What’s New in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10?

More Accurate Than Ever (ALL EDITIONS)
Up to 20% fewer speech recognition errors “out of the box”
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 delivers on what matters most in speech recognition: accuracy. Version 10 offers accuracy levels that are unrivaled in desktop speech recognition, up to 20% fewer speech recognition errors out of the box than Version 9, and about half the amount of errors that the product delivered just five years ago. Dragon NaturallySpeaking users gain the added benefit of avoiding spelling errors and typing mistakes. In fact, the product actually learns from your corrections over time, making speech a more natural and satisfying experience.

Faster Than Ever (ALL EDITIONS)
Significant improvement of response time. More than 50% reduction of latency time (delay) for fast speakers.
Compared to Version 9, Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 delivers significant improvement in response time. Fast speakers will observe more than 50% reduction in the time it takes for words to appear on the screen. Since some speakers pause in their dictation to watch the results, having words appear on the screen sooner facilitates a more seamless dictation experience. Most people speak about 120 words per minute, but type fewer than 40 words a minute. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets users create documents about three times faster than typing by hand!

Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Email and Calendar (PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Dragon Voice Shortcuts™ collapse common multi-step tasks into direct voice commands. Now you can send emails and schedule meetings – faster than ever
At any time, no matter what is active on your screen, you can automatically create and address an email. For example, if you’re reviewing a website and you need to send an email to colleagues, just say, “Send email to Jon Smith and Raphael Sanchez,” and Dragon will activate your email program, create a new email and put the contact names you’ve said into the “To:” box.

Need to schedule a meeting? Just say, “Schedule meeting with Jon Smith and Raphael Sanchez,” and Dragon jumpstarts the process by opening a new calendar entry in Outlook and adding to it the selected contact(s). You can also say, “Schedule appointment with Design Team” or “Schedule an event with All Employees” using existing contact lists.

Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Web Search (PREFERRED, PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Dragon Voice Shortcuts™ collapse common multi-step tasks into direct voice commands. Now you can search the Web for information, products, news and more – faster than ever
Dragon Voice Shortcuts make searching the Web faster and easier. Just say commands containing your desired search words, such as “Search the Web for financial management resources” or “Search maps for Italian restaurants in Burlington 01803,” and Dragon 10 will use the default search engine and Web browser to enter your dictated term(s) in the search field and return the results. Thanks to Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search, you can also get the top-ranked site directly, by saying, “Find a site about motorcycles.”

You may also search specific sites directly for videos, images, news, articles and products using commands such as “Search Wikipedia for George Washington Carver,” or “Search eBay for Bluetooth headsets.” Sites supported by Dragon Voice Shortcuts include Google, Yahoo, eBay, Wikipedia, YouTube, about.com, and more.

Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Desktop Search (PREFERRED, PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Dragon Voice Shortcuts™ collapse common multi-step tasks into direct voice commands. Now you can search your computer – faster than ever
Dragon 10 introduces commands to search your computer as directly as the Web, by dictating the word(s) to find in documents, emails and Web-browsing history. For example, you can say, “Search computer for launch plans” and Dragon will complete the search using Google Desktop or Windows Vista desktop search. In addition, commands such as “Find an email about the Robinson report” directly open the top email containing the dictated keywords. Searching your computer has never been faster – or easier.

Quick Voice Formatting (“Delete | Copy | Bold | Underline | Italicize ” commands) (ALL EDITIONS)
Delete, bold, underline, italicize, and copy text faster than ever
In addition to the many existing editing commands such as “Delete line”, Dragon 10 introduces direct commands for formatting, deleting, and copying named words and passages. Rather than selecting the relevant word(s) or passage and commanding what to do with that text (e.g., “Select very, [pause] Bold that”), you can now directly name the desired text with the desired action in a single voice command, such as “Bold very.” Just like in the familiar “Select ” commands, you can even designate a whole passage by quoting its first and last word(s):

New UI Look and Feel (ALL EDITIONS)
Updated icons are intuitive and easy to see
Dragon 10 introduces new graphical icons to enhance the DragonBar user interface, including a larger microphone icon, making the product easier to use..

Improved Help System and Tutorials (ALL EDITIONS)
Includes enhanced Sample Commands window and interactive HTML tutorial with a completely new look and feel
Dragon 10 offers an enhanced Sample Commands window and interactive tutorial with a completely new look and feel. The new Web and Flash-based system offers improved navigation and content -- comprehensive resources are just a command away! In addition, Dragon 10 also introduces a new mechanism to enable the creation of customizable help screens for end-users to be reminded of their favorite commands.

Improved Natural Commands for Microsoft Office 2007 (PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Use your voice to control advanced features of Microsoft Office 2007
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 makes it easier than ever to use speech recognition with Microsoft Office. Use your voice to dictate, edit and control applications like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Improved Natural Commands for Mozilla Firefox (ALL EDITIONS)
Improved Web browser experience is now available for Firefox
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 makes it easier than ever to use speech recognition with Mozilla Firefox, the award-winning Web browser used by tens of millions of people worldwide. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 makes it easier than ever to use speech recognition with Mozilla Firefox, the award-winning Web browser used by tens of millions of people worldwide: you can now benefit from Natural Language commands, and the ability to activate a hyperlink by just saying part of its name.

