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# Auto Formatting Window

You can tell Dragon Dictate to automatically format addresses, dates and times, numbers, common abbreviations and contractions, and the number of spaces after a period. Click on Auto Formatting... in the Tools menu to open the Auto Formatting window.

### Street Addresses

Dragon Dictate will automatically format postal addresses when this option is enabled. For example, speaking 49 Orchard Lane, Boston, Massachusetts Oh Two Four Four Six will produce 49 Orchard Lane, Boston, MA 02446. A separate option enables automatic formatting of UK and Canadian postcodes, such as W2 4RJ, which would be spoken as W Two Four R J.

Some addresses, particularly those with a lot of numbers, can be difficult to interpret. For example, if you say Two Hundred Forty Fifth Street, Dragon Dictate may produce 245th Street, 200 45th Street, or 240 5th Street. The simple addition of the word And can help produce the right result, so if you say Two Hundred And Forty Fifth Street, 200 45th Street will be eliminated from the possible choices.

### Web and Email Addresses

If you say Name At Nuance Dot Com, Dragon Dictate will produce name@nuance.com. Web site addresses, such as W W W Dot Nuance Dot Com, will also appear properly; in this case, you will see www.nuance.com on the screen.

### Phone Numbers

Dragon Dictate will display properly-formatted phone numbers when you say seven- or ten-digit sequences. For example, Eight Hundred Five Five Five One Two One Two produces 800-555-1212. (You can also say Eight Zero Zero at the beginning of the sequence.)

Vanity phone numbers, such as 1-800-EXAMPLE, are not supported, nor is automatic formatting of U.S. phone numbers for UK English users.

### Abbreviated Titles

If you say Mister Smith or Missus Smith or Doctor Smith, for example, Dragon Dictate will produce Mr. Smith or Mrs. Smith or Dr. Smith.

### Date & Time

The default in the dropdown menu is Date As Spoken, which produces dates exactly as you speak them. For example, January 5th 2011 produces January 5, 2011. (You can also say January 5 2011 to display the same result.) From the dropdown, you can select a variety of other ways to display dates, depending on your preference. For example, setting it to 1/5/2011 produces exactly that when you say January 5th 2011.

Omitting the year when you speak produces the month and day as a word and a number, despite the formatting you’ve selected. For example, January 5 (or 5th) produces January 5.

When you say a time, it’s properly formatted if that option is enabled. For example, Three Twenty A M produces 3:20 AM. Without auto-formatting, it would read 320 a.m.

### Numbers

The Use Numerals Starting With option has a dropdown that spells out all numbers equal to or less than the selected value, which is set at 10 as the default. The other choices in the dropdown menu are 2, 10, and 100. For example, if you choose 10, saying Three will produce three and saying Eleven will produce 11.

If you choose to Partially Format “-illion” Numbers, Dragon Dictate will display a combination of numbers and text when you speak numbers higher than 999,999. For example, saying Eight Million will produce 8 million instead of 8,000,000.

### Prices and Currencies

This option properly displays money amounts. For example, One Dollar and Thirty Cents will produce $1.30. If the ISO Currency Codes option is checked, Dragon Dictate will display the proper three-letter code, rather than the currency symbol.

ISO Code Displayed | Currency Spoken | Currency Symbol
--- | --- | ---
USD | US Dollar | $
CAD | Canadian Dollar | C$
EUR | Euro | €
JPY | Yen | ¥
GBP | British Pound | £
CHF | Swiss Franc | Fr

### Units of Measure

This option properly displays symbols and abbreviations for measurements. For example, Six Feet Three Inches will produce 6’3”, and Two Kilometers will produce 2 km. If you want to specify a format for a measurement, open the Vocabulary Editor in the Tools menu, click the word or abbreviation in the list and click the Information button at the bottom of the window.

### Social Security Numbers

Dragon Dictate will display properly-formatted U.S. Social Security numbers when you say nine-digit sequences. For example, speaking One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine produces 123-45-6789.

### All Other Numbers

Numbers not covered elsewhere in this section are properly formatted when this option is checkmarked. They include negative numbers, numbers with punctuation, fractions, decimals, and Roman numerals. For example, speaking Roman Numeral Twenty-Four produces XXIV and Two Point Zero Three produces 2.03.

### Miscellaneous

These final four options cover other common auto-formatting needs:

Common Abbreviations: Automatically converts words to their common abbreviations. For example, Versus will produce vs.

Expand Contractions: If this box is checked, spoken contractions will be expanded. For example, Haven’t will produce have not. If a contraction could be ambiguous, however, it is always expanded, regardless of how you set this option. For example, It Is Always and It Has Always have two different meanings, so Dragon Dictate won’t display it’s always.

Insert Two Spaces After Period: Automatically inserts two spaces after each period. While this was a common convention when most writing was done with typewriters, today the standard is to use one space after a period, thanks to the proportional fonts found in word processing software.

Allow Pauses in Formatted Phrases: If you pause while speaking a number, Dragon Dictate’s number and phrase formatting will still work together.