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A valentine card

14 February 2019 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

A valentine card

Suppose that there is someone who… …always listens to you …keep listening patiently (even if he doesn’t understand everything 🤣) …knows every detail of your life …makes sure you can enter your reports superfast …ensures that, despite physical handicaps, you can earn money or finish your studies. Wow! Someone like that deserves a card for […]

Filed Under: Blog, NaturallySpeaking

Dragon Disaster Preparedness: where is your spare microphone?

31 January 2019 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Dragon Disaster Preparedness: where is your spare microphone?

Recently a client contecte me, requiring urgent advice about a new microphone. What was the case? My client’s microphone didn’t work anymore. It was broken. For the past couple of days she had been typing. Now this is someone who needs the speech recognition software because of physical issues. Not having Dragon available due to […]

Filed Under: Blog, Microphone

What if two words sound exactly the same?

2 January 2019 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

What if two words sound exactly the same?

Recently, Brad asked a question in the comments of one of my blog posts. “How does Dragon deal with homophones?” That’s a great question and in fact the speech recognition sometimes has difficulty making the correct decision. What are homophones? Homophones are words that have different spellings and different meanings, but that sound exactly alike. […]

Filed Under: Blog

2019 brings more succes with Dragon

31 December 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

2019 brings more succes with Dragon

Greetings! The New Year is almost there. Do you have any specific plans for 2019? Me… I don’t really connect new starts to the calendar, but to be honest I do get always kind of excited about the start of a new year. It’s like taking a peek into the future and seeing all possibilities […]

Filed Under: Blog

(re)START with Dragon challenge

29 December 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

(re)START with Dragon challenge

Whoohoo! Almost a new year and it is now time to dust off any unused Dragon software and microphones. Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to get started, but weren’t sure where to begin? Then mark 8 January 2019 in your calendar as a prep-day to checkout your PC and microphone. And on 14 January we’ll […]

Filed Under: Blog, Microphone, Software

Should I buy a new microphone for Dragon?

8 December 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Should I buy a new microphone for Dragon?

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with one of my clients about whether he should buy a new microphone for Dragon. This gentleman has been an online client of mine for quite a few years already and is a member of the Dutch equivalent of the Learn Dragon Online Academy. He contacted […]

Filed Under: Blog, Microphone

Oops: Are all recognition bloopers Dragon’s fault?

23 November 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Oops: Are all recognition bloopers Dragon’s fault?

This may not come as a total surprise to you, but Dragon does not actually transcribe everything you say without mistakes. If only! Even if 97% of all the words you dictate is written down correctly, you will get a recognition error about every 30 words. This text is about 350 words long, so it would be […]

Filed Under: Blog, Blooper

Happy Thanksgiving!

22 November 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even though Thanksgiving isn’t a European holiday, I do take a moment today to think about what I’m grateful for. Somewhere after being grateful for my loved ones and good health, I’d have to mention the Dragon speech recognition software. Dragon allows me to work even when my minor health glitches make it hard to […]

Filed Under: Blog

Did I ever share this podcast episode here?

19 November 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Did I ever share this podcast episode here?

Earlier this year I was interviewed by Neil Ball of The Entrepreneur way. I don’t think I shared the podcast interview via the blog, so here it is. Very belatedly, but the content isn’t time sensitive. There’s a bit about me, about my business and about speech recognition, of course!      

Filed Under: Blog

Punctuation and Double Spacing – The age-old debate

15 November 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Punctuation and Double Spacing – The age-old debate

There are some topics that divide opinion. Topics that create a debate. The ongoing conversation about whether to leave one space or two at the end of a sentence is one of them. In this post I’m going to tackle this issue to see if we can find a solution. Who is right and who […]

Filed Under: Blog

Dyslexia and Dragon

23 October 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Dyslexia and Dragon

October 2018 is Dyslexia Awareness Month. Are you dyslectic? These are the cliff notes in a larger font: With Dragon you can dictate your texts to the computer. Hardly any typing necessary. That will allow you to make your emails and documents much faster. You need to be able to read what Dragon has typed […]

Filed Under: Blog, Dyslexia

3 Compelling reasons why you need a Dragon course

18 September 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

3 Compelling reasons why you need a Dragon course

If you’re anything like me, you probably have done this many times: install a piece of software and then… just start using it. No tutorial or course, perhaps not even reading the quick start guide. Personally I have done this with Photoshop Elements. Whenever I’m not sure how to go about it, I will just […]

Filed Under: Blog

NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in 30 days

4 September 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in 30 days

What is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it is actually an international non-profit initiative to encourage people to write a novel. Every November, many people start out writing their novel in 30 days. And by many people, I mean MANY. In 2017, over 400,000 people joined NaNoWriMo. Amazing, isn’t it?! Find […]

Filed Under: Blog

Can you use a fan or airco when dictating with Dragon?

