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| CALL TOLL-FREE 1- 866-359-7137 (In NJ, 908-359-7137) (for tech support, 908- 359-5182) |
VoxScripta
| TIPS FOR USING DRAGON SUCCESSFULLY |
Sometimes it's surprising to find that people go out and spend a lot of money on software, then don't do the things that will make it work well. Here
are a few tips from the support calls we've gotten that are likely to improve your experience with Dragon.
1. If you are purchasing Dragon for business use, get training! Yes, we know: you talk, you see your words appear, you think it's easy to use. Half
right. Easy to use, not so easy to use well - and that's where your real return-on-investment comes from. Remember how your mom or dad took you
out when you were 14 or so and let you drive the car around a parking lot? You could steer it, make it go forwards and backwards, stop it -- but did
that mean you could drive? Of course not. Same with Dragon.
2. You have a full user guide on the DVD. Take a look at it. You can browse to it and print it out if you like, or just keep it for reference. It shows you
how to improve your accuracy, as well as a host of other things.
3. Make sure you've chosen the right microphone setup in the New User Wizard. The default setting is "Microphone plugged into the mic-in jack,"
and if you're using the microphone that came with your software, this is correct. But if you've purchased a USB microphone (a Philips SpeechMike,
say), or even just added a USB adaptor to your plug-in mic, you're not using the mic-in jack anymore. If you're just starting out, be sure to drop the
"Dictation Source" droplist on the first screen of the New User Wizard and choose "USB microphone." If you're switching over after having already
completed the New User Wizard, you have to click the "Source" button in the "Open User" dialog (under "Dragon") and choose "New." Select "USB
microphone" from the dropdown list. Do the same thing for any other new dictation source you add.
When you're dictating, the source you're actually using will show up after your name on the Extended Tool Bar. If you're using a USB adaptor and the
Extended Tool Bar says "Mary (Mic-In)," you're likely to have problems. It's as if you told Dragon you'd be talking into the front door of the house, so
Dragon goes there and presses its ear up to the front door, and meanwhile you've decided to talk in the back door upstairs.
4. MAKE CORRECTIONS ! ! ! This is one of the two biggest things you can do to improve accuracy. Dragon has a rather average picture of your voice
following enrollment - you have to teach it the idiosyncrasies. If you don't correct misrecognitions, it will be making the same mistakes six months
from now that it's making on the first day. Making corrections does not mean taking your mouse and crossing out something and typing in the right
word. It means saying "Correct <word>" and using either the Spell dialog or the Correction menu. Doing this improves the software: Dragon is
"smart" software, and if you correct it when it gets things wrong, it gets better and better. If you don't, it won't. Just resign yourself to making a lot of
them for the first week or two, and if you do, you won't have to correct much after that.
5. Add words to your vocabulary. Dragon only knows the words in its vocabulary. If you have checked the option that says "Add corrections to
vocabulary," correcting an individual word (a name, say) will insert that word into your vocabulary. If you have not, it won't. And it won't understand it in
the future no matter how many times you spell it or train it. So if your partner's name is an unusual one, and you'll be using it a lot, add it to the
vocabulary. The downside to the automatic addition is that your vocabulary can fill up with a lot of words you might not necessarily want to save - and
for every one it adds, it boots another one out the back door.
6. Run electronic documents YOU have written through the vocabulary builder. If you go to the Accuracy Center and choose "Add words from
documents," you will be given the opportunity to have Dragon analyze your documents, pull words out that it finds that are not in the vocabulary,
analyze your writing style. It's a quick and dirty way to add words -- but look the list of proposed additions over, and don't add commonplace words
that are only on the list because they are capitalized as the result of having been found in a heading, or words that are typos. The more important
thing is that Dragon will analyze the way you write -- the frequency with which you use certain words, for example, and the context in which you use
them. For this reason, it's important to choose only documents that YOU have written -- not your officemate. The analysis is a little like card-counting
in blackjack: it sort of stacks the deck in favor of recognizing that pattern when it confronts it again. It's a small thing to do that many people skip,
which is a shame because it's remarkably effective.
You can also run the Vocabulary Optimizer to achieve the same effect.
7. Don't speak the second you turn on the microphone. The mic needs a couple seconds to initialize - if you don't provide it, you'll find the first
couple words of your dictation cut off every time. You might say something like "Testing" before you start, then wait for the word "Testing" to appear in
your document before proceeding.
8. Make every word you dictate a complete word. You can speak very quickly with Dragon, but it has to be clear. Dragon doesn't understand
"implied" words. Implied words are like when you start out a sentence "The patient came in today....", but instead of saying that, you say "[Th] PAtient,"
thinking that Dragon will know that because you inserted your tongue between your teeth and breathed a little, you meant the word "the." It won't.
That sort of dictation will produce "Patient came in today..."
9. Make yourself some macros. The half-hour you spend to make a few macros to automate the things you say ten times a day will repay you that
half-hour a thousand times over. Aside from Advanced Scripting, macros can be made by anyone with the IQ of a piece of celery.
10. Use playback as a diagnostic tool. If Dragon seems to misrecognize a lot, use the playback feature to hear what Dragon is hearing, especially if
the "voicebar" (the bar next to the microphone icon that is alternately green and yellow) shows a lot of red. Highlight some text and say (or click, under
Sound), "Play that back." You'll hear your own voice dictating, but listen to see if there's a lot of static, humming, or other sound problems. Those can
really interfere with Dragon's ability to understand you. You might have a bad microphone (they don't last forever), or a lot of internal noise in the
machine (laptops can be susceptible to this). But you won't know unless you listen.
are a few tips from the support calls we've gotten that are likely to improve your experience with Dragon.
