Dragon Professional Individual For Dummies

Stephanie Diamond is a thought leader, management marketing professional, and founder of Digital Media Works, Inc., an online marketing company that helps business owners discover the hidden profits in their businesses. She has worked with small business owners and multibillion-dollar corporations.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Conventions Used in This Book 2Foolish Assumptions 3Icons Used in This Book 3Beyond the Book 4Where to Go from Here 4Part I: Getting Started with Dragon Professional Individual 5Chapter 1: Knowing What to Expect 7Clarifying What Dragon Professional Individual Can Do for You 7Figuring Out What Dragon Professional Individual Can’t Do 9Selecting the Right Dragon Product 11Expanding the use of speech recognition 11The latest generation of the Dragon family 12Understanding Speech Recognition in Dragon 14What’s so hard about recognizing speech, anyway? 15What’s a computer to do? 16Onward to Customizing! 18Chapter 2: Installing Dragon and Starting Basic Training 19Installing Dragon Professional Individual on Your Computer 20Creating a User Profile 25Chapter 3: Launching and Controlling Dragon 33Launching Dragon Professional Individual 33Choosing or Switching User Profiles 34Meeting the Face of Your Dragon Professional Individual Assistant 35A closer look at the DragonBar 36Choosing options 38Why Use the Dragon Professional Individual DragonPad? 41Using the word-processor features of the Dragon Professional Individual DragonPad 41Choosing from the menu bar and toolbar 42Editing: Cut, paste, and the usual suspects 43Formatting: Fonts, indentations, alignments, bullets, and tabs 43Saving and opening documents 44Customizing the window 45Tools and When to Use Them 46Part II: Creating Documents and Spreadsheets 51Chapter 4: Simply Dictating 53Dictating 101: How to Dictate 54Distinguishing between Text and Commands 56Controlling Your (Cough! Sneeze!) Microphone 57Tips for Talking 58Punctuating and Capitalizing 59Punctuating your remarks 59Discovering Natural Punctuation 62Capitalizing on your text 62Taking Up Space 63Controlling paragraph spacing 64Controlling spaces and tabs 64Entering Different Numbers and Dates 65Making Quick Corrections 67Scratching your bloopers 67Resuming dictation with an earlier word 69Correcting a Dragon Professional Individual error 69Tackling Common Dictation Problems 70Chapter 5: Selecting, Editing, and Correcting in DragonPad 73Moving Around in a Document 74Giving the cursor directions and distances 75Going to the head of the line 76Specifying a destination by quoting text 76Editing by Voice 77Selecting text 77Deleting text 79Sharp tongues: Cutting and pasting by voice 80Just undo it 80Fixing Dragon Professional Individual’s Mistakes 81Correcting a Dragon Professional Individual recognition error 81Casting a spell 83Recurring errors 85Playing back an error 85Chapter 6: Basic Formatting in Text-Editing Applications 87Knowing the Short Formatting Commands 87Left, Right, and Center: Getting into Alignment 88Using Bullets and Numbered Lists 90Changing Font 91Changing your style: Bold, italic, and underlined text 91Changing font size 92Changing font family 93Changing everything at one time 94Understanding Smart Formatting 95Chapter 7: Proofreading and Listening to Your Text 97Using Voice Commands for Playback 98Proofreading and Correcting with Playback 99Using the Text-to-Speech Feature 102Chapter 8: Dictating into Other Applications 105Finding Levels of Control 105Getting Started 108Dictating your first words 108Turning the microphone on and off 110Knowing which capabilities you have in any application 110Creating Documents with the Dictation Box 111Using the Dictation Box 112Moving around in a document 112Making corrections 113Using Full Text Control Applications 113Ordering from the Menu 114Extending Posts to Facebook and Twitter 115Chapter 9: Dipping into Word Processing 117Saying the Right Thing 117Creating, opening, and closing documents 118Employing the “Playback” and “Read” commands 118Natural Language Commands for Word 119Understanding Natural Language Commands 119Dictating text 120Editing with familiar commands 121Inserting 122Printing 122Setting up page margins 123Natural Language Commands for formatting 123Editing and formatting text 128Checking spelling and grammar 129Inserting tables 129Adjusting and viewing windows within Word 130Choosing OpenOffice.org Writer 131Chapter 10: Working with Excel 133Doing Excel-lent Works with Spreadsheets 133Getting in the mode 134Having a look around 135Selecting cells 135You can find the ICA names of the letters listed in Chapter 5 Filling you in 135Using the cursor 136Inputting and formatting data 137Improving Your Vocal Functions 139Chapter 11: Using Recorded Speech 141Why Record? 