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Dragon for Mac Forums and Discussion » Dragon Dictate » Using Dictate

Dragon Dictate 2.0 - Note Pad Preferences?

(14 posts)

  1. Gelphyn
    Member

    Searches of these forums and the knowledgebase have not revealed any information on this subject.

    It would be very useful to be able to save options for New Note Pad Documents:

    1. The choice of Font and particularly Font Size.

    2. To be able to choose the opening position of Notes on the display.

    3. To be able to choose the size and shape of documents opened

    I will be grateful for any info on this subject and if the above are not currently achievable offer them for consideration in the next upgrade.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008-RAM 8GB-Mac OS X 10.6.5-Dictate 2.0.1 (9605)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. Gelphyn
    Member

    Tripped up by Terminology, I was entering ‘Notepad‘ instead of the correct “Note Pad” so searched in vain.

    Needless to say problem solved.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 - RAM 8GB - Mac OS X 10.6.5 - Dictate 2.0.2 (10086)
    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. Blair
    Member

    Gelphyn, Did you find solutions to your three questions? If so, would you mind sharing them here because I have been unable to find suitable answers for the same problems.

    I was hoping Note Pad might acquire some basic text and formatting options that could be set as defaults. My workaround has been to copy and paste text formats. I'd love to know the answers to your second and third questions.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. Gelphyn
    Member

    Hi Blair

    My main concern was Question 1. In Dragon Dictate Note Pad this is simply a question of selecting a Font Style and Size, which then remains the default until changed.

    With regard to Question 2, I accepted that Dragon Dictate Note Pad Preferences do not accommodate this or my other desire for Positioning. So I have have switched to using TextEdit as my application choice for dictation because it meets 2 out of 3 of my requirements.

    Unless somebody can tell me differently, there does not seem to be a way of choosing the position at which a new document opens in TextEdit either.
    It would be really useful if, that after setting the size of new documents, they would open without being obscured by the three Dragon Dictate 2.0 Panels.

    Now that I’ve got everything set up properly I have no reason to use services of Note Pad.

    In an attempt to eliminate issues related to ‘slowdown’ of DD2 the “Auto Cache Document” for TextEdit had been disabled. More info on this can be found at:

    http://www.macspeech.co.uk/extensions/forums/topic.php?id=1133

    The slowdown issue has only occurred on a couple of occasions and not surfaced again since I reinstated the “Auto Cache“.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 - RAM 8GB - Mac OS X 10.6.5 - Dictate 2.0.2 (10086) Started 10th Dec 2010
    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  5. Blair
    Member

    Thank you Gelphyn, it seems we have found similar solutions. I realise now that I misread your initial comments and thought you had found solutions for all three points - I was hoping the fixes may have involved some tweaking via Terminal or something similar.

    I too use TextEdit although I did not have the auto cache disabled (but I will now), it will be interesting to see if I still have slowdown issues from now on.

    Some time ago I sent a request to the Dictate developers to have the Note Pad remember its last used position and size along with a preference to set a particular font and size but sadly those options remain unavailable.

    iMac - Intel Core 2 Duo - 4 GB - Mac OS X 10.6.5 - Dragon Dictate - Version 2.0.2 (10086)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  6. Gelphyn
    Member

    Blair, I think there is still some misunderstanding?

    In Dragon Dictate 2.0 go to File and select New Note Pad and then Click to open a New Document.

    With the Document still open go to Format and from the drop-down select Font.
    Choose the font, font size and font weight that you wish to use for your documents.

    When you're finished using the document you can close or save it as desired.

    The next time you repeat this process a new Dictate Note Pad Document should open already setup to use the font you chose previously.

    HTH.

    God luck with your request, please do keep us informed of any progress made.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 - RAM 8GB - Mac OS X 10.6.5 - Dictate 2.0.2 (10086) Started 10th Dec 2010
    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  7. Blair
    Member

    Hi Gelphyn, thank you for the font/format directions. I must be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, if I needed to change the font or style, I copied the style from another document and applied it to be dictated text on the Note Pad. I'll use your trick from now on :-)

    I'm not sure why the DD developers bothered with the Note Pad when the program works almost as well (quickly) with TextEdit with its built-in formatting options. Presumably the Note Pad makes it easier for DD to follow dictation, learn new words and carry out editing but it seems like an incomplete duplication to me.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  8. Gelphyn
    Member

    You may be interested in this Blair? It concerns the use of Dragon Dictate 2.0 Note Pad compared to using TextEdit:

    http://www.macspeech.co.uk/extensions/forums/topic.php?id=1133&page=3

    The post I'm referring to is approximately 29 posts from the top of that page.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
    RAM 8 x 1GB Modules all Matched Originals
    Mac OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard - All latest UpDates
    OS and Applications run on WD Velociraptor 300GB 10,000 RPM HDD - Data on separate HDD
    Dictate 2.0.2 (10086) Started using Voice Recognition on 10th Dec 2010

