Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 [Old Version]

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 got this program for my wife to help with the amount of writing that she does. My beef with this is the training that you have to do so that the program recognizes your voice. It turns out that my wife has never fully follwed through on using it. It does work, and it does help, but you have to work at it.

I just upgraded from 10 to 11 premium and it seems to work great. it is faster, works better, and makes far less mistakes as version 10. I see a lot of people here complaining about it not working correctly and being buggy, I do see what they are seeing. I did deactivate my antivirus during the install, and my computer has all the windows updates needed before I installed. I also have updated all the installed software to make sure it was all up to date. I have a vista 64 bit system upgraded to windows 7 ultimate. I do know that ultimate has more compatibility than lesser versions. I use an hp system. I am also using the wireless version of the product running it into a usb 2.0 port. At first there were some small issues with the software, but after I used it for about 1 week they all seemed to go away. It seems like a nice upgrade from version 10 and things are better and smoother. I would recommend buying it. I only gave it 4 stars because the software is and always has been less than perfect. I think that it is going to be many years before this type of software works perfectly every time, so if that is what you are expecting you will be disappointed. Also, it takes some patience, so be prepaired to have some...

As others have done, I decided to try and use the product to write a review. I have a southern accent and so far it has not posed much of a problem. Accuracy has been pretty good ever since reading the first training article. I upgraded the headset to an Andrea USB model, and Ive read several more of the training excerpts to it. Subjectively accuracy seems improved after these changes. Far faster than typing for me. Really liking it so far. Only have to correct it every now and again (I would guess 95 to 98% accuracy right out-of-the-box and hopefully will improve with training). A couple of things Ive noticed: 1. The instructions dont make it very clear as to whether reading additional articles increases accuracy or if the program simply stores the last article that you read to it. Im guessing that each article you read increases accuracy. This would make sense. 2. I noticed when trying the product on an Internet discussion board, that my accuracy seemed to fall off considerably. I have no explanation for this. It seems to work just fine while doing this Amazon review as well as in various Word documents. At this point I give it four stars, but with time and training if accuracy continues to improve, I could easily up that to five stars.

Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 11 by Nuance / B003VNCROU I bought this software with one goal in mind - my intent was to couple the software with a solid voice recorder in order to transcribe spoken notes, reviews, and journal entries. My intent was to talk on the road my reviews and journal entries, load the sound files onto my computer at the end of the day, feed them into Dragon, and with a minimum of editing turn out the text so that I could then paste the result into an Amazon window and bang off for the evening. As you will see, this didnt work so well. Firstly, I did my research. The Nuance website has plenty of graphs on the best voice recorders for their software. I eventually went with the

I bought this as a Christmas gift for someone who has been talking for years about writing a book but never took action. I read all of the reviews carefully before purchasing Dragon because the recipient is not particularly proficient with computers. After a month, he is still having great difficulty with it. I am sure that if he were take the time to use the tutorial and/or peruse the online manual at least some of his troubles would be resolved. Unfortunately, he is one of those I dont need no stinkin instructions type of guys. I guess I was overly optimistic about his ability to make use of Dragon. Just from my sessions trying to assist him, I notice that Dragon does take time learning, both on the part of the person and the software itself. Conclusion: be careful who you buy this for as it is nowhere near as easy to use as it first appears.

I am a writer who was looking for a way to write another novel without getting typers cramp. My novels are running roughly 180,000 words so anything I can do to tighten that up is only good. I am not using it for its intended purpose yet; however, I still believe it can do it. It will not do it right out of the box. That I know. You first train it to respond to you. That takes a few days anyway. My other problems were two-fold: First, finding the right headset. I use an Andrea now and I am glad I found them. The set that came with the Dragon software is not good. It picked up something like 1 in 3 words I said. I have no idea why, but it was pretty bad. The other problem is this: When I am dictating, I can manage 2-3 sentences before I pause to think further about what I want to say. For it to really save time, you have to know what you want to say and how you want to say it. In my own case, I was using the time it took to type to think about what to say next. This is SO fast, I couldnt do that. So I first build a story structure/outline to follow as I dictate. That does make it a LOT easier. Long story short, I think it WILL BE great. I need to get used to it and it needs to get used to me. It is not an instant solution, but for anyone wanting speed or needing it to deal with a life challenge AND you can deal with a learning curve, this could be the answer to your prayers.

Ive only had this product for a short time, but I love it! Very easy to train and Ive been pretty happy with the accuracy overall. Whenever I have some free time, I do read additional scripts of increasing levels of complexity in order to increase my vocabulary, and I have found that since I bought a USB adapter for the included headset that my accuracy have improved even further. The only thing Im getting used to is speaking the way you type. Otherwise, you end up with an ndless sentence, but for what Im using it for, its still much faster than typing everything word for word. I love it, and have recommended it to several friends and family members!

Dragon has no peer! Its simply the only way to obtain accurate voice-to-text results. Along with a top-of-the-line OCR product, there is no better tool for creating textual answers for my customers technical questions. My job is to provide technical support for embedded systems software tools. It is demanding on several levels, ... not the least of which, is the need to communicate accurately. Dragon can type ten times faster than I can. I would be much less productive without it. The use of an older version has saved me money without taking anything away from the quality. I could never use ALL the bells and whistles provided by Nuance. After a certain point in a products development, the foundation has become polished and perfected. At that point, improvements come from the extra features developed to meet more specific needs of niche buyers. With the Dragon, the basics are honed to a fine edge!

First of all Im writing this review with Dragon. Right out-of-the-box with a little training I was getting far more accurate text than when I type. Not sure how to measure but mistakes are few and far between. When I first considered purchasing Dragon I was concerned with the several negative reviews. I was encouraged however with a response from Nuance indicating that they would refund the purchase. I went to the link and saved it just in case. Sometimes I do notice that it becomes very slow. Keeping an eye on my task manager I find that some other program like Carbonite is running at the same time. So I can simply kill that program and continue. I keep my CPU monitor open so that I can keep track of any conflicting programs that might be running. So my experience has been very positive and consequently I recommend it without reserve. Incidentally, I first installed it on XP and then upgraded Windows 7. Dragon performed well with both operating systems.