Finally! Someone has freed you from that medieval torture rack, the keyboard, and its contemporary accessory, the mouse. You’ve been muttering epithets at your computer. Now you can actually speak to it. Although it still won’t take your epithets to heart, it will now at least write them down for your future convenience.
For those who can’t type or spell (or at least, not well), and for those whose bodies have been punished by keyboarding, Dragon NaturallySpeaking spells relief (and other words, too). NaturallySpeaking gives your lips their job back: being your principal data output device. In fact, with NaturallySpeaking, you may be able to type faster with your lips than with your fingers. At the same time, you can eliminate spelling errors (and spell checking) from your life. Yes, it’s true!
NaturallySpeaking can do great things soon after you open the box, but too often, its talents lie hidden. Recognizing speech is one of those human talents that is still very complex to a computer. Recognizing human speech is as much a miracle for a computer as computing the precise value of pi is for a human. (Computing the highly abstract value of pie, oddly enough, is much easier for a human.)
NaturallySpeaking borders on being miraculous, but to get really practical results, you have to meet this miracle halfway. Perhaps you have been wondering what all the excitement is about, either because you are thinking of getting NaturallySpeaking or because, so far, NaturallySpeaking hasn’t excited you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking For Dummies is here to help.
This book reveals the stuff you need to know to turn NaturallySpeaking from a technical miracle into a working tool on your Windows computer. I also cover how to use NaturallySpeaking on your smartphone and tablet. Following are a dozen things this book can help you do:
Ever try to describe something basically simple and discover that the description made it ridiculously complex instead? Well, it’s that way with describing NaturallySpeaking commands, so I try to simplify the job by using some typographic conventions. You won’t really need to think about the typography much (let alone go to any conventions about it), but in case you’re wondering about it, here’s what it means:
I think you are a person of elevated literary taste and acute discernment, who aspires to converse with computers. Beyond that, I assume certain things about you, my esteemed reader.
I assume you are a new user of NaturallySpeaking, using (or intending to use) version 13 of the Home or Premium edition. I also assume you are passably familiar with Microsoft Windows.
I figure you are picking up this book for any of the following reasons:
Like a Dairy Queen ice-cream Blizzard, For Dummies books are packed full of cool, crunchy tidbits. Accordingly, you’ll find the text studded with attractive two-color icons, pointing out tips, warnings, reminders, and the like. (Yes, of course, black and white are colors!) Here are the icons you’ll find:
I’ve provided additional information about Dragon NaturallySpeaking online to help you on your way:
The next step depends on what you need right now. If you’re stuck on a particular aspect of Dragon NaturallySpeaking right now, look it up in the index and turn straight to that topic. If you are a newbie, why not just turn this page?
Let’s get started!
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