Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

They were great at helping resolving issues and Nuance was fantastic at assisting me to get started. I have an older computer and the disk was too small for the CD slot. As a result, it couldnt read the data and upload to my computer. Nuance walked me through several steps to check to see if it was something on my end - besides the size of the disk - and then, sent me a downloadable copy of the program to circumvent the issue. I am thrilled with the program and my Dragons name is Duke.

Upgrading my review to three stars. I had to uninstall then reinstall the program. Now it seems to work. It is a bit slow on my OS (vista 64-bit with 1.8 GHz). Maybe it is better on a different OS with a faster processor? Accuracy out of the box seems pretty good, but I havent used it that much yet.

I love this. It is a huge revelation. I couldnt type due to a serious arm injury so got this w a feeling of desperation. I was able to compose a huge NIH grant (P50) using this software and a mouse w my good hand. I did not use the voice commands or ability to control the cursor or menus. It is not without bugs, Ive had a few crashes (but it recovers well), and of course it makes some errors, but I now oscillate between typing short things and dictating longer ones. This feels like the future. I would like to see cloud based storage of my user profile and some other glitches worked out, but this technology has already come of age and it will kill they keyboard in the next decade. In the near future keyboards will look like dot matrix printers or fax machines.

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.

Really need to continue to utilize and better understand the process. Was dissapointed that the training cd did not come with it. I see where I have to pay an additional $25. However, look forward to using it. My expectations may be a little high as I am trying to work it with a writing program and have not yet succeeded.

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 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.

This was highly recommended by several of my professors. Dont believe it. I found this program extremely difficult to use. Even after spending SEVERAL HOURS reading to its AI and typing corrections so it could better understand my word choices and speaking patterns, it continued to have problems transcribing my research papers. I had to speak in a very unnatural rhythm for it to work at all. It was also a bit intrusive - it wanted to read and write emails, work documents and almost anything else it found on my computer containing words. I had this on my school computer (running Windows 7 Pro 64) for a little under a year. In the end, I had to uninstall it to get rid of the add-ins it installed in Word and in my browser. They interfered with tools I needed for my online courses, and also added a lot of hidden gibberish to documents (these sometimes showed up in versions I saved to other formats). >> Please note that I always attempt to give each item enough time and a fair chance before I post a public review. I never write a review based on my out of the box first impression, unless the item was returned. <<

If you skip all of the promotional and advertising copy and search the very fine print (it should be more prominently displayed), you will find out that Dragon Naturally Speaking v.12 is not compatible with electronic medical records (EMR). Nuance wants to force those in healthcare to pay up to $2000 for the so-called medical version. If you purchase Dragon v.12 and try to use it with an EMR, the Dragon program will eventually detect that you are using an EMR and will cease working. This is a deliberate incompatibility that was engineered into the program. Nuance designed Dragon to actively look for an EMR, and to disable the Dragon program if an EMR is detected. This is discrimination, pure and simple. It also raises the question of whether the Dragon program violates the privacy of the owner of the computer on which it has been installed. I believe that this policy of crippling the software will end up hurting Nuance in the long run. If so, the company would deserve it.

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.