Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 [Old Version]

Im not sure Im any more impressed with this version than I was with earlier versions. Yes the speech recognition is better than version 2-10, but its still not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Great for creating the initial draft but I found that editing commands were frequently ignored or interpreted as additional text. Menu commands dont work at all with Open Office. Its useful, but not the works great, cant live without it product of the advertisements.

Im writing this review using Dragon Premium 11. It seems to work pretty well for me. I can speak at a normal speed, and what I say is, I would say about 95% accurate. Im still trying to train it to understand my local jargon. To know when to capitalize formal names, or acronyms. Once I get the training part down Im sure I would give it another star. This is my second time using Dragon Premium. I recall using it many years ago, and the accuracy was terrible, but it is now much improved, and worthwhile for the money.

Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 11 is a good product, but it is not for the faint of heart and it is not for damsels who distress. I bought this product for my girlfriend because she wanted to consider typing more e-mails and possibly journalizing but had no familiarity with the keyboard. Fortunately I am computer savvy so I was able to set it up for her and show her the basics of operation. Set up would have been extremely difficult of the non-savvy person. After loading, one needs to learn to master the Dragon. This includes their training practicing but it includes a lot more afterwards. It takes a long time to learn that one can just speak into the microphone which was included, but one would not necessarily want to. Because of the lag between what is said and what the Dragon types, it get the speaker all out of timing if they watch the screen while talking. And after one or more paragraphs, one can someimes forget how they phrased it originally when trying to decode the words of the Dragon. And the paragraphs will need to be decoded. I found out that the best way to work is sentence by sentence rather than paragraph by paragraph. Speak a sentence, and then turn off the dictation. Wait a minute and then see what the Dragon types. Then you should correct it before turning on the dictation and going on to the next sentence. It makes for a long and laborious process but it is better than trying to decode an entire paragraph. It takes some time with any sophisticated program to learn their ideosyncracies. And that is true with Dragon. It has its ideosyncracies (like how it begins each transcription with your first word) but they can be learned with perseverance. One needs to be prepared to persevere. If one trains the Dragon in a constant improvement mode, then over time it does get better.

Have been using DNS since v 2.xx. I know folks have had problems with DNS installations. FWIW, over the years I have had nothing but smooth sailing with DNS installation(s) and operation. Just upgraded from v9.5, which I have been using with great success up until I tried to move it all over to a WIN 7 based machine. DNS v9.5 was amazingly accurate right out of the box and with a little training it moved quickly into the level of indispensable tool. DNS v 11.5 is even better and faster than v9.5...and I am having a hard time believing that traiing can make it any better than it already it is - near perfect. I was looking to move to v 12.0, but found v 11.5 for $50.00 and could not see a justification for the additional 80.00-100.00 that v 12 would require. Very happy with DNS v 11.5. And, the price made it even better.

The software is good, but I have to do a lot of correcting. The problem I guess is my computer does not have four gig ram memory, but I will probably either upgrade my computer or get me a new one. But as far as the software is fantastic. If you get the software remember you will get more out of it the more you train it. And make sure that your computer has the required system requirements. As far as using it on the Internet to check e-mail I will have to give it a thumbs down I have fooled with it and dont seem to get anywhere.I would recommend it to others that are one finger typist as I am. Hope this helps you in making your decision on buying or not buying the product. Have fun typing, good day. This

