Creating and working with text
Creating text in your application
- Open Dragon Professional Anywhere.
- Place the cursor in your application where you want the text to be written.
- Click
or press the plus sign on your number key pad and start speaking.
If you have placed the cursor in a text field that Dragon Professional Anywhere fully supports, the text is written there, and the full range of functionality related to dictating text and editing it via voice is available (Full Text Control).
If you have placed the cursor in a text field that is unknown to Dragon Professional Anywhere, the following options are available:
- The Dictation Box opens and the text is written there; the full range of functionality related to dictating text and editing it via voice is available. When you are finished, click
or say transfer text; the text is moved to where you originally placed the cursor and deleted from the Dictation Box.
- You dictate in your text field, using Basic Text Control; that means that only basic speech recognition functionality is supported, without the ability to navigate, edit or format the text using your voice. The ring around the microphone icon
indicates that you are using Basic Text Control. To be able to use full speech recognition functionality, say open Dictation Box.
By default, the Dictation Box is used. If you prefer to dictate directly in your text field, open the Text Input pane of the Options dialog box and select Use Basic Text Control in the What happens when the cursor is placed in an unknown text field? section. When you use Basic Text Control, make sure you have placed the cursor in a text field before you start recording, and stop recording before you move the focus away from the text field; otherwise, you will lose text.
Note: If your administrator has configured system-wide settings regarding the use of Basic Text Control, your settings might not apply in all text fields. For more information, contact your administrator.
Tips
- Keep an eye on the volume meter, when it lights up in green you know that the system is picking up your voice, and the progress indicator circles round when speech recognition is taking place.
Note: When your workstation is locked, recording is stopped and pressing any microphone button will be ignored.
Tips on working with the Dictation Box
- To recall text from your application to the Dictation Box, click
or say recall text. The text is moved back to the Dictation Box where it will replace any text written in the meantime. The recalled text will not be deleted from your application.
- To work in the Dictation Box without seeing the text being written there, say hide Dictation Box; to display it again, say show Dictation Box. Alternatively, you can show or hide the Dictation Box via hotkey or microphone button or by clicking
and selecting Show/Hide Dictation Box.
- To clear all text from the Dictation Box, click
.
- To re-size the Dictation Box, drag the corners.
- To format text, use the formatting options.
- You can configure the behavior of the Dictation Box in the Text Input pane of the Options dialog box.
- You can also edit text in the Dictation Box that has been written in an application that is not fully supported.
Anchoring the speech focus
When you anchor the speech focus to your target application, you can open and navigate through other applications without removing the speech focus from the target application; this means that the recognition results will be written into the anchored application, even if you click in another application while dictating. You can anchor the speech focus only to applications that Dragon Professional Anywhere fully supports.
To anchor the speech focus, do the following:
- Open Dragon Professional Anywhere and your target application.
- Place the cursor where you want the text to be written and press CTRL + ALT + A or say anchor dictation to anchor the speech focus to your target application. The
icon changes to
.
- Open any other application you need for analysis or reference.
- Click
and start speaking; the icon changes to
and the text is written in your target application.
You can change which application has the speech focus anchored to it any time. Anchoring the speech focus to another application automatically releases the speech focus from the application it was previously anchored to.
Tips
-
Set the speech focus to be anchored automatically via the General pane of the Options dialog box.
-
To release the speech focus from your target application, close it or say release dictation.
-
If the speech focus is anchored to an application and you open the Dictation Box, the speech focus is released from the application. If the Dictation Box is open when you anchor the speech focus to an application, it is automatically closed.
Editing text
You can use your keyboard and mouse to edit the recognized text:
- Type new text to correct misrecognized text.
- Place the cursor somewhere in the text and then record to insert new text.
- Select text and then record to overwrite existing text with new text.
You can also edit text via voice command (for example, by saying scratch that).
Note: If the cursor is placed in an unknown text field and you use Basic Text Control to dictate, editing the text via voice is not supported. If you manually select recognized text or place the cursor somewhere in the text and record, capitalization and spacing might not be correct as Dragon Professional Anywhere cannot see the surrounding text.
If you are working in an application that Dragon Professional Anywhere fully supports, you can edit and correct directly in that application.
If you are working in the Dictation Box, we recommend that you edit and correct the text there and only transfer the text to your application once it is final. This ensures that your corrections are included in adaptation.
Editing text written in an application that is not fully supported
When you are working with an application that Dragon Professional Anywhere does not fully support, you can add existing text you want to edit to the Dictation Box and edit it there.
Proceed as follows:
- In the Options dialog box open the Text Input pane, select the Add the selected text from the target application to the Dictation Box check box and click Apply All.
- Open your target application and select the text you want to edit.
- Open Dragon Professional Anywhere and expand the Dictation Box.
- Place the cursor where you want new text to be added, click
or press the plus sign on your number key pad and start speaking.
- Edit the text, if necessary, and when you are finished, click
or say transfer text.
The text you selected is available.
The text is transferred to your target application and deleted from the Dictation Box.