Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

Okay, for those of you who have not read my review of DragonDictate for 3 Mac, I originally bought that piece of garbage and then discovered this marvel of technology. I cannot say in mere words, how unbelievably effective this software is. Right now I am speaking to my computer, and having grown up in New York, speaking rather fast. Nevertheless, the software keeps up with me and so far has made not one mistake in the transcription of my voice. How cool is that? When you start with this product, you MUST learn how to dictate. Being kind of an old guy, and having worked with secretaries who actually took shorthand, this is not a problem for me. For you young people out there who have no experience in dictation, this might require some time to get used to. Once you figure out exactly how to dictate, speaking clearly, enunciating, and speaking in a normal manner-no ums or you know-your writing will fly. So far Ive had to make one small correction, a spacing error and just in the sentence, it thought I said a spacious error, but that was my fault because I mumbled. And it took a nano second to correct. I still havent mastered all of the hundreds of commands available to control cursor position, move around the page, open web apps, and I havent tried it with Microsoft Excel, but I have used it with Microsoft Word 2007 and it works brilliantly. I have also obviously used it here, directly in the Amazon text box, and again it is working perfectly. I think that once I have mastered the commands designed for controlling the computer I will almost never touch mouse or keyboard again. Let me stress, there is a learning curve. But it is not bad. For anyone who has a problem typing or using a mouse-carpal tunnel syndrome or anything else similar-or anyone who just wants to forget about typing, dont hesitate, buy this product. Just remember that the faster your computer is, the more RAM you have, the greater processing power you have, the faster this product will work. I am using it right now on in Acer V5-I5 with 8 GB of RAM and it is working very well. I tried it on a cheaper Lenovo - I 3 processor equipped machine and, although I really like the new Lenovo, it was too slow so I returned it and got this. If you dont mind using a desktop, I would suggest that you build your own with a quad core and a boatload of RAM. It would probably be overkill, but at least you could try your hand at some cool gaming. Im not sure how well this product would work as a game controller but wouldnt that be awesome. Finally, Im not a great proofreader, in fact I suck at proofreading. I also cant spell worth beans. Maybe you can find a lot of mistakes in this document, but I cant, and if I really wanted to be perfect, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 will read the document back to you, mistakes and all, and you could fix it as you go. Once again, dont hesitate its worth every single penny. Postscript: I forgot to mention that the software comes with a pretty good headset, at least its pretty good if you computer recognizes it. I tried it on my Mac using the crappy Mac version of this software and it worked very well, but when I tried it in my Acer, it didnt work at al. l I then tried a Logitech USB headset that I had laying around and that sucked too. Finally, I was lucky enough to have a very inexpensive headset by Cyber Acoustics, that I got from I dont know where, and it is working perfectly. Several other reviews that I have read say that the headset is critical. That is absolutely true, but the headset doesnt have to be expensive. That said, I am planning to get a good Bluetooth headset for this thing and if any of you out there who own the software could give me a recommendation or two I would appreciate it. My Mac Version of Dragon came with a Plantronics Callisto and it sucked. (By the way the software recognized and correctly typed both Plantronics and Callisto without hesitation. And from those of you from Texas-I just live here-it knows how to write yall.

easy to set up, though there is still a bit of hesitation in the program it will suffice for the work I want to use it in (College term papers) these guys are by far the leaders in voice recognition and it shows in their expertise. Though I gave it a 4 star rating it really is not the proper rating as it should be a 4.5 rating. I anticipate that as time goes on this will learn my speech patterns better and it will be one of the best tools I have for my education, and writing e-mails, and other things. Overall a great system.

I found the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software easy to use. But it takes much patience to wait for it to type. You have to speak slowly so that it understands you. I feel like I can type much faster than the speed at which they system types. I use it when my carpal tunnel gets to be too painful. It is a good program to fall back on when my hands become too tire. I have to learn to be more patient with the slower speed at which the softwaret types.

The microphone which was included with the product is either junky or defective because the Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12 software reports it as not being good enough quality to get past the initial setup/configuration steps. I also had serious quality problems not being able to get it to transcribe recorded files even thought I followed the steps to train the software. The accuracy was horrendous. There are also some feature limitations which are not apparent or obvious on their website if you are a first-time user like myself. If you are already familiar with their past software there would probably be fewer surprises (although unless the older software works better than this one I doubt you would be upgrading anyway.

