■
Copy, cut, and paste text
■
Capitalize text
■
Format text
■
Delete text
Selection, capitalization, and formatting commands may work differently
in different programs, or be unavailable in some programs. All the
commands listed here work in the DragonPad, Microsoft Word, Corel
WordPerfect, and WordPad. For more information, see “Which
commands work in which programs?” on page 171 of Appendix B.
TIP
If a command doesn’t seem to be working, check the DragonBar for a helpful tip
or view the Command List of the online Help.
Moving around in a document
When you’re editing a document, you can move around the page 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.
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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
To p” or “Go to Bottom.”
You can use any command from the list below:
PAGE DOWN
PAGE UP
key) or “Page Down”
key).
SAY THEN
Go to Top
Move to Bottom
(one)
Top of Document
Beginning of Document
Start of Document
Bottom 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
(one)
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.
88
After you move the insertion point where you want it, you can dictate
more text, paste text, add punctuation, and so on.
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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.
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 move 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
Move Up a Paragraph or 1 Paragraph
(one)
Back 2 Paragraphs
Down 3 Paragraphs
Forward
THEN
2...20
a Line
2 Lines
3 Lines
2...20
(one)
Paragraphs
or
1 Line
Lines
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Moving right or left a word or character
You can move right or left 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.”
See the complete list below:
SAY THEN
Move Right a Word or 1 Word
Selecting text
Using Select-and-Say
You can revise your dictation without correcting it by selecting the text
using the “Select” command and then saying new words to replace the
selected text.
Important!
When text is selected, be careful not to breathe loudly, clear your
throat, or make other sounds. Dragon NaturallySpeaking may
interpret such noises as speech and replace the selection with new
text. If this happens, say “Undo That” right away to reverse the
action.
(one)
Forward 2 Words
Left 4 Words
Back
THEN
2...20
Words
a Character
2 Characters
4 Characters
2...20
Characters
(one)
or
1 Character
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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 . ”
You can also select punctuation marks.
4 Say: “Select period” (
there’s more than one period or full stop, you can say “Select Again” to
select a different one.
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 selecting 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 selects the wrong ones, just say “Select
Again.”
The program then looks for another instance of the same word or words.
It always searches backward from where you are. If the program reaches
the top of the document while searching backward, it will wrap to the
bottom of the document and continue searching backward for the next
instance of the text.
TIP
If you want the program to always search forward, you can change this setting.
On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, click Options, and then click the
Correction tab. Clear the “Select searches backwards” check box.
US/Canada
) or “Select full stop” (
Other Dialects
). If
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You can also say “Select Again” if Dragon NaturallySpeaking selects a
word that sounds like but is not the word you want (for example, “two”
instead of “too”).
Unselecting words
If the wrong text is selected, 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.
A third way to unselect words is to use the “Select” command to select
different text.
Selecting a longer phrase
You can select a longer phrase for correction by saying “Select [text]
Through [text]” (
[text], substitute the actual word or words at the beginning and the end
of the range of wrong words. If the phrase was the last thing you said,
you can just say “Select That.”
US/Canada
) or “Select [text] To [text]” (
Other Dialects
). For
92
Is “That” Too Much?
Saying “Select That,” “Spell That,” or “Correct That” to correct your
last phrase is practical only when the phrase contains up to 5 words
or 50 characters. A much longer phrase may not fit completely in the
Quick Correct list, or even in the Correction dialog box, and it’s
more difficult to find a correct alternative in the vocabulary lists for a
long phrase.
To fix mistakes in a long phrase or sentence, it is best to correct just
the specific wrong words using the techniques discussed in this
section.
Once the phrase is selected, you can edit and correct it in the Correction
dialog box.
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
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To correct a longer phrase:
1 Select the phrase by saying “Select [text] Through [text]” (US/Canada
“Select [text] To [text]” (
word or words at the beginning and the end of the range of wrong words
(they must be visible on the screen).
For example, you could correct the underlined words in the following
sentence...
Other Dialects
). For [text], substitute the actual
) or
With a little practice, who will develop a habit of dictating an unclear
steady voice, and the computer will understand you better.
...by saying:
US/Canada
(
unclear”
Other Dialects
(
2 (in the DragonPad) If the Quick Correct list appears, look to see if it
contains the word or phrase you want. If you see the right word or
phrase, choose it from the list as described on page 16, “Correcting
mistakes with Quick Correct.”
3 If you don’t see what you want in the list, or if you don’t see the Quick
Correct list at all, say “Spell That” or “Correct That.” The Correction
dialog box will open.
4 In the Correction dialog box, spell or type the correct words (in this
example, “you will develop the habit of dictating in a clear”).
5 When you’re finished, click or say “OK.”
The Correction dialog box closes and the text is entered into your
document. The insertion point returns to where it was before you made
the correction.
) “Select who Through unclear” or “Select who will Through an
) “Select who To unclear” or “Select who will To an unclear”
,
Selecting your whole document
You can select all the text in your document by saying “Select Document”
or “Select All.” This command is useful when you want to change the
font or the way text is aligned.
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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 106.)
NOTE
when a lot of text is selected. This prevents you from accidentally deleting a large part of
your document. To remove a large selection, you can say “Delete That” instead.
The “Scratch That” and “Cut That” commands don’t work, nor can you dictate,
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
Select Next Paragraph
(one)
Previous 2 Paragraphs
Forward
Back Line
Last 2 Lines
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.”
THEN
2...20
2...20
(one)
Paragraphs
Lines
94
You can also select a number of words or characters (up to 20). For
example, say “Select Previous 2 Words.”
SAY THEN
Select Next Word
(one)
Previous Character
Forward 2 Words
Back 4 Characters
Last
See the complete list below:
THEN
(one)
2...20
Words
2...20
Characters
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