How to Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking: Setup to Commands

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is sold as Dragon Professional on Windows. It works in three stages: you install it on a supported PC, you create a profile that stores what it learns about your voice, and you dictate and correct with a short set of voice commands. The microphone and the profile are the two places this guide checks first when results are poor. This guide follows Nuance's own help for Dragon Professional 16 and 16.1, and it says where a page describes an older version. For what the product is and how it compares, read Dragon NaturallySpeaking: What It Is and Where It Stands and the glossary entry for Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Dragon works best after a profile, a good microphone and a week of corrections

Three things affect how accurate Dragon is, and you control all three. The first is the microphone. In a controlled comparison of speech recognition, a close-talking recording made in a studio had a word error rate of 3.7 percent ¹. A single distant microphone in a real apartment gave 12.0 percent ². The two conditions differ in more than distance, so read the gap as a direction, not a precise measure. The chart shows the two figures side by side.

The second thing is the profile. Nuance says a profile stores details such as your microphone type and your custom words ³, so a profile made for one setup is a poor fit for another. The third is correction. Nuance's help provides voice commands for fixing errors, and it says to consider training Dragon if it consistently misrecognizes words or phrases ⁴. The first week of corrections therefore deserves as much attention as any setting.

Nuance's dictation guidelines (written for Dragon 15) also describe how to speak so the software can use its context. They recommend longer phrases rather than single words, because hearing a whole phrase helps the software predict what you say ⁵. They tell you to pause briefly before and after dictating punctuation ⁶, and to speak at a normal conversational pace with a consistent speed and volume ⁷.

The table sets out the four stages in the order to do them.

Install Dragon Professional on Windows 10 or 11

Dragon Professional 16 runs on Windows 10 or Windows 11 with at least 4 GB of RAM ⁸, a processor of at least 2.2 GHz ¹⁰ and 12 GB of free disk space ¹¹, which includes the installer download. Install the .NET Framework 4.8 first if the installer asks for it, and have your serial number ready before you start.

The release notes list these requirements for Dragon Professional 16. The table cites each figure.

The install steps below come from Nuance's release notes for version 16.1. Nuance says to follow them in this order:

1. Close any open programs. If you run an antivirus program, turn it off until the installation completes.
2. Download Dragon.exe and double-click it. The installation starts immediately and downloads and installs the files it needs ¹⁴.
3. If prompted, install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8. You may need to restart the computer afterward.
4. In the Dragon InstallShield wizard, read the license terms, select the agreement option and click Next.
5. Enter the product serial number and click Next ¹⁵.
6. Select your region and, if you want a different folder, select the Advanced check box and change the installation directory.

The release notes describe entering the serial number during install. They do not describe the screens that follow it, and this guide did not confirm the activation steps from a Dragon 16 source. Follow the prompts, and check the help for your version if they differ. Nuance's list of supported Windows versions is a vendor statement. Before you install, check Microsoft's own lifecycle page for your Windows version, because this guide did not verify the current Windows 10 support status.

If you already run an earlier Dragon, the 16.1 installer upgrades it in place. Nuance says you "do not need to uninstall your existing version first" and that Dragon "also retains your custom words and commands" ¹⁶. In a standalone install, Dragon then upgrades your user profiles when you open them ¹⁷. If a profile matters to you, back it up yourself before you upgrade, because the profile section below covers only Dragon's automatic backups.

For the wider picture of Dragon's editions and prices, see Dragon NaturallySpeaking Versions, Editions and Price.

Your user profile stores your microphone type and your custom words

A user profile is the set of files Dragon uses to process your speech, and it stores what Dragon knows about you. Nuance says it "stores information, like the type of microphone you use and your custom words" ³. Because the profile stores your microphone type, it is tied to your setup, and a profile that works at your desk may not work well in a different room.

To create a profile, open the Dragon bar and select Settings, then Profile, then Manage User Profiles, and click New. The New User wizard then runs. In a standalone install, the wizard can also be opened from Settings, then Profile, then New User Profile. The Dragon help describes both routes in its procedures for working with user profiles.

Nuance advises a separate profile when you dictate in different locations with different acoustic conditions, when two or more people use Dragon on the same computer, when you dictate in more than one language, or when you transcribe recordings of another person's speech ( About user profiles). You can have only one profile per region ⁹, so each region you dictate in needs its own profile.

