Dragon Naturally Speaking
Tutorial
What is Dragon Naturally Speaking?
• Dragon is a dictation software,
students can dictate a paper rather
than type it.
• Dragon is great for students who
would rather speak than write
their papers or exams.
• It takes about 30 minutes to train
Dragon to recognize your voice.
Once you do, you do not have to
do it again.
The Key Features of Dragon Naturally Speaking are:
• It dictates everything you say into a microphone.
• It has the ability to work with Word documents, the
internet and email.
• It can learn different languages and accents.
• It also has the ability to read back to you everything
you just said, that way you can hear it as well as see it.
How do you use this software?
Step 1: Click on the Dragon icon on
the computer desktop
Step 2: When you first begin using
Dragon you will need to create a
name. You can do this by clicking
on the “New” button.
How do you use this software?
Step 3: You want to create a user so
that every time you use Dragon
from now on you can just select
your name. Type your name, then
click “Next”.
Step 4: Go through Tutorial. It
should only take you 30 minutes.
How can you dictate your paper?
Step 1: Begin by looking for the “Dragon bar” on your computer. If
you have opened Dragon (by clicking on the icon) then it should
be located on the top of your screen.
Step 2: Turn on your microphone by clicking the microphone icon on
your Dragon bar.
Creating New Words
You can add your own words to the Dictionary. This feature is helpful if you’re working
on a paper in a subject area that requires the use of new words, like statistics, any
foreign language, history, etc…
Step 1: Open the Dragon Bar. You can do this when you are in a Word document.
Step 2: Click on the “Words” tab.
Step 3: Choose “New”.
Creating New Words
A box should pop up, which then
you can type any word you want to
add. You may want to click “I want
to train the Pronunciation of this
word” so it knows how to
recognize it later.
A box should pop up for you to
start recording the word you
would like to add. Click “go”, say
your word, then click “Done”.
Training Your Voice
If you would like to train certain words, you can edit them by opening
the Dragon bar and:
Step 1: Click “words”.
Step 2: Click “train”.
Training Your Voice
Step 3: A box should pop up so you can type in the word you want to
train, find it, then click Train.
IMPROVING YOUR ACCURACY
Step 1: Click on “help” and then “Improve my accuracy”
Step 2: A box will pop up. Choose what
the problem is with your dictation.
Navigating on Your Operating System
Step 1: Open the Dragon Bar
Step 2: Turn the microphone on and say any of the following
commands:
“Internet Explorer”
“Microsoft Word”
“Microphone Off”
“Microphone Standby”
Play around and see what else you can do free handedly that you
find helpful.
Using Dragon with Word
Step 1: Open a word document
and turn your microphone on.
Step 2: Dictate what you would
like typed, and it should
automatically start dictating.
Adding Punctuations
Sometimes you will have to say the punctuation you want added,
Such as:
“Period”
“Exclamation point”
“Question Mark”
“Apostrophe”
*you can always go back and edit your punctuation later on as well.
Troubleshooting
If the program is not working:
1. Reboot the computer
2. Try it on another computer
3. Ask Rebecca, Elizabeth or Kirsten for help