    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  9. abledoc
    Member

    @Gelphyn
    could not locate your reference

    RE: Note pad
    A Note Pad window is exceptional. Dragon Dictate knows the contents of the text there, because the cache updates automatically. The same is true of a TextEdit document if you have the Auto Cache Document box checked in the Preferences. So, in effect, the Cache Document command is automatically executed for you as required. When you open an existing document into a Note Pad window or in TextEdit, or when you paste text into either, Cache Document is automatically executed. DDUserM pg 167

    MacOS 10.6.5; MBPro 15 processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 4GB ; FilemakerProAdv11, Dragon Dictate 2.0.2; (Dragon Dictate Instructor for The Emergent Institute)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  10. Gelphyn
    Member

    @ abledoc.

    I was referring to my experience with using DD2 Note Pad compared to TextEdit.
    The post was second from bottom on the page referenced, revisiting it just now I noticed your response below my post [there really does need to be a method of informing contributors that replies have been received to threads of interest, or have I missed something?].
    My point on this subject was that, at that time, there appeared to be a distinct advantage to using DD2 Note Pad compared to TextEdit on the grounds of using less System Memory and being able to maintain dictation at a higher rate.

    I had realised the facts you rightly point out about DD2 Note Pad and TextEdit needing the default "Auto Cache Document" needing to be checked.
    In practice I am finding it, shall we politely say "glitchy", when attempting to modify a document.
    The document tested is less than 700 Words and less than 4,000 Characters and Spaces.
    The next stage is to try the same modifications when that document is broken into ever smaller segments.

    At this point, in danger of wandering too far off topic, I will add more on this subject to the "Mac Slows Down" thread.

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
    RAM 8 x 1GB Modules all Matched Originals
    Mac OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard - All latest UpDates
    OS and Applications run on WD Velociraptor 300GB 10,000 RPM HDD - Data on separate HDD
    Dictate 2.0.2 (10086) Started using Voice Recognition on 10th Dec 2010

    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  11. abledoc
    Member

    Click on "member" below your name. You will see a summary of all of the threads that you have posted to, with the interval, and the last post interval. Bookmark this to your browser.

    Or, add this thread to your favorites profile, the link is at the top of the thread. You can also set up an RSS feed.

    MacOS 10.6.5; MBPro 15 processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 6GB ; FilemakerProAdv11, Dragon Dictate 2.0.2; (Dragon Dictate Instructor for The Emergent Institute)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  12. Blair
    Member

    @Gelphyn,

    Thanks for the link to the Note Pad/TextEdit discussion. I have been following that discussion reasonably frequently. There's a lot to be said for RSS and a good newsreader :-)

    On the slow Mac issue, you and others might be interested in a system preference file called MenuMetres which I have been using for a number of years and highly recommend.

    It displays a number of details graphically or texturally in the menubar in real-time or at selected time intervals and obviates the need to run activity monitor and chew up handy screen real estate. There is also a drop-down menu which provides additional information. At a glance you can see memory and CPU usage, virtual memory usage and active swap files. With it I've noticed that Safari, FileMaker and iTunes can interact poorly with DD at various times in various combinations.

    http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/index.html

    Cheers.

    Dragon Dictate V2.0.2 (10086)
    iMac - Intel Core 2 Duo - 4 GB - Mac OS X 10.6.5

    Posted 2 years ago #

  13. Gelphyn
    Member

    @Blair

    Thanks for the info.

    Some folks may appreciate your info in the " Mac Slow Down" thread?
    Perhaps you will consider cross linking your post or posting in a "similar vein" there?

    I have a "human RSS feed" to deal with who bombards me with "snippets" [read pages] of information to digest. Factor in the explosion taking place in these forums and I am not sure if my lame brain will cope :-).

    Best regards, G

    Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
    RAM 8 x 1GB Modules all Matched Originals
    Mac OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard - All latest UpDates
    OS and Applications run on WD Velociraptor 300GB 10,000 RPM HDD - Data on separate HDD
    Dictate 2.0.2 (10086) Started using Voice Recognition on 10th Dec 2010

    From the Celtic: Iyadwyadywagwyag ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  14. abledoc
    Member

    RE: Note Pad
    Note Pad frequently picks up an undesirable format from a copy and paste action from another text document, like spacing, background, etc. Menu>Font allows you to change the font but not the format. Here is one way to reset the format in Note Pad:

    go to textedit, create a RTF document any size, select all and copy, go to DD, open a new note pad, paste. Note pad should pick up all the characteristics of RTF TextEdit and reset its default format.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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