1. If you are purchasing Dragon for business use, get training! Yes, we know: you talk, you see your words appear, you think it's easy to use. Half
right. Easy to use, not so easy to use well - and that's where your real return-on-investment comes from. Remember how your mom or dad took you
out when you were 14 or so and let you drive the car around a parking lot? You could steer it, make it go forwards and backwards, stop it -- but did
that mean you could drive? Of course not. Same with Dragon.
2. You have a full user guide on the DVD. Take a look at it. You can browse to it and print it out if you like, or just keep it for reference. It shows you
how to improve your accuracy, as well as a host of other things.
3. Make sure you've chosen the right microphone setup in the New User Wizard. The default setting is "Microphone plugged into the mic-in jack,"
and if you're using the microphone that came with your software, this is correct. But if you've purchased a USB microphone (a Philips SpeechMike,
say), or even just added a USB adaptor to your plug-in mic, you're not using the mic-in jack anymore. If you're just starting out, be sure to drop the
"Dictation Source" droplist on the first screen of the New User Wizard and choose "USB microphone." If you're switching over after having already
completed the New User Wizard, you have to click the "Source" button in the "Open User" dialog (under "Dragon") and choose "New." Select "USB
microphone" from the dropdown list. Do the same thing for any other new dictation source you add.
When you're dictating, the source you're actually using will show up after your name on the Extended Tool Bar. If you're using a USB adaptor and the
Extended Tool Bar says "Mary (Mic-In)," you're likely to have problems. It's as if you told Dragon you'd be talking into the front door of the house, so
Dragon goes there and presses its ear up to the front door, and meanwhile you've decided to talk in the back door upstairs.
4. MAKE CORRECTIONS ! ! ! This is one of the two biggest things you can do to improve accuracy. Dragon has a rather average picture of your voice
following enrollment - you have to teach it the idiosyncrasies. If you don't correct misrecognitions, it will be making the same mistakes six months
from now that it's making on the first day. Making corrections does not mean taking your mouse and crossing out something and typing in the right
word. It means saying "Correct <word>" and using either the Spell dialog or the Correction menu. Doing this improves the software: Dragon is
"smart" software, and if you correct it when it gets things wrong, it gets better and better. If you don't, it won't. Just resign yourself to making a lot of
them for the first week or two, and if you do, you won't have to correct much after that.
5. Add words to your vocabulary. Dragon only knows the words in its vocabulary. If you have checked the option that says "Add corrections to
vocabulary," correcting an individual word (a name, say) will insert that word into your vocabulary. If you have not, it won't. And it won't understand it in
the future no matter how many times you spell it or train it. So if your partner's name is an unusual one, and you'll be using it a lot, add it to the
vocabulary. The downside to the automatic addition is that your vocabulary can fill up with a lot of words you might not necessarily want to save - and
for every one it adds, it boots another one out the back door.
6. Run electronic documents YOU have written through the vocabulary builder. If you go to the Accuracy Center and choose "Add words from
documents," you will be given the opportunity to have Dragon analyze your documents, pull words out that it finds that are not in the vocabulary,
analyze your writing style. It's a quick and dirty way to add words -- but look the list of proposed additions over, and don't add commonplace words
that are only on the list because they are capitalized as the result of having been found in a heading, or words that are typos. The more important
thing is that Dragon will analyze the way you write -- the frequency with which you use certain words, for example, and the context in which you use
them. For this reason, it's important to choose only documents that YOU have written -- not your officemate. The analysis is a little like card-counting
in blackjack: it sort of stacks the deck in favor of recognizing that pattern when it confronts it again. It's a small thing to do that many people skip,
which is a shame because it's remarkably effective.
You can also run the Vocabulary Optimizer to achieve the same effect.
7. Don't speak the second you turn on the microphone. The mic needs a couple seconds to initialize - if you don't provide it, you'll find the first
couple words of your dictation cut off every time. You might say something like "Testing" before you start, then wait for the word "Testing" to appear in
your document before proceeding.
8. Make every word you dictate a complete word. You can speak very quickly with Dragon, but it has to be clear. Dragon doesn't understand
"implied" words. Implied words are like when you start out a sentence "The patient came in today....", but instead of saying that, you say "[Th] PAtient,"
thinking that Dragon will know that because you inserted your tongue between your teeth and breathed a little, you meant the word "the." It won't.
That sort of dictation will produce "Patient came in today..."
9. Make yourself some macros. The half-hour you spend to make a few macros to automate the things you say ten times a day will repay you that
half-hour a thousand times over. Aside from Advanced Scripting, macros can be made by anyone with the IQ of a piece of celery.
10. Use playback as a diagnostic tool. If Dragon seems to misrecognize a lot, use the playback feature to hear what Dragon is hearing, especially if
the "voicebar" (the bar next to the microphone icon that is alternately green and yellow) shows a lot of red. Highlight some text and say (or click, under
Sound), "Play that back." You'll hear your own voice dictating, but listen to see if there's a lot of static, humming, or other sound problems. Those can
really interfere with Dragon's ability to understand you. You might have a bad microphone (they don't last forever), or a lot of internal noise in the
machine (laptops can be susceptible to this). But you won't know unless you listen.