Voice activated / HF inputs: how can you escape special function phrases?

Question

For example, say I have a sentence that I want to end with a period then have returned to a new line, but the contents of that sentence itself include period and new line as literals. Is it possible to use voice-only commands to write such a message?

Answer 1

I tested the sentences below. They should have been separated by a new line.

The first period is about to start.
He crossed a new line on the sand.
This is the end of a period.

In my case, period was handled correctly the majority of the time whether I wanted the word period or a dot for the first sentence. The 3rd sentence was hit and miss. For a sentence that as both the word period and the punctuation mark period, you can make it easy for the phone by saying full stop so it can differentiate between the two. But for the third sentence, the differentiation did not work.

To go to a new line, I had to pause 1-2 seconds before saying new line. Only then, was it recognized as starting a new line and not the literal new line.

In both cases, while dictating my sentences in one go, the literals were considered. Pausing would insert the punctuation marks. This is not a scientifically proven experiment. You will have to test on your side and reach a conclusion.

Answer 2

I found saying "new line" is very hit-or-miss[1], but "carriage return" seems to work more consistently. I haven't actually found this documented anywhere. AFAICT the "Text Editing" section of the online Voice Access commands reference makes no mention of punctuation, including "new line" or "carriage return", while the command reference on the phone (via Voice Access settings => Voice Access commands or saying "what can I say") lists "new line", but not "carriage return"

[1]: Very occasionally it actually inserts a new line, but it seems to far more often get mis-recognized and inserted as "New life" "Do line" etc. (seems to be mis-recognized far more often than any other phrase for some reason. Maybe because I'm often saying it in isolation, out of the context of a full sentence?)