Dragon Professional 16 Release notes

Quick links:

What's new

  • Windows 11 support

  • Office 2021 support

  • Windows Server 2022 support

  • MouseGrid supports multiple monitors (up to 3). For more information, see Using your mouse with MouseGrid.

  • PowerMic 4 support. For more information, see Options dialog box—PowerMic

  • MS Teams Home and Work editions support. For more information, see Working with Microsoft Teams.

  • Improved high resolution monitor support.

  • Corel WordPerfect 2021 support.

  • Major bug fixes, security enhancements, general stability and usability improvements.

System requirements

RAM

Minimum: 4 GB for all operating systems.

CPU

Minimum: 2.2 GHz Intel® dual core or equivalent AMD processor. Faster processors yield faster performance.

Free hard disk space
  • 12GB (includes downloaded installation files)

Supported operating systems
  • Windows 11 (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2022

Other
  • Microsoft Edge or your default browser for online Help and for installation if installing from the Web

  • Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.8 or later.

    Generally, the .NET Framework is pre-installed on Windows 10 and 11 computers. If you do not have it installed, you are prompted to install it during Dragon's installation.

    Nuance does not provide the .NET Framework with your installation; you must download the installation file from microsoft.com.

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2019 Runtime

    If you do not have it installed, you are prompted to install it during Dragon's installation.

  • NMS Mode: If you are using a Dragon edition where Nuance Management Center/NMS mode is enabled to help you manage and monitor your system, you'll need:

    • An internet connection to connect to the Nuance Management Center (NMC) Server

    • A Nuance Management Center login and password to log in to Dragon

      Your Administrator provisions a Dragon user account in Nuance Management Center for you and assigns the appropriate license. You’ll use this login and password to log in to the Dragon client.

    • See About Nuance Management Center/NMS mode for more information.

  • An audio input device capable of 16-bit recording for dictation
  • Note: Apple AirPods are not officially supported for dictation with Dragon.

Before you upgrade

Dragon automatically upgrades Dragon 13, 14, and 15 to Dragon 16. Please note the following:

  • You can easily upgrade between different versions of the same edition, for example Dragon Professional Group V15.x to Dragon Professional V16.

  • If you are upgrading from Dragon Professional or Dragon Legal to Dragon Law Enforcement V16, your user profiles will not be automatically updated to V16. Before upgrading, you'll need to export your custom words and commands and then import them into V16. See Exporting custom words and Exporting custom commands for more information.

  • When you install Dragon 16, the installation process removes the previous version from your computer.

  • If you are upgrading from Dragon 12 or earlier, you must do the following:

    • Open Dragon 12 or earlier and export your custom words and commands. See Exporting custom words and Exporting custom commands for more information.

    • Uninstall your current version of Dragon.

    • Install Dragon 16 and create a new user profile when prompted.

    • Create a new profile in Dragon 16 and import your custom words and commands from your Dragon 12 or earlier installation.

Best practices

Before you upgrade, Nuance recommends exporting your custom words and commands for safe-keeping. You'll need these files in case you need to re-install your previous version of Dragon.

Your user profiles’ vocabulary may include custom words or phrases you added manually or from the email and document analysis feature and words Dragon learned during the process of correcting misrecognitions, such as specialized words, names, acronyms, and abbreviations.

Exporting/importing custom words (optional)
  1. From the DragonBar, select Vocabulary Center>Export custom word and phrase list.
  2. Specify a file name for the text file.
  3. Click Save. Remember this location.

For more information, see Exporting and importing a list of custom words and phrases

Exporting/importing custom commands (optional)
  1. From the DragonBar, select Tools>Command Center.
  2. Select Mode>Manage.
  3. To export only custom commands, choose User-defined in the Group drop-down list.
    If you do not see User-defined commands in the drop-down list, you do not have any custom commands.
  4. Click the plus sign (+) to expand the list of commands.
  5. Select the check box next to the commands to export.
  6. Click Export. Remember this location.

If you need to re-import your custom commands, see To import command files.

Upgrading to Version 16

Dragon supports automatic upgrades from the Dragon version 13, 14 and 15. See Before you upgrade for restrictions.

You do not need to uninstall your existing version first. Dragon also retains your custom words and commands. If you are using a Dragon edition where Nuance Management Center/NMS mode is disabled (Standalone mode), Dragon then upgrades your user profiles when you open them.

