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Get the most from Dragon Professional V16

Tips and tricks to make the most of all the features available

Dragon Professional V16 has lots of incredible tools and features, but it can be difficult to know where to start, or what they all are. To help you get the most out of your speech recognition software, we've put together some more information about best practice, helpful hints, and some of the least well-known but impressive features.

Making corrections

One of the quickest ways to improve Dragon Professional V16's accuracy is to use the software itself to change incorrect spellings, synonyms or put in a new word.

Word suggestions

If the wrong spelling or word has been put into your text, say "Select <word>" and Dragon will highlight the word you've asked.

A pop-out box will then open with:

  • alternative spellings

  • synonyms

  • format options such as Noun-casing or ALL-CAPS

Replacing words

Similarly after asking Dragon to highlight a word by using the "Select <word>" command, you can replace it with a new word entirely simply by saying the new word.

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Auto-texts

Auto-texts are an amazing way to make your speech to text more efficient. If you have sentences, paragraphs or complete documents that you use on a regular basis, configure your auto-texts with command phrases to insert what you need. No more copy & paste!

Go to Tools > Command Centre > Add new auto-text

In the first box, enter the command phrase that you want to say to enter the text

Tip: Make this phrase something that you won't need to be able to say and have the exact words transcribed, or use accidentally e.g. "Dear sir"

In the larger box, enter the text that you want the command phrase to then trigger.

Fillable fields

With your auto-texts, if you have boiler-plate text that you want to trigger with a command phrase, but need customisable fields within the text, you can create fields using [delimiters].

When configuring the auto-text, use square brackets [  ] to put in fields that you can fill in afterwards. You can also label your fields e.g. [Name], [Address line 1], [Address line 2], [Postcode]. That way, when you've entered your auto-text with the command phrase, you can then fill in the fields.

To navigate the fields, use "Next field" and "Previous field" to highlight each one.

Tip: If any delimiters [ ]  are left behind at the end, using the command "Clear variable delimiters" to remove them in a single step!

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App controls

As well as the essential dictating text into apps, Dragon Professional V16 also has built-in commands for controlling eligible apps on your PC.

Opening and switching

Say "Open <app>" to launch a programme such as Microsoft Outlook, or "Show desktop" to quickly go to your home screen. 

To change from one app to another, say "Switch to <app>". 

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MouseGrid

Within the deeper accessibility features, you can use voice commands to control your cursor and mouse positions, including clicking the mouse, dragging, selecting etc. The simplest way to navigate your screen with your voice is with MouseGrid.

To move the pointer around your screen:

  1. Say "MouseGrid".

    Numbered areas appear.

  2. Say "<number>".

    The pointer moves to the centre of the area, and Dragon redraws the grid smaller.

  3. Repeat step 2 until your mouse is hovering over the thing you want to click.

  4. Do one of the following:

    • Say "Go" to close the grid.
    • Say another number to move the pointer again.
    • Say "Click" to select what your mouse is hovered over.

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Even more features

There's so much to discover with Dragon Professional V16. Why not purchase some training? Or visit the full guide from Nuance here.