User manual NUANCE DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING PROFESSIONAL 5

USER'S GUIDE October 2000. Version 5. Professional edition. This material may not include some last-minute technical changes and/or revisions to the program. Changes are periodically made to the information described here. Future versions of this material will incorporate these changes. Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. (L&H) may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to such patents. The software is subject to one or more of the following U.S. patents, among others: 5,027,406; 5,202,952; 5,428,707; 5,526,463; 5,680,511; 5,715,367; 5,754,972; 5,765,132; 5,794,189; 5,799,279; 5,809,453; 5,818,423; 5,822,730; 5,850,627; 5,903,864; 5,909,666; 5,915,236; 5,920,836; 5,920,837; 5,946,654; 5,949,886; 5,960,394; 5,983,179; 6,029,124; 6,052,657; 6,064,959; 6,073,097; 6,088,671; 6,092,043; 6,092,044, 6,101,468. Specifications subject to change without notice. Appearance of microphone may vary from that shown. Copyright © 2000 Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. No part of this material or software may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic or mechanical, such as photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written consent of L&H. Dragon Systems, L&H, NaturallySpeaking, NaturallyMobile, Select-and-Say, BestMatch, MouseGrid, Vocabulary Builder, Vocabulary Editor, and the L&H and Dragon Systems logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of L&H in the United States and/or other countries. All other names and trademarks referenced herein are trademarks of L&H or their respective owners. The L&H Text-to-Speech utility uses the Elan Text-to-Speech engine, which is licensed from Elan Informatique. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and where Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V is aware of the trademark, the first occurrence of the designation is printed with a trademark (TM) or registered trademark (®) symbol. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Corel and WordPerfect are trademarks of Corel Corporation. Lotus and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Microsoft, Outlook, Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Netscape and Netscape Navigator are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. Voice It, the Voice It logo, and Voice It Link are trademarks of Voice It Worldwide, Inc. Yahoo! is a trademark of Yahoo! Inc. Dave Barry in Cyberspace, © Copyright 1996 by Dave Barry. Published by Crown Publishers. 2001: A Space Odyssey, © Copyright 1968 by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by New American Library. 3001: The Final Odyssey, © Copyright 1997 by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by HarperCollins Publishers. Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook, © Copyright 1996 by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Published by HarperBusiness, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. Success Is a Journey: 7 Steps to Achieving Success in the Business of Life, © Copyright 1999 by Jeffrey J. Mayer. Published by McGraw Hill. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, © Copyright 1964 by Roald Dahl. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Penguin Books. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, © Copyright 1972 by Roald Dahl. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Penguin Books. To Be a Man, © Copyright 1997 by Eugene and Miranda Pool. Ghost Brother, © Copyright 1990 by C.S. Adler. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. The Captain of Battery Park, © Copyright 1978 by Eugene Pool. Published by Addison-Wesley. 03-456-50-01 Contents About This Guide CHAPTER 1 v Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 1 What's new in version 5? 2 What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking? 6 Do I still need my mouse and keyboard? 7 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully 9 How Dragon NaturallySpeaking works 10 Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Positioning your microphone correctly 11 Speaking properly to the computer 12 Correcting recognition mistakes 15 Playing back your dictation 23 Using text-to-speech 28 Improving Your Speech Recognition 31 Working with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary 31 Quick and easy ways to add new words 34 Advanced tools for building and editing vocabularies 41 Managing vocabularies 54 Training Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words 59 Running General Training again 63 Dictating Names, Numbers & Punctuation 65 Dictating names of people, places, and events 65 Dictating abbreviations and acronyms 67 Dictating hyphenated words 68 Dictating compound words 69 Dictating words that end with 's 70 Dictating e-mail and Web addresses 72 Dictating special characters 73 Dictating foreign words 75 Dictating numbers 76 Editing and Revising Text 87 Moving around in a document 87 Selecting text 90 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide iii Contents Copying, cutting, and pasting text 95 Capitalizing text 95 Formatting text 98 Deleting text 100 CHAPTER 6 Working With Your Desktop and Windows 103 Starting programs 104 Opening documents and folders 105 Switching between open windows 106 Copying text to other programs 106 Opening and closing menus 107 Selecting buttons, tabs, and options 108 Selecting icons on the desktop 109 Resizing and closing windows 110 Scrolling in windows and list boxes 110 Pressing keyboard keys 111 Moving the mouse pointer and clicking the mouse 115 Working With E-Mail and the Web 119 Working with E-mail 119 Working with Internet Explorer 123 Managing Users 131 Creating a new user 132 Opening a user 133 Renaming a user 133 Deleting a user 134 Backing up a user 135 Restoring a backup copy of a user 136 Multilingual users 137 Creating Your Own Dragon NaturallySpeaking Commands 139 About voice commands 140 Creating and editing voice commands 140 Importing and deleting command files 150 Troubleshooting commands 151 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking With a Portable Recorder 153 Installing recorder software 154 Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 5 Commands List 171 207 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B INDEX iv Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide About This Guide W elcome to Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, one of the world's most widely acclaimed speech-recognition products. