Hello, I'm new here. so I apologise if this is not in the right place.

I'm an audio transcriber looking to use Dragon in place of touch typing due to some RSI issues. Basically, I listen to audio recordings and transcribe them into Word templates.

I got Dragon 15.6 working okay with Word 2016 running on Windows 11 until today! 

Every couple of minutes, everything would freeze. By 'everything' I mean, my Express Pro (9.11) transcription software (this allows me to control playback of audio with a footpedal), Dragon and Word itself. It would then take absolutely ages for me to be able to even close Express Scribe, Word and Dragon, and some work would be lost, even though I have autorecovery set up. I tried reinstalling Dragon, multiple hardware reboots but the same problem reared its head every time.

I have been using my set up before installing Dragon without issue, so I'm sure it's not the Express Scribe Pro software. The only that's new in my set up is Dragon 15.

My question is would upgrading to a newer version of MS Word help? Or perhaps rolling back to an older version? Or should I try to use Dragon 15.3 and see if that works? Or any other ideas? I do also have Dragon 13 Premium available to me, though I have never used it. Is there any reason to think that would be worth trying with my set up?

I've tried using Google Docs instead of MS Word, but it doesn't seem to work very well with Dragon either. It didn't crash, but didn't format correctly i.e. capital letters in the wrong place.

Is there any other programme I can use to output text reliably, which I can then convert into a Word document (which is the end result I need)?

I tried notepad, and the formatting of the text didn't come out right. I.e. it did not capatilise where it should accorrding to my formatting. I tried WordPad, but that had exactly the same issue as Word i.e. everything stopping working and required me to shut everything down with work lost again.

When Dragon works with MS Word, it is brilliant! I just can't use it with the amount of times it crashes and stops me working.

I should also say I trialled Dragon Professional Anywhere before I bought Dragon 15, but found it has nowhere near the level of formatting controls I need for what I do. It worked, but it does not give me enough control over vocabularly and commands. For example, when adding a new piece of vocabularly, I might need to specify whether to add a space before or after a word, follow it with a tab, or new paragraph, and whether to follow that with capitilisation. All things that are easy to implement in DPI 15. I could not find anyway to do this with DPA. If someone wants to correct me on that, I'm happy to be told otherwise.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, I will have to give up on Dragon (and possibly on my job), which would be a shame.

Thanks.

                    Welcome (See Mission Statement)

•  Have you tried creating a new user profile. We additionally recommend our KnowBrainer Dragon Installation/Training Guide, which includes pictorial details on the installation process, a list of Dragon commands organized by category and pictorial details on fixing 30 sandtraps.

• DPI 15.61 is the latest version of Dragon but most of our transcriptionists have to use Ver. 15.3. Complimentary FOREVER downloads of both versions are included in the previously mentioned training guide.

• Upgrading to the latest Microsoft Word probably won't probably won't make any difference but we do not recommend rolling back to an older version of Word

• Microsoft Word is significantly better than Google Docs which is not Dragon friendly; like Word. One thought is the Word Dragon add-in (extension). Uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft Word might help

• Dragon 15 is only partially Notepad compatible in Windows 11. For that matter, Dragon 15 is not quite fully compatible with Windows 11. That's why it is best to purchase Dragon from Nuance certified resellers who will tell you that Windows 10 is a bit more compatible 

• You should be able to use DragonPad or WordPad if you would like a larger Direct Dictation Dragon friendly environment. You can always copy and paste into Word but you really shouldn't have to go this extra step.

• In order for Nuance to make DPA (expensive cloud version of DPI) function, they had to strip out about 75% of the features. We concur with your results. DPA has some advantages but many disadvantages.

If none of our previous recommendations work, even though it's a pain in the butt, you might consider the sledgehammer approach of installing Windows 10 but it should work. However, before resorting to that extreme, we think you should roll back to DPI 15.3. Most of our transcriptionists and court reporters use DPI 15.3 instead of 15.61

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Thank you so much, Lunis. Your answers are clear and exactly what I was looking for.