Improved Auto-Transcription (LEGAL, MEDICAL)
The Auto-Transcribe Folder Agent now creates a synchronized audio file along with the automatic transcript for deferred correction
Version 9 introduced the Auto-Transcribe Folder Agent, which automatically detects files to transcribe in a given folder into another given folder [once a recorder is connected]. Dragon 10 now gives this Auto-Transcribe Agent the option of creating a synchronized audio (.DRA) file along with the transcript file, making it possible to later get the benefit of Playback and Correction—just like users dictating in word processors can save the DRA file along with their dictated document, which enables a third party to correct errors, refining the speaker’s profile.

Along with the new ability for “correctionists” to create a “Correction Only” profile, this enhancement makes it easier than ever to delegate correction, whether you are dictating at your PC or on the go.

Correction Only Profile (LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Correctionists can create a “No dictation available” without any audio setup, so third-party correction is easier than ever
Dragon 10 lets those who correct the dictations of others to create a “No dictation available” profile, without having to go through any kind of audio setup, no matter what dictation source the speaker used. The “correctionists” can open the synchronized dictation files to make corrections by hand, which contributes to the optimization of the speaker’s profile over time.

Improved Enterprise Security Features (encrypt macros for distribution) (PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
More configuration options provide administrators with better control of Dragon in the enterprise. Encrypt custom commands before distributing them.
Dragon 10 offers a command-line utility to let Value Added Resellers and IT departments encrypt custom commands before distributing them.

Improved Enterprise Security Features (disable creating, changing, or running of scripting commands to prevent VBA-viruses) (PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
More configuration options provide administrators with better control of Dragon in the enterprise. Control the access to VBA-style custom commands
Advanced scripting commands can be used to create viruses, so Dragon 9 introduced the ability for the administrator to disable custom command creation by restricted users. Since it’s rather extreme to prevent all users from creating any type of command when the aim is to prevent misuse, Version 10 introduces the ability to disable each command type individually.

More Flexible Enrollment for younger speakers and users with certain speech challenges (ALL EDITIONS)
Self-paced reading is available for speakers who have difficulty with the existing interactive text passages
Reading an acoustic training text efficiently teaches one’s voice to the software, and Dragon 10 offers an easier way to do it: print or view the entire text and record it at your own pace—without needing to satisfy the validation done by the software in the original prompt screens. By making it easier to train the product to one’s voice, Dragon 10 improves the experience for younger users and users with certain speech challenges.

Regional Accent Support (ALL EDITIONS)
Significant increase in accuracy for accented speakers by using more advanced adaptation techniques and accent-specific models.
Following a significant data collection effort and research, Dragon 10 incorporates new acoustic models for better coverage of non-native and regional accents. Together with more powerful adaptation techniques, this will help everyone get better recognition accuracy – from the very first use.

Option to Disable Microsoft Text Services (CTFMon) (ALL EDITIONS)
Easily turn off Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (CTFMon) to eliminate potential conflicts with Dragon
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 reduces to a simple checkbox the multi-step process of disabling alternative services that may cause conflicts, such as advanced technical services on Windows XP or handwriting features on tablet PCs.

Better control of commands vs. dictation on the Web (ALL EDITIONS)
Require “Click” for hyperlinks and disable Web commands separately from dictation support
Dragon 10 helps ensure a comfortable experience on the Web, addressing the concern that words you mean to dictate may be interpreted as a command, even if said in isolation. While on a Web page, users occasionally dictate isolated words that happen to be included in a hyperlink on that page, but Dragon can also click hyperlinks just by hearing part of their name and up to now Dragon’s Web capabilities could not be disabled individually. Dragon 10 now provides finer options for optimal comfort on the Web whether you intend dictation or action: one can disable HTML commands and also require saying “Click” for hyperlinks separately, without disabling dictation support.
In addition, Dragon 10 replaces some existing single-word HTML commands with multiple-word equivalents, to avoid confusion with those single words meant as dictation:

DragonTemplates with Voice Fields (PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL, MEDICAL)
Quickly automate form filling applications
When creating Text-and-Graphics commands, you can now include variable fields to easily create templates that can be filled out by voice or by hand.

Auto Configuration for Optimal Performance Based on System Profile (ALL EDITIONS)
Latency configuration on “slow” machines and per-application disabling of Natural Language commands. Installation automatically detects PC’s resources and adjusts options for optimal speed.
During installation, Dragon 10 automatically analyzes your PC’s resources and changes default settings as needed to increase speed; this may include moving the Speed vs. Accuracy slider towards speed and disabling the Natural Language commands in some applications. The users can later change these options if they wish.
In addition, DNS10 gives finer control over the support for Natural Language commands, which means users can gain speed if they only use Natural Language commands in some applications. One can disable these large sets of flexible command wordings separately for each of these applications:

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Corel WordPerfect

Formatting and Word Properties Interface Enhancements (ALL EDITIONS)
New Formatting dialog and Word Properties let you control the written forms more finely than ever, including alternate forms, spacing and capitalization before and after each item.
Dragon 10 gives easier and finer control over the form, spacing and capitalization of items written in various contexts (e.g., inserting a space before or after, capitalizing the next word, or using alternate forms like “Fig.” instead of “figure” before numerals.) For instance, if you want all numbers between zero and ten to be written as numerals, you can now simply set this with just one check on the Formatting dialog.

Embedded Data Collection Tool (ALL EDITIONS)
Data Collection engine embedded in the product
A New User Wizard screen invites users to participate in a program designed to collect data to improve the overall accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The option is off by default.