In the documentation for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11.0 Professional, in the section "dictating numbers" there is a very clear example of how to dictate four digit numbers (1000-9999) with a comma as 1000s separator, to give values 1,000-9,999. Unfortunately, this doesn't work.

On the Help-file page called "Dictating numbers" the following two examples are given:

To enter	Say
5423	"five thousand four hundred twenty three"
5,423	"five comma thousand four twenty three"

However, while I have no problem saying "five thousand four hundred twenty three" to get 5423, when I try dictating "five comma thousand four twenty three" I get "five, thousand 423". In fact, while the previous dictation was in "Normal" mode, even if I switch to Numbers mode, I get "5, thousand 423", a result which I didn't even think was possible while in numbers mode.

And thanks to the fact that, as already discussed at great length in this and other Dragon NaturallySpeaking forums, Nuance decided to drop the commands "Format that numbers" and its brother "Format that spelled out", there is really no way to clean up the result of having dictated a four digit number with a comma for a 1000s separator. The image at left shows what you get when you say "Correct that".

Or, for the version dictated in Numbers mode, see image at lower left.

 

 

 

There are many, many people using Dragon NaturallySpeaking who are obliged, by their employers, to include a comma as 1000s separator in their work, and quite a number more, and, privately, simply prefer to write four digit numbers that way.

More dramatically, perhaps for Nuance, there is an even larger number of potential users, when they hear about this very serious problem, will simply decide not to acquire and use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This is too bad.

Does anyone out there have a workaround? A solution? Any ideas? Any way of getting through to the developers and programmers at Nuance to make them understand that their current solution for handling numbers is not simply inadequate, but a disaster!

Best regards,

olaf-michael stefanov (omstefanov)

Message above was dictated using a Samson AirLine Micro into DNS 11.0 Professional, running under Vista Ultimate SP3, on an Acer TravelMate 6292 with an Intel core duo T8200 @ 2.4 GHz, with 3 GB RAM. Dictated into MS Word 2007 Professional and then transferred to this forum. Same dictation results (errors) occurred when trying to dictate the same number (and others) into DragonPad or Dictation Box. The Operating System's Regional and Language settings were also checked for correct thousands separator.

Olaf,

First, this has been an issue with the last two versions of DNS.  Part of the problem is due to the number formatting when "Numbers, greater than or equal to 10" is the setting.  Nuance development is aware of the problem, but for whatever reason they haven't chosen to fix it up to this point.  I have submitted this issue to Nuance development.  However, getting things fixed requires that users who are experiencing problems make it a practice in DNS 11 to use the feedback link in the DNS Help to go to the Nuance website where they can submit problem issues.  Nuance is done this so that these problem issues end up in a database that they use to base their creation of new features and fixing a bug issues on.  If it doesn't get entered here insufficient numbers, it won't get fixed any time soon.  In essence, nuances put the burden back on the end-user for reporting problems.  The database that Nuance uses is the database that development uses for analyzing the quantity and severity of particular problems.

Second, your over emphasizing the number of users who bump into this particular problem.  Actually there aren't that many and it really isn't a serious problem as much as it is an in-your-face irritating problem.  You can work around it.  Try the following:

Say "switch to Numbers mode", then say "five comma no space four two three", then say "switch to normal mode".

This can be irritatingly tedious if you have a lot of four digit numbers that you want to insert commas into, but as you get the hang of it, you can do it very quickly.  It also ensures that none of the numbers below 10 are spelled out.

Also, if you have the cap professional version, it is very easy to write a script for "format that spelled out".  I have wondered if anyone wants.  Just be advised that you may have to tweak it a little bit to get it to work properly because the view recognition history has changed in DNS 11 and you will have to change some of the code to get it to function properly.

However, try the method that I've suggested above.  I think you will find it works very satisfactorily and it really is fairly easy to say quickly.

Nevertheless, I agree that it is a bug that has been around far too long.  However, it's not new to DNS 11.  The only reason I don't complain about it vehemently is because I use four digit numbers with commas for the 1000s separator so infrequently that I've gotten used to using this particular approach.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley

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Good suggestion!