Let me start off by saying that I had never used speech recognition before Windows Vista, and I had never used Dragon NaturallySpeaking before version 11.5. Ive seen several videos comparing the two programs, but nothing ever in depth enough to give a disabled person a real opportunity to make an informed decision. I now am quite savvy on Windows Speech Recognition, and have had about a months worth of experience with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. There is no comparison, first, in price point; Windows Speech Recognition comes free with Windows 7 (all versions), and I would assume will be included with Windows 8. Dragon comes in many variants ranging in prices from $40.00 for the Home version, to over $500 for the Professional version. My experience with Dragon is specifically the Home and Premium versions, so I will not attempt to compare beyond what I know. Since price could be especially important to some users, we have to give this round to Windows Speech Recognition. Free is free after all. Lets move onward to accuracy. Windows Speech Recognition (from now on referred to as WSR) can be very accurate with a lot of training, and a seriously good microphone, but even so, is not even close to being as accurate as Dragon is right out of the box. Apparently Nuance has dedicated years and resources to making the program as accurate as possible, and they have exceeded expectations. It is surprisingly eerie watching everything you say appear exactly as you say it, with nearly 100% accuracy. Although WSR gets the edge in dictation speed, this point definitely goes to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Given what I said in the previous paragraph, one might consider that to be the only criteria for choosing between these two contenders, but that would be a wrong assumption, and a dangerous one, if youre looking for more than just dictation. You see, being extraordinarily accurate is, in my opinion, the only thing that Dragon is good at. As a disabled person, I understand that speech recognition must do more for us than just allow us to write legible emails, Tweets, and blogs. It must give us control of our chosen computers. WSR is a true champion in this arena. Although Dragon has some nifty features tied directly to specific Windows programs, I found it difficult just getting it to launch certain programs. If I ask WSR to run a program, and it doesnt quite understand which program Im referring to, it at least puts up a window with multiple suggestions that one can choose from. Dragon, on the other hand, just waits stupidly for something it understands. Dragon apparently cant see all that well, either. If I use it to click the Start Button, and then say the name of the program or document within the visible list, it simply refuses to do anything. In complete opposition, WSR happily launches most programs directly, but given the same Start Button scenario, has no problems seeing the item and selecting it by voice. In the unlikely event that it cannot launch the item, WSR has one more trick up its sleeve--the Show Numbers command, which will put a small number box next to every clickable item. Say the number, then okay, and your item is clicked. This one feature makes WSR indispensable as a computer control program, but theres more. Being able to create macros is an essential part of computer control. The ability to create strings of commands to perform complex functions should be available to all disabled users for a reasonable price. Dragon has this functionality, but only in the Professional version, and as I pointed out, at an extreme cost. In contrast, WSR, through Microsoft, has a downloadable, and free, macro creation utility called Windows Speech Recognition Macros. If you find the creation of macros daunting through that interface, there is another program that you may find useful; Windows Speech Recognition Toolkit. This is not a free program, but the purchase price (around $20.00) makes it a worthwhile addition to speech recognition. It not only simplifies the creation of macros, but it has other useful tools, such as audio transcription, text to speech, profile management, dictionary management, etc. Some may find my last point a bit niggling, and granted, it is more in line with being an annoying lack of functionality than it is a necessary feature. With that said, I find it an incredible oversight in Dragon to make no audible signal letting you know that the program has started to listen. With WSR, every time you say the words start listening, or stop listening, the system makes a sound to let you know that the command has been followed. Within the interface, this can be turned off, or on, so that if you happen to not like the sound, you can dispense with it. In Dragon, I could find no facility for doing something similar. Needless to say, if you happen to not be looking at the computer, and perhaps you start having a conversation with someone, Dragon can start listening and make all sorts of commands happen of which youre completely unaware. I have written this article with WSR. Could the writing have gone smoother under Dragon? Absolutely, by virtue of not having to correct text as often, and if that were the sole merit and sum of the usefulness of speech recognition, then Dragon Naturallyspeaking would be the smart choice for almost every user. It may still be the smart choice for many, but when faced with the desire to have the utmost control over your computer, and at a price tag that is actually affordable, Windows Speech Recognition becomes an option that outshines its pricier opponent.

