Dictating letters

If you are trying to dictate a very unusual word, you may find you need to spell it out. If you use the word frequently, you can add it to Dragon's vocabulary. See Adding a User vocabulary item for more information.

Recognition modes and spelling

You can say the names of letters in Dictation mode.

Spelling mode, however, will generally produce better results because:

• It only understands letters and numbers, so it is less likely to misinterpret your speech.
• It will not attempt to insert spaces if you pause between letters.

To switch to spelling mode, just say Switch to Spelling mode. Remember to say Switch to Dictation mode to return to Dictation mode when you are done spelling.

Letters

To type a letter:

• Say the name of the letter, e.g. A, B, etc.
• If you are in Spelling mode, you can use the International Radio Alphabet name of the letter.

When saying a standard English letter name, you can precede the name of the letter by Letter, e.g. Letter A, Letter B. This can help clarify what you are trying to say if you are in Dictation mode. For example, "B" and "bee" sound the same, so Letter B helps Dragon interpret your speech correctly.

To repeat a letter (that is, to say a letter that appears twice in succession):

• Say the letter name twice, e.g. A A or T T.
• Say the letter name preceded by Double, e.g. Double A or, in Spelling mode only, Double Alpha.

Since "Double U" sounds the same as "W," say U U or, in Spelling mode, Double Uniform.

Spelling mode is designed for spelling out unusual words, so letters are lowercase by default. To capitalize a letter:

• Say Cap followed by the name of the letter.
• Say Caps on mode to capitalize multiple letters in a row.

Because Dictation mode is not optimal for spelling out words, it assumes dictated letters are initials or acronyms (see examples below). Letters are uppercase by default, unless Dragon interprets the letter as a word (such as "a"). To lowercase a letter:

• Say Lowercase followed by the name of a letter.
• Say No Caps on to lowercase multiple letters in a row.

See Capitalization for more on using upper and lower case in Dictation mode.

Dictating Acronyms

Dragon recognizes many acronyms and will automatically format them correctly. In Dictation mode, you can pronounce acronyms the way you would normally, whether they are pronounced as words (e.g. NATO, AIDS) or letters (e.g. HTML, BBC).

You can also use Spelling mode to dictate acronyms, but what you say will be slightly different:

Dictation mode	Spelling mode	Result
UNICEF No space on U N I C E F	Caps on U N I C E F	UNICEF
A A R P	Caps on A A R P Caps on Double A R P	AARP
L period M period Montgomery	Cap L period Cap M period Cap M O N T G O M E R Y	L.M. Montgomery
H A L nine thousand	Caps on H A L nine zero zero zero	HAL 9000

If you frequently dictate an acronym that Dragon does not recognize, you can teach it to Dragon using Correction or the Vocabulary Editor.

Accents and other non-English letters

Diacritical Letters

A diacritical letter is a letter with a marking above or below it, such as Á or ç. You can add a diacritical letter by saying the name of the letter, then the type of accent or mark you want to use (see table below for available diacriticals).

You can use diacritical letters in both Dictation mode and Spelling mode.

Say:	Result:
	A	C	E	I	N	O	U	Y
[Accent] Acute	á		é	í		ó	ú	ý
[Accent] Circumflex	â		ê	î		ô	û
[Accent] Grave	à		è	ì		ò	ù
[Accent] Umlaut	ä		ë	ï		ö	ü	ÿ
[Accent] Tilde	ã				ñ	õ
Ring Above	å
[Accent] Cedilla		ç

Ligatures and Non-Latin Letters

You can also say the following ligatures and non-Latin letters:

Say:	Result:	Say:	Result:
A E Diphthong A E Ligature Ligature A E	æ	O E Diphthong O E Ligature Ligature O E	œ
Eszet Sharp S German Sharp German Sharp S	ß	O Slash O Oblique stroke	ø
Icelandic Eth	ð	Icelandic Thorn	þ
S Wedge	š