Products
Dragon NaturallySpeaking User Documentation
Dragon's technical experts and documentation team have created a series of guides, workbooks and videos to help you use Dragon more effectively.
User Guide
The User Guide, which covers all product editions, provides details on installation, optional settings, voice commands and dictation of different types of text. The guide also includes tips and notes to help you use the software more effectively.
- Dragon 10 user guide
- Dragon 10 user guide (download individual chapters; 508 accessibility compliant)
- Dragon 9 user guide
- User guides for older versions of Dragon
For documentation of non-English Dragon products, visit our international web sites.
Quick Start Card
The Quick Start Card helps you quickly install and activate Dragon.
The User Workbook provides explanations, examples, and illustrations, as well as step-by-step instructions and practice exercises to help you make the most of your investment in Dragon.
This editable one-page “cheat sheet” lists key tips and commands. Feel free to modify this document to include your own notes to jog your memory!
The Dragon Command Guide provides a two-page list of the most commonly used voice commands so that you can control your PC and individual applications by voice.
Using Dragon with Microsoft Word – Dragon can be used for far more than basic dictation. You can use your voice for complete command and control of your computer. Common commands can be particularly helpful when working with Microsoft Word (both the 2003 and 2007 editions). This cheat sheet summarizes common commands to help you boost your productivity when creating documents in Word.
Using Dragon with Microsoft Excel - Dragon provides a number of natural language commands to use with Microsoft Excel. Using these commands, you can avoid the multiple menu-selection and mouse-movement steps associated with the traditional Microsoft Windows interface.
These free, on-demand video tutorials offer tips and guidance for both new and experienced Dragon users.
Note: Once the video opens, you can use its menu to jump to particular sections, and its icons at the bottom to pause, maximize the screen, etc.
Current Videos
This video covers the installation process, as the software walks you through a series of screens; this includes activation, a short, anonymous step.
To keep all the data it needs to best work with each individual, Dragon uses a set of files which together form a User Profile. This video shows how to create a User Profile that best reflects your voice, audio environment, and audio input device(s); it also introduces important tools Dragon can use to quickly learn how to best recognize what you dictate.
The Calisto is the Bluetooth wireless microphone that comes with some editions of Dragon. This video covers how to charge and wear the headset, as well as power it up and turn on the connection to its USB wireless adapter. (Technote 6018 in our Knowledgebase also covers this microphone.)
In addition to dictating, Dragon can be used for many email-related actions such as opening, replying to, forwarding and deleting messages. This video includes launching the default email program, checking for new mail, and creating a new message, and uses Microsoft Outlook Express as an example.
Note: What exactly you can do in different programs depends on what edition of Dragon you have (see your product’s online Help). Editions “Professional” and above make available, at anytime, commands for Microsoft Outlook such as “Send email to Jane Smith and David Jackson”.
This video covers the creation of custom commands of the type “Text-and-Graphics”, which lets you pre-define content for Dragon to enter whenever you utter the command. This “boilerplate” can include graphics (logos, maps, signatures…) as well as blank lines and formatting. Simple to create, these commands can quickly add to the benefits of dictating: speed, convenience, consistency...
Note: "Text-and-Graphics" commands are available in editions "Preferred" and higher.