Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 Student Edition [Old Version]

Very poor service. the product I cannot rate because I could never use it. I bought it, tried to jump through the rediculiuos hoops to get a code and never could. Called customer service which took forever to get a hold of. I finally got somebody with an american sounding name that could hardly speak english. They wanted more money to give me a code. I imediately sent their product back.

I lost the use of my right arm/hand half way thru a collage semester. I purchased DNS to dictate and control my computer so that I would not have to drop my courses and continue school. Activating the Academic version is quick and easy with a valid approved institution e-mail address. The software is a bit taxing on computer resources. I recommend installing on a new Windows 7 PC with 4 gig or Ram to benefit from all the features. Although, It preforms well on one of my XP computers with only 1.5 gig of RAM. DNS adapts quickly to your voice and constantly learns to improve accuracy, the hardest part is learning how to talk what you want to type.

Its OK for general use but I has a specific use for it. I wanted to read numerical grades and have it in numbers in Excel. It is a bit slow, and certain numbers dont seem to come out. Even after repeating it several times it still does not appear. As for general text wtiting it seems OK. Any suggestions?

i have a question about this, my son is a student at highschool in nj, and i am a principal at a school in nj. my question is can we get the student teacher discounted price.

I did not obtain a product code number that would allow me to use the product. It was to come with my student copy and I have been unable to use it as I do n ot know how to send my student picture Id. I am thiking i must return this product as I am unable to send this info. If I could fax this I would be happy to.

Works really well!

Never worked correctly

Its very convenient to just talk and it types... like having an assistant write your dictation... Software takes a while to learn your voice and pronunciation so dont expect perfection at first... Overall, it is a welcomed tool on my computer, convenient, and time-saving...

Okay everybody, I am not one to write a review, but after seeing everything that has been written about this product, I decided I must write a review. A lot of people, have been bad mouthing the fact, that you have to verify your student status to receive the serial number from Nuance. I can tell you now, for all of you who have a .edu address, this will not be a challenge whatsoever. I received my Dragon NaturallySpeaking, from UPS about an hour ago. Within that time, I did the online verification of my student status, received my serial number, install the program, and I am now writing this review I using my headset and my Dragon NaturallySpeaking. One recommendation I would strongly make, is that you invest in a better headset. I invested in the Koss CS 100 headset is thus far everything is working very clearly. I spent about 20 min. reading some of the documentation that they give you to learn your voice. In that short period of time, you see the results. As a graduate student, who is often writing anywhere between 20 and 60 pages a week of text this is going to be a lifesaver. I hope many of you will be able to make the same investment.

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.