Nuance - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Solutions

A process Dragon can use to adapt to your usage in order to transcribe you more accurately. Once you have used Dragon for a while, the software can automatically refine your user profile by running Accuracy Tuning, which analyzes what you have dictated, any corrections you have made, and any additional acoustic training you have performed.

This process uses the Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer, which can be scheduled to run at a particular time and frequency so you don't have to think about it.

A feature of the higher editions which automatically detects and transcribes recordings copied to a specified directory. It lets you specify which Dragon user profile to use for transcribing the recording found in that directory, as well as where to put the text files resulting from the transcription.

Command Mode is one of Dragon's restricted recognition modes: it causes Dragon to interpret everything you say as a command and nothing is interpreted as dictated text. Say "Start Command Mode" or "Command Mode On."

Dictation Mode is one of Dragon's restricted recognition modes: it causes Dragon to interpret everything you say as dictation and not as a command. Dictation Mode can be helpful if you want to dictate as quickly as possible, or dictate without looking at the words Dragon transcribes. You can say "Start Dictation Mode".

"DragonTemplates" are a special kind of custom commands in Dragon, offering a simple way to paste a "template" whose content contains fillable fields. They are created in Dragon's Command Editor, by adding fields in the "Text-and-Graphics" type. By default, each field appears between square brackets as "[default value]". To navigate a DragonTemplate's Fields, you can select the desired Field by hand, or use voice commands. (Available in editions Professional and higher).

The Dictation Box is a tool Dragon offers to provide full comfort when dictating or editing in a non-standard window. It's a simple intermediary window you can bring up by voice or by hand; in it, you can use commands like "Delete XYZ", "Correct XYZ", "Insert before XYZ" -and use custom commands to paste boilerplate text. Once the text is as you wish, just say the word: Dragon closes the Dictation Box and transfers your text to where you had the insertion point (cursor).

Hidden Mode is a recognition mode available in Dragon Medical only. It causes Dragon to send all recognized text to the Dictation Box, which is active but hidden. All recognized text is added to the Dictation Box, regardless of the cursor location. Hidden Mode is often used by healthcare providers who are dictating medical reports to be sent to a medical transcriptionist/editor.

A window, or text field, that does not support all of Dragon's editing, formatting and correction capabilities. When the insertion point is in a non-standard window, Dragon may not always be able to do its usual automatic spacing and capitalization; the DragonBar displays the message "Dictating in a non-standard window" and its Select-and-Say" indicator is grey. In non-standard window, you may wish to say "Cap" to ensure initial capitalization, and "Spacebar" to ensure spacing. For convenience, many users bring up the "Dictation Box", which lets you comfortably dictate, correct, and modify text which is then transferred into the non-standard window.

Technology included in Dragon to help identify and ignore sounds that users don't normally intend to include in dictation, like "ums" and "ahs".

Numbers Mode is one of Dragon's restricted recognition modes: it causes Dragon to recognize only numbers, commands, and punctuation. If you are dictating only numbers (including currencies), working in this mode increases recognition accuracy and speed. Say "Start Numbers Mode."

A resource included in the Help menu to offer many suggestions for optimizing Dragon's speed on your computer, depending on how you normally use Dragon. As you read questions about how you normally use Dragon and click or say the corresponding link, you will get help with a specific action.

Commands that let you perform frequent editing tasks by naming what you want to target: just like you can quote from your text in the commands select <xyz> and select <start> through <end>, you can say the verbs bold, underline, and italicize immediately followed by the desired word(s) or range of words. This also applies to the verbs copy, as well as delete and cut (these three can be disabled in the Commands tab of the Options dialog.) For example, instead of saying "select Voice Formatting" [pause] "delete that" [pause] and "end of paragraph", you can say "delete Voice Formatting."

These commands were introduced in Version 10.

By default, Dragon distinguishes dictation from words, numbers, and commands by analyzing what it hears between pauses: this is the Normal mode.

There may be times when you wish to do a special kind of dictation, giving only commands, or only dictation, or entering many numbers or characters in a row-when inputting figures or product codes into a database, for instance. To help with these situations, Dragon offers restricted recognition modes, and lets you switch between them by voice or via the DragonBar's Words menu.

The small yellow box that stretches out to display what Dragon is drafting as it listens to you. As soon as you pause, Dragon finishes processing your utterance and enters text at the location of your cursor--or executes the command if what you said was a command.

Note: You can change the default behavior of the Results box via Dragon's Options dialog. Many users find it useful to "anchor" the Results box in a place they find unobtrusive, such as the bottom right of the screen (in the View tab of the Options dialog, choose Anchor, then close the Options dialog; the next time you see the Results box, you can drag it to a location of your choice and Dragon will keep it there until you move it.)

A narrow vertical window which displays some frequent commands available at the moment (depending on what has the focus on your screen). You can open it from the Help menu, or by saying the command "What can I say".

"Say What You See" means that you can say whatever commands you see labeled on your screen to control applications by voice. For example, you can say the names of menus, menu commands, or items in a dialog box. To display the Insert menu in Microsoft Word or Excel, you would say "Insert", and then say the name of any of the available commands, as required. Another example is the ability to open a desktop item (a folder, for instance), by saying "open" followed immediately by its name.

The "Select-and-Say" indicator is the colored ball that appears next to the volume meter on the DragonBar. The indicator changes color to show the level of dictation support in your current application. The indicator is green when all of Dragon's selection and dictation capabilities are supported, yellow when you are dictating in Hidden Mode (Medical editions only), and grey when the insertion point is in a non-standard window.

The Spell Mode is one of Drago's restricted recognition modes: it is useful for dictating character sequences which don't form pronounceable words, as is often the case for part numbers, license plate numbers, codes... (It's also useful for spelling out terms which you anticipate Dragon won't know, such as words in a foreign language or unusual product names.) In Spell Mode, Dragon recognizes any combination of letters, digits, or symbols. You can also say keystrokes such as spacebar or backspace. Spell mode can also be useful for dictating Web addresses.

The Dictation Box is a tool Dragon offers to provide full comfort when dictating or editing in a non-standard window. It's a simple intermediary window you can bring up by voice or by hand; in it, you can use commands like "Delete XYZ", "Correct XYZ", "Insert before XYZ" -and use custom commands to paste boilerplate text. Once the text is as you wish, just say the word: Dragon closes the Dictation Box and transfers your text to where you had the insertion point (cursor).

The command that lets you simulate the pressing of one or more keys on your keyboard: you can say "Press," "Press Key," or "Type" followed immediately by the key(s) you want to press. For example, "Press Escape", "Press F9", "Press Enter" or "Press Alt Down".

A set of files created the first time one uses Dragon, and subsequently used by the software to reflect your characteristics and adapt to your usage. Each person who uses Dragon must have a User profile, which the software keeps in a set of files including acoustic and lexical data: how you sound, what words you use, and how frequently you use them. When you add a personalization to the Vocabulary, correct a misrecognition, read a training text, or change a setting in the Options dialog, Dragon can save these refinements into your User profile.

Word Properties are various settings that can be associated with individual vocabulary entries. (They are visible via the Properties button of the Vocabulary Editor.) By default, for instance, punctuation marks like the question mark and exclamation mark have the properties of having no preceding space and triggering capitalization of the following word. Some users like to change the default property of the dictation command "New Line", so that it triggers capitalization of the following word.

Another kind of property you can set is alternate written forms: for instance, you may want the word "figure" to be written as "Fig." when before a number, so that Dragon would write "Fig. 5" instead of "figure five".