For those of you getting 95%+ accuracy (i.e. you have a good sound card, good microphone, and you've practiced) , a technique that has proven useful for improving accuracy is to define phrases to NaturallySpeaking. This can drastically reduce errors involving synonyms and phrases consisting of small words. There are two approaches to building a list of phrases.
First is the manual approach - each time you notice a repeated error, jot down the phrase. Then add the phrase to Dragon using the Vocabulary Editor (or Topic Editor if on DNS 2.0 Deluxe). Why jot down the phrase? If you upgrade, change users, or go to another system, you'll want these phrases. The list can be dictated, saved on your computer, then retrieved any time you need to rebuild your vocabulary. To add a phrase with the vocabulary editor, you typically go to Advanced, then Vocabulary Editor, then type the written form of the phrase. If the spoken form is the same as the written form, you need not supply a spoken form. If a spoken form is sometimes different, you may wish to add a spoken form. For instance,
Written Form Spoken Form
off and on often on
off and on
he is he's
This is a convenient way to add titles when they are normal within written documentation. For example,
Marsha Jones, M.D. Marsha Jones
It is also a way to handle unusual capitalization of words. For example,
Pinnacle Peak Popcorn pinnacle peak popcorn
Common addresses or telephone numbers can be added for better recognition or added such that one need not remember. For example, 12635 N. 2nd St.
12635 N. 2nd St. Softnet address
Special characters commonly pronounced a little differently than what Dragon expects can also be defined. For example,
2+/5 two plus over five
20/20 twenty twenty
20/30 twenty thirty
Second is an automated approach, using a computer program to look at your writing and determine frequently used phrases. This is most useful if you can identify at least 1MB of text files to analyze. The Instant Text program is ideal for this - it costs about $100, is small (still comes on a single diskette) - and produces a list of your most frequently used phrases. This list can be edited using Word Perfect or Word into the format needed for NaturallySpeaking, then introduced into NaturallySpeaking in a couple of minutes. (Alternately, if you supply text on a ZIP disk or diskettes, Softnet Systems can run this analysis and return a phrase list to you on disk - cost is $39 for analyzing a single disk, $10 for each additional disk or diskette.)
Instant Text won't pick out quite the same things as the manual approach, and you may need to delete some of the phrases it finds. But it is an easy, quick way to identify phrases where a large body of text is readily available.
Alternately, you can use Joel Gould's GetWords utility to build a list of custom words and phrases you have already added to your vocabulary. These lists come in handy when you are creating new user files or would like to share your custom words and phrases with other NatSpeak users. The downside to this method is that your list will not be restricted to phrases. It will include all of your custom words as well. There are ways to import lists of phrases into a vocabulary. The simplest is to use the PutWords utility from Joel Gould's web site. You could also use the Vocabulary Builder.
Some of the most successful users of NaturallySpeaking have lists of hundreds or thousands of phrases. For most individuals, it appears that a few hundred phrases is appropriate. There is very little research to show what is optimum -- almost all of the experience with these phrase lists is anecdotal. Each of you should build up a list of phrases that you find useful. Share them with colleagues and friends if appropriate. In a large organization, it will prove useful to have a set of phrases that relate to the organization such as the names of groups within the organization, key names within the organization, common addresses, and acronyms frequently used within the organization that may have little meaning outside of the organization.
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