Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 [Old Version]

FOR ALL DNS PRODUCTS-- You need to have a PC with P4 or greater, a 2.5 GHZ or faster CPU, a 3GB + RAM, a good noise cancelling Headset or Mike, ....and the zen to train properly. Then train some more... If you do--you will like DNS. If not --it will frustrate the hell out of you. yours truly, Long time user PS--Use a good recorder on highest quality setting / with a Noise cancelling Headset or mike (ie. Olympus ME-52)

I took the advice of the folks who advised picking up version 11.5, and not only did I save a pocket full of cash but I got a good product to boot. After installation on my Windows 7 laptop (shut off your antivirus/spyware protection first!) all it took was about 20 minutes of reading to the software for training and it was surprisingly really super accurate and fast during dictation. Another plus was that it pointed me toward a free app for my iPhone that allows me to dictate text messages (Dragon Dictation). Sweet. Follow the advice of those telling you to pickup version 11.5 and get a good product for a lot less money.

Ive read most of the reviews about Dragon naturally speaking. 11.5 premium. I have had my software for about three weeks now and I am impressed with its capabilities. Is the Dragon perfect? No. Does it do everything it said it would do? No. But then again during my lifetime, I was never perfect, and never did everything I said I could do. Would I recommend this program to a friend, you bet I would, I just recommend it to my daughter. The first few days I worked with the Dragon. I was relatively disappointed, everything seemed to be wrong with the way it worked. After looking at the blogs on the Internet. I realize that my Adobe reader active X was the culprit which I removed from my system and installed the free download Nitro, which does everything that active X.. At this time. Im very pleased with the system and getting more comfortable with it every day. I realize now that half the problems were mine and not the software, if you are willing to work with this program. It will do everything quite well. Im writing this review using it with no corrections. So there is probably some some errors in it. But hey before I got the system I could not spell very well and could only type with two fingers, so Im not complaining. Looking at the reviews. Some people love it, some people hate it but I think its all in the context of how hard you work at it, I think its a great program. Everybody recommended getting a quality microphone and headset but Im using the one that came with it and he gets the job done for me.

I saw so many great commercials about the program I decided to purchase it. The instructions are very intimidating and challenged me a lot. After trying to perform the functions for many hours I had to give up and contact customer support. The technician was very helpful in getting me through the set. Why those instructions could not have been included eludes me. I am up and running and still having glitches here and there but I am not giving up on the program.

UPDATE 2/7/13: I totally forgot to post an update. Like I said...I hate to leave bad reviews so I am very happy to be able to add a star to my review after using the product. It works well if you do the reading samples and let the software adjust to the way you speak. I was able to write my book really fast by being able to speak into Dragon Software. Would get 5 stars except for the customer service issues way back when (which did end up finally being resolved). :) UPDATE: I finally reached someone who could help me. It took longer then I wanted but he was very helpful and nice and resolved the problem. I dont want to return the product because I really think it will help me. I get to try it tonight and I will post my thoughts on it later. FIRST POST:I do not like to write bad reviews. HOWEVER, I called NUANCE customer service twice and I was told they could not help me because I purchased their product from Amazon.com. PROBLEM: I got the software and my computer will not recognize the CD. I had the same problem with Adobe Creative Suite, however when I put an HP CD in my computer or another CD it works just fine. If they send me another CD, it probably will react the same way Adobe Creative Suite did. I ended up having to download their software online after 3 attempts. The annoying part is I have a SERIAL NUMBER for the product I purchased. All they need to do is give me the download link and I can enter my serial number as verification....BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! It is a simple solution that their customer service can not comprehend. I have class on Wednesday. I was hoping to be able to get my homework done through Dragon because that is the only reason I purchased the product. I am upset because once I am able to get the product downloaded I still have to train it and see if it actually works. Their customer service is awful and I saw this in other reviews, but when I saw their Vice President of something in their company responding to their bad reviews and trying to make things right, I thought they were making a sincere effort to improve their customer service. I guess all they do is damage control instead of having good service from the start.

