[Athen] Multiple Nuance-Dragon licenses on one computer

[Wink Harner]

Lawrence et al ATHEN-ites.

 

You *can* purchase either the French or the Spanish version of Dragon NS.
When using either one, the program can switch back & forth from French or
Spanish to English, but the user must stop and switch to a different voice
profile each time. The speech dictation between languages is not seamless.
According to Nuance, you cannot have more than one version of the DNS loaded
at the same time –i.e., not possible to install French with English, and
Spanish with English into the same OS as the voice profiles and the load
sequences are stored on the same path. It IS possible to set up parallel OS
on a partitioned HD, with one language loaded into one OS, and the other
loaded into the second partitioned OS. I have done this with more than just
dictation software –I have had daisy-chained OS set up in separate languages
to do typesetting & design work in multiple foreign languages.

 

It is also feasible to purchase DNS 15.0 Professional ($$) and get the
capability of dictating in various languages with the primary operating
(command) language being English. The downside to this is that the user has
to create separate profiles for each of the languages (Wink-English,
Wink-Spanish, Wink-French) and stop to switch voice profiles each time you
need to insert a word or phrase in the desired other language, then switch
profile back to continue working. 

 

I did not purchase DNS 15.0 Professional, only the Individual Professional
version, so the language switching for me in DNS 15.0 IP was not quite as
easy as outlined above. 

I have tried using the French/English version and the Spanish/English
versions and having to switch user profiles every time I wanted to switch
languages as I dictated became too much of an interruption for me. Yes, even
for me! I suppose one *could* create a macro for Dragon that would switch
voice profiles making the switching from French or Spanish to English and
back again easier. I could not have both French and Spanish versions of DNS
on the same computer. I used two different computers for this set up.

Here is what I ended up doing, though. Of course because I am perverse and
have way too much time on my hands (no, really it’s because I’m a geek!), I
have Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and English versions of DNS, and
have accumulated over the years, a HUGE vocabulary in my voice profile. And
I did what Nuance said was not possible: I named my profile the same thing
in each language I worked in (I was lucky and well-off –I had different
computers for each of the languages “ back in the day.”). Then I saved ALL
of the different language voice profiles into one single profile that
combined all of the different languages and now run DNS 15.0 Individual
Professional in English, but am able to dictate in any of the other
languages and the vocabulary is recognized in the target language correctly.
This takes some dedicated training to do it. Your student could start with a
version of DNS pro (in English) and you can load lists upon lists of French
vocabulary and Spanish vocabulary, and then spend some dedicated time
training the correct pronunciation of the words & accent mark placement. For
example I programed the pronunciation of the names of the accent marks in
each language as macros: cédille Ç, aigu (acute accent) é, circonflexe
(circumflex) â, ê, î, ô, û, grave (grave accent) à, è, ù, and tréma
(dieresis/umlaut) ë, ï, ü. And for Spanish, I created the pronunciation &
trained DNS to recognize tilde, agudo, grave, cedilla, circumflejo, and
dierisis.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the French/English and the
Spanish/English versions of DNS operate IN that language, not in English. So
unless your student is fluent enough in those languages to manage all of the
menus and commands in the target language. Also, all the install
instructions are in the target language. Not a problem for me, but odds are
your IT folks would need this info in English.

My best professional, educated recommendation is that you try out the DNS
15.0 Professional version and have your student work on some separate voice
profiles for each language. He/she can switch users via the PROFILE menu. If
you do this, all the commands, including all of the punctuation STAYS IN
ENGLISH, and will be less confusing to a less than proficiently fluent
foreign language user. Nuance allows a 30 day trial on their software so you
could purchase, let your student work diligently enough to ascertain whether
it will work sufficiently well for them, and if not, you can “return” the
software for a full refund. I would recommend purchasing the disc rather
than the download version. If you already have a version of Dragon
installed, have your student back up (export) their voice profiles to a
flash drive, as the new install will remove the previous version and finding
the .dll files will be a serious headache.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you need more guidance/help. I
would be happy to be of whatever assistance I can.

Wink

 

Wink Harner

Adaptive Technology Consulting & Training

Alternative Text & Media Production

The Foreigntype

ATHEN Executive Board Member at Large

 

 <mailto:foreigntype at gmail.com> foreigntype at gmail.com

 <mailto:winkharner1113 at gmail.com> winkharner1113 at gmail.com

480-984-0034

(Disclaimer: this email was dictated with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please
forgive any quirks, mis-recognitions, or omissions.)

 

 

 

 

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Lawrence C. Cusick
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2017 6:53 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Multiple Nuance-Dragon licenses on one computer

 

Hi all,

Does anyone know whether or not it is it possible to install multiple
Nuance-Dragon licenses on the same computer?

We have a student with a recent arm injury who is a language major and
happens to be taking a French and Spanish course this term, and needs to use
speech recognition to keep up on his coursework.

Since the student has a MacBook, it's not clear to me on the Nuance site if
both French and Spanish are available for Mac users. The student will also
need the English version, so we’re needing to get him access to speech
recognition software for all three languages.

One thought is to have the student use either BootCamp or Parallels for the
software in one of the other languages, but if that does work, then we still
have an issue with the third language.

I’ve submitted this query to Nuance Support, but I’ve not always received
prompt responses from them in the past, so I thought I’d check with the
folks on the ATHEN listserv as well. 

Any advice/guidance is much appreciated!
Larry

 

Lawrence Cusick

Adaptive Technology Specialist

Student Accessibility Services

Dartmouth College

 

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