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you talk to your computer instead of typing. It also lets you use your voice to control your computer in other ways. This guide provides detailed information that will help you get the most out of using the program. It also explains how to ensure that Dragon NaturallySpeaking will recognize your speech accurately. Before using this guide, we recommend that you read the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Quick Start guide and view the online Tutorial. This guide covers multiple editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Where information applies to certain editions only, this is clearly noted. Conventions used in this guide 1 This user's guide contains many examples of words and phrases you can say when using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. These examples usually appear in italics with quotation marks, for instance: "Scratch That." Some procedures also include sample text for you to dictate. Sample text appears in a different typeface, with punctuation in square brackets. For example: US/Canada: When talking to a computer [comma] try to say every word clearly without trailing off at the end of a sentence [period] Other Dialects: When talking to a computer [comma] try to say every word clearly without trailing off at the end of a sentence [full stop] 2 3 This guide covers the five dialects of English that ship with Dragon NaturallySpeaking: s US English Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide v About This Guide s s s s UK English Australian English Indian English Southeast Asian English US English uses US spelling, punctuation, times, and currency. Dragon Systems recommends 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, times, and currency (some number settings depend on your Windows Regional Settings). Dictation examples that differ among dialects appear in a different font, as in this example: s You can also correct a longer phrase by saying "Correct [text] Through [text]" (US/Canada) or "Correct [text] To [text]" (Other Dialects). This user's guide uses US spelling and punctuation for consistency. 4 This guide also includes helpful tips to improve your dictation, and notes that require special attention. 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. NOTE The ability to create your own voice commands is available only in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions. vi Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 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 for: s s Composing letters, memos, and e-mail messages. Just think about what you want to say, and then say it into the microphone. Writing a report, article, or story. Brainstorm out loud and capture your thoughts on screen. Then edit your work by voice or mouse and keyboard. "Typing up" notes from a meeting. When you get back to your desk, simply read your notes into the microphone. s You can also use simple voice commands to revise and format text, move around your document, and control your computer. Learn the basics in your Quick Start guide. Dragon NaturallySpeaking isn't just for creating documents. You can also use your voice to start programs, open menus, and click buttons. If you use Internet Explorer, you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to browse the Web by voice. Learn how in Chapter 7, "Working With E-Mail and the Web." Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 1 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking If you share your computer with family members, friends, or colleagues, they can also use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Simply create a new set of "user speech files" for each person who wants to talk to the computer. Find out how in Chapter 8, "Managing Users." After you become comfortable talking to your computer, you may want to take the convenience of dictating a step further by using a portable recorder with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This option is available if you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred or a higher edition. For more information, see Appendix A, "Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking With a Portable Recorder." If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or a higher edition, you can expand the power of using speech by creating your own voice commands. Find out how in Chapter 9, "Creating Your Own Dragon NaturallySpeaking Commands." Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions also let you create and customize additional vocabularies for dictating in different subject areas. For more information, see "Managing vocabularies" on page 54. What's new in version 5? Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 has many new features to make your dictation easier and faster to use. Most of these features are available through the DragonBar. When you see the DragonBar on your screen, you can dictate into virtually any program. Welcome to the DragonBar Dragon icon NaturallySpeaking menu Start DragonPad icon Show Extras icon Microphone icon and volume display Display Help icon Users icon The Dragon icon Click the icon (or right-click anywhere on the DragonBar) to display a menu that controls how the DragonBar looks and acts on your screen. See the online Help for more information. 