27 July 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Can you use a fan or airco when dictating with Dragon?

As I am sitting here, writing this, we are experiencing record-breaking high temperatures. Yesterday, on my way back from client, I caught my dashboard thermometer displaying 37°C, which is equivalent to 98.6°F. I was extremely grateful for the air-conditioning in my car! However, neither my office, nor my home office are fitted with proper climate […]

Filed Under: Blog

Who is listening in on your dictation?

18 July 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Who is listening in on your dictation?

How secure are speech recognition applications? A couple of months ago I read an article in the Dutch media about Alexa, Amazon’s smart home assistant, sending a random conversation from someone in the USA to a random person in the owner’s contacts list. I found an article in English covering the same story at the […]

Filed Under: Blog

Microphone not recognised by Dragon?

19 June 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Microphone not recognised by Dragon?

If you suddenly find that Dragon does not recognise your microphone any more, even though Windows sees it, the below video might be the solution. Apparently the latest large windows update (1803) changes something in the security settings of Windows. This video shows you how to check for the settings and make sure that your […]

Filed Under: Blog, Tech help

Dragon stinks! Right??!

31 May 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Dragon stinks! Right??!

Dragon stinks! Some time ago someone enquired in a forum after speech recognition software. But only a program that actually works! “Not Dragon, Dragon stinks!” When I hear someone say that, I usually wonder what went wrong in the relationship between that person and their Dragon. Didn’t they ever hit it off? Did they fall […]

Filed Under: Blog

Was it Yanny or Laurel? Ask the Dragon!

23 May 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Was it Yanny or Laurel? Ask the Dragon!

I had a fun experiment with Dragon: Recently there was a bit to do about a digitised sound sample saying either “Yanny” or “Laurel”. Watch this video to see how Dragon transcribes that particular sound sample and how Dragon transcribes a regular human voice.

Filed Under: Blog

Freedom: walking around while dictating

14 April 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Freedom: walking around while dictating

Dragon allows you to get a bit of freedom of movement. There is absulutely no need to be virtually chained to the keyboard and mouse, since you can do so much by voice. Even with a wired headset you can lean back in your chair, while being productive. And a wireless microphone allows you even […]

Filed Under: Blog, Microphone

Is Dragon speech recognition a good choice for me?

4 April 2018 By Janneke den Draak 6 Comments

Is Dragon speech recognition a good choice for me?

If you’re considering Dragon speech recognition, you want to be as sure as possible beforehand that it will actually benefit you, right? Unlike some resellers and trainers, I’ll be the last person to tell you that speech recognition is the perfect solution for everyone. It really isn’t. So how to find out if it will […]

Filed Under: Blog, Ultimate Guide

Dragon 15 and Firefox

2 April 2018 By Janneke den Draak 4 Comments

Dragon 15 and Firefox

Sometime last year it became impossible to properly work in Firefox with Dragon. The existing plug-in/extension stopped working. Apparently Mozilla decided to change something essential in an update to Firefox, causing the Dragon extension to become inoperable. A great disappointment, since for many people Firefox is the preferred Internet browser. With the advent of the […]

Filed Under: Blog

Dragon 15.3 Update (for PC)

11 February 2018 By Janneke den Draak 25 Comments

Dragon 15.3 Update (for PC)

Nuance has come out with a free update to version 15.3 which offers a solution for several excruciating bugs in Dragon Professional Individual and Microsoft Office. Why you need this update These were the issues experienced many people running Dragon Professional Individual 15 in combination with Word and Outlook on Windows. It was impossible to correctly position the […]

Filed Under: Blog, news, Software

What do I need to successfully use Dragon?

26 January 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

What do I need to successfully use Dragon?

Dragon may seem a wonderful solution on first sight. And in most cases it can certainly be absolutely great. But there are several considerations to keep in mind. What do you need to successfully use Dragon? Important success factors include yourself as the end user of the software, your computer and the microphone. You: the end user […]

Filed Under: Blog, Ultimate Guide

Can I use Dragon if I have (almost) no computer experience?

14 January 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Can I use Dragon if I have (almost) no computer experience?

It seems so convenient: just talk to your computer and it will do what you say. Much easier than use the keyboard and mouse, right? Perhaps you’re a bit older and never learned how to work with a computer. Or perhaps you have serious physical issues preventing you to be able to use a mouse […]

Filed Under: Blog

The ultimate guide to Dragon NaturallySpeaking?

8 January 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

The ultimate guide to Dragon NaturallySpeaking?

