Just as the competition is struggling to copy what we did before, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is blazing ahead in its correction technology.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 3.0 includes some new correction commands that long time Dragon users will find extremely useful.

-- "Select <text> Through <text>".  This command needs almost no explanation.  It allows you to select a block of text by simply indicating the word(s) at the beginning of the block and the word (s) at the end of the block.  For example, you can select the first paragraph of this web page by saying "Select just as the Through extremely useful".

-- "Insert Before <text>" and "Insert After <text>".  These two commands allow you to reposition the cursor before or after a block of text so that you can add additional text.  Saying "Insert Before <text>" is equivalent to saying "Select <text>" followed by "Go to Beginning of Selection".

-- "Resume With <text>".  This is the most innovative of the new commands.  (I would like to take credit for its invention but it wasn't me.) Resume With was designed as a method of performing error correction while dictating into a handheld recorder.  When using a handheld recorder, if you misspeak, the command Scratch That is not that useful because you're never sure where the last pause was.  However, Resume With allows you to quickly and conveniently change your mind about the last thing that you said.

This is how it works.  Let's pretend that you dictated the following "this is a test sentence which I am going to garble mumble mumble mumble".  You can fix this by first pausing, and then giving the command "Resume With going to dictate correctly".  The Resume With command when used in this example will change the text dictated to read "this is a test sentence which I am going to dictate correctly".

To use the Resume With command, you have to follow the command with one or more words which were dictated correctly and then any number of words which you want to follow the correctly dictated words.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking will automatically align the words immediately following the Resume With command with the previously dictated text.  And then overlay the remainder of the text with the new text.

Resume With makes it possible to quickly change your mind or correct misspoken text when using a recorder.  You no longer need to rewind the recorder find where you want to start dictating again and overlay the dictation.  However, I also find that the Resume With command is extremely convenient for using when you are dictating live.  You never have to wait for Dragon NaturallySpeaking to catch up if it gets a little behind you, if you know you misspoken.  You simply use the Resume With command to correct any misspoken text.

In addition to the new correction commands, with Dragon NaturallySpeaking's NaturallyMobile feature you also get a new toolbar called the Playback toolbar.  This toolbar looks like this:



The new Playback toolbar makes it possible to correct a large section of your document quickly and efficiently.  To use the playback toolbar, you first select the block of text you want to correct.  Then you click the first button (which looks like a right pointing arrow head).  This starts playback.  Then, as Dragon NaturallySpeaking plays back your voice, if you see that the text does not match your voice you can hit the correction hotkey, or hit the button on the Playback toolbar which looks like a lasso.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking will then display the Correction Dialog on the last phrase which was played back.

The second button which is a simple red square stops the playback.  The third button, two right pointing angle brackets, allows you to speed up the correction or skip ahead.  The fourth button, two left pointing angle brackets allow you to slow down the correction or backup some number of words.

However, the most interesting feature of the Playback toolbar is the fact that the main three buttons are mapped directly to the arrow keys on your keyboard.  The right arrow key speeds up playback.  The left arrow key slows down playback, or moves backward some number of words.  The down arrow key displays the Correction Dialog.  This makes it possible to simply keep your fingers over those three arrow keys and quickly review your dictation session and make corrections.

(Hint: the timing of exactly when to hit down arrow to display the Correction Dialog is slightly tricky.  I recommend that you only hit the down arrow when playing back in normal speed.  If you are using playback at higher speed, hit the left arrow twice to slow things down and replay the mistake and then when the mistake is played back at normal speed, hit the down arrow at that point.)



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