Tips and Tricks for Using Fluency Direct V12 Digital Dictation Software

You MUST restart your computer after Fluency Direct V12 Installation.
 

Fluency Direct does not autostart.
You must launch the application.
 

• Calibrate every two weeks or when environment changes or you change microphone.
• Hold the microphone 4-6 inches from mouth.
• Check microphone settings to ensure correct microphone selected and record buttons are appropriately set.
• Gather your thoughts and assemble any pertinent information prior to dictating.
• Dictate in a quiet area, with minimal background noise.
• Speak in full thoughts or sentences, consistently and evenly, avoiding fragmented dictations.
• Use correct verbiage and grammar – including punctuation.
• Speak clearly, at a regular pace – articulate properly without over enunciating or saying too slowly.
• Enunciate words that can be misunderstood such as abduction vs. adduction and hyper vs hypo.
• Pause before beginning to dictate and only release the record button (if using Hold to Talk) or ensure recording is turned off (if using Toggle to Talk) after dictation is complete. This prevents words from being “clipped” from the start or tail end of the dictation.
• Stop recording when taking a pause from dictation. This is to prevent capturing other conversations or background noises.
• Avoid heavy breathing or coughing into the microphone while recording.
• Never allow another person to dictate under your login. This will negatively affect your recognition quality.

 

By default, the Play button is programmed to recognise spoken word as a voice command. Voice recognition, audio to text, is not active when the Play button is pressed.

The Record button is used when you wish to record an audio file/enable voice recognition. You can issue voice commands while pressing Record but may find it is not as accurate as when using the Play button. Pausing before issuing a voice command can help with this.
 

You can customise specific microphone buttons to execute built-in and custom commands, for example “open outlook” or “insert signature” (see below for autotext instruction).

1. Press Play and say “button mappings“.
2. Click on the row of the button to edit.
3. Select Action Type of either Recording, Command or Keystroke.
4. Select desired Action from drop down menu.
5. Click Save.

•When the Pill is green, both voice recognition and audio file creation is working.

•Ensure the Pill MRN is the same as the patient record that you are dictating against.
 

•Audio file is generated only if you stop recording BEFORE selecting to save document.
•If an audio file was recorded, Play Audio will be available for that letter at the top of the document.
•There is a slight delay after pressing the record button before the record indicator turns green. Wait until the light is green before beginning to dictate.
•To avoid clipping the end of the dictation, do not release the Record button too soon.
•Duplicate letters can now have audio files saved against them.
•Only one audio file is created per letter. This means if you go back to edit the letter, no new audio will be saved. However, there is a workaround:

1. Duplicate the letter that you wish to edit.
2. Dictate as per usual.
3. Save the letter and the newly dictated audio file is available. Please note, this audio file only contains latest content. It does not append latest content to old content.
4. Do not forget to reject the original letter, when appropriate, so that only one copy, the edited copy, remains.

 

You must tell the software, within 20 minutes, that a mistake has been made. There are three ways to do this:

1. Type the correction with the keyboard.
   Fluency Direct will learn from typed corrections though it will take multiple times to take effect. This is to account for the situation where it is meant to be a one-time correction.
2. Use the Correct Selection command.
1. Select the word or phrase either by highlighting using your mouse or press Play and say “select [text]“.
2. Say “correct selection” or “correct that” to open the error correction window.
3. You will be presented with a list of choices. To accept a choice, say “choose [number]”.
4. If your correction is not listed, type the correct word in the text box. To add to dictionary, say “Add 1“.

3. Add the corrected word into your Dictionary.
1. Highlight corrected word and say “add to dictionary“. The dictionary entry window displays.
2. Choose the correct category for the word.
3. Click Change to add a pronunciation then select the Record Pronunciation tab to record your pronunciation of the word.
4. Click Save.

 

1. Current window should be the clinical letter.
2. Click on Tear Off in the top grey menu bar.
3. The clinical letter window is now a new window and can be dragged to one side of the screen or onto another display screen.
4. The background window is the patient record, and you can select whichever section you wish to review.
5. Select a field in the clinical letter window to dictate directly into.

 

How to create signature autotext:

1. Press Play and say “open commands”.
2. Select command group. You should have a personal group at the top of the list called “Your firstname Your surname’s Commands”.
3. Commands within that group will be displayed to the right side of the window.
4. Click +Add in the top right corner to create a new command.
5. The Add a command window opens.
6. Give the command a name.
   Tip: Keep the command name simple to pronounce. Capitalize the first letter of each word in the command name. Spell out numbers rather than using the numerals. Use an “action verb” at the beginning of each command name. Make sure the command is more than one word.
7. In the Steps tab, choose “Text”.
8. Type the signature text into the text field.
9. The Details tab is useful if you wish to write a description for this command. You can also set command availability to be everywhere, only in certain applications, etc.
   Click Save.
10. Click Apply and then click OK.
11. To use your new Autotext, place the cursor where you wish to insert. Press Play and say “insert signature”.

 

Use brackets, [ ], to indicate a blank field. This functionality is useful in an autotext template of multiple headers or lists.

1. Press Play and say “next field” to move cursor to next set of brackets.
2. To go back to a previous field, press Play and say “previous field“.
3. Where there is text inside the brackets, the brackets will drop off.
4. To remove unused brackets, press Play and say “remove all fields“.

 

If you have calibrated your microphone and taken the time to correct errors but are still experiencing a high error rate, as a last resort, you can contact Service Desk for a profile reset. It is only the recognition profile that will be reset; all autotext, commands and dictionary items will remain the same.

This is also highly recommended for those staff who have not had the time to train their profile in the past.

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Updated: 10 June 2025