I had tried creating a new user profile, and reinstalled Word, but no change.

I will try your other suggestions, and will download the training guide, as I'm not very experienced with Dragon, so I'm sure it will be helpful.

I have placed an order for the training guide. Thanks.

I haven't quite understood how you work. Are the audio recordings transcribed by Dragon and then edited in Microsoft Word? How long is a typical document? When Dragon transcribes an audio file, a DRA file is created in the background where Dragon stores text and sound. When correcting in Microsoft Word, this can occasionally cause problems. That's why I ask.

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Ah, I didn't explain very well.

I listen to the recorded audio, respeak what is being said into Dragon and that output goes dircectly in MS Word templates. They tend to be conversations, multiple speaker, often with complex jargon, so I believe it's more accurate for me to train Dragon to my voice, and tell it what to output, rather than letting Dragon doing the transcription without me. I need very high accuracy, and the speakers change all the time. I hope that makes more sense.

Nuance has eliminated the previous menu for training Dragon because they feel it is unnecessary. You can still train Dragon but unless you have a verbal disability, training is unlikely to help with your accuracy

Because you are Echo Dictating (transcribing) multiple speakers, running documents through Dragon's Learn from specific document's probably won't help either. However, in some cases, removing the checkmark from Automatically adjust the microphone level as I speak, under the DragonBar Profile/Manage Dictation Source/Choose a Microphone menu, may help. Dragon's default auto-gain feature is not for everyone but works well for most of us

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That's interesting to know, thanks.

I thought that by correcting words using the built in commands I was improving accuracy? But maybe not. I'm still working through this problem. Thought I had cracked it yesterday. It did work for longer, but sadly had the same issue of the whole computer crashing. I have a few more things to try.

Many thanks again. Really appreciating this forum.

>Is there any other programme I can use to output text reliably, which I can then convert into a Word document (which is the end result I need)?
I mostly dictate (using DPI 15.6) into the highly capable free editor Jarte Plus 6.2, before copying/pasting the completed transcript into Word 16. While I don't have the problems you describe with dictation into Word 16, on Windows 10, I just find Jarte a more congenial and manageable dictation environment. It's essentially a Wordpad (or Dragonpad) replacement but with real power. I do some initial formatting in Jarte and final formatting in Word.
I also often dictate into the simple text editor DarkRoom, which (surprisingly) is a Dragon-friendly destination. This is a very lightweight program, & I think development stopped at version 0.8, but it's very stable and a pleasure to use.

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DaveR

That's really helpful, thanks! That sounds like something that could work for me, if I can't get Word working reliably alongside Dragon. I will look into it.

Jarte is great. You do need to tinker with some settings to get it to work correctly with Dragon, but once you accomplish that, it is trouble-free. Here are the instructions:

https://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=4&threadid=34213&highlight_key=y&keyword1=Jarte%2C%20Lindsay%20Adam#176839

Thank you! I will come back to this if I have to give up on Word. 

I tried 15.61 with Word and it was a disaster. So I went back to 15.3 and have had no problems since the switch. When things hang for me, my impression is that it is because I've been messing with microphones or leaving Dragon running too long (like overnight) even with the microphone off (red).

If it's a dragon issue, I have found that logging off/on can solve the issue (without a long reboot) because logging off/on resets the software.

If it's a lower-level hardware/usb/microphone issue, a reboot is usually required to reset hardware and OS things.

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Win10/11/x64, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/3950X, 64/128GB RAM, Dragon 15.3, SP 7 Standard, SpeechStart, Office 365, KB 2017, Dragon Capture, Samson Meteor USB Desk Mic, Amazon YUWAKAYI headset, Klim and JUKSTG earbuds with microphones, excellent Sareville Wireless Mono Headset, 3 BenQ 2560x1440 monitors, Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard and Logitech G502 awesome gaming mouse.