FOR ALL DNS PRODUCTS-- You need to have a PC with P4 or greater, a 2.5 GHZ or faster CPU, a 3GB + RAM, a good noise cancelling Headset or Mike, ....and the zen to train properly. Then train some more... If you do--you will like DNS. If not --it will frustrate the hell out of you. yours truly, Long time user PS--Use a good recorder on highest quality setting / with a Noise cancelling Headset or mike (ie. Olympus ME-52)

I just got my Dragon version 11 over Labor Day weekend, and have been using it with my computer. I used version 9 five years ago and found it too frustrating with all of the inaccuracies. Recently, my orthopedic surgeon recommended version 11, as his advice to me was to save your hands for something more meaningful than computer work, such as playing a musical instrument, as I do suffer from repetitive stress injuries from all the computer typing. I am thrilled with this version of Dragon, and almost right out-of-the-box, I was able to dictate an entire recipe into a Word document with only two or three minor mistakes. By the way, I have dictated my entire review here using just my voice.

Review was written by my husband Kurt Blust, who purchased this software through my account. DO NOT BUY THIS FOR USE WITH MULTIPLE VOICES. I was told by the Nuance chat purchase assistance line that this would have >85% accuracy for converting conversations to text. Actual accuracy was lower than 5% and is so slow that it is unusable. The product works fine for a single voice if you spend hours training the product to recognize your voice. After a lot of training, you can get its accuracy up to 80% to 95% for a single voice. However, if you type at more than 5 words per minute you would be much better off never purchasing this, and instead just type everyting up yourself. I would recommend this product to someone that is handicapped and maybe had no arms or maybe could only type with just 1 finger. But, for everyone else. Just avoid the product entirely and all similar products. Changing voice to text for personal consumption is just not a technology that is ready for personal PC use yet, and probably will not be useful for the next 10+ years. (Nuances Dragon Natually Speaking Premium V 11 is probably one of the best voice to text applications available on the market for PC use, but the accuracy and speed is terrible for multiple voices.) For a single voice, it can be adequate after training the software to your voice for at least 4 hours. The following is the results of Dragon Naturally speaking in translating a conversation after training it for hours on one of the voices in the conversation but not the others. As you can see, the accurracy is less than 3%. The other 97% of it is just crap that the Dragon Natually Speaking application made up. There are a couple of words and phrases from the conversation translated correctly. But, it butchered it so bad, that it is completely useless, and makes absolutely no sense at all. It will not venture for putting together a candidate, Jaworski, but only and soon her most expensive almost you will solution then with a hybrid you contain movie Kjell no understanding of you will let the Kjell, hardware, Intel capital perspective. Etc. etc. so when we put together DOB: John asked do it was okay coming with you could be the worst-case scenario financially. I then the amount of time, we expect you a shady from our your card in a stated no that would be the solution but you sent you if you you Sylvia Pardo and like you [think of is the no tax internal disk is the of, and never its that but that is correct in ministry to do anything else like that the catheter will well and again is liaising with you that protect you from yourself out you were looking forward to the IOL VI client.org I only offer VMware hang of it LOL dry potential change jewelry. Recovery and so I apologize everybody so couple things real quick, I invite kinky and your introductory thing I know Jan and I will let you relationship finding all you taken about you. Oh, reestablishing land identity decision to the figures to meet you unceasingly Kirk came to me yesterday with the question and what will surely answer, so I wanted the events are oriented as presentation that Barack John and Diana great person to call a yellow locker. At one collection and correctly I cannot comment to the under unfortunately I actually is the own countrymen things John and he thought Michael thing you know, normally, but you know the euro is no know and I know you each.

I had very high hopes for this product at the time I purchased it. The first few weeks of use went pretty well and I was elated with the performance. As time went by, more and more problems arose. Dragons software apparently does not play well with other applications (word processors, spreadsheets, contact managers, etc.) being active at the same time. The Dragon software seems to get in fights, of sort, with these other applications and then refusing to work at all until it is rebooted. This product is installed on a 16 GB memory, 4-processor, Windows 7, 64 bit, machine. I sure wish the Dragon folks could get this thing working -- Id love to make it a part of my business day!