Dragon is a resource intensive piece of software that relies quite heavily on system resources in order to get the best results. Listening to sound, processing the sound and comparing it with an ever-evolving voice profile and preset algorithms requires some serious computing power.
So it’s important to know when and how to shut down correctly. The shutdown process is when the software will record all of your changes, edit and corrections. This is often when or how profiles can become corrupted. It’s important to go through the proper steps when you are shutting down your Dragon software in order to avoid any problems. The best method is to click Profile from the Dragonbar and then Exit Dragon.
This should also be given a few seconds in order for the software shutdown properly. Interrupting this process before the Dragonbar has disappeared from the screen can also result in a corrupt profile. This period of time when it automatically saves your user files is when things can tend to go wrong. Even power interruptions can have a bearing on profiles making it quite a delicate business.
This also makes it important to have a good back up of your profile, stored on an external drive so that you can simply pick up where you left off if things fall apart.
It’s also a good idea to shut down Dragon at the end of the day. Sometimes during the course of the day in which there’s been plenty of dictation the system can slow down and depending on system resources that may be a good idea to close Dragon and then reopen at this point while you grab a coffee.