If dictation is not recognized correctly

Move your microphone.

If extra words, like “and” and “the”, often appear in your document when you pause, Dragon may be interpreting your breath as speech. Try moving the microphone farther away from your mouth and to the side. If this helps, training a new user profile with the microphone in the new position may further improve performance.

Increase the "Pause required before commands" setting.

Dragon may transcribe extra small words, or split large words into short words, if the Pause required before commands setting is at too short an interval. To increase the interval, see the Options dialog box—Commands page.

Train Dragon.

If Dragon mistakes dictation for commands, or consistently misrecognizes specific words for others, train Dragon.

For more information, see Training Dragon.

Say words as part of a phrase.

To dictate a word that is also a command, say the word as part of a phrase without pausing before the word.

Press the Shift key before an utterance.

Press and hold the Shift key. This hot key forces Dragon to recognize an utterance as dictation rather than a command.

For more information, see Correcting misrecognized commands.

Use the Correction menu.

Some words in Dragon’s vocabulary share the same spoken form. For example, "September" and "Sept." If Dragon transcribes the wrong form in your document, just say "Select September", and then choose the correct one from the Correction menu.

Use the "Numeral" command.

Dragon normally transcribes numbers less than 10 as words. To dictate numbers less than 10 as numerals rather than words, say "Numeral" and then the number.

Select and correct surrounding words.

To correct a small word, like "in", it's usually easier to select and correct the surrounding words at the same time.