I received this as a Christmas gift and installed it the next day. I was not able to get the mike and headset to work and kept receiving error messages of incompatability with my computer. I have Windows 7 and have had no other compatability issues with other software. After multiple calls to Tech Support, they were never able to resove this. I was told they were aware of incompatability issues with some sound cards. Over all,I spent about 6 hours on the phone with them. Although I was told a supervisor would review all my calls to make appropriate recomendations to resolve this, it was never done. I was told I would receive a new headphone/mike set in 3 to 4 days but that never happend. As a result I returnd this product. FYI, as a further insult, althougth they have a toll free number for Customer Support, the Tech Support line is not toll free. Also, Tech Support is only free for 90 days. If you call the Customer Support line and ask to be connected to Tech Support , some of the time they will, but at others they will tell you they do not have the ability to do so. Very poor cumstomer relations. I would never recomend this product or company.

This product worked from the opening of the box. Simple to program it to your voice. While not flawless, it’s a real timesaver in that typing is limited to the few corrections while it’s still learning your voice. We’ll worth the price.

When I received it, I experienced about 3 hours of high frustration because the included headset almost worked, but the volume of the speech was low even with max sensitivity computer setting. I went ahead anyway and the product worked very poorly - it took about 15 seconds to transcribe even a short phrase. Finally it dumped me out of the tutorial with some error message like it really could not understand what I said. I was about ready to toss it, but decided to try another headset. I tried the inexpensive Koss headset that Amazon had suggested as a bundle with the Dragon 12. Suddenly it started to work great.

I first tried using Dragon Naturally Speaking more than 10 years ago. Back then I received an earlier version of the program as part of a give away software bundle when I purchased a computer. I gave up trying to use the program because it did not function at all with my computer. For years after that experience I considered voice recognition programs as useless. Recently I experimented with the voice recognition features on my Android cell phone. The voice recognition features worked so well I did some checking to see who wrote the program. I learned the Android voice recognition program was from Nuance, the company that now owns Dragon. Because of the positive experence with my cell phone I decided to buy Dragon 12.0 a month ago. Well the hardware and software have obviously advanced and the Dragon 12.0 program really works on my dual core computer. In a short time the program has become an invaluable tool in the writing I do for my job. This program is a game changer for me and I highly recommend it.

I have spent the last three days trying to download Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English by Nuance Communications, Inc. to no avail. At the time Isaw nothing in the description indicatingfor 32bit windows only. I happen to have 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium . Please note I am not editing the text of this review to display just one aspect of the Essential Tremor, since Iam nolonger 9able write cursive or print anymore. The computer is my communication life line in spite of the fact that that I can no longer type and can only 2 finger type (one finger on each hand). LOL! This is very time consuming! I was expecting that Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English by Nuance Communications, Inc.enable me to improve this one aspect of my life. To me this was a commmunication life line. But if you cant SET IT UP than you cant use it. So it becomes USELESS ! I saw my husbands doctor using it and was impressed that it enabled him to better serve his patients. This is what prompted me to make the purchase. It seemed to be the Ideal solution for my issues. WRONG!!! Made Right!!! I mentioned to the doctor that I was so impressed with his using the Dragon Program, that I had ordered the dragon for home use. He told me that there is a learning process involved but you wont be sorry you bought it. Needless to say this conversation took place after I vented my frustration in the above review. However, I took to heart what he had said and really did not want to send the program back to Amazon so I contacted the Nuance Communications, Inc. I have to say that their service people are outstanding. They worked very patiently and diligently with me until we were able to identify the problem. It was a manufacturing fluke and they are replacing the Dragon Program. I just had to confirm the purchase. I have since learned of an acquaintance who who had also purchased the Dragon Program from Amazon and she raves about it. So I am sure I will be praising my experiences as well.

I tried this software out back when speech recognition was in its infancy and I was not impressed. Imagine having to spend nearly 20 hours to training your software. And then it was not portable. But now that smartphones and hands-free devices in cars can use speech recognition near flawlessly, I though it was time to give it another shot. WOW! What an improvement. The speech to text functionality is amazing. The command functions dont always work, but I prefer a more hands on approach when opening software or navigating my GUI. This product advertises portability, although I have yet to try it. I would highly recommend this product if you do a great deal of typing and want to be freed from your desk. Imagine walking around the room or house (depending on how good your wireless headset is, dont skimp on the headset purchase, youll regret it) all the while dictating a letter, article, or email. Who needs a treadmill desk when you can actually leave the computer and continue typing.