The basic answer is NO. When you create a custom macro (custom commands) it is stored in the MyCmds.dat. The MyCmds.dat is loaded each time you load DNS. There is no way around this, unfortunately. In short, you can't have your cake and eat it too. When you create and add a command it becomes part of the DNS custom commands.

However, there is theoretically no limit to the number of custom commands that you can add to DNS. The only negative side effect at all is that the larger your custom command base the longer it takes to locate and execute a command. In addition, one thing that users generally don't understand is the fact that creating custom commands that duplicate Natural Language Commands built into DNS, which are faster and more efficient than custom commands, or which too closely approximate other Advanced Scripting commands can tend to confuse DNS when searching through the MyCmds.dat. This can result in some commands not executing properly, executing with a significant reduction in speed and performance, or not executing at all.

It behooves every user to ensure that custom commands that they create are those that they use consistently. Creating custom commands simply because you have an occasional use for them creates bloat and reduces the efficiency of command execution. You should basically create custom commands that you use all the time and avoid creating custom commands simply for the sake of creating commands. You can't possibly use 6000 commands, regardless of how useful they may be, consistently over the course of normal dictation. If you are unable to to recall all 6000 custom commands that you have already created if I asked you to do so right this instant, then they are impractical. In short, it's fine to change your own oil, just don't confuse oil with transmission fluid.

Chuck Runquist
Former Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK & Senior Technical Solutions PM for DNS

It is not so much my confidence that scientists will get it right as it is my confidence that nonscientists will get it wrong. Isaac Asimov

To which I add my own version, "I am not so confident that technically oriented people will get it right as it is my confidence that non-technically oriented people will get it wrong."

When asking questions of this type please let us know PRECISELY what NaturallySpeaking product you are using.  Example: Standard 8, Preferred 9.5, Pro 7.3, KnowBrainer 2006 etc..  The additional information helps us to focus our response.

We once considered porting over our 11,000 KnowBrainer 2006 macros to the DNS Pro Ver. 7 Command Browser.  We were surprised to find out that NaturallySpeaking would only except 4000 or so commands and it took about 10 minutes to open the Command Browser after importing the commands.  The Command Browser also became a bit lethargic.  It would be preferable if you didn't add 6000 commands into the DNS Command Browser.  It sounds like most or all of your commands are boilerplate text and that you are using the NaturallySpeaking Command Browser to create templates.  If this is the case and you are using one of the professional versions of NaturallySpeaking (now you know the reason for our first paragraph) you could turn those 6000 commands into a couple of Advanced-Scripting listing commands (advanced scripting commands are limited to about 2000 to 3000 scripts).  With an advanced scripting command you could, for example, insert or open a template in Microsoft Word rather than forcing NaturallySpeaking to paste in the appropriate text.  You would also have more options because you could utilize drop-down text boxes, check boxes, embedded hyperlinks etc.

Another option would be KnowBrainer 2006 which would at least partially do what you are looking for.  Besides offering 11,000 time saving prefab commands, KnowBrainer only loads the global commands and application-specific commands to support whatever program you are in. Example: If you have 1000 commands for Microsoft Word and 500 commands for Outlook, when you switch from Word to Outlook KnowBrainer will drop the 1000 Microsoft Word commands from memory and load the and Outlook commands.  Even though you may have several programs running, KnowBrainer only loads commands for the application that has focus (your cursor is in).  KnowBrainer only has to read through a single layer of coding while NaturallySpeaking has to read through 3 layers and KnowBrainer is extremely small and can easily handle an additional 10,000 or more commands without noticeably slowing down.  It is specifically designed for this purpose.

 Additional responses to this question are available on the KnowBrainer Technical Support Forum

Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer  (DNS Command Software)

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I am using DNS 9.5. If I purchase the Knowbrainer will it allow me to use the 6000 or so macros in DNS without having to reenter them again-i.e., can I move them or will they be recoginized in DNS. Will it also allow me to continue to expand them.

My other ideas was to group all the macros patient information whose name begins with T into a Tango macro which will reduce my custom macro size into a standard 26 commands, but can I then make a dictation command to bring up that particular patient's information in the Tango macro so I don't have to wade through 500 patients with the first name in the macro Tango which would take me longer than to just open up the commandbrower and copy and paste it into my document.

Erik

I am using DNS professional 9.5 medical version. My question is really if I purchase KnowBrainer does that solve my problem with the custom macro limit as I continue to add custom macros i.e., patients to DNS commands. Several of my collegues are having the same problem and very interested in a way around this problem with DNS.

Erik

I don't really understand what it is you currently do . Do you have a boilerplate text macro for each patient, which contains all the medical information? if that is the case (rather than in some form of database) wouldn't it make more sense to have one text file for each patient and a single macro that opens the file that you want? just to illustrate my point, using vocola, the command "open patient John Doe" would open the text file c:\my\document\path\John Doe.txt (note that the syntax might be a little off in the macro, and that the waiting commands might not be necessary):

open patient = SendSystemKeys( {Ctrl+Esc} ) Wait(50) r Wait(50) "c:\my\document\path\" $1.txt Wait(50) {Enter} ;

Of course this could get messy if Dragon does not recognize your patient names...