Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

Need to buy some other item for it to work.

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.

Ok, I can dictate, and it types what I have dictated. Sort of. If that were the only issue, I would probably provisionally rate it 3 stars since it is still learning my voice recognition. BUT -- Nuance is the absolute #1 poster child for corporate greed. I paid for my user license, only to learn that if I want to use it on my laptop while on the road, I cant since I have already installed it on my desktop. Never mind that I cant/wont be using the two at the same time (i.e., only one user at any one time, period), they want me to buy another license. But wait, theres more... I only need the basic Home version of DNS for the limited purposes I put it to (simple dictation translation due to physical disability). So if I bite the bullet and pay for a second license, I can sync my user profile between the two machines so that I dont have to train the second machine from the beginning (which is called reinventing the wheel), right? WRONG!!! Not with the Home version; this functionality only begins with the premium version (twice the cost, more or less). Never mind that the added cost to Nuance to include this functionality would be maybe 39¢ or so (total, not per copy, electrons are cheap). So now Im up to 4x the original cost, and they did not disclose this in the promo material for the program. Can anyone say, Class action? Are you listening, Nuance? And customer service? Dont ask. The simple fact of the matter is that unless you are into feeding corporate greed or (like me with my physical disability) have no other options, steer clear of these money-grubbing jerks.

I am using the Dragon (DS13) Software 13, and it is an extremely sharp tool. With his help, I do think my computer, and I can take over the internet. If I only had a brain, comes to mind, but this software is great! I recommend this product to any and every writer to preserve the quality of a penciled or penned draft. Have a nice word on me. DMF :)

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.

EDITED_It is working now. It took a total of 6 hours and deleting and reinstalling it three times for it to finely work. Good product just way to difficult to get to work. I suggest 1 it needs to take less then 4 gb of space and it needs to load faster. I think this product could be better. IT IS NOT WORKING. After five hours of fighting with this it is not working. My mic works. My mic works on the computer. I hear my self from the mic. I go through the dang profile thing and when it says to test your mic and I go to turn on Dragons button it stays red and not green. It will not work.

This program is not as easy as one would think. First thing you should do is buy a better set of headphones with the program. The pair that are included did pick up my voice well and caused me hours of frustration. It also does not work well if you are reading things like recipes. It clearly states that you should speak in a normal voice and at a normal pace, but reading a recipe doesnt always work that way. After about two hours of continually having to correct the word eggs I gave up. By the time I went back and corrected all the mistakes in the text it would have been faster to just type it myself. I would guess if I wanted to dictate letters or work on a term paper this would work fine, but its not what I purchased it for. What a pity.

I will be writing this review using the voice to text program without making any corrections. This will provide a clear example of what the program can do. Im an anthropologist and amusing this program following surgery on my dominant arm. This makes it impossible for me to write to my students and others without the use of the program. I am correcting and responding to student papers and writing emails. Some of the language that I use is technical and specific to the field, especially in human origins, but the program has been more than satisfactory. Ive advised my students in advance that there may be issues in the wording and spelling of my responses, but is worked. The only problem I encountered was on the installation of the program on my personal computer. When I had the program installed by the tech team at the college, it was installed without problem. The only recurring problem relates to my knowing and learning all the various voice commands. I assume that I will become more proficient as I continue to use the program. Delightfully surprised that when I ordered the program, it was on sale for $22 and included a headset. Great bargain! Highly recommend

I bought this product ten days ago because Im dyslexic and I wanted to write faster and with greater accuracy. The same day I purchased a new laptop that runs on Windows 10. I realized that because Windows 10 is rolling out slowly, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 software might not be compatible with the new OS. I checked the Nuance Communications website and it confirmed that Dragon 13 is Windows 10 compatible. The thing is, it isnt. After installing the program and performing a microphone check, I found that the software was not only completely unresponsive to voice commands, it also crashed at random intervals. I uninstalled and reinstalled the program, purchased a different headset and deactivated the Cortana application in an attempt to get Dragon to work. None of my attempts were successful. I sent a message explaining the situation to Nuances tech support staff. After repeatedly explaining that I had already employed the above troubleshooting methods online and over the phone and proving that my microphone works, I was e-mailed a download link for what I assumed was an updated version of Dragon 13. In actuality, it was just an exact copy of the program I had already purchased. The version of Dragon I was sent was also completely unresponsive and buggy. When I relayed this information and my frustration at being sent a copy of a program I had already proved did not work on my machine to Nuances tech support, they stopped responding to my inquiries. Subsequently, I used Google to see if anyone else had encountered the same problem I was dealing with. I discovered that Nuances tech support forums were filled with complaints from other people who had run into the same issue and had also been blown off by the companys tech support staff. It was then that I gave up trying to make Dragon 13 work and returned the software. As near as I can tell, the program worked optimally with older versions of Windows, but despite the lies on Nuances website, Dragon 13 is completely nonfunctional on Windows 10, so buyer beware.