| The way you talk to Dragon NaturallySpeaking can have a big impact on how accurate the recognition results are. Here are some basic tips: |
| • Talk at a normal pace. You do not have to talk
slowly to NatSpeak even if you have a slow machine.
Talking slower will actually degrade recognition
accuracy. • Talk continuously. NatSpeak recognizes longer utterances much better than shorter ones. Avoid speaking one word at time since this does not help accuracy (although you can speak a single word while correcting.) • Verbalize every word. NatSpeak can not read your mind. If you want NatSpeak to recognize a word, you must say the word. In conversations between people, speakers can sometime drop words or slur words together. If you drop a word, do not expect NatSpeak to find it. That said, NatSpeak does include shortened pronunciations of small function words like "n" for "and". • Talk the way you trained. When you ran General Training, you spoke a certain way and Dragon NaturallySpeaking learnt the way you talk from those sample. If you speak like you are reading something, your accuracy may improve. Similarly, you can rerun General Training, trying to train the way you dictate. • Think first, talk second. Composing while dictating is a new skill for many people. The trick is to think ahead. Try to think about what you are going to say before you say it. Then, when you say it, your dictation will be clearer because you already know what you are going to say. If you talk without thinking, you will find that your words get mumbled as you change your mind as you speak. • Dragon NautrallySpeaking will understand "natural" speech but not "conversational" speech. Pretend that you are a broadcast journalist reading the news from behind an anchor desk. Not like you are talking to your friend over coffee. I have attached a sample of my dictating into Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The file is called sample.wav and you can downloaded it and play it using the Sound recorder. "I am dictating this paragraph to teach you how to talk to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You should speak in a natural tone and at a comfortable pace. However, you should be sure to speak every word and try not to stutter or say um. Pause around commands, for example ...scratch that...copy all to clipboard... When you spell, you should speak reasonably fast to avoid double letters ...spell that l e t t...choose 2... Finally, try to relax, it really helps." If all else fails, try practicing dictation by reading from a newpaper. I always find that my accurcy goes up if I read from a paper or if I dictate like I am reading from a paper. |