2 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking NaturallySpeaking menu The NaturallySpeaking menu on the DragonBar contains all the menu commands that you can use while working in Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Some of these commands are also available from other parts of the DragonBar, for example opening the online Help. Microphone icon and volume display Click the microphone icon to turn speech recognition on and off. Microphone is off Microphone is on and ready to dictate The volume display shows how well the program is hearing your voice. Start DragonPad icon Click the icon to open the DragonPad, the built-in word processor for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Display Help icon Click the icon to open online Help for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Users icon Click the Users icon to display a menu that contains a list of your users and a command that opens the Manage Users dialog box. Extras toolbar icon Transcribe button Start playback button Playback speed button Correction button Stop playback button Skip Backward / Skip Forward The Extras toolbar is available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and higher editions. Click the double chevron icon contains the following: Transcribe a recording button to display the Extras toolbar, which Click this button to open the Transcribe dialog box, which you use to transcribe recordings of dictation made on portable recorders. Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 3 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Playback toolbar Contains controls that control the playback of your dictation. For more information, see "Playing back your dictation" on page 23, or see the online Help. Playback speed button Click this button to speed up or slow down dictation playback. Correction button Click this button to open the Correction dialog box and correct a mistake. New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard and higher editions Dictate into virtually any application Whenever you see the DragonBar on your screen, you can dictate into any application and use many Dragon NaturallySpeaking commands. See "Which commands work in which programs?" on page 171 for more information. Learn hands-on with a new online Tutorial The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tutorial leads you through basic dictation techniques. See your Quick Start guide and the online Help for more information. Get started promptly All computers that meet the minimum system requirements of the software now learn your voice in about 3 to 5 minutes. Your Quick Start guide takes you step-by-step from installation through your first dictation. See "Creating a new user" on page 132 of this user's guide for more information. Dictate with improved accuracy Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 continues to improve accuracy, from a company already recognized for its high recognition accuracy. See "Improving Your Speech Recognition" on page 31 for more information. Choose quick and easy ways to correct mistakes Proofread and correct your work as you dictate with the convenient Quick Correct list. See "Correcting recognition mistakes" on page 15 for more information. 4 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Never forget a command again Can't remember a command? Voice commands are readily available with helpful on-screen reminders, extensive online Help, a detachable command reference card, and two Top 10 Commands stickers for your keyboard and monitor. Say "View Command List" to see the Command List in the online Help, or see the "Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 5 Commands List" on page 171 for a complete list of voice commands. Add words from your documents quickly and easily The new Add Words From Documents feature scans your documents for particular words you use and adds them to the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary in a few simple steps. See "Add Words from Documents" on page 35 for more information. Manage your e-mail by voice Dictate into popular e-mail programs with special built-in voice commands. See "Working with E-mail" on page 119 for more information. Find new ways to surf the Web New features and voice commands enhance your web browser. See "Working with Internet Explorer" on page 123 for more information. New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and higher editions Enter commonly used text Create dictation shortcuts to insert multiple lines of text, such as a letter closing, with only a few words. See "Creating dictation shortcuts" on page 38 for more information. Dictate in more than one language Install multiple languages in the same edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (English-as-a-second-language editions only). See "Multilingual users" on page 137 for more information. Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 5 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking New features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions Dictate now, correct later Save a recording of your dictation session so that you or someone else can proofread and revise your work later. See "Dictate now, correct later" on page 26 for more information. Work in Lotus® Notes® Use new built-in commands, including Select-and-SayTM editing, in Lotus Notes. See the online Help for more information. Organize and file your voice commands Manage your macro scripts and specialized commands by placing them into multiple files. See "Creating and editing voice commands" on page 140 for more information. Customize your own Tutorial Dragon NaturallySpeaking resellers can customize the online Tutorial to include specific information about services that they provide. All editions also feature many additional improvements and bug fixes. What should I expect from Dragon NaturallySpeaking? One reason to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking is to do your writing more quickly. Another is to reduce the stress associated with keyboarding. Or maybe you just like the idea of being able to lean back in your chair, put your feet up on the desk, and still get work done. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is good for all these reasons, but making it work well requires some effort from you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually learns about your voice and pronunciation as you use it. When you use words the program doesn't know, it will make mistakes, and you'll have to stop and correct them. It may take a while before you feel comfortable and productive using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You can find out more about how to make 6 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 1 Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking the program work well by reading Chapter 2, "Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully." Do I still need my mouse and keyboard? Although you can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to do almost everything on your computer by voice, some things are still easier to do by mouse or keyboard. If using a mouse and keyboard is an option for you, try experimenting with using your voice and using your hands for different tasks, to see what works best. If using a mouse and keyboard is not an option, read Chapter 6, "Working With Your Desktop and Windows." Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 7 CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully I f you followed the exercises in your Quick Start guide, by now you've had a chance to try dictating with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. So, are you ready to throw away your keyboard? Probably not. Chances are there are more mistakes in your document than you'd like to see. Why does the program make mistakes, and what can be done so it makes them less often? This chapter provides some background information to help you understand how Dragon NaturallySpeaking works. It then reveals the "Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking," a list of tips and procedures you can follow to make the program recognize your speech accurately. This discussion is continued in Chapter 3, "Improving Your Speech Recognition." The section on "Correcting recognition mistakes" discusses how to correct misrecognized words, including ways to train the program to reduce future errors. The chapter concludes by introducing dictation playback and text-tospeech (available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and higher editions), and saving your dictation for later correction (available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and higher editions). Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 9 CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully How Dragon NaturallySpeaking works When you talk into the microphone, Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn't hear words or phrases. The computer hears your speech as a continuous stream of sounds. From this stream, Dragon NaturallySpeaking picks out common sound patterns, known as phonemes. To match these sound patterns to words, Dragon NaturallySpeaking relies on two large sources of data: acoustic data and language data. Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses acoustic data about the sound patterns that make up different words to choose the words that most closely match what it heard. Since no two people sound exactly alike, Dragon NaturallySpeaking does a much better job of matching sounds to words when it knows something about your pronunciation. When you first trained the program, you provided acoustic data on top of what Dragon NaturallySpeaking already knows about the sounds of English. Sometimes it's not possible for Dragon NaturallySpeaking to choose the correct word based on sound alone. Consider these two phrases: "pizza delivery boy" and "Pete's a delivery boy." When spoken, they sound almost exactly alike. How would Dragon NaturallySpeaking know which to choose? Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses language data about the context and frequency of word use to determine which words were most likely spoken. The phrase "pizza delivery boy" is more common than "Pete's a delivery boy," so the program would favor this phrase over the other. Since people write differently, it helps if Dragon NaturallySpeaking knows something about the frequency with which you use different words. When you Add Words From Documents, run Vocabulary BuilderTM, or make corrections to your dictation, you're providing the program with language data about how often you use different words. Knowing that Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses acoustic data and language data to recognize your speech can help you know what to do to make the program work better. 10 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking The rest of this chapter, and Chapter 3, describe seven habits you can adopt to make Dragon NaturallySpeaking work well for you. If you make the techniques and procedures in these chapters a habit, and continue to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking regularly, you should be able to make the program recognize your speech more accurately. Seven habits for success with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Chapter 2 s s s Position your microphone correctly Speak properly to the computer Correct recognition mistakes Chapter 3 s s s s Add words to the Dragon NaturallySpeaking vocabulary Run Vocabulary Builder Train Dragon NaturallySpeaking to recognize problem words Run General Training again If you have Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, you can also create specialized vocabularies to enhance recognition accuracy. See "Managing vocabularies" on page 54. Positioning your microphone correctly You've already heard a lot