Speech>General FAQ's

We have put together some general FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and product-specific FAQs to answer your questions about speech recognition hardware and software:

General FAQs:

Product-Specific FAQ's:

What are the differences between the versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking®?
Service Pack 1 (SP-1) for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9
What specification PC/Notebook do I need?
How much computer memory do I need for Speech Recognition?
Which Sound Cards are compatible with NaturallySpeaking?
How do I Test My Sound System for Noise?
The Andrea ANC microphones give a low signal to noise value. Why?
How do I restore Select and Say in Microsoft Word 2002 (XP), Word 2003?
How do I restore Select and Say in Microsoft Word 2000?
How do I remove Microsoft Speech from Office XP/Office 2003?
How do I copy my user files from one computer to another?
How do I create a new NaturallySpeaking user and transfer the vocabulary and commands from another user profile?
Why might I need the Andrea APS 100 battery box or Black Converter pin?

General FAQ's

	What are the differences between the different versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking®9?
	Take a look at this table of the differences between versions (Standard is not available from IT Speaking) Note that all new copies are supplied as NaturallySpeaking 9.5 with full support for Windows Vista and Office 2007 as well as Windows XP and listed versions of Microsoft Office :

Usability Features

	Standard	Preferred	Professional Solutions
Short Set-up and User Enrolment	X	X	X
Dictate into most Microsoft® Windows®-based applications	X	X	X
No Training Required	X	X	X
Support for Non-standard Edit Controls	X	X	X
Select-and-Say Indicator	X	X	X
Support for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird	X	X	X
Control menus and dialog boxes in most Windows® XP & 2000-based applications by voice	X	X	X
Simultaneous dictation and command modes	X	X	X
Nothing But Speech (NBS)™	X	X	X
Format and Edit by voice	X	X	X
Natural Punctuation	X	X	X
Mouse control by voice	X	X	X
Say Web and Browser links by voice	X	X	X
USB Audio Support	X	X	X
Performance Optimizer	X	X	X
RealSpeak™ 2 Text-to-Speech		X	X
Dictation Playback		X	X
Save Audio with text dictation			X
Use Hand Held Digital Recorder		X	X
Dictate into Pocket PC or PalmOne Tungsten		X	X
Support for Cordless or Array Microphones			X
Third Party Correction			X
Roaming User			X
Smart Formatting			X
Smart Commands			X
Create Multiple Custom Vocabularies			X

Macro Creation Tools

	Standard	Preferred	Professional Solutions
Text and Graphics Dictation shortcuts		X	X
Complex Macro Support			X
Macro Recorder			X
Basic Scripting Commands			X
Advanced Microsoft® VBA-compatible scripting			X

Specialised Application Support

	Standard	Preferred	Professional Solutions
Internet Explorer 5, 6	X	X	X
Internet Explorer 7 (DNS 9.5)	X	X	X
AOL® 6, 7, 8	X	X	X
Word 2000, 2002, 2003	X	X	X
Word 2007 (DNS 9.5)	X	X	X
WordPerfect® 10, 11, 12	X	X	X
Outlook® Express 5, 6	X	X	X
Excel 2000, 2002, 2003		X	X
Excel 2007 (DNS 9.5)		X	X
Support for Bluetooth Microphones		X	X
Outlook® 2000, 2002, 2003			X
Outlook® 2007 (DNS 9.5)		X	X
PowerPoint® 2000, 2002, 2003			X
PowerPoint® 2007 (DNS 9.5)			X
Lotus Notes® 5, 6			X
InfoPath®			X
"Voice Notation" Feature for Word			X
Citrix Support			X

Enterprise Features

	Standard	Preferred	Professional Solutions
MSI Installer	X	X	X
Import/Export user files		X	X
Import/Export macros			X
Import/Export vocabularies			X
Specialised vocabularies available for purchase			X
Roaming User			X
Network tools for centralised vocabulary management			X
US Section 508 Certified			X

Service Pack 1 (SP-1) for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9
SP-1 for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 was made available on 4th December 2006. See Nuance TechNote 5650 for details.
The Service Pack is only available for download via the Dragon Help menu and Check for Updates.

The following issues are resolved:
"Cannot Load Compatibility module Support".
DNS "freezing" after long utterance (as TechNote 5555).
Bold/Italic/Underline commands work correctly.
Full Support for Internet Explorer 7.
Contents of the DictationBox now stored on the clipboard.
Several Acoustic Optimiser problems corrected.

What specification PC/Notebook do I need?
Dragon NaturallySpeaking®8 will not load with less than a Pentium III processor (or AMD equivalent) of 500 MHz or above. A Pentium 4 is recommended.
Ideally you should have an absolute minimum of 512 MB RAM with 768 MB or 1 GB for preference. Use an approved Sound Card - not an on-board sound chip.
For a notebook a USB sound system is recommended.
Windows 2000 or XP are the most stable operating systems.

How much computer memory do I need for Speech Recognition?
Dragon NaturallySpeaking® can utilise 256 MB above that occupied by the OperatingSystem and active Applications.
We would suggest an absolute minimum of 512 MB of RAM for DNS 7 and DNS 8 but more realistically 1 GB.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking® requires a minimum of 1 GB RAM.

Which Sound Cards are compatible with NaturallySpeaking?
Creative® Labs SoundBlaster® Live, Player and Platinum (card only) or the Audigy Player (MP3) are the only cards we recommend. Built-in sound chips are generally not suitable because of electrical interference, even though they claim to be SoundBlaster® compatible. An excellent alternative is a USB sound system from Andrea, VXi or Buddy/Emkay.
Professional recording cards may give good results but are frequently very difficult to set up. To use Dragon NaturallySpeaking the card must support 11,025 Hz mono, 16-bit sound recording.
The above sound cards and USB devices will give good results when combined with a high quality microphone. This pre-supposes that the user enunciates clearly and paces dictation correctly.

