Living with fibromyalgia

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tutorial , I show how to convert an email into contact in Microsoft Outlook. If you are in a hurry, you may want to skip to the YouTube video listed below directly and then return to this blog post for further clarifications. In my earlier blog post , I had shown a fairly tedious way to add contacts in Microsoft Outlook. The method includes bringing up the Add Contacts dialogue box and then manually entering the name and email. There is a faster way to do this if you received an email from the sender you want to add contacts. For this, Open the Email from the sender, do a Mouse Right Click on the name of the sender, then select the option of " Add to Contacts " in the drop-down menu Add Contacts dialogue box will be brought up which will automatically copy the sender's name and email address. You can add more data if needed. Click  "Save and Close" . In order to achieve the same functionality using Dragon N...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I show how to format a column in Microsoft Excel using speech recognition. While working with Microsoft Excel, you may be required to format a column, for example, if the column contains a specific type of data such as dates or a dollar amount. To achieve this using Dragon Naturally Speaking, first bring up the format column dialogue box using the command " Format Column ". Now you can navigate and choose any particular options using different Dragon Naturally Speaking commands. The most convenient way to navigate is to simply say the name of the option. For example, you can simply say " Currency " to select the currency option. There is one particular case in which this may not work. In Microsoft Excel, the option " Number " is located within the tab also called as " Number ". Dragon Naturally Speaking will then just go to the tab but will not navigate to the option because ...

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...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I show basic commands for navigating Microsoft Excel. As compared to Microsoft Word, the documentation for using Dragon NaturallySpeaking with Microsoft Excel is pretty limited. So I thought of creating this blog post and also a YouTube video which is appended at the end of this post. Here is a list of commands which are included in the video. Navigate through the worksheet by saying "go to the next worksheet" or "go to previous worksheet" Navigate to a particular cell by saying "go to the cell column row". Note that you can use the military alphabet equivalent to say the column name to reduce the chance of misinterpretation. You can select a particular column or row by saying "select row/column". You can also select several columns or rows by saying "select next 5 columns" or by saying "select next 5 rows". You can insert a row by saying "insert row" you can ...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial, I show how to use a Vocabulary Editor. Dragon NaturallySpeaking provides a  Vocabulary Editor to change the properties of any word that Dragon recognises. The most common option that is used in the Vocabulary Editor is to retrain a word. For example, if you have a word in Dragon's vocabulary, such as "Smith" and if you realise that Dragon is not interpreting your pronunciation of the word, then you can retrain the word using the Vocabulary Editor. You can also add or delete a word using the Vocabulary Editor. Adding or deleting the word can also be done by dictating a new word and then correcting Dragon's interpretation of that dictation. The Vocabulary Editor will be useful in situations which you need to add several words in a single batch. I have made a YouTube video with this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial. Apart from showing you how to train a word, I also give a quick overview of the properties that Drago...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial  I describe how to do arithmetic operations quickly. On Windows, you can perhaps use the calculator application but it is difficult to use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking . Microsoft Excel is pretty heavyweight and again tedious to use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Fortunately, knowbrainer 2017 has provided the calculate command to do the basic arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. As mentioned earlier in the blog, knowbrainer 2017 is essentially a scripting tool that will help you automate any operation using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. In this case, knowbrainer 2017 launches the calculator application, types the digits that are interpreted by Dragon NaturallySpeaking, waits for the results to be calculated and then copy is the result of the clipboard. The keywords that are used for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division are plus, minus, times, divided by. So, for example, you can say 23 div...

Whatsapp has emerged as a extremely popular form of communication in the last few years. In fact, even my doctors are using whatsapp to communicate with their patients. So even though I experience a lot of pain in operating mobile with hands , I am constrained to use whatsapp. A few months ago, after a bit of effort, I will able to figure out a way to use whatsapp hands-free with speech recognition. I'm still trying to find a way to use whatsapp with Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the desktop. Here are two videos that explain how to send and receive messages using whatsapp. As I explain in the videos, there are some shortcomings in both sending and receiving. For example, you cannot dictate more than approximately 200 characters while sending a message. And of course you cannot send a photograph or a video or share another message using speech recognition as yet. With receiving whatsapp messages, depending on your device,, you may have to hear all the unread messages multiple tim...

Scrolling is quite a common task in any computing work. Dragon NaturallySpeaking provides the following commands to allow you to scroll with speech recognition: "Scroll down": scrolls to the bottom of the page "Scroll up": scrolls to the top of the page "Start scrolling up": start scrolling up . The speed can be adjusted "Start scrolling down" : start scrolling down. The speed can be adjusted "Scroll slower" : reduce the speed of scrolling. Repeating the command will reduce the speed every time the command is spoken "Scroll faster" : increase the speed of scrolling. Repeating the command will increase the speed every time the command is spoken As you can see, the commands are pretty obvious. However, it took me some time to realise that the speed of scrolling can be altered and it changes repeatedly if the command is repeated. I have made a YouTube video demonstrating this.

