Tim’s right “I would also recommend the student completes as much voice training as they can stand”
Further to that, if the user really wants to make progress they MUST correct every mistake made by Training the words it gets wrong/
Two ways of doing that, the first:
Let’s say that I’ve just said “UCLan” but Dragon typed “you can” – follow the seven steps below to correct it
“Select you can”
“Spell that “
“Cap U Cap C Cap
L a n”
“Train”
“Go”
“UCLan”
“Done”
This method is extremely reliable
Secondly use the <Train word> command. The advantage to using this, is that you can use it to train Dragon commands.
So, let’s say Dragon was mishearing the command <wake up>
“Train word”
Type in the word –
wake up –in the edit box titled Enter the word or phrase you want to train
Take the tick out of the box
Add word or phrase to the vocabulary
“Train”
“Go”
“wake up”
“Done”
These two methods are the cornerstone to getting Dragon to “behave” itself!
Best wishes
John
John Hodgson
Technical Adviser
Disability Services
University of Central Lancashire
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tim Symons
Sent: 15 December 2011 15:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Struggles with the Dragon
Here, here Mark.
Andrea or Plantronics headsets are usually the best, with my personal preference being Plantronics, and correct positioning of the mike is VITAL to recognition.
Tim Symons | AT Trainer/Needs Assessor | Access SUMMIT – Joint Universities Disability
Assessment, Training and Personal Support Centre
St Peter's House | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13 9GH
0161 275 0995 | Email:-
[log in to unmask] |
www.access-summit.org.uk |
www.supportingstudents.org.uk
This email and any files sent with it are intended only for the named recipient and may be confidential. If you are not the
named recipient please email the sender immediately then delete this message. You should not disclose the content, distribute or retain any copies of this message.
From: Cowling, Mark [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 December 2011 15:14
To: Tim Symons; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Struggles with the Dragon
I use DragonDictate quite a lot. In addition to the sensible advice already given, I would add the following. You need to have
the most powerful computer you can lay your hands on, and you should also maximise its random access memory. You should also get hold of the best possible microphone – guidance on possible microphones is available from the Nuance website. You don't, in my
view, gain any very great benefit from having a top of the range version. You do however definitely benefit from buying new editions as they come out. It is also important for the student to follow the procedure for correcting the vocabulary, as this enhances
accuracy. And the Help feature of Dragon offers further useful advice about improving accuracy.
I haven't used it for navigating around the computer, so I can't really offer any advice on that.
Good luck!
Mark Cowling
Dr Mark Cowling
Professor of Criminology and Marxism
SSSL, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA Tel +44 (0)1642 342338; SSSL Office 342315; Fax: 342399
Home: 8, Thackeray Grove, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough TS5 7QX +44 (0)1642 281927
This message has been produced using voice dictation software. If it is mad or insulting this is probably the result of my faulty proofreading. Try substituting another word which sounds similar, or possibly the opposite!
From: Discussion list for disabled students
and their support staff. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tim Symons [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 December 2011 13:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Struggles with the Dragon
All versions of Word have differences in coding. Visually, they may look similar, but MS always makes changes or do something slightly different. This may be what Nuance was talking about.
In addition, Dragon is not perfect, and has never purported to be. Originally a business product, aimed at replacing Dictation Secretaries, its strengths lie in narration into MS Word.
Saying that, its very very good at ALMOST doing away with a Mouse and Keyboard. Its main difficulties, in my experience as an AT Trainer, is in focusing on the active window – which sounds like the case here
– just because the ‘Find’ box is visible over the document does not mean that that Dragon is aware it is activated.
This can be rectified with the ‘Switch To’ command (Desktop/Microsoft Word/particular window etc etc), so ‘Switch To Find Box’ or similar may be useful.
I would also recommend the student completes as much voice training as they can stand – reading the various sample chapters – and also individual words and phrases. However, there will always be situations where
dragon will not recognise a particular phrase or command, and then the student MUST use a keyboard or mouse.
Dragon is no Panacea – but its getting there!
Cheers
Tim Symons | AT Trainer/Needs Assessor | Access SUMMIT – Joint Universities Disability
Assessment, Training and Personal Support Centre
St Peter's House | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13 9GH
0161 275 0995 | Email:-
[log in to unmask] |
www.access-summit.org.uk |
www.supportingstudents.org.uk
This email and any files sent with it are intended only for the named recipient and may be confidential. If you are not the named recipient please email
the sender immediately then delete this message. You should not disclose the content, distribute or retain any copies of this message.
From: Discussion list for disabled students
and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Patrick Adams
Sent: 15 December 2011 11:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Struggles with the Dragon
Hi
If anyone has any light to shed on this conundrum.
I support a PH D student who needs Dragon NS to overcome back and upper body pain. She complained that her version 10 preferred was causing her extra work, delays to her progress because of the rate
of inaccuracy. I recommended an upgrade to 11.5 because feedback said this version had greatly improved accuracy.
She upgraded to version 11.5 premium but has had endless trouble despite frequent support calls from nuance at supervisor level.
The difficulty is that voice commands within Word are not reliable, e.g. you cannot dictate into a Find edit box but have to copy and paste and other inconsistences like that. They have provided her
with version 10.1 Professional but this still displays the same behaviour suggesting the problem may be in the student's profile.
The point I would like any comment on is that made by Nuance that the student's Word (student Edition for Office 2010) version has bugs with the version of Dragon she is using. My information so far
is that the only difference between Word versions is in the licensing and not in the coding. I would also be grateful for any experience with current versions of Dragon working with Office products that may shed light on this problem.
I would be grateful for anyone's experience.
Best wishes
Patrick Adams
Disability and Assistive Technology Advisor