Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

Started using Dragon over 10 years ago when as a court stenographer I needed a method to help with my typing. It took time to train the software and it worked pretty good. Over the years I upgraded to Dragon Level 10 and it had improved significantly. I bought the 12 Premium and it was not an improvement in my view, and recently purchased the 12 Professional and it still does not meet my standards. Simple words continue to be a problem when you dictate an, you get and, dictate on and you one, and on and on and on. I wonder how it operates with those who are neither as articulate nor enunciate clearly? Dragon gets away with it madness because its the only club in town, but its customer service really suffers because there is none and companies that depend upon computers to interact with human beings as their only line of resolving problems with their product will eventually fail. Dragon sucks every penny it can from its consumers by charging outrageous fees for live tech help when the free time ends (and thats when the system fails due to some software problem). Those who are physically challenged cannot find an alternative source, and I pray one will arise soon.

Ive used several previous versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking, but needed a new one for my most recent laptop. I had read negative reviews about the installation process for Premium 12, but didnt have any trouble at all. The software installed immediately, taking time to handle updates, which is to be expected. I followed the steps to set up my profile, quickly did the training, and was ready to go. I then dictated a completely new document to see how this version would work work for me out of the box. The results were near perfect. Keep in mind that I already knew many of the commands, and how to work with Dragon Naturally Speaking. I think it takes a bit longer for a first time user to be up and running, since there is a bit of a learning curve.

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 just bought Dragon for the first time, having waited until the s/w had been around long enough to hopefully work well, and the first day I was ecstatic as the recognition works very well with my plantronics Savi headset, but noticed serious apparent interactions esp Firefox acting badly and sloooowly, and lots of firefox and excel freezes (Office 2007), so looked to Amazon reviews to verify. Sadly it is the usual software story, great initial product becomes bloatware (usually after sale to larger company) as excess new versions are developed to milk users and maintain cash flow, and company wont fund a needed rewrite from scratch. This exact thing happened with ACT over a decade, great to horrible. I think the subscription model or SAAS is best as it does not encourage version pre-release to meet revenue deadlines. Ive tried switching browser to Chrome and IE, and the conflicts resulting in slow performance and freezes crept in. This is crapware, and Im still on the fence about whether the benefits (I love taking a break from typing) outweighs how badly my computer gets messed up. Im thinking Ill try using it for email twice a day, shutting it down and restarting right after.

I will dictate this complete review using Dragon NaturallySpeaking premium 12. I purchased Dragon natural speaking premium 12 for two reasons. First, I wanted a product that would transcribe material from a digital recorder. Much of what I do is first recorded on a tape or digital recorder. I would then spend as much as an hour and a half to two hours transcribing the material. My keyboard skills are medium to good but I am in no way a 100 word per minute typist. Dragon natural speaking will transcribe an 1800 word document in less than four minutes, although the result is an 1800 word long. Once transcribed it now takes only 10 to 15 minutes to punctuate and format into paragraphs and sentences. The accuracy of the transcription is very good and is getting better as I train Dragon Natural Speaking. Secondly, I wanted a product that I could use for dictation purposes which is the hallmark of Dragon Natural Speaking. I have several volumes of handwritten material that I want to publish and with Dragon I can now transcribe that material with ease. I rated this product with four stars for one simple reason. The Viacom microphone included in the package did not work with my computer soundcard. I contacted tech support and was told that Nuance knew there was a compatibility problem with Realtec soundcards and that I needed a USB adapter. My research led me to finally purchase a Viacom adapter from the Nuance website which ended up costing me an additional $25 ($15 for the adapter, and $10 for shipping). If Nuance knew there was a problem with certain sound cards the adapter should have been included in the package with the headset as it is with the upgraded professional version. For those users with compatible gaming headsets or existing adapters you can add the final star to the rating. Overall, I am satisfied with this product and use it regularly to dictate new material and to transcribe recorded material. I have only scratched the surface of this products capability and anticipate continued satisfaction as I learn to use its many features.

this product has meant so much to me. I am now able to speak and the program puts everything I say in the places I need them to be. It is so easy to use and all the help in tutorials are fantastic. If you do a lot of emails, paperwork dictations, filling out forms or anything that uses printed words this is the program for you. I cannot say enough about Dragon Naturally Speaking. I am telling everyone about it and all that have invested in it have loved this software. It makes sending mail as fast as you can speak.

I bought this so that I could do less typing at work. When I first installed it, it hardly worked at all and I was really frustrated, but then I worked out that my laptops sound card wasnt good enough. Apparently this is extremely common (only 20% of laptops have a good enough sound card) so I highly recommend that other people check this before they buy. Its easily fixed though - either buy a USB adaptor for the headset provided in the box (for me this was AUD$30 including shipping from Nuances website), or buy a new USB headset (AUD$60 from a local store). I chose the new headset so that I didnt have to wait for the adaptor to be shipped from the US to Australia, and once I had that, it worked like a dream. Its made my work heaps easier - I definitely recommend it. As an aside, I was really impressed by how the software picks up on technical phrases. I work in a scientific field so I was worried it wouldnt understand the words that I use, but it scans your documents and sent emails before you start - it even knew naphthalene. However, I use it on my personal laptop in a meeting room at work, rather than at my desk in an open-plan office, because it doesnt deal well with background noise. Luckily this isnt a problem at my workplace.

Why oh why do you have to buy headphones with this software? They didnt work well (at all) and the $40 set from Best Buy (which I had to get to use the software at all) worked fine. Drop the headphones and sell the software as a digital download. Good software, dumb packaging. That is why I removed 2 stars - very annoying user experience due to somebody being convinced that their users would be too dumb to get a decent set of headphones - solved by them getting bad headphones for everyone... opportunity knocks. :- )

All the advertising and videos in this made it seem like this was a easy to use, user-friendly product. Its not overly technical, but its not as easy as they make it seem. Also, so far it has been terribly inefficient and inaccurate. I bought this product with the hope of improving my efficiency. However it seems a lot of work is needed upfront to get this working, and at the moment its time I dont have. So it is currently sitting in the box. Waste of money.

The program is as expected, but Nuance needs help. I had difficulty with getting it downloaded and their support was of no help - over 5 phone calls and about 3 hours. I got people in India a couple times and they had no clue about their product or how to speak intelligible English. They also refused to connect me to some in the U.S. Unfortunately, on the calls I reached someone in this country, they were of no help either and one of them wanted me to upgrade to version 13 - when she couldnt even help me with 12! The website lost my password twice - one of which was sent to me by them. The site also once could not recognize my E-mail address. I finally figured out how to get it downloaded with the help of Google.