Microsoft Word Commands

The programmers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking have added Natural Language Commands to several programs.  Natural Language Commands are designed to let one guess how to execute a particular task.  There is less guessing when you know some key words to use such as, “Format that . . .” and “Make that . . .”.

With text selected in Microsoft Word say:

• Underline That
• Format That Bold Italics
• Format That Upper Case
• Make That Italics

There are other ways to format words too.  To bold, italicize, underline or capitalize, one could use some of the following commands:

Bold the Last Three Words
Cap That
All Caps That
Italics On or Italics Off
Underline the Next Two Words

It is essential that the Natural Language Commands option be turned on.  The option is turned on by default.  To check your system, go to the NaturallySpeaking toolbar, Tools, Options, Commands; Enable Natural Language Commands should be checked.

Below are some sample Natural Language Commands from CompuTALK’s booklet, QuickNotes.  This booklet lists commands so the user knows what kinds of commands can be given.  The commands are arranged topically.  For example, to find a series of commands for Outlook, just go to the Outlook page.

The following are a few of the QuickNotes commands for Microsoft Word:

• Set Font  Arial/Courier/Courier New/Garamond/Helvetica/Palatino/Times New Roman/Times; for example, say, “Set Font Arial”.
• Set Size  6-300; for example, say, “Set Size 16″.
• Set Font  Bold/Italics/Bold Italics/Underline/Strikeout/Plain or Plain Text or Regular; for example, say, “Set Font Bold”.
• “Format That”; say the font name or size or font face.  For example, say, “Format That Arial 14″ will affect the last utterance.
• Bold/Italicize/Underline/Strikeout That
• Restore That
• Center/Left Align/Right Align That
• Increase/Decrease the Font Size to 6… 300; for example, “Set the Font to 24 Points Arial in the Word/Line/Paragraph”.
• Set Line/Paragraph to Bulleted/Numbered

Another way to learn Natural Language Commands is by going to the help menu of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  Click on Revising Text and choose a subtopic.

QuickNotes makes learning commands quick and easy.  The printed booklet is $15.  The material is included in the SpeakEASY DVD in PDF format.  The SpeakEASY DVD provides an inexpensive way to learn Dragon NaturallySpeaking from beginning to end.

©2007 Jim Bendewald
CompuTALK