This video tutorial demonstrates the basic dictation commands used to enter text into a word processing document using Dual Writer.

Also included are tips and techniques for getting the most accurate results from dictation.

Transcript of the video

In this tutorial we will discuss getting started with dictation in Dual Writer. Now that you’ve taken the Windows Speech Tutorial and turned on Speech Recognition in Windows, you’ll see a new control on your desktop. This is the Shared Recognizer. This control is used to operate the Windows Operating System and applications. All you need to know about Dual Writer is that Dual Writer doesn’t use it. So right click the microphone on the Shared Recognizer and choose “Off, do not listen to anything I say.” And then just drag it out of the way. So now we will begin dictation using Dual Writer.

All you need to do is click the Dictation tab. This takes you to the Dual Writer speech controls. On the left is the Dictation Button. Just click it and you can begin dictating: “I just clicked the dictation button. Dictation is now on.” Now I clicked the button off and an dictation is off. You can manually click the Dictation Button to turn it on and off, or you can use the commands, “Start listening” and “Stop listening.”

Now dictation is paused and Dual Writer will not take dictation again until it hears, “start listening .”

When you dictate into Dual Writer you’ll see the things you say appear in the Dual Writer recognition window. If it doesn’t understand what you say, you’ll see a yellow border that tells you what Dual Writer heard, but it wasn’t sure if it was correct, so it did not enter it into the document. Also, when you speak and text is entered into your document, you’ll hear a click sound. So then you know that something was entered into the document. If you’re not looking at your document and you hear a click sound something was entered.

Let’s try it.

Start listening.
New paragraph.
She said let’s go for a walk.
Stop listening.

The first thing you notice about doing dictation is that it’s different from speaking to another person. You need to say punctuation and you also need to say “new paragraph” and “new line.” These are the most important commands that you’ll need to remember when you’re doing dictation: remember to say “period,” “comma,” “new paragraph” and “new line.” New Paragraph begins a completely new paragraph.

New Line just moves the cursor down to the next line and it keeps within the same paragraph.

Start listening.
New-paragraph.
She said, let’s go for a walk.
New-line
This is a new line.
New-paragraph
I like spinach (but not very much).
Stop listening.

Now you can see that punctuation marks can be said as you speak your sentences and Dual Writer will put them in. It knows that parenthesis and quotation marks are not words but they are symbols to be entered into the document. But it’s rather hard to say those as you are actually doing dictation. It’s really simple to go back during your second draft and go ahead and just add them. So let’s do that. I’ll start dictating a new sentence and then add the punctuation later just using the mouse and saying the punctuation marks.

Start listening.
New-paragraph.
She said, “let’s go for a walk.”
Stop listening.

So you can see it’s really easy to go back during the second draft and add any punctuation that you missed.

Now before we finish let’s talk about some tips for doing dictation.

Speak naturally, and don’t wait for Dual Writer to enter into your document the text you said.

You can see that while you’re speaking, Dual Writer is calculating what to enter into the document and you don’t need to worry about that. Just go ahead and keep speaking and the text will be entered automatically. Just go on to your next sentence

Speak clearly.

Now this goes without saying that you need to speak clearly because dictation is quite different than speaking to another person. Other people can understand we’re saying quite well even if you’re not speaking clearly, but when you’re doing dictation you need to imagine that you’re a newscaster giving the news and every word needs to be articulated clearly. With practice you’ll get better doing that, and Dual Writer will get better at understanding.

Single words are difficult to understand, you should speak in phrases and sentences.

It may seem strange, but it’s more difficult for the speech recognition system to understand individual words than it is to understand a phrase or sentence. So here is an example of how not to dictate, with pauses after every word.

This… Is… Not… A… Good… Way… To… Dictate.

You can see that individual words give the system a lot of trouble, and you’ll see the yellow box indicating that Dual Writer doesn’t understand what you said.

This is a much better way to dictate without pauses.

Don’t worry about mistakes during your first draft.

Just keep talking and get your ideas out. One of the great benefits of dictation is that it allows you to get your ideas into the document in a way that is much more natural than typing. When you’re typing, you are editing in your mind what you want to say before you actually get it out. With dictation you can just freely speak and get your ideas out in the first draft. Do not worry about mistakes. Just keep talking.

Keep practicing!

The more you practice. the better you will get. And at the same time, as you use the dictation system, the more Dual Writer will get better at understanding what you’re saying. So that as time goes on, you’ll be more productive writing papers for school or reports for work.

In the next tutorial will talk about making corrections.