Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

The microphone which was included with the product is either junky or defective because the Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12 software reports it as not being good enough quality to get past the initial setup/configuration steps. I also had serious quality problems not being able to get it to transcribe recorded files even thought I followed the steps to train the software. The accuracy was horrendous. There are also some feature limitations which are not apparent or obvious on their website if you are a first-time user like myself. If you are already familiar with their past software there would probably be fewer surprises (although unless the older software works better than this one I doubt you would be upgrading anyway.

I just purchased Dragon 12 and was trying to install it on my company provided computer. It wont install without .NET Frameworks 4.0. I contacted Nuance support which the confirmed, that Dragon 12 requires .NET Framework 4.0. This is not documented anywhere on the box, or online product requirements. Because my company IT policies are controlled and are not up to this version of .NET I cannot install Dragon 12. Of course I ran into this when I tried to install the software and had opened all the seals on the packaging, so just a straight return is not available. Im waiting for word from Nuance if I can return 12 for a version of Dragon 11.5 and if 11.5 will work on my older version of .NET Frameworks. Also to confirm other reviewers comments the headset provided is crap, and crushes your head. So if there is a package that is cheaper without headsets purchase it and buy a better headset separately.

Works fantastic. Would highly suggest going thru the tutorials to make it most user friendly. 1 star less than 5 because i had a problem registering it and had to be on a call with tech support for a while. Took a bit but they were able to get it fixed

I Like the product ...BUT...couldnt update the software from version 11.5 to 12. After many tries and many hours of frustration I contacted Nuances so called Technical Support to solve my problem. The support I received from one of their technicans was for me to troubleshoot it myself following their on-line Do it yourself trouble shooting links. This might have been OK for a computer wiz...BUT...I am not one. I spent 4 hours trying to fix using serveral different links but had no sucess. In frustration, I decided to keep using the software version I have and return the Premium 12 software to Amazon. I immediatly apprised Nuance of what I did and 2 days later I received the following message Since you already returned the solfware, we will not be able to continue to trouble shoot this error. In this case, we will close this incident The bottom line, if you plan to update and arent a computer wiz...DONT until Nuance implements a first class support agency with a live person directing you what to do on your computer screen or to take over your screen to troubleshoot and fix your problem.

I have used Dragon for a couple of years for dictation at work and find that it can greatly reduce my paperwork time. I bought the new version because my old one was becoming glitchy and I could not find the cd to reload the program. The only complaint that I have is that it does not work that well with my interface at work (EPIC) and so I will sometimes dictate it on Word and cut/paste the note into EPIC. Training can still be a hassle and when I am tired or sick I have more errors.

I think this the best voice the text software. After training, it works well, and I am always finding new shortcuts to make it even more useful. I combined it with the Plantronics .Audio 628 Stereo USB Headset and have been extremely satisfied. There are many features that I havent tried. Most use has been in Microsoft Word, which the software has a link that allows you to speak directly into the document. Other word-processing software required that you use the Dragon text box, and then paste. There is also a link to INternet Explorer where you can use speech commands to navigate (I havent used this feature). So to be clear, I think the easiest use of Dragon is with MS Office. If Office isnt your favorite, be sure to research Nuances website to see how it will work for you.

