Tuesday Tip (PC) – Auto-Formatting

Here’s a quick Tuesday Tip for folks using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 for the PC:

You can take advantage of Dragon’s option to automatically insert commas and periods as you dictate—see Auto-Formatting under the DragonBar’s Tools menu. The Help contains details about this “Natural Punctuation” option and the commands to turn it on and off.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Tuesday Tip (PC) – Multiple Word Matches in Dragon 12

Here’s a quick Tuesday Tip for folks using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 for the PC:

When you give commands that quote from your text (e.g. “Select <xyz>” to select and format a specific word in your document), Dragon numbers all matching instances, so you can affect multiple instances at once or disambiguate. Dragon 12 now includes an option to turn this feature off if you prefer, so that your command directly applies to the nearest match.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Thursday Tip (Mac) – Built-in Words

Here’s a quick Thursday Tip for folks using Dragon Dictate for Mac 3:

Dragon Dictate comes with a large repertory of built-in words with cor­rect capitalization and spacing. So, before using these commands, try saying your word (or look it up in the Vocabulary Editor window) to see what Dragon Dictate does. For example, Dragon Dictate handles correctly such terms as “CD-ROM” and “FreeBSD” without your having to worry about spacing, hyphenation, or capitalization.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Dragon Tuesday Tip (PC) – Using the Dictation Box in Google Docs

Here’s a quick Tuesday Tip for folks using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 for the PC:

In applications for which Dragon does not have Full Text Control (represented by the check mark indicator on the DragonBar), Dragon 12 will automatically open the Dictation Box.  For example, when using Google Docs it is suggested that you use the Dictation Box so that you can enjoy Dragon’s normal capabilities as you dictate, correct, and edit your text. Note that this automatic opening is an optional setting, which by default is enabled but can be changed on the Miscellaneous tab of the options dialog. If you disable this option you can always launch the Dictation Box by saying “Open Dictation Box.”

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Ask the Dictator – Smart Format Rules with Dragon 12

Special guest Colleen Hendry, Senior Product Manager for Dragon, demonstrates one of the new features available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 12 – Smart Format Rules.

If you have a topic that you’d like to suggest for a future episode, let us know right here in the comments, or better yet, go to our Ask the Dictator page here and submit your suggestion!

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Dragon Tuesday Tip (PC) – Adding Vocabulary Lists

Here’s a quick Tuesday Tip for folks using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the PC:

If you’re using Dragon for work, your employer may be able to give you some lists that could save you time, particularly if they are already in electronic form: lists of staff or clients, departments, units or divisions, products, trademarks, building names, as well as glossaries of terms and acronyms can be added into your vocabulary so they’ll be more easily recognizable when you dictate later. (for more info see pg. 17 in the workbook)

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Dragon Thursday Tip (Mac) – Customize Your Vocabulary

Here’s a quick Thursday Tip for folks using Dragon Dictate for Mac:

Customizing your vocabulary is important to improve your experience with Dragon. To add a new word or phrase, open the Vocabulary Editor and click the + icon, then type the new word or phrase exactly as you want it to appear during transcription. To learn more about customizing your vocabulary, see pgs. 27-29 in the workbook.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Ask the Dictator – Dictating URLs *fan favorite*

On this week’s episode of Ask the Dictator, we’re bringing back one of our fan favorites from the archives to show you how to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate URLs and hyperlinks. Surfing the Web with Dragon — what a cinch!

Check it out here:

If you have a topic that you’d like to suggest for a future episode, let us know right here in the comments, or better yet, go to our Ask the Dictator page here and submit your suggestion!

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Dragon Tuesday Tip (PC) – “Backspace 5”

Here’s a quick Tuesday Tip for folks using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the PC:

If, after doing some editing in your text, you need to remove trailing white space, you can use commands such as “backspace” or “delete next character” for a single space. A good trick is saying backspace combined with a number: “backspace 5” is like pressing the backspace key 5 times.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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Dragon Thursday Tip (Mac) – “All Caps”

Here’s a quick Thursday Tip for folks using Dragon Dictate for Mac:

Dragon is automatically set-up to capitalize certain words and the beginnings of sentences, but if you want to capitalize an entire word just say “All Caps” followed the word. Note that in the Status window, the first indicator light will glow yellow and will read “ABC” as you’re dictating.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Dragon tips or questions that you’d like us to address here in the comments. We’ll do our best to feature as many as we can here each week!

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