Living with fibromyalgia

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I show how one can list and choose a file from a list of files in a directory assuming that you know the first few letters of the name of the file. I frequently encounter this situation especially when I'm trying to attach a file in Microsoft Outlook. The Windows dialogue box that comes up has got limited space and the file that I want to attach may be not visible. Scrolling down in a directory which contains a lot of files is pretty tedious. In most cases, I do remember the first few letters of the file and that is why I tend to use this often. Here is a YouTube video that explains how to do this:

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I will explain how you can compose and send an email hands-free in Microsoft Outlook using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium version 13 . However, this applies to other versions also including Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional version 15. Sending and receiving emails is probably one of the most common tasks you will do.Dragon Naturally Speaking  is very well suited to accomplish. Typing long emails can be stressful to your hands. Using speech recognition along with ergonomic devices and posture correction can help reduce the risk of  chronic pain due to repetitive stress injury . For a complete beginner, as I was several years ago, it  takes some time to figure out the steps. So I have made cookbook style YouTube videos to explain this. As a first step, you will probably like to put the email addresses of the recipients in the Microsoft Outlook contacts. The video below explains how to do thi...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial, I show how to copy email addresses. Sometimes, I get an email address in an application where the email address is not hyperlinked- meaning that if I want to send a message to that email ID, I cannot just click on it and automatically launch my email client with the recipient field already filled in with that email ID. In that case, I have to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking commands to copy the email address. Usually, if you have to copy text, then you have to use the command "select X  words forwards/backwards". However, it is not immediately obvious in an email ID of how many words to select. So here is what you have to remember. If the email ID is of the form abc@def.com, then you have to select 5 words. If the email ID is of the form abc@def.co.jp, then you have to select 6 words The letters before the @ form one word, the letter after that and before period "." form the next word and then after that every per...

You may encounter situations where Dragon NaturallySpeaking will misinterpret certain commands because there may be commands which may sound similar. For example, with my thick accent, the command "List All Windows" is sometimes misinterpreted as the command "Restore all windows" One of the obvious solutions is to try to speak clearly. However, at least for me, it is not possible all the time because I tend to forget to in and see it clearly certain commands while working. And the chronic pain with the resultant problems in cognition does not help :-(. So another solution is to try looking for alternative commands. For example, with knowbrainer 2017, I can achieve the same result by saying the command "show programs". Similarly, to go to the address bar in a browser, Dragon NaturallySpeaking requires that the user dictate the keyboard shortcut which is "alt+d" . However, the letter "d" often gets interpreted as "t". Ev...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I describe how to handle situations where Dragon NaturallySpeaking will misinterpret certain commands because there may be commands which may sound similar. For example, with my thick accent, the command "List All Windows" is sometimes misinterpreted as the command "Restore all windows" One of the obvious solutions is to try to speak clearly. However, at least for me, it is not possible all the time because I tend to forget to take care to slowly and carefully pronounce certain commands while working. And the chronic pain with the resultant problems and cognition does not help :-(. So another solution is to try looking for alternative commands. For example, with knowbrainer 2017, I can achieve the same result by saying the command "show programs". Similarly, to go to the address bar in a browser, Dragon NaturallySpeaking requires that the user dictate the keyboard shortcut which is "alt+d". Howev...

I have found kinesiology tapes to be very useful in managing chronic pain due to fibromyalgia. It has been very useful to me in also managing the pain due to shoulder tendinitis. In fact, kinesiology taping was the only way that I could brush with my right arm when affected with shoulder tendinitis. However, applying tapes repeatedly over the course of several weeks starts damaging the skin and it becomes difficult to remove the tapes also. This is especially true for regions where the skin is a relatively softer like the anterior neck and  area near to armpits. Cavilon has been very helpful to me by making it easier to remove the kinesiology tape thereby reducing the chance of the skin getting damaged. Using Cavilon is straightforward. Just before applying the kinesiology tape, you just spray it over the area on which the tape is to be applied. It is relatively costly but if you have to use the kinesiology tape over a long period, there does not seem to be any ot...