I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 premium over the weekend and received version 11.5 on Tuesday. It installed on my Windows 7 PC without a hitch, and also installed on my Windows Vista laptop, however, the analog headset that came with the application did not work on my laptop. For that, I had to use a USB headset that I had laying around. After setting up the microphone and going through the training, I began to simply dictate into the DragonPad that comes with the software, just to see how DNS would do compared with the Windows 7 and Windows Vista speech recognition software. I was very pleasantly surprised. After having been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, arthritis of the wrist, and a bone spur in the wrist joint, I was desperate for a voice recognition application that was reliable and fast. Unfortunately Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 is quite sluggish on my laptop, although the laptop is several years old and only has two gigabytes of memory. DNS runs much better and faster on my Windows 7 desktop. In fact, it runs so well that I convinced my employer to purchase a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 professional for my use at work. I installed that today, and spent the day productively and without pain! Although the headset that came with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 premium is fairly decent and passes the tests, I purchased an Andrea headset from KnowBrainer which is not only comfortable, but it seems to be more accurate too. My biggest concern at the time I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking was compatibility with the software that I use. The problem I ran into with the Windows 7 voice recognition software was that it only works reliably with Microsoft applications, and some of my favorite applications for writing were not Microsoft. The Windows 7 VR software did not work at all with my main application, and so I had to dictate into notepad and then copy and paste it into my preferred application. Another annoying thing about the Windows software was its habit of inserting a blank space after an open quote. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 does a much better job of punctuating my sentences properly, especially with regard to quotations and capitalizing the beginning of sentences. So far, the biggest difference between the premium version and the professional version that I have noticed is the ability for the professional version to create macros. For instance, I could say the acronym of my companys product, and my custom macro would insert the product name complete with proper trademark symbols. Of course, this is only my first full day using it, so I have much more to learn. So far, I am a very happy customer. *Dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 premium with six dictation mistakes. 5/17/12: DNS has a habit of not capitalizing new sentences in some of my applications (Arbortext, for instance). Selecting the word and saying Cap that does NOT cap it, even though the little command box says Cap that as expected. I have to manually change the letter to a capital, putting further strain on my injured hands. Its annoying, but Im still loving DNS. :) Ive gotten into the habit of using DragonPad or Dictation Box for those applications, but theres one in particular, WriteItNow (which I use on my personal computer), that actually causes the Dictation Box to freeze and become unresponsive. While I like the Transfer button on the Dictation Box, that also closes the dialog, and so DragonPad is usually my choice. 5/29/12: I got a new laptop with 6GB RAM, and what a difference! Dragon is like lightning on this thing!

I have been using Dragon for 20 years. I would be without it – because I have had issues with carpal tunnel in both of my hands. I use it excessively for emails in Outlook, word documents and occasionally in Excel. It is wonderfully accurate – and the correction mechanisms are extremely good. I ordered this version because I have a Windows 7 PC – and this was the most compatible version that was made at the time. It works really well with outlook. The only issue that I have it occasionally hangs up. I then have to shut it down and start all over. But this has been an issue with Dragon since I first started using it many many years ago.

I was unsure whether I would be getting the latest version of the product, or not, but when it arrived it was 11.5 and not the 11.0 version stated on the product information. I had resigned myself to not having the latest as I couldnt find a product listing for 11.5 version, but the CD is actually 11.5. Product seems nice, but I havent fully trained it yet.

I write courses for Microsofts courseware library that center on SQL server Business Intelligence and SharePoint. The courses that I write target a sophisticated audience at least they are supposed to. This means they have technical jargon in them or geek speak complicating the task for any voice recognition software. I have recently started to use Dragon Naturally Speaking. This is the latest version, 11, the professional edition. I have tried earlier versions of Dragon in the hopes that it would increase my productivity and I have also tried built in voice recognition available in Windows 7. I did not find either the earlier versions of Dragon or voice recognition in Windows 7 to be of a high enough quality to be useful. However this latest version of Dragon is absolutely outstanding and I highly recommend it.There is no disclaimer here as I have in no way been compensated by Dragon though if they read this and want to change that Im open to negotiations!

I love my Dragon. Im using it now. However I do have a speech impediment so I have to be very careful when Im using it and reread everything about three times. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 is better and then later versions which seem to only type into Microsoft products. To fill out a form like this with version 12 I would have to use Internet Explorer whereas now I am using Firefox. This version will type into just about anything where you can type. They mustve cut a deal with Microsoft for the later versions so if you can still get this version I would highly recommend it.