While dictating on Dragon software the first few times, one might have problems with numbers. But for the most part, Dragon Medical Practice Edition has the power to recognize different numbers based on the context. For example, the app knows the difference between word “nine” and “9” based on the context. However, for explicitly mentioning the type of number character one can say “Numeral” before the digit is spoken.  For example, dictating “Numeral nine” will let you have 3 on the transcription. Also, to dictate numbers in pure numeral form, one can omit connectives such as “and”. For example, say “one hundred twenty one” instead of “one hundred and twenty one” to get 121. To get the number zero one can call “zero” or “oh”. To get commas to indicate decimal places in numbers, you must explicitly mention it while dictating. But if you are saying a number with more than 5 digits then the app has power to automatically insert commas. Again, there is no point in inserting commas on ZIP Codes so the software avoids it. For dictating decimal numbers, say “point” whenever necessary.

If in any situation, you need to dictate a series of numbers and you don’t want the Dragon to interpret the series as words then use Number mode. A practical instance where this is necessary would be while you are dictating a Microsoft Excel file or any other spreadsheet program. To turn the number mode on, simply say “Numbers Mode On” or “Start Numbers Mode”. To Turn OFF the same say “Numbers Mode Off” or “Stop Numbers Mode” or “Switch to Normal Mode”.

Dictating various types of numeric data

Dictating dates on Dragon Medical Practice Edition is easy. You can dictate dates in the usual way, and numbers using typical speech like zeros as “zero” or “oh”. For dictating times of day, you will need to say colon (:), “a, m” and “p, m” whenever necessary. “o’clock” is also allowed while you are dictating something like 9:00am or 9:00pm. For example, 7:00pm would be said as “7, o’clock, pm”. Next, for telephone numbers you will have to explicitly say hyphen (-) other than that there is no change. While dictating fractions, you can use the usual ways such as one half, one fourth, three fourth, one sixteenths, seven eighths etc. If the fraction has a denominator greater than 10 then use “slash or over “. For example, to dictate 4/13, say “four slash thirteen or four over thirteen”.

Below are few examples of dictating the numbers in a the right way