To upgrade:

  1. Close any open programs.
  2. If you’re running an anti-virus program, turn it off until the installation completes.
  3. If you have not already done so, download Dragon.exe, then double-click to run the installer. The installation begins immediately and the requested files are downloaded and installed.
  4. If prompted, install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8.

    5. You may need to restart the computer after installing the .NET Framework.

  5. In the Dragon InstallShield wizard, click Next to begin the Dragon installation.
  6. Read the license terms and click the radio button to indicate you agree to the terms.
  7. Click Next to proceed to the next screen.
  8. Enter the Dragon 16 product serial number, then click Next.
  9. Select your region and, optionally, select the Advanced check box to change the installation directory.
  10. Click Next.
    1. If you selected the Advanced check box, installation directory, click Change.
    2. Browse to the directory where you want to install Dragon.
    3. Click Next.
  11. Click Install.

    12. The installation begins.

    If you selected check boxes next to options in the Advanced screen, a screen appears, allowing you to customize these settings.

Locating your serial number

When upgrading Dragon, the serial number for your existing Dragon installation is required. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, do one of the following to locate your serial number:

  • From the DragonBar, click the Help icon () and then select About Dragon.

    The serial number appears on the screen.

  • If you purchased the download, you receive a confirmation email from Nuance. Your serial number is located in both the .CSV file and the .HTML file attached to the email.

Fixed issues

The following issues have been resolved:

  • Full text control in Microsoft Word: In previous releases, some users reported that if Dragon was open before starting Word, Dragon would occasionally not have full Text Control in Word. This has been fixed.

  • Modern comments in Microsoft Word: Users were not able to dictate into Word document comment field. This is has been fixed.

  • Commands in Microsoft Outlook in Office 365: When using Microsoft Outlook in Office 365, some commands ("Select to field", "Select cc field", "Go to to field" and "Go to cc field" for example) did not function as expected. This has been fixed.

  • Dictation in web applications: Dictation in some web applications did not function properly. This issue has been fixed.

  • Mousegrid command and the Windows 10 Settings screen: In some editions of Dragon, the "Mousegrid" command did not work properly when in the Windows 10 settings screen. This has been fixed.

  • Dictation into some applications causes them to stop working: In some previous editions, dictating into some applications (Excel, Word, IE, Skype for Business, Outlook) would cause those applications to stop working. This issue has been fixed.

  • Cursor placement when dictating after typing in DragonPad: In some previous editions, if you mixed typing and dictation in DragonPad, your dictation would not be placed at the cursor position. This issue has been fixed.

Known issues

Summary Description

Commands: Commands may stop working after installing the Dragon Web extension.

 

After installing the Dragon Web extensions for Edge or Chrome, dictation will continues to work but you can no longer use Dragon commands.

This can result when the Microsoft C++ 2012 Redistributable(X64 and x86) is either not installed or has been removed.

Workaround: Install Microsoft C++ 2012 Redistributable from the Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

MouseGrid: Issues using MouseGrid if you change your monitor in any way while using MouseGrid.

When using MouseGrid on multiple monitors, do not add, remove, unplug, or turn off your monitors. Doing so will cause MouseGrid to behave in unexpected ways.

Outlook: "Go to to/CC/BCC/subjects field" commands may not be recognized in Outlooks embedded view.

This can happen when you perform any Outlook specific operation without popping out to new window.

Workaround: Move to different area of outlook using commands such as "go to inbox", "sort by date", "next mail", "previous mail" etc. and then say the commands "Go to to/cc/bcc/subject field".

Alternatively, you can pop-out the email and use the go to cc, bcc, subject commands or issue keystroke commands such as "Tab" and "Shift Tab" to move to next and previous fields.

MouseGrid: MouseGrid can behave unexpectedly when a Dragon dialog is open on one monitor and you try to use MouseGrid on another monitor.

 Workaround: Close the Dragon dialog or move the dialog to the monitor where you want to execute the MouseGrid commands.

Microsoft Teams Home: Some Dragon Teams commands do not work in Teams Home.

The following Dragon Professional commands do not work in the Teams Home edition:

  • Report a problem (Windows 10 and 11)
  • Download react logs (Windows 10 and 11)
  • Go to suggested time (Windows 10 and 11)
  • Open help (Windows 11 only)
  • Accept audio call (Windows 11 only)
  • Decline call (Windows 11 only)

If you are upgrading from Dragon Professional or Dragon Legal to Dragon Law Enforcement V16, your user profiles will not be automatically updated to V16.

