Dragon Roaming Profile Optimization
Today, we’re going to be discussing roaming profile optimization in Dragon® Medical Practice Edition 2. We’ll cover some best practices, as well as provide some general knowledge, so that you can make informed decisions about your optimization strategy.
To wit, recognize that this process comprises two parts: both acoustic and language model optimization. Dragon Medical also refers to this combined operation as accuracy tuning. If you’re not familiar with optimization in general, review this information for the fundamentals.
Roaming profiles are stored on a network computer or a file server, and today, we’ll focus on the differences introduced by roaming profile optimization.
Note that this discussion only extends to Dragon Medical Practice Edition for Windows.
Why Is a Roaming Profile Different?
If you haven’t consulted the above referenced article about accuracy tuning basics, I’ll try and sum it up this way:
As you dictate using Dragon Medical, the software creates optimization files on your personal computer. These files have to get from your computer to the network, where the master copy of your roaming profile resides. Additionally, the optimization has to be configured to look in the right place for your profile, as it’s not stored in the default location normally used for local profiles.
How Do I Set Up Dragon Roaming Optimization?
In anticipation of this question, we’ve written out the steps, in detail, that you need to follow in order to schedule accuracy tuning for one or more roaming profiles. These are the simple, straightforward instructions for initializing this process, nothing more.
Now, there’s a little more nuance to this than just turning on the car and pressing the gas pedal. We’ve got a few best practices we want to include, so that you can configure your environment to best suit optimization.
Optimization Checklist
- You must use the Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer Scheduler for roaming profiles. This tool was included with your installation of Dragon Medical.
- When using the scheduler tool, you’ll need your Windows login name and password.
- Windows administrator privileges are required to use this tool.
- Your computer must be connected to the network and able to access the master roaming directory.
- All local profiles should be closed.
Administrative Settings
These are higher-level customizations that allow you to exercise granular control over Dragon Medical operations. To configure these options, click on Tools > Administrative Options from the Dragon Bar.
- On the Roaming tab, make sure to check the box next to “Always copy acoustic information to network.” This pushes data related to corrections and custom word training back out to your master roaming profile—which is vital for optimization. Be sure to close your profile regularly to initiate this synchronization of data between your local roaming and master roaming directories.
- Also on the Roaming tab, uncheck “Conserve archive size on network.” If it is checked, none of your acoustic data will get copied to your master roaming profile. Without this data, acoustic optimization loses most of its effectiveness.
- On the Miscellaneous tab, be sure to uncheck “Correction Only,” or optimization will not run as scheduled.
Behind The Scenes
Here are some of the finer details about what’s happening in the background during the optimization of a roaming profile. For more exhaustive information, be sure to consult the Help Topics, located under the Help menu on the Dragon Bar.
- Once your master roaming profile is optimized, the changes will be reflected in your local roaming profile—after the subsequent synchronization cycle.
- Synchronization is triggered by these common actions: exiting Dragon Medical, closing the profile, saving the profile, or switching between profiles.
- Audio files that you save with documents—i.e., when Dragon Medical asks you if you want to save the audio—don’t get incorporated into your master roaming profile.
- What does happen is that .DRA audio files created, for instance, when making corrections and training new words, get copied to the master roaming profile during synchronization. These files can then be rolled up into the roaming profile optimization process.
- These .DRA files stop synchronizing when the network archive is full. The size of the network archive is set in the Roaming tab of the Administrative Settings window. Try and strike a balance between a lot of data and profile load time. The larger the archive, the slower the load—but the more optimization data that’s captured.
- FYI, local profile optimization scheduling won’t work if you have a roaming profile. You cannot use the Scheduled Tasks tab as you would with a regular (non-roaming) profile.