Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

I purchased this when I rotator cuff surgery, as I work on a computer all day. Now, to be fair, maybe I needed the professional version but this only worked ok. I did a LOT of training of it, let it update and save frequently but still ended up with some pretty interesting interpretations of what I had actually said. I would buy it again for the purpose I used it for but wouldnt continue to use it once better, as it was pretty annoying how often I had to correct it.

I was an IT manager/Unix geek on Wall St for 25 years. The install for this product is one of worst I have ever experienced. It failed a few times, then proceeded, taking about 30 minutes to install all of the files. Various other issues with tutorial. Then came the software performance, which was abysmal. I followed all the profile suggestions, then tested it with the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The software was not able to reproduce the sentence even ONCE properly after many tries. Could not get the word quick until I taught the software the word. I tried various other readings, etc using both the built in microphone on my laptop as well as the included microphone. There were far too many errors, about 30-40%, Some words were so far off they were laughable. Slow as a turtle as well. My wife tried as well, total fail. We are both educated, articulate people, no speech issues. This software is simply not worth the effort, not ready for prime time. More effort correcting than typing would be. If you are totally disabled this may be a choice but it will be very frustrating. I am returning the product, dont bother ordering.

I am in the process of writing a book and am a horrible typist. So its taking forever. I stumbled upon this software while reading some writing blogs. I almost didnt buy it because of the negative reviews but I figured, for the price, why not? I purchased the disk version, used an external optical reader to load it on to my computer and it worked out of the box, as advertised. I was afraid I was going to have problems getting it loaded because it took literally 10 full minutes before it started installing. Perhaps people are just aborting the process when it appears to lock up? I went through a couple of screens with the install wizard before it appeared to freeze but I just left it alone and it eventually loaded with no problem. Of course, I have a newer computer so that may make a difference. I have had no problem getting it to work at all and the accuracy is exceptional. Certainly far better and quicker than anything I could produce. I have a relatively neutral accent and am a public speaker so I do tend to speak and enunciate my words clearly. I only use Dragon for Word to work on the book; I did not load it onto my browser. My productivity has gone up exponentially! I am not using the headset that came with the box; instead I am using a $60 Microsoft headset I bought off Amazon a while back. Using the headset makes working on my book as mobile as working on my laptop - even when dictating while at my sons baseball practice, the headset did not pick up anything other than my voice (not the music, coaches, kids or external sound). I did let the program peruse other documents, including my current book draft, so that it could learn my writing style and pick up some vocabulary words. Between that and reading the passage that Dragon provides to train the program, it took all of 10 minutes to train. I went back and forth on whether to get the home or premium version. For my needs, this home version is perfect because Im not going to use this for Excel, nor am I going to use an external voice recorder. Finally, I began practicing law over 20 years ago and always used dictation (because I couldnt type) so relearning dictation commands hasnt been difficult. Dragon comes with a cheat sheet to help you while you learn the commands. Ill keep it with me till I learn everything and then store it away. If youre thinking about purchasing this program, Id say go for it. For the price of a family meal at a restaurant, its a relatively low risk investment.

I am not an author but I occasionally write long e-mail messages. I bought this package because I was curious what voice recognition capability I could purchase for less than forty dollars. (My Windows 8.1 computer fortunately already contained ample RAM; Dragon is a memory hog.) I was surprised when I opened that package. In addition to the software DVD and brief instructions, the package contained a communications-grade wired stereo headset with attached boom microphone. The headset and microphone plug into the mini-jacks on the front of most desktop computers. The package also contains an adapter that will connect the headset and microphone to a single USB 2.0 port. Software installation is straightforward but ponderous. The installation user interface does not indicate ongoing progress, and I wondered if I was stalled in mid-install. After a long wait, installation finished normally. After registering the Dragon software on the Nuance Communications website, microphone proper operation is verified and Dragon then presents an interactive tutorial. The tutorial introduces voice recognition dictation concepts (explicit capitalization and explicit punctuation), and the tutorial highlights the online help functions available during Dragon dictation. I played with Dragon while using Microsoft Notepad, and I was impressed with Dragons accuracy and vocabulary, but voice recognition dictation (explicit capitalization and explicit punctuation) IMO is cumbersome, and only capitalization will improve as you personalize Dragons vocabulary. A later problem: Dragon attaches two apps to Internet Explorer, and my IE 11 began crashing in non-Dragon use. I used the IE star -> Manage add-ons function to disable the two Dragon-supplied apps. Instead of Dragon direct dictation with IE, I will dictate e-mail messages into Notepad, and then copy and paste the messages into my e-mail program, a practical compromise.

