From the vendor website:
Dragon NaturallySpeakingTM is a revolutionary product from Dragon Systems. Its high accuracy, fast performance and extensive vocabulary give outstanding recognition for the toughest projects. It's simple. Just speak to the computer naturally—without pausing between words—and watch as sentences appear on the screen. Dictate entire paragraphs at a time. Compose e-mail messages, create reports, draft letters, and edit proposals just by speaking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can be faster and more natural than typing.
Note: the UNT Adaptive Lab provides headphone/microphone units for our adaptive patrons for use with Dragon Naturally Speaking.
A word of advice - Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) is a quite powerful software application but there are a few things to remember about its use:
1. It is process intensive. Other computer functions may run a little more slowly than usual because DNS is using so much CPU power. Be sure to be patient when using DNS because you will have to wait a little longer than you are accustomed to for applications to open, words to appear etc.
2. It requires a great deal of setup and practice on the user's part to get DNS to work. First you must set up a user account in DNS (instructions are below). Then you will need to "train" DNS to recognize your voice. This may take several sessions until you get it to respond accurately. Note: we make every effort to save all users but sometimes DNS will not transfer users properly if we have to re-install the application. So be prepared to have to create a new user again should this occur.
3. DNS is very sensitive to background noise. Our special headphones screen out most noise in the lab but occasionally if the lab is very busy, you may get noise interference from the rest of the room. We have a sound barrier that we can put in front of the DNS station if this gets to be a big problem. Simply ask the lab consultants to move the sound barrier in place for you.
1. Open Dragon Naturally Speaking by double-clicking on the DNS icon on the desktop.
2. From the Dragon Naturally Speaking Menu choose Open/Manage Users.
3. Click on the "New" button.
4. The New User Wizard will come up. Type in your name (we save all users) and use all default settings selected:
5. Position your microphone - the New User Wizard explains how to position your microphone. The microphone should be at the corner of your mouth, not touching your face, and should be pointed towards your mouth (if you are unsure as to whether the mic is pointing to your mouth, temporarily remove the spitscreen to make sure and then put it back on the mic)
6. Do the Volume Check
7. Do the Sound Quality Check
8. Follow the on-screen prompts to begin the process of training DNS to recognize your voice. Training takes place in two parts. For most microphone users, the first part consists of reading two sentences aloud. Click GO to turn on the microphone and then read the sentences shown in the successive screens. Next, the software will ask you to choose a training text to read. Choose the text you prefer and click OK. For the next few minutes you'll read passages that appear on-screen. You can take a break at any time by pressing the PAUSE button. Press GO to resume. You'll be reading for about five minutes. As you speak, the words you say turn from blue to black, showing that DNS hears them. If you stop speaking, a yellow arrow will show you where to begin speaking again. Occasionally, you will read a sentence or paragraph but the yellow arrow will point you back again to the start of what you already read. This indicates that something in the passage you read did not match what DNS expected to hear. Read the passage again, pausing after each sentence. If you cannot get past a particular word after saying it three times, click the SKIP button to continue. Please note that during training, dictating punctuation is not necessary. Also, if you happen to misspeak or mispronounce a word during training, don't worry about it - just continue training.
9. When you've read enough a confirmation message will appear. Click OK to adapt your user files. It may take several minutes for the computer to save your files. When adaptation is complete, follow the on-screen instructions to finish setting up your user files. The DragonBar will appear at the top of the computer screen, waiting for you to start talking.
10. For best accuracy, be sure to complete a second session of general training as soon as possible. Do this by clicking on the Tools menu on the DragonBar, then clicking Accuracy Center. After the Accuracy Center window opens, click "Perform additional training." This second training session will take a bit longer than the first, but the improvement in accuracy will be well worth the additional time spent.
This configuration is necessary for the most accurate use of DNS, MathTalk, and Scientific Notebook.
1. Click on Tools in the DragonBar to open the master menu.
2. Click on Options - this will open the Options Choice Box.
3. Click on Miscellaneous and set the choices as follows:
4. Click HotKeys and set the choices as follows:
5. Click Correction and set the choices as follows:
6. Click Start Up/Shut Down and set the choices as follows:
7. Click APPLY and OK to exit. Restart the computer.
Note: user profiles can be in excess of 40 MB, so please use the appropriate storage medium (i.e. ZipDisk, USB Drive, or CD).
1. Open "My Computer" and then click the C: drive.
2. Click "Program Files"
3. Find the "Dragon" folder and click it.
4. Open the "Naturally Speaking" folder
5. Within this folder you should see a folder labled "Users". Open it.
6. Find the folder with your profile name and copy it to your storage medium.
If you have any problems setting up and training with DNS, please ask the lab consultants to help you. They have been specially trained in this software.