Trouble Shooting the Dragon

.....difficult not to slip when talking to a Dragon...

How to talk to a Dragon (without making it "sick").............

Position the microphone correctly.

Eliminate any noise in the room that is not necessary.

Run the Audio Wizard to recalibrate your microphone.

TRAIN, TRAIN TRAIN

HOW TO IMPROVE NATURALLYSPEAKING'S PERFORMANCE

Big Very Important Assumptions:

The following steps assume that you have completed full enrollment by clicking on the NaturallySpeaking icon and following the on-screen directions; that you have at least "average" reported by the Audio Wizard; and that you have freed up all possible resources and that you keep in mind that both manner of dictating and the commands are different for Nat than for Dragon Engine:

Stage 1

1.	Do a full training session, reading all of 3001 or Dave Berry.
2.	Save your voice files and shut down.
3.	Start up again and this time read some general purpose story out of a magazine out loud for five minutes. Do not look at the screen during this time but do make a slight pause after saying "comma" or "period." Do not speak louder than you intend to when dictating normally instead of reading.
4.	Proof read your work and correct and train any errors by using the "Correct That" command or the "-" key. When you correct the errors, do not select single words, select phrases -- even if only one of the words in the phrase is incorrect.
5.	Shut down the program and answer yes when asked if you wish to save your voice files.
6.	Start again and read the magazine story again - you should notice a big improvement. If there is a big improvement, go on to the Stage 2. If there isn't, something is wrong with your setup. What to do if something is wrong with setup.

Stage 2

1.	Convert as many as possible of your stored documents to .txt files. There is a built in converter in both Word and WordPerfect. NOTE: if your files are already in .doc, .rtf, or .txt format it is not necessary to convert them.
2.	Use the Vocabulary Builder (a.k.a. "Topic Builder" in Preferred & Deluxe Editions) to scan those documents for new words and to reorder the word usage, then train. (there are idiosyncrasies to the Builder, read "What Does the Vocabulary Builder Do" in the FAQ section on Joel Gould's web page before proceeding.)
3.	After adding/training new words found by the Builder, save your voice files and shut down NatSpeak.
4.	Restart and read several of the previously scanned documents into Nat, correcting any errors (remember select phrases, no individual words)
5.	Remember, using the Correction Dialog Box corrects your voice files, merely Selecting words and changing them to something else does not. IF YOU DO NOT USE THE CORRECTION DIALOG BOX TO CORRECT & TRAIN, YOUR RECOGNITION WILL NOT IMPROVE!!!

Stage 3

Dictate using the same relaxed, non-overly-expressive tone of voice that you used to read to Nat in the previous sessions; COPY ALL TO CLIPBOARD, bring up your email program, open a compose window and paste. (If you have added NaturalText with Deluxe Nat, you should be able to dictate directly into your Browser and will not have to paste into it). In all probability you will be achieving speeds over 100 wpm and accuracy that is nearly perfect. Speed will improve even more over time as "Nat" learns your speech patterns.

(Revised 2/25/98)