I know exactly what your thinking, your saying to yourself, this is the only thing on the market, and dragon has been around for years, and your also thinking, by now-dragon must have perfected this?!? Read on my beloved friends. DRAGON 3 for MAC brand new out of the box, is a nightmare. How its possible that everything failed, either within an hour or after 20 minutes use. is beyond me, but everything failed, and epically. The software failed, the headset failed and customer support is the worst experience of my life. ****Seriously people, if your on heart medication or stress medication, please please read this review, and stay away from this product. I don’t want to see anyone have a heart attack or sesure from the aggravation. Trust me, Im talking from the heart-the reason Im spending the time here to write out every detail is because I care about the horror your about to go through… Theres really not much to say about the headset because they failed completely and utterly and miserably. It actually blew my mind but to give a little bit more detail about that, what happened was for the first few minutes of usage, I was getting a crackling static noise. Then that noise became more continuous. Yeah lots of fun. And you know it never really did resolve itself. And now, lets move on to customer support. Customer support is, yep you guessed it, ****contracted out to save money, overseas.***** They do not understand english very well and have little training, but the worst part about the horrendous customer support is they interrupt you every time you try to speak, and get this-they start yelling at you, or they’ll get aggravated at you and pause and not say anything or they’l just get an attitude, -its so bad that I took the time out to record these people so as to send the recording to corporate to get them fired… May god strike me down if Im lying…. But thats just the beginning of the nightmare of customer support-finding the right number takes hours, and once again, your talking to people in indonesia, who for some reason, and it must be something to do with the culture and language differences,every time you try to talk, they start talking over you... I still can’t believe it, but it gets worse, every time I called I was, 6th on the line, so waiting was an average of an hour, yep, lots of fun-but wait its gets interestingly worse, And I say interestingly because youre not going to believe what they do to avoid helping you once you wait an hour on the phone. You’re going to love this one... So here you are, after waiting one hour on the phone, a machine comes on the line and says, “ you are the next caller” then after a few minutes, and you know right away that the help center has you on the line because the music stops-there is a 10 to 15 second pause… Just dead air, so Im like hello??? hello??? more dead air, I say hello??? more dead air- I honestly think its a technique the customer support uses to get the caller to hang up. It seems like they don’t want to do their job, so they must know that if they don’t say anything-they can avoid helping you-and get paid for doing nothing ,meanwhile they havent done anything that incriminates them- But wait it get worse-after 15 seconds of dead air-the guy says, in a very miserable kind of like, I really don’t want to help you voice-hello. So Im like hey hello!!! then , I think you guessed it by now-the guy strategically pauses for another 10 seconds, hoping that on the second try-you’ll get so frustrated that you hang up…. I remember I was in bed lying down speaking very calmly, because you know, this is important to me, so I figured if I was calm they would help me better, and nope. I kept getting the same guy, and like I was saying, I was trying to be calm, and long stoy short, this guy aggravated me so badly, that as I was lying down, I turned my neck maybe not even a half of an inch, and threw my upper right back out-form the stress he caused…so for days it felt like there was a knife stuck in my upper back, I can’t make this stuff up people…. the soft ware once I finally loaded it onto my brand new state of the art MacBook Pro top of the line 8 gigabyte 256 flash hard drive”for those who aren’t aware, this is the best most expensive and latest machine on the market, failed multiple times, I was getting the infamous multi colored spinning circle. So I reinstalled and- same thing. I had my best friend who is all about macs look at it and he said its definitely not the lap top-it s the soft ware, which I already knew but you know, I wanted to make sure and he is a MAC guy, and he verified that its the soft ware-he got aggravated and could not believe how bad DRAGON 3 for MAC is... yeah I really dont know what to say anymore except dont bang your head against the wall if you do youll have no more brains left.. Ive already lost mine A long long time ago in a place far far away. PS so while my friends was trying to help me, he mentioned that my MacBook Pro comes with a voice recognition system and that I should try it and yeah, you guessed it, low and behold, I tried it and it works good, not great but good, good enough for me to be happy. So then I was like, well thats a kick in the ass and I thought maybe if I also incorporate a good headset into my MacBook Pro thatll help. So I did my research and I went and got the black wire C7 20 made by plantronics and I have to admit its working very very well and yes thats what Im writing this review with. Long story short people youve got to keep trying anything and everything and if you can, get anybody or everybody to try to help you. I I succeeded in my goal- but Dragon 3 from Mac, is an epic failure...

I chose this item cause I HATE to type and thought this would be perfect in helping me get caught up with my work at the office. However I spent more time fixing the mistakes and getting frustrated when Dragon couldnt understand what I was saying that it now sits in its original box on a shelf. It sounded awesome and I bragged to everyone about ordering it. Now everyone is asking about Dragon and laughing when I say, if I took the time to learn it maybe it would be good but I dont have the time that is needed. Oh and I did not get it at the great sale prices it is currently selling for ....so yes I got duped hopefully by reading this you wont. Like I said if you have time to learn all its tricks Im sure it would be awesome but when one see online there are actual training classes for the software I should have known.....and I work in IT.

I type fast. I was hoping to use this to allow me to take notes on the computer while I photograph items for sale. This is not possible, as so much of my speech is not recognized that I have to pay more attention to the computer and its little try again popups than what I am photographing. If I stare at the computer, and notice every time it gets something wrong, it works OK, but if Im staring at the computer anyway, I can can type WAY faster than it works. So, no go for me.

I purchased one and it would not install. I returned and got another one and it would not install on my Dell desktop. I have been using Dragon for more than 10 years and this is the first time I have had this problem.however, I use Dragon all the time and it is fantastic even though I am still using version 10