Dragon Professional Individual For Dummies

Stephanie Diamond is a thought leader, management marketing professional, and founder of Digital Media Works, Inc., an online marketing company that helps business owners discover the hidden profits in their businesses. She has worked with small business owners and multibillion-dollar corporations.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part I: Getting Started with Dragon Professional Individual 5

Chapter 1: Knowing What to Expect 7

Clarifying What Dragon Professional Individual Can Do for You 7

Figuring Out What Dragon Professional Individual Can’t Do 9

Selecting the Right Dragon Product 11

Expanding the use of speech recognition 11

The latest generation of the Dragon family 12

Understanding Speech Recognition in Dragon 14

What’s so hard about recognizing speech, anyway? 15

What’s a computer to do? 16

Onward to Customizing! 18

Chapter 2: Installing Dragon and Starting Basic Training 19

Installing Dragon Professional Individual on Your Computer 20

Creating a User Profile 25

Chapter 3: Launching and Controlling Dragon 33

Launching Dragon Professional Individual 33

Choosing or Switching User Profiles 34

Meeting the Face of Your Dragon Professional Individual Assistant 35

A closer look at the DragonBar 36

Choosing options 38

Why Use the Dragon Professional Individual DragonPad? 41

Using the word-processor features of the Dragon Professional Individual DragonPad 41

