You are probably here because you have just purchased Dragon speech recognition, installed it and now you are thinking “What next?”

Dragon has an incredible amount of features, tips and tricks to maximise its benefits, but as you are new here, we will start with the basics.

If you are looking for something more in-depth, our 1-2-1 sessions will be more suitable.

For now though, here are 10 tips on how to use Dragon software…

1. Clicking the red microphone icon on the DragonBar will turn your microphone on and off. It will turn green once activated.
2. Turn your microphone off by voice by saying ‘Microphone Off’ – Pretty obvious, right?
3. Ensure you have the correct microphone selected by clicking the blue flame icon (also on the DragonBar) and selecting ‘Microphone’.
4. Head to the blue flame icon and select ‘What You Can Say’ from the drop-down menu. This will show you the built-in voice commands that are ready to use. We also have a free command cheat sheet.
5. When you are ready to start dictating, place your mouse cursor where you’d like the text to go – This could be in your email suite, Word document or a CRM system.
6. Get accustomed to dictation etiquette – This will have a huge impact on Dragon’s accuracy.
7. You may find that The Dictation Box pops up as you are dictating. This is nothing to worry about, simply dictate into the box, then put the cursor where you want to text to go and say “Transfer Text”.
8. Make corrections by saying “Correct That” or “Correct [insert word or phrase]” – Correcting with the keyboard means Dragon won’t recognise the error and keep making it.
9. Boost productivity with a Dragon user favourite feature: Auto-text. Watch our example here.
10. Try the “Read That” command to get Dragon to read your dictations back to you – A great way to speed up proofreading!

There’s enough there to get you started but as always, practice makes perfect! Put the above into practice and consider how each tip could best suit your workflow for maximum benefits.

If you get stuck at all along the way, our support team are on hand at support@voicepower.co.uk. Alternatively, if you’d like to learn more about how to use Dragon software, attend our remote Dragon training.