Last spring I wrote a blogpost about the fact that it was possible to use Dragon to click links in Firefox once more. For a while, the compatibility between the Firefox browser and Dragon had been totally broken.
Now it was possible to click links by voice. Unfortunately, the experience for dictation in Firefox was still not good. In order to have good compatibility for dictation in text field in the Internet browser, you need a feature called Full Text Control in Dragon. If Full Text Control is not available, you can’t select individual words by voice. It’s also not possible to insert the cursor between specific words in a single voice command.
Dictation in Firefox works again!
The best discoveries come from the best questions: I recently was asked about Dragon not working in Firefox. This prompted me to investigate compatibility between Dragon and Firefox once more.
To my excitement I discovered that it is currently possible to have Full Text Control with Firefox – which means a rich dictation experience – if you have the extension.
I should add that I have tested this with Dragon Professional Individual 15.3. It may not work with other versions of Dragon.
In the video below, I will show you how you can check if you have the Firefox extension installed. If you don’t have it, you will find out how you can add it to Firefox. And I will also demonstrate the difference between having the extension installed and not having it installed.
The URL shown in the video can be copied at the bottom of this post.
This is the URL you have to paste in the Firefox address bar: https://dnsriacontent.nuance.com/15/addons.html?lang=enx
I have added the extension but am getting no dictation (plain or enhanced) in Firefox. I have the green flame ion in the right upper corner. Dragon professional web extension is loaded and seems to be active. I’ve rebooted Firefox. The check mark on the dragon bar is grey when I’m in Firefox but green when I move to other application, like Word (and is working normally there). What more should I try?
It is also not working for other functions such as clicking links
Hi William,
It seems as though you’ve done everything right. Are you sure you have version Dragon Professional Individual 15.3? Because I don’t think it will work with older versions of Dragon or e.d with Dragon Medical Practice Edition.
I have version 15.00.000.076
Hi Bill,
Sorry for the late reply. The comment notification landed – completely unseen by me – in my email spam folder, unfortunately.
So you didn’t update your Dragon with the 15.3 patch? For me (dragon 15.3) I can add the extension if I use the link in the blogpost.
If you want to update your Dragon version 15 to 15.3, you can click in the Dragon bar on Help -> Check for updates. You will need admin rights on your computer.
Hope this helps.
Hi Janneke, everything works fine indeed. But I get warnings from several programs that the Firefox Dragon extension is not to be trusted and may even cause privacy concerns – would you know more about that?
We are talking september 2019.
(PS. As you don’t seem to use a comment notification plugin – how do I learn when you have answered? 😉
Hi Kitty,
Thank you for your comment. You should get an email when I have replied to your comment. Please let me know if this doesn’t work…? TIA
As for the extension: it is my understanding that, in order for Dragon to be able to know what the clickable links on a page are, the extension must read the web page. And obviously Dragon then needs to know which link it should actually click for you. Now, as far as I know this info is NOT communicated to anyone, but the extension gathering of this info may well trigger privacy warnings.
Of course I can’t promise that it is safe, since neither Dragon nor the extension are my product, nor do I have enough technical expertise to draw any conclusions about the safety of this extension.
If you have any concerns, it would be best to choose not to install the extension.
Hi Janneke,
I try to install the extension in firefox 72.0.2 and I get an error message: (dutch version of Firefox and Dragon Group 15.4
“Addon kan niet worden geladen vanwege een fout in de verbinding”
Any idea what this could cause?
kind regards
dennis
Hi Dennis,
Not sure what went wrong. I thought I’d approved and replied to your question…
What I thought is that maybe something is blocking the installation of the extension. Like a virus scanner/firewall or plain installation permissions on the PC.
As Firefox wouldn’t be aware of the Dragon version that is installed it shouldn’t make a difference whether it’s a Group or individual version.
Hope you get it fixed!