When they say turn off your anti-virus software they mean it. It will not install with your anti-virus software active (all sorts of strange errors). Also, this is a very big application. It took so long to install (almost an hour) that I thought something was wrong. I called Nuance and they provided a link to download the product to my computer so that it would install faster. By the time I found the link and started to download, the application finally installed. I First used this product back in the late 1990s when I was temporarily unable to use my left arm. I bought this one for my mother. I was pleased to see the learning module. While my mother is having a lot of trouble with the product, Im chock that up to being a technophobe who does not follow directions. I found it easy to configure and use. It is not a perfect solution, but then again we do not live in the Star Trek Universe. You still need to do some mouse clicking and some typing, but it does save you from having to do a lot. If you take the time to learn how it works and take more time to teach it what you need it to do, it will serve you well. I did not give it 5 stars because of the install issues (they really should tell you how to turn off the major anti-virus softwares and warn you that it will take a long time). Also, Im a little tired of sitting with my mother teaching her how to use it. The education lessons were not designed for the generation who can really benefit from the product; aging adults over 70.

After two days of installing and trying to set up my Dragon Naturally Speaking Home 13 I finally called tech support because although the windows speech recognition worked fine, Dragon could not recognize my microphone. I was unable to go online to do tech support because when I tried to register my product it said it was having technical difficulties. So, after waiting 20 minutes, the technician registered my product for me. She then informed me that the headset that was sent with Dragon is not compatible to Dragon. SERIOUSLY??? She told me I had to go out and buy a USB connector for the headset for it to work. This is not acceptable business people. When I pay for something Id really like to get my moneys worth and not find unexpected extras I have to buy. Im going to buy the usb microphone because at this point I have no choice. But when its time for an upgrade, I will be looking somewhere other than Dragon Speak

VERY disappointed! As the leader in speech recognition software, I didnt even consider another software vendor. But for a vendor to put software like this into the marketplace that doesnt work install properly on a standard Windows laptop is criminal. After the first install, the program wouldnt work. I followed the instructions, deleted the software and reinstalled it. After 4 additional installations (and uninstalls), I finally gave up in frustration and called for support. Their live support contact information is not easy to find, and after navigating through pages of knowledgebase answers to questions, I was finally able to get their direct-customer support number. I spent 2 hours on the first call, while a very nice knowledgeable Filipino CSR helped me to test various issues with the registry file and other system software which I could not have done by myself. Language was a minor barrier but we were able to work through it. At the end of the two hours, the software still wouldnt work. As he said he would, he emailed further instructions as I was losing patience on being on the phone for 2 hours without a solution to my problem. I tried the subsequent solutions (some of which required that I change system parameters) and they still didnt work. Ive got about 12 hours invested in trying to get this software installed so I can begin to use it, and I still have no answer from Nuance as to what the issue is thats preventing the installation from completing effectively. They need to issue a patch, or otherwise let customers know that there are installation issues that might prevent the software working on a traditional mainstream Windows laptop (Toshiba Satellite).

I reduced my review from 5 to 3 stars because it has so many problems and they dont fix it. I have to ctrl+alt+del and force stop it. There is no way to make it shut off. It has also stopped backing up my files and I dont know how to make it restart again. If they fix this stuff, I will change my review back to 5 stars. I doubt it..... I am actually using NaturallySpeaking to write this review. I had Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0 before this, and it did pretty good. But I am shocked and amazed, and how awesome this program is! It is so good it can even tell the difference between end, and and. I put in these little marks because I dont know what you call them. LOL! It can even get things like (egr) correctly. I think this must be what Google uses to do their voice searches. I am doing emails, web searches, reviews like this one, chat sessions, and pretty much anything else that needs typing. Since I type with three fingers on my left hand (because I have my set up for mouse keyboard gaming) I type so slow its pathetic. But I can do this review in about a minute! And thats pretty awesome!

I certainly would not recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13. First of all it was hard to get installed. I even called technical support for help and they had me download the program to install and it still wouldnt work. After many hours of trying to install it, it finally installed. However, it kept hanging up. It wouldnt even run long enough to go through any training for it. The training feature of this program gave the warning that the training program was not compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The program also gave warnings about a third party program interfering with it and I could never find any other program running. After searching on line for a solution I finally tried using the voice recognition feature in Windows. Windows voice recognition works wonderfully. It does everything that Dragon NaturallySpeaking says it would do and and takes dictation very fast. Naturally you have to give it some training as you would with any voice recognition program. I am writing this review with Windows voice recognition. It keeps up with me wonderfully gives me tremendous control of my computer through voice commands. No, I do not recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13. I just wasted a lot of money which I cannot afford to do. I see no reason not to use the Windows voice recognition program when it works so well.

I am extremely upset as I was sold an obsolete product that cannot be installed on my computer. Why are these obsolete products still available? Now I am inconvenienced by having to return the product. Pi$$ed I am. AND it will cost me money to return the product. NOT HAPPY. Be careful of what you buy folk.