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# Dictation Mode

In Dictation mode, you can both dictate text to be typed and issue commands to be obeyed. Dragon Dictate will type what you say, interpreting your words as dictation, unless it recognizes what you say as a command.

In general:

> If you speak smoothly and continuously, Dragon Dictate will interpret your words as dictation, even if they include words that might be a command.

> If you pause before and after a phrase, Dragon Dictate will consider that phrase as a possible command.

So, to ensure that your phrase is recognized as a command, pause before and after the command, but speak the command itself smoothly and continuously.

To remove the word last dictated or to the left of the cursor:

- Say Scratch Word.

To remove the phrase last dictated or to the left of the cursor:

- Say Scratch That. Dragon Dictate’s notion of a “phrase” depends upon how it detects pauses in your speech.

> If you “scratch” and then change your mind (perhaps because Dragon Dictate removed more than you wanted), say Undo Dictation.

### What You Can Say

In Dictation mode, you can say:

- Words and phrases to be typed. You can use the Vocabulary Editor window to view and edit the list of words that Dragon Dictate knows about. Consult the User Manual for tips on how to speak. You should try not to make any extraneous noises, but Dragon Dictate will do its best to ignore the well-known hesitation noises “ah”, “er”, “uh”, and “um”. (In fact, you may have to use Spelling mode to enter these phrases.)

- Instructions for spacing and capitalization. In general there should be no need for these; Dragon Dictate will perform intelligent automatic spacing and capitalization. But if you do need finer control over capitalization and spacing, you have it. To insert a space, say Space Bar.

  > In many cases it will be simpler to let Dragon Dictate perform its automatic capitalization, right or wrong, and then correct it after the fact with the capitalization editing commands discussed below.

- Punctuation. Unlike spacing and capitalization, you must explicitly dictate any desired punctuation; Dragon Dictate doesn’t try to insert punctuation intelligently based on grammar, tone of voice, or anything like that. Unlike Spelling mode, Dictation mode does incorporate punctuation into its intelligent automatic spacing.

- Names of letters. Letter names may be used to type a word consisting of a letter, or for dictating an acronym; but you should not use letter names in Dictation mode as a substitute for Spelling mode. For example, to type “An a-z of animals,” say An alpha hyphen zulu of animals. Even this approach is not entirely reliable, as Dragon Dictate must allow for the possibility that alpha means “alpha”. Spelling mode gets better results.

- Commands. All global, key, generated, and application-based commands are available.

- Recognition training commands. You can train the voice model and correct recognition errors with these Dictation mode commands:

  - Train “Someword”

  - Train “Someword” Through “Otherword”

  - Train “Someword” to “Otherword”

  > The words (or a larger dictated phrase containing them) are selected and the Recognition window opens. When the Recognition window is open, additional Recognition window commands are available.

- Navigation and editing commands. These Dictation mode commands are designed for basic text navigation and editing, to correct your own errors, to modify what you dictated, or to fix capitalization.

  > If what you dictated was not correctly recognized by Dragon Dictate, it is better to use the commands for recognition training listed in the previous section.

  - You can move the insertion point with these commands:

    - Move Backward(s) NN Word(s), Move Forward(s) NN Word(s) (where “NN” is a number up to 99)

  - You can place the insertion point with these commands:

    - Insert Before “Someword”

    - Insert Before “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Insert Before “Someword” to “Otherword”

    - Insert After “Someword”

    - Insert After “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Insert After “Someword” to “Otherword”

  - You can control the selection with these commands:

    - Select “Someword”

    - Select “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Select “Someword” to “Otherword”

  - You can select and delete a phrase with these commands:

    - Delete “Someword”

    - Delete “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Delete “Someword” to “Otherword”

  - You can select and change the case of a phrase with these commands:

    - Capitalize “Someword”

    - Capitalize “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Capitalize “Someword” to “Otherword”

    - Lowercase “Someword”

    - Lowercase “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Lowercase “Someword” to “Otherword”

    - Uppercase “Someword”

    - Uppercase “Someword” Through “Otherword”

    - Uppercase “Someword” to “Otherword”

In the above commands where you specify the words to select, if those words appear more than once in the document, Dragon Dictate selects the nearest instance. Position the insertion point near the desired words beforehand, to ensure that they will be selected.

> If you speak to delete or alter text and then change your mind (perhaps because Dragon Dictate selected the wrong stretch of text), say Undo Dictation.