about the importance of your microphone position. If you followed the instructions on the screen when you first started Dragon NaturallySpeaking, your microphone is probably in about the right position. But you should continue to think about your Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 11 CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully microphone and check its position frequently to make sure it hasn't moved out of place. If you find that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is making too many mistakes, experiment with moving the microphone a little closer to or farther from your mouth. If extra words, such as "and" and "the," are often inserted into your document, Dragon NaturallySpeaking may be interpreting the sound of your breath as speech. Try moving the microphone slightly to the side, so it's not directly in front of your mouth. Keep in mind that it's easy for the microphone to move slightly out of the best position. You might not notice if this happens, because Dragon NaturallySpeaking may still get most of your words right. But if the microphone is even slightly out of place, the program may no longer be able to tell the difference between similar-sounding words, such as "or" and "all," and will begin making subtle mistakes. Make it a habit to check your microphone position regularly. If accuracy ever seems lower than normal, always start by checking your microphone. TIP You can double-check your microphone position at any time by running the Audio Setup Wizard. On the NaturallySpeaking menu, point to Advanced, then click Check Audio. Make sure your audio quality is "Passed." Speaking properly to the computer At times the computer will type something that sounds like what you said but isn't quite right. People sometimes misunderstand each other in the same way. But the computer is not a person, so it won't help to: SHOUT talk slowly or. say. only. one. word. at. a. time. This section provides some guidelines for talking to a computer. 12 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully Speak naturally and continuously, but pronounce each word clearly When you talk to another person, you can mumble and run your words together and still be understood most of the time. For example, if you say, "Innit cold?" a person will probably understand that you're asking, "Isn't it cold?" But Dragon NaturallySpeaking has trouble interpreting mumbled or slurred speech. The computer recognizes speech most accurately when it can hear each word distinctly. To understand what it means to speak both clearly and naturally, listen to the way newscasters read the news. If you copy this style when you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you should see an improvement in how well the program recognizes what you say. Make it a habit to say each word clearly when you talk to the computer. Avoid leaving out words and making extra sounds (like "um") In conversation with another person, it's okay if you leave out a word here and there. People are good at filling in the blanks in a sentence. Unfortunately, the computer is not very good at this. If you leave out words, Dragon NaturallySpeaking also leaves them out. Another thing people do well is ignore all those "ums" and "ers" that show up in conversation. But the computer has no way of knowing which words are unimportant, so it simply transcribes everything you say. Make it a habit to avoid leaving out words or making extra sounds. It may help to compose your thoughts before you speak. Speak at your normal pace--don't slow down When another person is having trouble understanding you, speaking more slowly usually helps. So it's not surprising that people often slow down and begin sounding out each syllable when Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes mistakes. It doesn't help, however, to speak at an unnatural pace when you're talking to a computer. This is because the program listens for predictable Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 13 CHAPTER 2 Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Successfully sound patterns when matching sounds to words. If you speak in syllables, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is likely to transcribe each syllable as a separate word. Make it a habit to speak at your normal pace, so Dragon NaturallySpeaking can learn your normal pronunciation. Speak in phrases, rather than one word at a time Along with the tendency to speak slowly, people often begin saying just one or two words at a time when Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes mistakes. Surprisingly, speaking in very short phrases or individual words can actually lessen accuracy. This is because Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses the context of a phrase to help it decide what you said. Consider the following phrase: "Dear Mr. Jones." If you were to dictate this phrase one word at a time ("dear" "mister" "jones"), Dragon NaturallySpeaking might type "Deer" or "Gear" instead of "Dear." But if you were to dictate the whole phrase ("dear mister jones"), the program can use context to determine that the word you want is most likely "Dear." Make it a habit to dictate in phrases, so Dragon NaturallySpeaking can use context to help determine what you said. It may help to compose your thoughts before you speak. Speak at your normal volume--don't whisper or speak too loudly When you first started Dragon NaturallySpeaking and read the training text aloud, the program adapted to the pitch and volume of your voice, along with learning your pronunciation. For this reason, you should continue to speak at a normal volume (or slightly louder if this helps). If you shout or whisper, Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't understand you as well. Make it a habit to speak at your normal volume, since Dragon NaturallySpeaking has adjusted to this volume. 14 Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide