Moving User

Establishing a 2nd User

There are several methods for establishing a second instance of your user files. This method is suggested when you are setting up NaturallySpeaking on a 2nd machine such as a home machine when an office machine is already established.

1. Create a new user. In NaturallySpeaking, go to Tools, Open/Manage Users, choose "New". You will have an opportunity to choose the base vocabulary (General English, Medical, etc.).

If you are planning to copy user files from another system, you must choose the same base vocabulary as used on that other system.

2. Perform Audio Setup and General Training per the prompts.

3. Establish Commands

If you want to use macros from your first user, and only have macros created with the Command Browser, then you can copy the single file:

C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking\Users\<your first user name>\current\MyCmds.dat

to:

C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking\Users\<your 2nd user name>\current\MyCmds.dat

If you have used "dvc" files (and you should know if you have done this) then those dvc files need to be copied as well.

4. Establish Vocabulary

There are several methods that will work. The first (4a) is suggested when there is a question about the validity of the original vocabulary or if you change the base vocabulary type, such as changing from the Medical to the Cardiology language model. The second (4b) is for when you are making an almost-identical setup.

4a. Take Custom Words + Vocabulary Builder

On the 1st user, go to Words, then Export. Choose a file, and "export" your custom words. After exporting the custom words, take the time to scan and edit the list of custom words produced with this "export." Use a plain text editor such as NotePad for this task. Delete any words that should not appear. Unfortunately, Release 6 has been prone to add capitalized forms of words and collect other mistakes. e.g. if "She" is in the list, delete the single line with that word.

Take this file to the 2nd user, go to Words, then Import.

Then run Vocabulary Builder by going to C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\NaturallySpeaking\Programs and then executing vocbldr.exe and following the prompts. DO NOT use the vocabulary building tools that you can access via the Accuracy Center. Add the Custom Words first as your word lists, then do the document analysis.

4b. Export/Import Vocabulary

On the first user, go to Open/Manage Vocabularies, select a vocabulary, then select Export. Save these files on a CD-RW, server, or other device that you can access using the system with the 2nd user. You will need a device able to store 40MB or more for this process if the systems are not networked.

Then, on the 2nd user, go to Open/Manage Vocabularies, select IMPORT, and import this vocabulary.

5. Move options

Unfortunately, there is no clean way to move all of your options. Most can be "seen" in the options.ini file in the "current" directory. But some of the options may be different on a different system. HotKeys, accuracy vs. speed, startup options, and font size of the DragonPad are commonly changed and may deserve your attention.

On Release 7, there is a bug in the setting of the "Always"/"Never" save audio option. The values are reversed so that most users should set it to "Always" so that they never save these files.

6. Word macros, AutoText, Templates, etc.

While not strictly part of the setup for Dragon NaturallySpeaking, users who are using Word macros may need to copy them from one system to another. AutoText entries and Word templates often need to be moved to complete the setup of your system.

Most Word templates will be found in the same directory. That directory can be saved and the files copied. If being used by a 2nd person, then some templates might need to change at this time to reflect a different user, address, etc.

Updated July 2003