Excel 2016 vs. Dragon Professional 15

[Kathy Stevens]

Until recently I have been able to dictate numbers and text into the cells of Excel 2016 using Nuance Dragon Professional Individual 15.30.000.006.

As of yesterday, my ability to dictate into Excel is sporadic. I can dictate into new spreadsheets but not spreadsheets I have been using for several years.

I did a computer update from Windows 10 professional 1809 to 1903 on December 23 and updated Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 during the week of January 5.

I also reinstalled and updated Dragon yesterday.

The NatSpeak Excel Add-in shows as active when I go into Excel Options

I have no problem dictating into new MS Word 2016 documents.

I would appreciate any thoughts related to a workaround for using Dragon on older spreadsheets.

• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Kathy Stevens.

[RetiredGeek]

Kathy,

Are the workbooks you’ve been using for years still in the old .xls file format?

Not sure if it is the problem but you might want to convert them to the newer format .xlsx for standard workbooks and .xlsm for those containing macros (VBA code).

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

[Kathy Stevens]

RetiredGeek

The workbook in question was started in 2006 and has been periodically modified and updated daily since then. It contains a huge amount of data, a large number of formulas and links, and is currently in the .xlsx format.

It appears that my problem lies within the workbook itself.

I just opened a new .xlsx formatted Excel 2016 spreadsheet and Dragon had no problem entering text and numbers in cells of the new workbook.

I guess the next step is to copy the old sheets and paste them into a fresh workbook and see if that solves a problem.

As an alternative, I could convert the file to a database.

[Kirsty]

Before delving too deeply into changes, Kathy, what about trying to change the file suffix, to .xlsx, and see if that makes any difference? (or checking it is with that format – I see your comment that it is in that “format”, which I presume means it isn’t showing as “compatibility mode”).

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Kirsty.

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Kathy Stevens

[Kathy Stevens]

Kirsty

Thank you for getting back.

The file name already is XXXX.xlsx

I will check for “compatibility mode” when I get a chance.

[Kirsty]

In that case, it may be worth trying a “Save As”, and giving it a new filename with the .xlsx suffix – it may possibly help… 🙂

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Kathy Stevens

[Kathy Stevens]

Renaming the file did not work.

Thanks for the idea

[Kirsty]

Kathy, do you still have an older version of Office/Excel installed? If so, I’d give it try with that.

Alternative suggestions might include copying the worksheet/s into a new workbook…?

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Kathy Stevens

[Kathy Stevens]

Kirsty

Unfortunately, when we installed Microsoft Office 2016 it required the removal of our earlier versions of Office. We still have the old Office discs but are not inclined to attempt to reinstall the earlier versions for now.

Tried copying the workbook into a clean Excel sheet but ran into problems with formatting and we were still unable to use Dragon Naturally Speaking for data entry.

Thanks for your thoughts.

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Kirsty

[Kirsty]

You’re probably getting fed up with trying things Kathy, but I have one further suggestion that might be worth a look at…
Save a copy of the file (so you still have an original safely tucked away, just in case), then try:
File> Open> Open & Repair (a down-arrow option)> Repair (you could try Cxtract Data instead on a second attempt).
🙂

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Kathy Stevens

[Kathy Stevens]

Kirsty

Thanks for following up.

I have tried the open repair routine that you suggested but for some reason I have been unable to get to the Open & Repair option.

I will try again later.

Thanks again

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Kirsty

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