Is there such a thing as an Ultimate guide to Dragon NaturallySpeaking? Let me explain how I came to this question: If you have read my bio, you know that I have been a trainer for speech recognition software for almost 20 years now. However, I have a confession to make: running an international online branche […]

Filed Under: Blog, Ultimate Guide

Happy New Year

1 January 2018 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Happy New Year

Filed Under: Blog

Musical Christmas greetings from the Dragon

23 December 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Musical Christmas greetings from the Dragon

I’ve had incredible fun singing a Christmas song to the Dragon 🙂 . It’s amazing what you can make the speech recognition do if you have a bit of patience. Click video below: Merry Christmas to you!

Filed Under: Blog

Can I install Dragon on multiple computers?

20 December 2017 By Janneke den Draak 18 Comments

Can I install Dragon on multiple computers?

[post updated 6 January 2019] Do your own more than one computer? If you do, you are probably interested to know whether you can install Dragon on both your laptop and your desktop computer. I frequently get asked if it is allowed to install Dragon speech recognition on multiple computers. When can I install Dragon […]

Filed Under: Blog

The single most important factor for success with Dragon

1 December 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

The single most important factor for success with Dragon

Recently I got this question: “What is the single most important factor for success with Dragon speech recognition?” All right, that is a question that’s really hard to answer. In my opinion it is simply not possible to indicate a single success factor. What is the most important factor? Without a computer, you cannot use […]

Filed Under: Blog

What does DPI stand for?

2 November 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

What does DPI stand for?

Filed Under: Blog, Software

Can I still use Dragon when I have a cold?

1 November 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Can I still use Dragon when I have a cold?

It is a question that I get regularly: “What if I get a cold? Can I still dictate and use speech commands in Dragon? Will Dragon understand you? Obviously, if your voice is really hoarse or you’ve lost your voice completely, Dragon won’t work anymore. But even if circumstances are less dire, Dragon speech recognition […]

Filed Under: Blog

Can I use the built-in mic of my laptop for Dragon?

2 October 2017 By Janneke den Draak 2 Comments

Can I use the built-in mic of my laptop for Dragon?

Filed Under: Blog, Microphone

Dragon on World Emoji Day

17 July 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Dragon on World Emoji Day

Workld Emoji Day; I didn’t know it was a ‘thing’, but I’m happy to show how I dictate emoji’s in Dragon speech recognition software.

Filed Under: Blog

Speech recognition for the entrepreneur

7 June 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Speech recognition for the entrepreneur

I am an entrepreneur: I run a speech recognition training and consulting business in the Netherlands and have been self-employed for over 7 years now. Like many enterpreneurs and emplyees alike, I am fairly busy most of the time and sometimes I am BUSY. Perhaps you know what I mean :-). Are you busy too? […]

Filed Under: Blog

What is Dragon speech recogntion?

6 May 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

What is Dragon speech recogntion?

Generally speaking, the term ‘speech recognition’ in technology describes the capability of an electronic device to respond to words spoken by humans. Nowadays there is speech recognition for Windows and Mac computers, smartphones, GPS navigation systems and much more. At Learn Dragon Online, I teach people to work with Dragon Professional Individual. This is a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Ultimate Guide

Dragon NaturallySpeaking celebrates 20th anniversary

28 April 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

Dragon NaturallySpeaking celebrates 20th anniversary

This month it is 20 years ago that Dragon NaturallySpeaking by – then – Dragon Systems was ‘born’. It was the first speech recognition product that allowed you to dictate continuously. Its predecessor DragonDictate required you to speak word-for-word. A much slower process where every word was analysed and recognised  separately. Not until Dragon had finished […]

Filed Under: Blog

Happy Easter

16 April 2017 By Janneke den Draak

Happy Easter

Filed Under: Blog

About Learn Dragon Online

5 April 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

About Learn Dragon Online

I created Learn Dragon Online to help people get the most out of Dragon speech recognition software. Why a course on Dragon? While speech recognition software is not rocket science, it still can be tricky to get Dragon to do what you want. I find that many people struggle to get adequate use out of […]

Filed Under: Blog

About Janneke

31 March 2017 By Janneke den Draak Leave a Comment

About Janneke

Update: This blogpost was first written when I started my site and didn’t have a proper ‘About me’ page in place. I now have one, and you can find it here. About Janneke den Draak This is the first time that I have created an international website and most probably you’ve have never heard of […]

Filed Under: Blog

Recent posts

  • A valentine card
  • Dragon Disaster Preparedness: where is your spare microphone?
  • What if two words sound exactly the same?
  • 2019 brings more succes with Dragon
  • (re)START with Dragon challenge

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