USER'S GUIDE February 2005. Version 8 Professional, Medical, and Legal, Preferred, and Standard editions. This material may not include some last-minute technical changes and/or revisions to the software. Changes are periodically made to the information provided here. Future versions of this material will incorporate these changes. ScanSoft, Inc. has patents or pending patent applications covering the subject matter contained in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to such patents. This software is protected under the following patents, among others: 5,027,406; 5,168,548 5,202,952; 5,231,670; 5,388,183; 5,428,707; 5,465,318; 5,526,463; 5,680,511; 5,715,367; 5,754,972; 5,765,132; 5,794,189; 5,799,279; 5,818,423; 5,822,730; 5,850,627; 5,890,181; 5,909,666; 5,915,236; 5,920,836; 5,920,837; 5,949,886; 5,960,394; 5,970,448; 5,970,460; 5,983,179; 6,029,124; 6,058,366; 6,064,959; 6,073,097; 6,088,671; 6,092,043; 6,092,044; 6,101,468; 6,125,342; 6,125,347; 6,138,098; 6,151,575; 6,163,768; 6,167,377; 6,212,498; 6,260,013; 6,292,779; 6,349,282; 6,424,943; 6,456,972. 6,393,399, 6,360,237, 6,456,972, 6,490,555, and 6,601,027. No part of this manual or software may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including, without limitation, electronic or mechanical, such as photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written consent of ScanSoft, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice. 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The Captain of Battery Park, © Copyright 1978 by Eugene Pool, published by Addison-Wesley. 50-A11A-10072 Contents CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 About this guide 2 What's new in Version 8? 3 What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking? 4 Installation and Training 5 System requirements 5 Plugging in the microphone 6 Installing the software 6 Activating Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Creating a new user 10 Setting up your microphone 12 Training a new user 14 Adapting to your writing style 16 Starting to Dictate 17 Starting Dragon NaturallySpeaking 17 Turning on the microphone 17 Starting to dictate 18 Getting Help 21 Troubleshooting 22 The DragonBar 23 Using QuickStart 24 Working on your Desktop 27 Programs, documents and folders 27 Switching between open windows 28 Opening and closing menus 28 Selecting buttons, tabs, and options 29 Selecting icons on the desktop 30 Resizing and closing windows 31 Scrolling in windows and list boxes 31 Opening lists and making selections 32 Pressing keyboard keys 32 Moving the mouse pointer and clicking the mouse CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 36 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide iii Contents CHAPTER 5 Correcting and Editing 41 Correcting mistakes 41 Selecting text by voice 45 Moving around in a document 48 Copying, cutting, and pasting text 50 Deleting text 50 Spelling as you dictate 52 Playing back your dictation (Preferred and higher) Using text-to-speech 58 Formatting 61 Capitalizing text 61 Formatting text 64 Working with Applications 67 Working with e-mail 67 Working with Microsoft Internet Explorer 70 Working with Microsoft Word 76 Working with Microsoft Excel (Preferred and higher) 54 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 80 CHAPTER 8 Dictating Names, Numbers, Punctuation & Special Characters 83 Dictating numbers 83 Punctuation 91 Dictating hyphenated words 93 Dictating compound words 94 Dictating names 95 Dictating abbreviations and acronyms 96 Dictating e-mail and Web addresses 96 Dictating special characters 97 Switching Recognition Modes 101 Using the Command Browser 103 Supported Applications 103 Starting the Command Browser 104 Finding specific commands 105 Training commands 109 Working with Custom Commands (Preferred and higher) Improving Accuracy 117 The Accuracy Center 117 Tools to improve your acoustics 118 Tools to Manage Commands 121 CHAPTER 9 109 CHAPTER 10 iv Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide Contents Tools to improve your vocabulary 121 Training a word or command 130 Using the Performance Assistant 131 CHAPTER 11 Managing Users 133 Creating a new user 133 Opening a user 134 Closing a user 135 Renaming a user 135 Deleting a user 135 Backing up and restoring a user 136 Importing and exporting users 138 Upgrading Users 138 Creating Multiple Dictation Sources 140 Setting Up Roaming Users 143 Roaming User Concepts 143 Setting up the Roaming User feature 144 Creating a roaming user 147 Using Portable Recorders (Preferred and Professional) 151 Installing recorder software 152 Creating a user adapted to your recorded speech 153 Dictating into your recorder 157 Transcribing recorded dictation 159 Correcting mistakes 164 Using the Dragon NaturallyMobile recorder as a microphone 165 Automate Your Work (Preferred and Professional) 167 Viewing and editing commands 168 Creating new commands 168 Deleting custom commands 174 Importing and exporting commands 174 Changing the command group and availability 175 Customizing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 177 Correction options 177 Commands Options 179 View options 180 Hot keys options 182 Text-to-speech options (Preferred and higher editions) 183 Miscellaneous options 184 Formatting options 186 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide v Data Options 189 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B Version 8 File Structure 191 MSI Installation Options 195 InstallShield (setup.exe) options 197 MSI options specific to NaturallySpeaking 199 209 INDEX CHAPTER 1 Introduction D ragon NaturallySpeaking lets you talk to your computer instead of typing. As you talk, your words are transcribed onto your screen and into your documents or e-mail messages. Talking to a computer while it types what you say is called dictating. You can dictate into Microsoft® Word, Corel® WordPerfect®, e-mail programs, personal information organizers, and virtually any other program in which you normally type. You can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to: Compose letters, memos, and send e-mail messages. You can cut and paste inside your documents as well as revise and format text. Just think about what you want to say, and then say it into the microphone. Enter data into forms or spreadsheets. Most people can dictate numbers faster than they can type. Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or higher editions, you can create custom voice commands to let you move from field to field on your form by voice. Work on the Web. You can search the Web, access information, and navigate Web pages by speaking URLs and links. Start programs and open menus. Use handheld recorders to dictate while you are away from your computer. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can then transcribe what you said. (Available in Preferred and higher editions.) Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 1 1 Introduction About this guide This guide covers all editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Most of the information presented in this guide is applicable to all the editions. Differences between the editions is noted in the text. Conventions used in this guide 1 This guide contains many examples of words and phrases you can say when using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. These examples appear in italics with quotation marks, for example: "Format That Bold." 2 Some procedures also include sample text for you to dictate. Sample text appears in a different typeface, with punctuation in square brackets. This guide applies to the five English dialects that ship with Dragon NaturallySpeaking: 3 US English UK English Australian English Indian English Southeast Asian English US English uses US spelling, punctuation, and time and currency formats. We recommend US English for Canadian users since this dialect formats numbers (including times, telephone numbers, and currency) in North American formats. All other dialects use UK spelling, punctuation, and time and currency formats (some number settings depend on your Windows Regional Settings). Where multiple dialects are used in dictation examples, those dialects appear in a different font style. For example: You can also correct a longer phrase by saying "Correct [text] Through [text]" (US/ Canada) or "Correct [text] To [text]" (Other Dialects). 4 5 This guide uses US spelling and punctuation for consistency. This guide also includes tips and notes to help you use the software more effectively. Tips and notes appear like this: TIP If you pause correctly, but Dragon NaturallySpeaking still types a command as dictation, you can force it to recognize what you say as a command by holding down the CTRL key. 2 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 1 Introduction NOTE With Numbers Mode on, Dragon NaturallySpeaking tries to interpret everything you say as a number. If you dictate words, the results will be unpredictable. However, you can still navigate menus and switch between programs by voice when Numbers Mode is on. What's new in Version 8? Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 8 includes the following new features: Accuracy: Version 8 speech engine is more accurate than Version 7. Expanded language models and improved acoustic training techniques deliver a large accuracy increase over Version 7. Roaming Users: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 8 makes your user files available anywhere on the network through the Roaming User feature, and automatically synchronizes updates and adaptations centrally (Professional only). Upgrade user files from previous versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking during installation or after installation from the Open User dialog box. Support for Palm OS®: Dictate into any device that supports the Palm OS® and have your recording transcribed by Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 when you synchronize with your PC. This functionality is installed separately from Dragon NaturallySpeaking. See the online help for more information.(Preferred and Professional only). Support for Additional Input Devices: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 8 now supports additional digital handheld recorders, array microphones and cordless microphones. Multiple Dictation Sources: With Multiple Dictation Sources you can use a single vocabulary for your microphone and handheld recorder profiles. (Professional only) With new text formatting options you can specify how Dragon NaturallySpeaking formats dates, measurements and acronyms to meet your requirements. The Word Properties dialog box gives you the power to establish the specific configuration of any word in specific contexts. Use text and graphics commands with dynamic variables to instantly define the variables in any boilerplate text. The simplified Add Words from Documents wizard makes customizing your vocabulary from documents or word lists faster and ...