Before upgrading, you'll need to export your custom words and commands and then import them into V16. See Exporting custom words and Exporting custom commands for more information.

PowerMic: PowerMic button assignments created in V15 may not be retained when upgrading to V16.

 Workaround: Re-assign the PowerMic buttons after upgrading to V16.
AirPods: Dictation or commands do not work if you select AirPods from the "Choose a Microphone" screen.

Dragon does not support dictation using Apple AirPods.

Workaround: Choose a different microphone when creating a user profile or click Settings> Microphone>Choose microphone to add another Microphone.

Using Notepad in Windows 11: Some Dragon commands don't work as expected in the Windows 11 Notepad.

"New Line/Select That/Correct That/Spell That" do not work correctly when using Notepad in Windows 11.

Workaround: Use a different text editor (for example, DragonPad or WordPad) if you need to use these commands.

Using File Explorer in Windows 11: Some Dragon commands don't work as expected in the Windows 11 File Explorer.

The Dragon commands "[Display/show/view] [tiles/large icons/small icons/medium icons/details/list]" do not work in the Windows 11 File explorer.

Workaround: You can use MouseGrid commands to select the options.
Windows 10 and 11 Settings screen: Some Dragon commands don't work as expected in the Windows 10 and 11 Settings screen.

The following Dragon commands don't work as expected in the Windows 10 and 11 Settings screen:

Windows 11:

  • [Open][Show][Switch to][Go to][the] devices [settings]

  • [Open][Show][Switch to][Go to][the] ease of access [settings]

  • [Open][Show][Switch to][Go to][the] privacy [settings]

  • [Open][Show][Switch to][Go to][the] update and security [settings]

Windows 10:

  • [open][show][Switch to][Go to] [the] Bluetooth and devices [settings]

  • [open][show][switch to][Go to] [the] accessibility [settings]

  • [open][show][Switch to][Go to] [the] privacy and security [settings]

  • [open][show][switch to][Go to] [the] windows update [settings]
Windows 10 and Windows 11 Action Center: Some Dragon commands don't work as expected in the Windows 10 and Windows 11 Action Center screen.

The following Dragon commands do not work as expected from the Windows 10 Action Center: "Night light”, "Mobile hotspot”, "Nearby sharing”, “Network”, “Project", "Focus assist" , "Priority only" , "Alarms Only", "Screen snip", "Increase the brightness".

Workaround: You can use MouseGrid commands on the Windows Settings window to control respective functionality.

PowerPoint: "Create a new slide" and "Add a new slide" commands do not work in PowerPoint.

This problem can be caused if you issue these commands before PowerPoint is completely loaded.

Workaround: Try the commands again after PowerPoint is completely loaded.

Citrix: Dragon does not recognize dictation or commands when using the Citrix environment in Generic Mode

Workaround: When using Dragon in a Citrix environment, always run Citrix in optimized mode.

Google Docs: Google Docs not getting uploaded using VocTool

Due to a change in the Google API, when you select the Add Google Docs option in the VocTool and attempt to provide your Google login credentials, a script error occurs.

Google Docs: Learn from specific documents not working with Google Docs

Due to a change in the Google API, when you select the Add Google Docs option in Learn from sent emails and attempt to sign in with your Google credentials, sign in error occurs.
Browser tabs: On changing tabs in browser, dictation stops working on the editable field of the browser On changing tabs in browser, dictation stops working on the editable field of the browser even when focus is on the editable field of the browser. This issue was observed with Google chrome and Edge.

Dragon Web extension: The Dragon Web extension dialog intermittently pops up even after extension is installed in the browser.

This problem can happen in browsers where the default URL has not been set.

Workaround:
Setting a default URL in your browser stops the dialog box from popping up.

NLP commands: NLP commands not working when setting is enabled in Nuance Management Center.

When you create users in the NMC Administrator group under Default Site in Nuance Management Center, NLP commands do not work, even though the Enable natural language commands setting is enabled on the Group Details>Dragon Professional tab.

Workaround 1: Do not add users to the NMC Administrator group.

Workaround 2: Navigate to the Group Details>Dragon Professional>Commands tab, and then click Save. This places the settings in the database and correctly enables natural language commands.

Learn from sent e-mails: does not currently work as expected with some e-mail programs.

Learn from sent emails (Tools>Vocabulary Center>Learn from sent e-mails )does not currently work as expected with Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, IMAP for Outlook accounts, and IMAP for Yahoo accounts.