141Setting Up to Use a Portable Recorder 142Figuring out your connection 143Adding a dictation source to your current profile 144Getting better sound quality from portable recorders 148Recording Your Dictation 149Transferring Files from a Digital Recorder 150Transcribing Your Recording 151Correcting Your Transcription 153Transcribing Someone Else’s Voice Recording 155Part III: Communicating Online 157Chapter 12: Sending and Receiving Email 159Creating and Managing Emails 159Interacting with Microsoft Outlook 161Using the three-panel email application window 162Dictating messages 163Getting your mail read to you 164Keeping track of appointments 164Listing new contacts 166Making notes 167Enhancing Email 168Aggregating email accounts with Thunderbird 168Choosing Gmail 169Chapter 13: Working the Web 171Browsing the Web 171Getting started 172Choosing Firefox or Chrome as your browser 172Giving orders to Internet Explorer 173Going Places on the Web 175Linking from one web page to another 175Dictating to the Address box 176Using the Favorites menu 176Pinning websites or pages to the Start menu 177Moving around a Web Page 178Entering information on a web page 178Using shortcuts created for the web 179Chapter 14: Dictating the Mobile Way 181Dictating with Free Dragon Apps on Apple Mobile Devices 182Discovering Dragon Dictation 182Correcting what you say 188Finding your way around with Dragon Search 189Having Fun with Dragon Go! 190Dictating with Android Devices 193Swype for Android 193Considering Dragon Anywhere 194Part IV: Working Smarter 199Chapter 15: Controlling Your Desktop and Windows by Voice 201Ya Wanna Start Something? 202Operating tips for Windows 8 202Operating tips for Windows 10 203Starting applications by voice 203Using the Start menu in Windows 7 204Does It Do Windows? 205Listing all applications 205Opening Computer and other folder windows 206Giving orders to Windows Explorer 207Switching from one application to another 209Do Mice Understand English? 209Telling your mouse where to go 210Clicking right and left 213Dragging until you drop 213Dialoging with a Box 215Moving the cursor around a dialog box 216Dealing with dialog box features 216Looking at a few of the most useful dialog boxes 219Chapter 16: Speaking More Clearly 221Do You Need to Speak Better? 222How Do You Do It? 223Shouldn’t Dragon Professional Individual Meet You Halfway? 225Chapter 17: Additional Training for Accuracy 227Using the Accuracy Center 227Personalizing Your Vocabulary 228Vocabulary editing 229Adding a new word or phrase 229Adding shortcuts in the Vocabulary Editor 232Creating different ways to say the same thing 233Import a list of words or phrases 234Learning from specific documents 235Adding words from somebody else’s documents 237Learning from sent emails 238Setting Options and Formatting 239Opening the Options dialog box 239Opening the Auto-Formatting dialog box 239Adjusting Your Acoustics 241Checking your microphone 241Launching Accuracy Tuning 242Reading text to train Dragon to your voice 243Finding or Training Commands 243Getting More Information 245Chapter 18: Improving Audio Input 247Figuring Out Whether You Have an Audio Input Problem 247Running the microphone check 248Checking your microphone 249Getting a USB microphone 250Playing your best card 250Ensuring a Quiet Environment 253Chapter 19: Having Multiple Computers or Users 255Creating and Managing Users 256One person, different users 256Adding a new user 257Adding an old user to a different computer 257Transferring your User Profiles to a new computer 258Managing User Files 260Deleting a user 261Backing up and restoring User Profiles 261Chapter 20: Creating Your Own Commands 263Creating Commands That Insert Text and Graphics 263Creating a new command 264Adding an auto text command 266Creating commands for new applications 269Introducing the Command Browser 270Locating commands using the Keyword Filter 271Cloning a command to create another 272Inserting graphics into commands 274Deleting commands 275Chapter 21: Getting Help from Your Desktop and Online 277Getting Help from the DragonBar 278Getting Help from Nuance 280Asking your first question on the Customer Service & Support portal 281Talking to tech support on the phone 283Searching the Nuance Knowledgebase 285Dipping into Product Resources 287Enhancing Community 288Dragon Discussion Forum 289Facebook 289Twitter 290LinkedIn 292Nuance on YouTube 292Part V: The Part of Tens 295Chapter 22: Ten Common Problems 297Dictating but Nothing Happens 297Dealing with Incorrect Results 299Speaking Commands That Get Typed as Text 299Failing to Control Text with Full Text Control 300Discovering That Dragon Professional Individual Inserts Extra Little Words 300Dealing with Slow Dictation 301Uncovering Menu Commands That Don’t Work 302Tracking Down Natural Language Commands That Don’t Work 302Ascertaining That Undo Doesn’t Undo 303Realizing That Start Doesn’t Start 303Chapter 23: Ten Time- and Sanity-Saving Tips 305Using Hotkeys in Dialog Boxes 305Positioning the Microphone the Same Way Every Time 306Changing Your Mouse Habits 306Drinking with a Straw 306Turning Off Automatic Spell Checking in Word Processors 307Working on Small Pieces of Large Documents 307Using Dictation Shortcuts 307Turning the Microphone Off When You Stop Dictating 308Selecting or Correcting Longer Phrases 308Using the Physical Mouse and Keyboard 308Chapter 24: Ten Mistakes to Avoid 309Running a Lot of Other Programs and Dragon Professional Individual Simultaneously 309Telling Dragon Professional Individual to Shut Down the Computer 310Correcting What You Ought to Edit 310Editing What You Ought to Correct 310Cutting Corners on Training 311Forgetting to Run Microphone Check Again When the Environment Changes 311Using Somebody Else’s Username 311Speaking into the Backside of the Microphone 312Creating Shortcuts or Macros That Sound Like Single Common Words 312Forgetting to Proofread 312Chapter 25: Ten Stupid Dragon Tricks 313Dictating “Jabberwocky” 314Dictating the Gettysburg Address 316Dictating Shakespeare 317Dictating Proverbs 318Dictating Limericks 318Dictating “Mairzy Doats” 319Turning Dragon Professional Individual into an Oracle 319Singing 319Dictating in Foreign Languages 320Using Playback to Say Silly or Embarrassing Things 320Index 321