Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 Student Edition [Old Version]

When you buy this product you have to send in different kinds of information in order to obtain a serial number which will enable you to install. If they dont, I guess, like your info they will not send the serial number, which means you bought this without being able to use it & out of the money you paid. No phone number on the box or info sheet inside. Online there is a number but they dont deal with the company that wants the info for the serial number. No help at all so far. Very upset at the company, before you purchase this product you should be told ahead of time that this info will be needed & may result in a serial number or it may not. Which means you are on your own.

Im Aiden and Im not a native English speaker. Just bought a copy of DNS Premium 11 few weeks ago. DNS was able to listen to what I have to say, after some initial training. I would say the time youre going to put into the initial training is very important. Ive registered myself at Nuance website, and their staff was replying to my questions, feedbacks in a very fast and good manner! So all in all, I got the value out of what Ive been paying for. I love DNS 11 so much, it ease out my pain on wrist and arm. Im not used to it yet, so whenever I want to try to correct something or talk to DNS about a command, it doesnt understand it. But overall, this is a very good software to be used. If youre a native English speaker, and you speak good English, and you have a lot of things to be typed out, then you would really want to grab a copy of DNS. Aiden Chong

I lost a whole weekend that I could have dedicated to setting up an accurate voice profile for the software and then using the software. The wrong serial number (for a different product altogether - Mac Dictate 2.0) was provided on Nuances automated website. I was literally stuck dead in the water with a worthless serial number. (I was getting the academic version) I tried to register my product on the website (the only way to contact Tech Support) but without a correct serial number, I was stopped in the middle of that process. All-and-all, this is frustrating process. Nuance needs to overhaul their web processes and make them usable for clients. No matter how good the Dragon product MAY be (I dont know since the company is incompetent in delivering a frustration-free install process), customers will not stick around. And trying to talk with customer service reps is like talking to robots who just repeat themselves- they are reading off a script that I could easily do on my own and find answers faster from just by searching key terms instead of waiting on their long automated responses. As the old cliche goes - not good for business. UPDATE (usability testing): This is a Dragon Naturally Speaking review actually done WITH Dragon NaturallySpeaking and done on a headset (with) a noise canceling microphone in the car on the way to work so (we) will see how well it can transcribe what I am actually saying ..... -ERRORS- (CORRECTIONS) 1- The main issue is -a not- (it does not have) very good -actor- (accuracy). -see a need to- (I know you have to) train Dragon. I (have) been very diligent about giving Dragon -aint- (a) digital voice profile -is- (because) you can have different voice profile(s) (based off) what youre using. And I got a digital voice recorder profile and the accuracy is still not where I -needed- (need it) even though Im pronouncing words like a broadcaster would pronounce (his) words. And Dragon actually expects you to be able to be a professional anchor and were not talking about hard words that Im trying to pronounce -a- (but) simple thing(s) and Dragon still gets it wrong because it simply cannot take any fluctuation in your voice. (If) you mumble or -bespeaking- (if you speak too) fast but -is- (it will get) something wrong. -cf. the list fits- (So you have to be almost pitch) perfect in everything -he said- (you say). So unless youre extremely motivated to use the software and (then) go back and try to -takes- (fix) the accuracy issues in your user profile, -within- (then) this speech to text software may not be what youre looking for. Yes I am motivated to use the software which is why Ive done a bit of usability tests and -down- (found that) the accuracy in transcription is horrible. For brainstorming purposes, Im trying to put down the best ideas I can while in the car. But literally when I brainstorm theres no accuracy in the transcription (and I) have to go back -active- (and I have to) repeat complete thoughts all over again or change (them) in the transcription after-the-fact and that leads to the second point ..... OK...Im motivated to use the software but not motivated to continue writing the corrections from this audio that Dragon couldnt do correctly in the first place. You get the point though. 2- Going back to make corrections - this is supposed increase your accuracy for your user profile which I would be fine in continuing to do but there is a big gap for the user to actually understand if the corrections are being applied to your user profile. What makes the corrections in Dragon? I open up the transcription in Dragonpad but then it doesnt tell me when Im typing the corrections from the transcription that the software is actually recording my corrections. Dragon does a very poor job of telling you the one-two-three-step process of how to improve your accuracy. Sure it does look at documents and e-mail to improved your accuracy (for writing style, jargon, etc.) but it doesnt tell you for the transcription process itself when your typing corrections from what the software just transcribed if it is recording those corrections into the profile. In short, when youre fixing all the transcription errors, theres no thank you or we got it prompt from Dragon that it is recording the actual words you wanted transcribed in the many spots it messed up. Its worth noting I actually have Dragon for Windows 11.5 Premium/Pro running on a virtual machine on Mac (its the same thing as having a full Windows 7 OS on the Mac). The Professional Edition, which you have to have if you want to take a digital voice recording and have it transcribed, is preferable to paying more than double for the Mac version, which is actually two software products that are needed to do the same thing. Dragon Dictate for Mac and Mac Speech both have to be purchased (again at more than twice the costs of Dragon Naturally Speaking) in order to do the same thing as the Dragon Naturally Speaking software. For Mac users, I highly recommend the Virtual Machine route (with 6 Gb of Memory) because you can use your one copy of Dragon Naturally speaking on five machines. Its not really a good business model to try and rip Mac users off like that. The limitations of the Dragon software allow me to only do outlines for different projects and notes to myself (that I could easily transcribe with my smart phone). Basically I cannot do any real original brainstorming or have a flow of original ideas or generate creative marketing ideas (they dont resemble anything that they should in the transcription). I just want to speak my free-flowing ideas when I get really inspired and really go for it. Thats just not possible. The company, Nuance, should really look into their user interface overall because that and their lack of customer service - which is a severely crippling issue b/c they are just so incredibly horrible - make this software just not worth the effort unless youre really motivated. And my motivation is becoming very selective with Dragon.

This is the worst, It doesnt recognize anything I say to it. It was a waste of money and time!

The insane procedure you must go through to activate this software is maddening. They tell you to go to a website that is frequently down and upload proof of employment at an academic institution and then they say you have to wait 24 hours before they email you a serial number. After trying for two days to get to the website which was always down I called tech support and they said theyd email me the serial number. I waited three more days and finally got an email from them telling me to go to the website again. I found a solution to activate on my own at [...]

Buyer beware! Have you paid for this software, you cannot download it unless you get a code from an itinerary organisation, and if you are not someone from the big time school or university they will deny you the code in your money has been wasted! Do you not buy this

I tend to talk fast and mumble a bit and run my words together. Once, I got the hang of talking to Dragon, he and I seem to be on the same page most of the time. When, I am tired, well lets just say, Ive learned a few new words. As long as you speak clearly and at an even tone this program is great for typing in word and e-mail programs. Sucks in Excel, and takes over the +/- keys on my wireless numeric keypad. Corrections seem to take time, though some are relatively quick. I think that its me. There seem to be less mistakes every day.

I have read all reviews for both this premium student version and the home premium version and decided to go ahead and purchase. I initially gave it a 5-star, but will keep everyone informed of ease of getting student version activated....now for the star-trek finish.... star date: Saturday, Dec. 11 @ 7pm CST....product ordered. UPDATE: 12/11/10 @ 20:44(from my .edu account)I pre-emailed my purchase info to the svp monitoring these reviews (Peter) to which he immediately responded (12/11/10 @ 20:49): Verification is very simple with an edu email address. You will get instructutions to sign into a website when you get your software. A serial number can be immediately sent to your edu email address. Most people who [have] had issues did not have an edu email address. UPDATE: 12/14/10 @ 14:25 (CST) received product; instructions to activate are simple; sent in the required information at 14:00. Will post when product key code is received.

Have a computer that was new 5 years ago. I loaded Dragon, provided documents, did training and worked through the tutorial. The first document I tired to create was a test document. It hung up so I closed Dragon and opened it again -- I started creating a document again and got a BLUE SCREEN. The recommendation from Microsoft was that I remove the software. So I did. But I am not that disappointed - though I am out my experimental investment. Dragon was so slow in recording that I could say a complete paragraph before it could finish the first sentence. I cant write that way -- as a fiction writer I need to be fluid and I can wait for the computer to catch up with me. The advertisement said Dragon would be 3 times faster - that would be very true if you cannot type. I was hoping for a different mechanism for typing -- I am on the computer all day at work. This was not the answer for me. I also purchased a better headset -- it did not function at all with Dragon.

I ordered this on September 6th, 2010 and received on September 11. The product arrived with out the product serial number that you needed to start the registration and student verification process. Attempted to contact Nuance customer service and was told that it would take up to 2 days to get a response to my email. Got my email response 2 days later and the response seemed like they did not read the email. Finally, got to talk to customer service after having to take off work in order to call them during their service hours and was told that that I would have to send them a copy of the receipt and that they would send me a a response within 2 days after the request. Went to the web site to start the process and decided that it just wasnt worth the hassle. I sent the product bask without ever having a chance to use due to poor quality control and a cumbersome customer service resolution system. Would not recommend buying anything from this company unless you dont mind the hassle if you have a problem. I know several people who use Dragon Naturally Speaking and say it is a very good product but I dont have the time to deal with poor customer service if there is a problem. Buyer Be Ware. jthomas