![]() ![]() Most of the commands are for Office applications, but it's nice to see support for full dictation in Gmail, and Yahoo Mail for those and the IE, Chrome, Firefox and Explorer commands, you need to be in the right application first (it would be nice just to be able to say 'Outlook new meeting' from the desktop, but the best you can do there is to use the various voice commands for switching between open applications, windows and documents to navigate. There are some useful general Windows commands like 'Start menu', 'show desktop', 'reboot the computer' and 'add a printer'. The list of commands built into NaturallySpeaking 13 - you can try adding your own too. Whether you find that useful subliminal training or passive-aggressive attention-seeking depends on how much of the time you type and how much you use voice control and dictation. ![]() The Dragon bar shrinks down when you don't have the mouse near it, but unless you minimize it, it pops up a bright-green tooltip at intervals to tell you the microphone is off and if you leave the microphone on and start typing, it displays hints for what you could have said instead of hitting the keys (there is a surprisingly long list of possibilities for entering a single quote, for example). There are commands to move the cursor, so you'll want to learn those to avoid using the mouse to get into the right place. ![]() Handy features include choosing which of several instances of the word you want to correct, choosing from a numbered list of options, or spelling out the word, although that can also leave the cursor in the wrong place in your sentence. When Dragon hasn't understood you, you can do most corrections with your voice. ![]() Also irritating are the times when Dragon asks you to say something again, but it turns out it's just thinking and you end up with two copies of the phrase. Similar-sounding words aren't always correct for example we kept getting 'as your' when we meant 'Azure', although you do have the option of giving the system-specific training on those mistakes. An annoying failure was when the tutorial asked us to say 'period' to end a sentence with the region set to UK, Dragon only accepts 'full stop', so you can say 'period' until you're hoarse without being able to finish the tutorial. NaturallySpeaking is generally very good at recognising clearly and slowly dictated text on our test system, even with little training and when there was background noise like passing planes or someone coughing in the room. Using a laptop microphone has been hit-and-miss in the past, but results were excellent on our test Surface Pro 3, even when the Surface was on a lap rather than on a desk (putting the microphone quite some distance from your mouth). One of the big advances in NaturallySpeaking 13 is working with microphones built into laptops rather than making you put on a headset. Using your laptops's built-in microphone means you don't need an awkward headset. Saving your profile takes a surprisingly long 45 seconds, whereupon the Dragon bar appears at the top of your screen with the Learning Center help system open on top of all your other windows, and a tutorial automatically opens to show you the basics (and sneak a little more training past you). On launching the software you still have to pick your audio device (microphone, audio recording or even a phone) and read a few paragraphs of text that Dragon uses to check the microphone setup and background noise levels, teach you how to speak to the software and start training itself on your particular voice. If you click the icon Dragon leaves on your desktop without asking, you get a list of tips and update suggestions in the Software Manager. When the software is finally installed, you have to activate it - even if you entered your licence key during installation. While the software installs, tips are displayed on-screen while you deal with a registration dialog. The range of English accents and dialects is excellent, but the NaturallySpeaking installer is old-school. ![]()
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