Glossary
Dictation template
A dictation template is a block of text saved under a short spoken phrase, so one phrase inserts the whole block. Dragon calls these auto-texts, and Microsoft's Dragon Medical One guide documents the command that creates one from selected text.
Updated October 17, 20262 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called auto-text, voice macro, normal template.
A dictation template is a block of text saved under a short spoken phrase. When you say the phrase, the whole block appears where your cursor is. A template can hold a standard paragraph, a sign-off, or a report with blanks to fill in, so a few spoken words can produce many words of text.
Dragon saves selected text as an auto-text in one command
In Dragon's products, a template is usually called an auto-text. Microsoft's guide to Dragon Medical One lists the command that makes one: select the text, then say make that an auto-text to turn the selection into an auto-text template 1. After that, you insert the saved block by voice instead of retyping it.
Fields let one template ask for different details
A template can contain variable fields. The same Microsoft guide documents the commands next field and previous field, which move the cursor between the variables in a template. That lets you fill in a standard report in order without leaving the microphone. Use first field and last field to jump to the ends of the template.
Macros can inflate measured speed
Templates also distort speed measurements. A 2014 patent on dictation performance says a dictation system may accept macros that enhance effective words per minute, because one short spoken phrase can produce a longer text 2. A words-per-minute figure from a session that used templates therefore measures the finished output, not how fast the speaker talked. If you compare your speed with a typing benchmark, measure a session without templates.
Why templates matter for repetitive work
For people who write the same document many times a day, a template removes the most repetitive part of the job. The cost is accuracy: a template inserts exactly what it holds, including outdated wording or a wrong name. Check every inserted template before you sign, file or send it.
Templates work alongside the commands that move and correct text. Our guide to dictation commands covers those, and our overview of medical dictation covers the clinical setting where templates are most common. For the spoken commands that drive them, see voice command. In clinical notes, the medical scribe often works from the same kind of structured template.
Evidence
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Related terms
- Dictation for Work: Doctors, Lawyers, Writers, StudentsThe topic this term belongs to
- Back-end speech recognitionBack-end speech recognition is a workflow in which the dictated audio is recognized and then edited by someone else, usually a transcriptionist, before it is signed. Its main trade-off is the cost and time of the second pass against the writer's own editing effort.
- CopytakerA copytaker was a typist in a newspaper office who took down stories that reporters dictated over the telephone. The Collins English Dictionary defines the role this way, and it predates the computer-based filing that replaced it.
- Electronic health record (EHR)An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital record of a patient's health information, built up over time from visits across care settings. The federal eCQI glossary also calls it an electronic medical record (EMR), and it is where dictated and typed notes end up.
- Front-end speech recognitionFront-end speech recognition is a workflow in which the person who dictates also reviews, corrects and signs the text, instead of passing the audio to someone else. The term is most common in radiology, where it is set against back-end transcription.
- Medical scribeA medical scribe is a person, or more recently an AI tool, that records what happens in a clinical visit and writes it into the chart so the clinician can focus on the patient. The clinician remains responsible for the note and must check and sign it.
- Pajama timePajama time is the record-keeping that clinicians finish after their clinic day ends, often at home in the evening. A 2017 study of primary care clinicians measured 86 minutes of EHR work per weekday after clinic hours.
- Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS)The Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS) is a voluntary credential from AHDI for people who create healthcare documentation. It is awarded after an exam of 120 questions, and it is a prerequisite for the CHDS.
- ScopistA scopist edits the transcripts of official proceedings that court reporters create. Scopists are typically paid by the page, starting from $1.00 to $1.50 per page, and the role is also called transcript editor.
- SOAP noteA SOAP note is a structured clinical note with four parts: Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan. The format was developed by Larry Weed, and a StatPearls reference article describes it as a widely used documentation method for clinicians.
- Transcription line rateA transcription line is a unit of 65 characters, and the line count is the number of such units in a document. The transcription line rate is the price paid for each line, so the unit controls how transcribed work is measured.
Pages that use this term
- Dictation for Work: Doctors, Lawyers, Writers, StudentsTopic
- Medical Dictation: Software, Devices and How It WorksGuide
- How to Dictate Emails Faster Than You Type ThemGuide
- Medical Transcription: The Job, the Pay and AIGuide
- Dictation for Nurses, Therapists and Allied HealthGuide
- How do you dictate a medical letter?Question
- How do you dictate SOAP notes?Question
- Front-end speech recognitionGlossary
- SOAP noteGlossary