Choosing from the menu bar and toolbar 42

Editing: Cut, paste, and the usual suspects 43

Formatting: Fonts, indentations, alignments, bullets, and tabs 43

Saving and opening documents 44

Customizing the window 45

Tools and When to Use Them 46

Part II: Creating Documents and Spreadsheets 51

Chapter 4: Simply Dictating 53

Dictating 101: How to Dictate 54

Distinguishing between Text and Commands 56

Controlling Your (Cough! Sneeze!) Microphone 57

Tips for Talking 58

Punctuating and Capitalizing 59

Punctuating your remarks 59

Discovering Natural Punctuation 62

Capitalizing on your text 62

Taking Up Space 63

Controlling paragraph spacing 64

Controlling spaces and tabs 64

Entering Different Numbers and Dates 65

Making Quick Corrections 67

Scratching your bloopers 67

Resuming dictation with an earlier word 69

Correcting a Dragon Professional Individual error 69

Tackling Common Dictation Problems 70

Chapter 5: Selecting, Editing, and Correcting in DragonPad 73

Moving Around in a Document 74

Giving the cursor directions and distances 75

Going to the head of the line 76

Specifying a destination by quoting text 76

Editing by Voice 77

Selecting text 77

Deleting text 79

Sharp tongues: Cutting and pasting by voice 80

Just undo it 80

Fixing Dragon Professional Individual’s Mistakes 81

Correcting a Dragon Professional Individual recognition error 81

Casting a spell 83

Recurring errors 85

Playing back an error 85

Chapter 6: Basic Formatting in Text-Editing Applications 87

Knowing the Short Formatting Commands 87

Left, Right, and Center: Getting into Alignment 88

Using Bullets and Numbered Lists 90

Changing Font 91

Changing your style: Bold, italic, and underlined text 91

Changing font size 92

Changing font family 93

Changing everything at one time 94

Understanding Smart Formatting 95

Chapter 7: Proofreading and Listening to Your Text 97

Using Voice Commands for Playback 98

Proofreading and Correcting with Playback 99

Using the Text-to-Speech Feature 102

Chapter 8: Dictating into Other Applications 105

Finding Levels of Control 105

Getting Started 108

Dictating your first words 108

Turning the microphone on and off 110

Knowing which capabilities you have in any application 110

Creating Documents with the Dictation Box 111

Using the Dictation Box 112

Moving around in a document 112

Making corrections 113

Using Full Text Control Applications 113

Ordering from the Menu 114

Extending Posts to Facebook and Twitter 115

Chapter 9: Dipping into Word Processing 117

Saying the Right Thing 117

Creating, opening, and closing documents 118

Employing the “Playback” and “Read” commands 118

Natural Language Commands for Word 119

Understanding Natural Language Commands 119

Dictating text 120

Editing with familiar commands 121

Inserting 122

Printing 122

Setting up page margins 123

Natural Language Commands for formatting 123

Editing and formatting text 128

Checking spelling and grammar 129

Inserting tables 129

Adjusting and viewing windows within Word 130

Choosing OpenOffice.org Writer 131

Chapter 10: Working with Excel 133

Doing Excel-lent Works with Spreadsheets 133

Getting in the mode 134

Having a look around 135

Selecting cells 135

You can find the ICA names of the letters listed in Chapter 5 Filling you in 135

Using the cursor 136

Inputting and formatting data 137

Improving Your Vocal Functions 139

Chapter 11: Using Recorded Speech 141

Why Record? 141

Setting Up to Use a Portable Recorder 142

Figuring out your connection 143

Adding a dictation source to your current profile 144

Getting better sound quality from portable recorders 148

Recording Your Dictation 149

Transferring Files from a Digital Recorder 150

Transcribing Your Recording 151

Correcting Your Transcription 153

Transcribing Someone Else’s Voice Recording 155

Part III: Communicating Online 157

Chapter 12: Sending and Receiving Email 159

Creating and Managing Emails 159

Interacting with Microsoft Outlook 161

Using the three-panel email application window 162

Dictating messages 163

Getting your mail read to you 164

Keeping track of appointments 164

Listing new contacts 166

Making notes 167

Enhancing Email 168

Aggregating email accounts with Thunderbird 168

Choosing Gmail 169

Chapter 13: Working the Web 171

Browsing the Web 171

Getting started 172

Choosing Firefox or Chrome as your browser 172

Giving orders to Internet Explorer 173

Going Places on the Web 175

Linking from one web page to another 175

Dictating to the Address box 176

Using the Favorites menu 176

Pinning websites or pages to the Start menu 177

Moving around a Web Page 178

Entering information on a web page 178

Using shortcuts created for the web 179

Chapter 14: Dictating the Mobile Way 181

Dictating with Free Dragon Apps on Apple Mobile Devices 182

Discovering Dragon Dictation 182

Correcting what you say 188

Finding your way around with Dragon Search 189

Having Fun with Dragon Go! 190

Dictating with Android Devices 193

Swype for Android 193

Considering Dragon Anywhere 194

Part IV: Working Smarter 199

Chapter 15: Controlling Your Desktop and Windows by Voice 201

Ya Wanna Start Something? 202

Operating tips for Windows 8 202

Operating tips for Windows 10 203

Starting applications by voice 203

Using the Start menu in Windows 7 204

Does It Do Windows? 205

Listing all applications 205

Opening Computer and other folder windows 206

Giving orders to Windows Explorer 207

Switching from one application to another 209

Do Mice Understand English? 209

Telling your mouse where to go 210

Clicking right and left 213

Dragging until you drop 213

Dialoging with a Box 215

Moving the cursor around a dialog box 216

Dealing with dialog box features 216

Looking at a few of the most useful dialog boxes 219

Chapter 16: Speaking More Clearly 221

Do You Need to Speak Better? 222

How Do You Do It? 223

Shouldn’t Dragon Professional Individual Meet You Halfway? 225

Chapter 17: Additional Training for Accuracy 227

Using the Accuracy Center 227

Personalizing Your Vocabulary 228

Vocabulary editing 229

Adding a new word or phrase 229

Adding shortcuts in the Vocabulary Editor 232

Creating different ways to say the same thing 233

Import a list of words or phrases 234

Learning from specific documents 235

Adding words from somebody else’s documents 237

Learning from sent emails 238

Setting Options and Formatting 239

Opening the Options dialog box 239

Opening the Auto-Formatting dialog box 239

Adjusting Your Acoustics 241

Checking your microphone 241

Launching Accuracy Tuning 242

Reading text to train Dragon to your voice 243

Finding or Training Commands 243

Getting More Information 245

Chapter 18: Improving Audio Input 247

Figuring Out Whether You Have an Audio Input Problem 247

Running the microphone check 248

Checking your microphone 249

Getting a USB microphone 250

Playing your best card 250

Ensuring a Quiet Environment 253

Chapter 19: Having Multiple Computers or Users 255

Creating and Managing Users 256

One person, different users 256

Adding a new user 257

Adding an old user to a different computer 257

Transferring your User Profiles to a new computer 258

Managing User Files 260

Deleting a user 261

Backing up and restoring User Profiles 261

Chapter 20: Creating Your Own Commands 263

Creating Commands That Insert Text and Graphics 263

Creating a new command 264

Adding an auto text command 266

Creating commands for new applications 269

Introducing the Command Browser 270

Locating commands using the Keyword Filter 271

Cloning a command to create another 272

Inserting graphics into commands 274

Deleting commands 275

Chapter 21: Getting Help from Your Desktop and Online 277

Getting Help from the DragonBar 278

Getting Help from Nuance 280

Asking your first question on the Customer Service & Support portal 281

Talking to tech support on the phone 283

Searching the Nuance Knowledgebase 285

Dipping into Product Resources 287

Enhancing Community 288

Dragon Discussion Forum 289

Facebook 289

Twitter 290

LinkedIn 292

Nuance on YouTube 292

Part V: The Part of Tens 295

Chapter 22: Ten Common Problems 297

Dictating but Nothing Happens 297

Dealing with Incorrect Results 299

Speaking Commands That Get Typed as Text 299

Failing to Control Text with Full Text Control 300

Discovering That Dragon Professional Individual Inserts Extra Little Words 300

Dealing with Slow Dictation 301

Uncovering Menu Commands That Don’t Work 302

Tracking Down Natural Language Commands That Don’t Work 302

Ascertaining That Undo Doesn’t Undo 303

Realizing That Start Doesn’t Start 303

Chapter 23: Ten Time- and Sanity-Saving Tips 305

Using Hotkeys in Dialog Boxes 305

Positioning the Microphone the Same Way Every Time 306

Changing Your Mouse Habits 306

Drinking with a Straw 306

Turning Off Automatic Spell Checking in Word Processors 307

Working on Small Pieces of Large Documents 307

Using Dictation Shortcuts 307

Turning the Microphone Off When You Stop Dictating 308

Selecting or Correcting Longer Phrases 308

Using the Physical Mouse and Keyboard 308

Chapter 24: Ten Mistakes to Avoid 309

Running a Lot of Other Programs and Dragon Professional Individual Simultaneously 309

Telling Dragon Professional Individual to Shut Down the Computer 310

Correcting What You Ought to Edit 310

Editing What You Ought to Correct 310

Cutting Corners on Training 311

Forgetting to Run Microphone Check Again When the Environment Changes 311

Using Somebody Else’s Username 311

Speaking into the Backside of the Microphone 312

Creating Shortcuts or Macros That Sound Like Single Common Words 312

Forgetting to Proofread 312

Chapter 25: Ten Stupid Dragon Tricks 313

Dictating “Jabberwocky” 314

Dictating the Gettysburg Address 316

Dictating Shakespeare 317

Dictating Proverbs 318

Dictating Limericks 318

Dictating “Mairzy Doats” 319

Turning Dragon Professional Individual into an Oracle 319

Singing 319

Dictating in Foreign Languages 320

Using Playback to Say Silly or Embarrassing Things 320

Index 321