The global voice recognition market is expected to reach about $ 127 billion by 2024 according to a report by Grandview research . For me personally, speech recognition has made it possible to attain a degree of independence despite my disability. A few weeks ago, I had to travel to another place to seek medical care. I spent some time teaching the health care professionals around me me on how to use speech recognition to reduce the workload in their tech tasks. I'm summarising some of the tips below for absolute beginners to get started with integrating speech recognition in their daily life. Choose the most compatible applications to start with On the desktop computer, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is most compatible with Microsoft Office applications. This means that if you use Gmail, it will probably be much easier if you use Microsoft Outlook and link it with your Gmail account via IMAP or POP3. At a later stage, you can continue with Gmail within the browser...

I have been using Google voice typing for several months now because of the inability to use arms and hands because of chronic pain. I always struggled with putting a punctuation "full stop" while composing content. I tried using the common known voice commands like  period or full stop but it did not work. Ultimately, after googling and going through upto I believe 7 pages of results, I found a suggestion posted by a person stating that he found saying point would do the job. I forgot to capture the link otherwise I would have posted it here in order to give credit to that person. This seems to be a problem for users in India. Some people reported that setting the language option to English UK work for them and they were able to use the command period. But for me, only point worked and that is across at least 4 android devices including a Lenovo, Nexus Motorola and Samsung

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial, I show how to export the user profile. Regular users of Dragon NaturallySpeaking should export the user profile and save it in the cloud or in an additional storage for example an external hard drive. Dragon NaturallySpeaking otherwise does store a backup but it is on the same hard drive where the primary user profile is also located. Since it is a once in a month activity for me, I often forget how to export the user profile. At least to me, the placement of the control for exporting the user profile is not intuitive so I prepared a short YouTube video  showing how to export the user profile.

Since I'm unable to use the mobile frequently, I needed a way to listen to incoming voice messages. There are plenty of applications on the market. However, the features are not listed properly. For example, there were apps that seem to claim that they will read whatsapp messages but all they did was to read out the name of the person who had sent the message. The two which worked for me were: Read it to me : this has got a comprehensive list of features and will read out SMS and whatsapp. You can also choose the contacts for which it will not read out the messages. However, the main issue was that after the trial period, it will require you to buy the feature to read out whatsapp messages. Message reader for whatsapp : this is a very simple app that just works only for whatsapp but has got the ability to not read out the incoming messages in a whatsapp group. This was free and since I needed only the ability to read out whatsapp messages, I chose it over the earlier applic...

As of November 2016, if you call Reliance or speak to any of the Reliance Digital employees, they will tell you that you can get a Sim only once you generate a bar code using a 4G phone. I had a friend who had got a 4G phone functional with reliance connection. I thought that before purchasing a 4G phone, I will try to get a reliance connection first. This is because in the past few weeks, there have been multiple occasions where reliance digital said that they have run out of Sims. However, it was not possible to get a bar code generated from my friends 4G Phone because reliance Application would automatically log into his account I then went to the reliance digital store and also spoke to reliance customer service. Both of them were unanimous stating that for purchasing a new reliance connection, a customer needs to buy a new 4G phone first and then generate a bar code. I asked them that if they can generate a bar code for me from the phone's that they were carrying in th...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I demonstrate  the use of mouse with Dragon NaturallySpeaking . Literature describing how to move the Mouse Up , Down , Right or Left using Dragon Naturally Speaking is easily accessible over the Internet. However, operations like  how to move the mouse diagonally are not described clearly. Additionally, even though Mouse Grid is a command that is commonly used, there is not much information suggesting how that command can be used in combination with the Mouse Move commands quickly move the mouse. Likewise, there is also not much mention of changing the speed of mouse . I describe all of this  in the YouTube video below. . I hope you find the video useful. Updates, if any, will be appended to the end of this post. List of Commands Described in the Video: To Move the Mouse Vertically Upwards, say "Mouse Move Up" To Move the Mouse Vertically Downwards , say "Mouse Move Down" To Move the Mouse Ho...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking Tutorial , I show a quick way to take a screenshot of the browser window. I often find a need to take screenshot of the browser window and save it for my records, for example, when making a payment to a financial institution. Until now, I worked with installing an extension into the browser which will take a screenshot. After that, I would somehow position the mouse either using the mouse grid command or by moving the mouse up and down so that I can click on to the extension. So far I could not find an extension which could be activated with the help of a keyboard and therefore I had to use a mouse. This approach did work but it became tedious especially when I knew the usual workflow is to take the screenshot, store it into a file, and then send it in an email to the financial institution as proof of payment. So I was looking for a way to do all of this or at least a part of this if possible in one command. I recently started using a third-party...

In this Dragon NaturallySpeaking tutorial , I share my experience on improving the accuracy of voice recognition. Even though I use noise cancelling external soundcard Andrea USB-SA-1  for more accurate voice recognition quality, I realised that it completely fails whenever there is a device that produces a whirring sound, for example, and overhead fan at high speed. The soundcard is able to cancel out the noise due to a TV or of people talking in the same room but somehow, the whirring noises completely disrupt the recognition. So if you suddenly start getting poor recognition quality or get repeated warnings from Dragon NaturallySpeaking saying that it is getting low quality audio, you may want to check around for devices that may not be producing loud sound but still may interfere much more with their whirring noise.