All notebooks and many PCs are now shipped with on-board sound chips. These are frequently poorly shielded from surrounding electrical noise and give very poor recognition accuracy. For a notebook the best solution is a USB sound device.

How do I Test My Sound System for Noise?
A simple way to test the sound card, USB system or microphone is to make a CD-Quality recording using the Windows Sound Recorder. If the playback has significant electronic noise, you will not get good recognition with Dragon NaturallySpeaking™.

Testing Your Microphone and Sound Card:

Go to Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Volume Control (or double click on the speaker icon in the System Tray). This brings up the Play Control (Volume Control). One control should be Microphone with a tick in the Mute box. If Microphone isn't displayed, go to Options | Properties and under "Show the following Volume Controls" tick Microphone (make sure Mute is ticked).
Next, select Options | Properties and click the circle against Recording. Uncheck everything but Microphone and Click OK. The slider should be mid way and Select ticked. Close the dialog.
Go to Sound Recorder (Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Sound Recorder). Click File | Properties. If Audio Format does not say "PCM 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo" click Convert Now, and select "CD-Quality" under Name. Click OK.
Click the Red button and start dictation. The on/mute switch, if present, should be "On". As you dictate, the flat green line should show spikes as the sounds arrive. Click the Stop button (black rectangle) after recording for a few seconds.
Play back your recording. The sound should be clear with little static or electronic noise. If no sound was recorded, move the Microphone Control Slider to maximum. Alternatively, go to Microphone control in #1 above and select Advanced. Choose Microphone Gain (sometimes called AGC or Boost). Make another recording.

Note: Different versions of Windows may have slightly different settings.

The Andrea ANC microphones give a low signal to noise value. Why?
Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) microphones have one element facing the mouth and the other away from it. The inner element samples voice input and the outer samples background noise coming towards the user. Electronic white noise is added to cancel out the background effects. This configuration is highly accurate but produces lower values in the Dragon SNR, in part because this is designed for the cheaper pressure gradient microphones included with the software.

How do I restore Select and Say in Microsoft Word 2002 (XP), Word 2003?
Follow these steps:
Close and re-launch Word.

In Word select Help | About Microsoft Word | Disabled Items.
Click on Addin Microsoft Word 2000 support dll (dgnword.dll).
Press Enable and close the two windows.
Close and re-launch Word.

How do I restore Select and Say in Microsoft Word 2000?
Follow these steps:

In Word got to Tools | Templates and AddIns.
Ensure that dgnword.dot is displayed and checked.

How do I remove Microsoft Speech from Office XP/Office 2003?
Follow these steps:

Click Start | Control Panel and double-click Add/Remove Programs.
In the new window scroll to Microsoft Office and select it. Click the Change button.
In the Add/Remove Wizard check Add/Remove Features and click Next.
In the next window click the + sign next to Office Shared Features.
Click the + sign against Alternative User Input. There should be a red X against Speech - if not click the icon and choose X - Not available.
Click the Update button.

How do I copy my user files from one computer to another?
Follow these steps:

Copy the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking8\users\(your name) on your host computer onto a zip drive, CD-R etc. NB if you use a CD for backup see below.
On the second computer create a new user, with the same name, and complete stage 1 of training.
Close NaturallySpeaking without completing the training.
Open C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking8\users\(your name)folder from your zip drive, CD-R and copy the contents.
Open C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking8\users\(your name) current folder on your second computer and replace the contents of the folder with the contents of the clipboard.

NB: If you are burning a CD-R, zip your user files (current folder) before copying. This way you avoid the problem that "burned" files are Read-Only.
It is worth placing a second copy of you user files in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking8\users\ and naming it, for example, Trained Backup. If your first user file degrades you have a working backup and you can export your vocabulary from the degraded file into the backup.

How do I create a new NaturallySpeaking user and transfer the vocabulary and commands from another user profile?
Follow these steps:

Download and install GetWords/PutWords (if you haven't already).
Open your current user in Dragon and run GetWords (Check the box to include pronunciation). Save the file to a safe and memorable folder.
If you have macros export them to the safe folder. Dragon - Tools|Command Browser, click Manage, click the + sign by Global Commands. Check all the commands you wish to export and click Export.*
Create your new NaturallySpeaking user and read the training selection (Talking to My Computer). Enunciate carefully (but don't over-enunciate) and speak in phrases of several words at a time. Don't let Dragon analyse the contents of the My Documents folder.
Run PutWords and import the file you saved running GetWords.
Import your macro file through the Command Browser.
Analyse typical documents (carefully spellcheck first) using Voctool. Typically this is found at C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking\Program\voctool.exe.

In DNS 8 Professional Voctool is at Start | Programs | Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8.0 | Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tools | Voctool

In DNS 8 Preferred Voctool is accessed via Tools | Accuracy Center | Add Words from your documents to the vocabulary *Alternatively you can move all your macros by copying MyCmds.dat from your old user to your new user.

Why might I need the Andrea APS 100 battery box or Black Converter pin?
Headset microphones for Speech Recognition utilise electret microphone elements. These require a small voltage to allow them to vibrate to the wave pattern of your voice.
Soundcards provide the small (~3 volt) bias voltage either to the tip of the microphone or to the middle ring of the microphone connector. The Creative Labs SoundBlaster line, provide positive DC voltage on the middle ring connector.
The Black Andrea adapter redirects this voltage to the tip of an ANC microphone male connector.
The alternative APS-100 battery box provides the necessary voltage from batteries rather than from the sound card.
NB The Battery Box is neither a voltage booster nor an amplifier. The 2 AAA batteries merely provide the voltage needed by the electret microphone element.

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