How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition program that can be used to navigate your computer and compose text without the use of your keyboard or mouse. To get started, you will need to create a user profile, setup your microphone,...

Method 1 of 3:

Setting Up Dragon

  1. Picture 1 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Connect your Microphone to your computer. Since Dragon NaturallySpeaking is voice dictation software, you must have a microphone connected and turned on in order to use the software.
    1. The software will detect any connected microphones automatically.
  2. Picture 2 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Open Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Before using the software, you will need to complete some configuration wizards to create a user profile and configure the software settings.
  3. Picture 3 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Create a user profile. You will need to provide your name, age, regional accent, and select a connected microphone from the list of devices. After creating your profile you will be prompted to configure your microphone.
    1. Choose 'Standard' if you don't want any regional accent to apply.
  4. Picture 4 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Perform a Volume Check. Click 'Start Volume Check' and read the sample text into your microphone. You will hear a beep when the volume check is complete.
    1. The setup will provide tips on microphone placement for optimal functionality.
  5. Picture 5 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Perform an Audio Quality Check. Click 'Start Quality Check' and read another sample into your microphone. You will hear a beep when the check is complete. If the check passes you can press 'Continue' to move on to training or start using the software.
    1. If the check does not pass, you will be prompted to adjust your device and perform the check again.
  6. Picture 6 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Choose a training options. There are 3 options: 'Show Text With Prompting', 'Show Text Without Prompting', and 'Skip Training'.
    1. You can press 'Pause' at anytime during the training.
    2. If you choose to skip the initial training, you can access it again from 'Profile > Open Profile' and then 'Open' after selecting your profile from the list.
  7. Picture 7 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Train your Dragon (with prompts). A yellow arrow will point to the word for you to read and will change color when it is recognized. Once you've read all the words, click 'OK' to continue.
    1. You can click 'Redo' or 'Skip' on any word that is giving you trouble.
  8. Picture 8 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Train your Dragon (no prompts). You can choose to print or view a block of text to read. Once you have read enough you will see a 'Congratulations' message and can click 'OK' to continue.
    1. Initial training takes about five minutes.
Method 2 of 3:

Using Dragon to Perform Actions

  1. Picture 9 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Control your microphone. Say 'Stop listening' or 'Wake up' to disable/enable your microphone.
    1. You can also say 'Microphone off' to turn off the mic entirely (you will have to turn it back on manually).
  2. Picture 10 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Navigate windows. You can manipulate the windows displayed on your computer with commands like 'Switch to ', 'Minimize window', or 'Show desktop'.
  3. Picture 11 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Navigate menus. Dragon will recognize common menu names when spoken, like 'File' or 'View'. Once open, you can move the cursor through the menu with 'Move up ' or 'Move down ' and select them by saying 'Mouse click' or 'Press Enter'.
    1. You can use a number from one to twenty to skip scroll slowly or quickly.
    2. Dragon will also recognize 'Mouse double click' or 'Mouse right click'.
  4. Picture 12 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Search with Dragon. Say 'Search for ' to search your computer, documents, or email.
    1. For example, 'Search documents for resume.doc'.
  5. Picture 13 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Browse the web. While basic voice commands for menus and text fields will work, you will need to tall the Dragon web extension for your preferred browser to use browser specific commands, such as 'Click link', 'Refresh page', or 'Open new tab', among others.
Method 3 of 3:

Using Dragon to Write

  1. Picture 14 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Open a text editor. Dragon includes its own text editor, 'DragonPad', but will also work with other programs like Microsoft Word. Say 'Start' or 'Open' followed by the name of the program you want to use.
    1. Dragon will work for other text-based applications as well, like email clients.
  2. Picture 15 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Speak in complete sentences or individual words. There is a slight delay between your speech and the text displaying on the page but by design Dragon is designed to capture your normal speech and match a good typing speed.
    1. State 'Period' at the end of a sentence. Dragon will not enter punctuation automatically.
  3. Picture 16 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Spell out specific words. Say 'Spell' followed by the letters to spell a word. You can also re-spell a typed word by saying 'Select ' followed by 'Spell that'. A window will appear to dictate a new spelling for that word.
    1. Say 'cap ' while spelling to capitalize a letter.
    2. Say 'Switch to spell mode' if you will be spelling out a lot of words'
    3. You can also use the phonetic alphabet to spell (alpha, bravo, charlie, etc.).
  4. Picture 17 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Adjust your font. Say 'Set font points' or 'Set font ' to change the font size or style.
    1. Your word processor must support whatever font style or size you command Dragon to use.
  5. Picture 18 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Move the cursor. Commands like 'Go to end of line', 'Page Up/Down', or 'Go to Top/Bottom' can be used to move the cursor large distances quickly. For finer adjustments, use 'Insert before ' or 'Move left/right characters'.
  6. Picture 19 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Add new space. Say 'New line', 'New paragraph', or call out specific keystrokes, like 'Press Enter' and 'Press Tab'.
    1. You can perform multiple keystrokes by saying 'Press times'.
  7. Picture 20 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Use contextual commands to make changes. Use words like 'this' or 'that', combined with commands, to manipulate you last word or phrase. You can also use words like, 'Previous line' or 'next word' to make changes based on your cursor placement.
  8. Picture 21 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Change text formatting. Commands like, 'Bold', 'Underline', 'Bullet', 'Strikethrough' will all perform their usual word processing functions.
    1. Combine these commands with contextual commands to make formatting changes on the fly, like 'Bold selection' or 'Bullet that'.
  9. Picture 22 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Make corrections and edits. The 'Correct' command will bring up a window of other word options when Dragon makes a mistake. Regular word processing commands can be used as Dragon edits as well.
    1. Commands like 'Undo,' 'Cut/Paste' will work like normal. 'Delete', 'Backspace', or 'Scratch that' can all be used to remove small or large amounts of text when paired with an amount.
  10. Picture 23 of How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
    Complete your document. Use commands like 'Save As' or 'Send'. Remember, you can always use voice commands to browse the menus if your program of choice is having trouble with the functional commands like these.
Update 05 March 2020
dragonlikecommandsword

You should read it

Maybe you are interested

Category

System

Mac OS X

Hardware

Game

Tech info

Technology

Science

Life

Application

Electric

Program

Mobile