I just did a quick run-through using DragonPad. The number "$5,367.00" I created by dictating, "dollar sign numeral five comma [,] three six seven [,] dot no-space zero-zero"

The bracketed comments are natural pauses. The process requires the same type of mental deconstruction that occurs when I dictate text strings involving titles where most, if not all, words require capital letters. The take away would be that creating these text numerical sequences is simply a matter of habituating ourselves to do so through constant practice.

I do not do many spreadsheets, and I would think that having to go through this level of deconstructed articulation could become very, very tiresome, unless the spreadsheet program will insert the required commas automatically. I am aware that databases differentiate between text and actual numeric values, and I think that spreadsheets do, as well.

For general word processing, I would hope that some enterprising programmer could be persuaded to write a short program that could search for and replace numeric text strings with proper comma-separated numbers, as context requires. That would be a nice adjunct that would work well as an ordinary word processing macro, but I have not thought this thing through well enough to know whether it would work in most text dictations.

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Art Silen

artsilen@sbcglobal.net; art.silen.mediator@gmail.com  

"Question assumptions"

DSN 11.5, running on Win7;Intel Core i7 CPU 970 @3.20 GHz; System Memory 12 GB; Graphic AMD Radcon HD6570; System Board 2A861.04E01; System Bios 6.15

Art,

Actually, I find it easier to say the following, which I can do in one breath and very quickly.

"Switch to Numbers mode" dollar sign five comma no space three six seven dot zero zero "switch to normal mode".

Stephan,

I concur that this has been the same in all versions of DNS.  That is, it has never worked properly.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

"You must keep your mind on the objective, not on the obstacle."  - William Randolph Hearst

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Then there is the "Spell" command - which can be used without pausing to start and is quite flexible for things like prices and part numbers. Therefore:

$5,423.00  Said in a single utterance:

spell dollar sign five comma four two three dot zero zero

76,543.21  Said with a pause, but the helpful check box: ""Spell" commands bring up Spelling Window" means that the whole phrase will come out correctly (it is typed into the Spelling Window first, allowing correction, but requiring an OK):

spell seven six comma five four
three point two one

 

Numbers-mode helps for tabbed data and etc, but "Spell" could be advantageously used there also.

Hth,

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PG

PG,

If you set the option to supress the spell box from displaying when the spell command is executed, you do not have to say OK to close the box.  This saves one step.  The text just goes directly to the screen.

Bruce

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Bruce,

You are quite correct but I think it is confusing the way you phrased it.  I would put it thusly:

If you disable the option "Spell" commands bring up Spelling Window in the Dragon Options dialog | Commands tab, when you say the command "Spell" immediately following that without pausing by what it is that you wish to spell, in this case numbers, then the text will display directly on the screen.  In other words, it will bypass the Spelling Window.  However, if you pause ever so slightly when using this feature, then the Spelling Window will be displayed necessitating that you not only spell the word but to to say "OK" to get it to insert the text into your document.  It takes some practice to get this method working properly, but it's very easy with numbers.  You just have to remember not to pause too long before you start dictating (spelling or dictating numbers).

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

"What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you." - Anthony de Mello

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Thanks, Chuck,

I had not thought of switching to Numbers Mode. That looks like an elegant solution to the problem of getting the commas in the right places, and eliminating the unwanted spacing.

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Art Silen

artsilen@sbcglobal.net; art.silen.mediator@gmail.com  

"Question assumptions"

DSN 11.5, running on Win7;Intel Core i7 CPU 970 @3.20 GHz; System Memory 12 GB; Graphic AMD Radcon HD6570; System Board 2A861.04E01; System Bios 6.15

To add to Chucks excellent advice, a similar script has been developed by a frequent contributor to this forum (I forget who exactly) who will certainly be glad to provide it.

I prefer the built-in option of simply using the Correct dialogue to convert a number into text or vice versa. Saying "correct that" and then "choose 1" (or whatever appropriate) is just as fast and doesn't involve any major surgery. 

BTW, this command never inserted a comma into four-digit numbers. 

Best, Stephan

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