Dragon backs up your profile on its own, and the default is set for you. In a standalone install, Dragon creates a backup every 5 saves by default ¹⁸. You can change the number under Settings, then Options, on the Data page. A managed install, which uses Nuance Management Center, has its frequency set by the administrator instead.

Managed installs also create dynamic profiles. Nuance says Dragon places them in a folder under the user's AppData path, with a GUID for each user ¹⁹. That path only applies when Nuance Management Center mode is on, and this guide did not confirm the folder for a standalone install. In your own copy, check Manage User Profiles to see the profile you are using.

A small set of commands covers correcting, deleting, selecting and moving the pointer

The commands below are grouped by job: correcting, deleting, selecting text, and moving the pointer with MouseGrid. The correction commands below come from Nuance's Dragon 15 help topic on correcting dictation, which is the most detailed page this guide could open. Check them against the help for your version before you rely on them.

MouseGrid is Nuance's way to move the pointer by voice. You say "MouseGrid", then a number to move the pointer to that area. The grid redraws smaller each time, and you say "Cancel" to close it ²⁴. In Dragon Professional 16 it works on up to three monitors ²⁵, and you can limit it to the primary monitor in the Options dialog box.

If you want to know what other tools offer for the same jobs, see the Dragon NaturallySpeaking alternatives guide. For words Dragon does not know, see the glossary entry for custom vocabulary.

Correct mistakes by voice, and train Dragon when they persist

Correct mistakes by voice, using the commands above, and train Dragon if the same errors keep coming back. Nuance's help says that "if Dragon consistently misrecognizes words or phrases, consider training Dragon" ⁴. The correction commands work on the text you just dictated, so Nuance's help points you to "Correct That" straight after an error.

Nuance's voice training, as its Mac help describes it, works by having you read aloud. The Dragon for Mac 6 help says that Voice Training "helps Dragon learn how you speak" and asks you to read aloud a story ²⁶. That page is for the Mac version, so use it for the idea and not the steps. This guide did not find a Dragon 16 Windows page for voice training, so check the help inside your installed copy for the current steps.

For a word Dragon keeps getting wrong, such as a name or a piece of jargon, say "Spell That" and dictate the spelling. Nuance's profile stores custom words ³, so a word you add there stays with your profile.

If you prefer the keyboard for one correction, the Dragon 15 help gives a default Correction hot key: "the minus sign key (-) on the numeric keypad" ²⁷. The voice commands above cover the same jobs, so the hot key is a fallback.

A practical first week follows from the sources above. Dictate in full phrases with a short pause around each punctuation mark. Correct each error as soon as it appears with "Correct That" or "Spell That". Note the words that keep failing, and train Dragon if the same errors persist. Check the microphone distance at the start of each session, because distance is the factor the research above points to. The pages this guide opened do not say, in so many words, that each correction updates the recognition model. So treat the learning as the reason to correct early, and treat training as the documented route for errors that persist.

The microphone and the profile are the first things to check

The sources in this guide point to two causes first: the microphone position and a profile built in the wrong conditions. The browser extension is a separate question covered by its own page. Start with the microphone, because the research above shows it matters most.

For a headset, Nuance's guidance is to keep the microphone element about an inch from the side of your mouth, but not touching it ²⁸. For a handheld microphone, keep it 1 to 3 inches from your mouth, not directly in front of it ²⁹. Apple's Dictation help makes a related point for its own product: a headset microphone may help in a noisy room or one with excessive echo ³⁰. A microphone further from the mouth captures more room sound, and a study that re-recorded read speech through a distant microphone found recognition performance dramatically reduced compared with close-talking speech ³¹.

If Dragon keeps failing in one room but works in another, the profile is the next suspect. A profile built in one room may not suit another, so create a separate profile for each place you dictate, as described above. If you use a different microphone, check that the profile matches it. The question on the best microphone for Dragon covers which headsets to consider.

This guide did not research the browser extension, so use the page on installing the Dragon web extension for those steps. For errors when Dragon will not start or stops responding, see Why Dragon NaturallySpeaking is not working.

Built-in options are worth checking before you pay. Windows voice typing needs an internet connection, a working microphone and the cursor in a text box ³². If you want an on-device alternative, Yap, which we make, is a dictation app for Mac and Windows. Compare the options on the best dictation software page, and read the dictation software overview for the four choices that decide which tool fits: on-device or cloud, raw words or AI rewriting, subscription or one-time license, and general or specialist. For Windows-specific dictation, see Windows and how to dictate on Windows.