Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

Ive used several previous versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking, but needed a new one for my most recent laptop. I had read negative reviews about the installation process for Premium 12, but didnt have any trouble at all. The software installed immediately, taking time to handle updates, which is to be expected. I followed the steps to set up my profile, quickly did the training, and was ready to go. I then dictated a completely new document to see how this version would work work for me out of the box. The results were near perfect. Keep in mind that I already knew many of the commands, and how to work with Dragon Naturally Speaking. I think it takes a bit longer for a first time user to be up and running, since there is a bit of a learning curve.

Installed Dragon after using it several year ago. I never really got the hang of version 10, but took the time to learn this version and it seems to be a little easier. I do a lot of writing for my business, and this program makes long documents go smoother, at least to get the ideas on the page. I have not yet mastered it and find myself making the final edits by hand, but its a great program. NOTE - this version will NOT WORK with Medical Records; there is a special Dragon for medical records.

The program is as expected, but Nuance needs help. I had difficulty with getting it downloaded and their support was of no help - over 5 phone calls and about 3 hours. I got people in India a couple times and they had no clue about their product or how to speak intelligible English. They also refused to connect me to some in the U.S. Unfortunately, on the calls I reached someone in this country, they were of no help either and one of them wanted me to upgrade to version 13 - when she couldnt even help me with 12! The website lost my password twice - one of which was sent to me by them. The site also once could not recognize my E-mail address. I finally figured out how to get it downloaded with the help of Google.

I have been reading about Dragon Naturally Speaking software for some years now, but have been reluctant to take the plunge primarily because of the seemingly large number of negative reviews surrounding it. I recently convinced myself, however, to just go ahead and try it out and see what MY opinion of it would be. Its been kind of a complicated road but, in the end, has finally worked out well. First, I made the mistake of ordering the software directly off of the Nuance site since it appeared that I would be saving $30 by doing so. From the description on the Nuance site, it appeared that there would be a headset included with the purchase. Not being a terribly bright fellow, I bought it only to discover that (1) it was for a download only and that (2) no mic-headset was included. It took quite a while to initially download the program and there was a lot of futzing about getting it installed; not very smooth at all. But eventually, I got it to work. Since I didnt have a headset-mic or even a stand-alone mic to use, I simply used my webcam mic. That worked okay, but while the results were very surprisingly good, there were a number of mistakes which was well short of the advertised 99% accuracy mark. I accepted this since I was using a mic that was not really intended for this kind of situation. Now heres the level of my stupidity: I kept thinking that the headset (which, as previously mentioned was described as being included) would be shipped to me. I saw nothing to indicate that this was indeed the case so I emailed Nuance customer support for the answer to which they responded back to me in about 2 days. A number to call was provided to me to call. I was told by Nuance CS that no headset was in fact included. I asked for a refund, deciding to re-order using Amazon instead. This is what I should have done in the first place. Getting the refund has been a far more lengthy wait than seems necessary. When I ordered DNS through Amazon. I also ordered the Andrew NC-181VM USB mic-headset since these received generally high praise from a number of reviewers for use with DNS (see my separate review on these). Now, after that lengthy spiel, on to Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12: In a word, Amazing! This is the stuff of sci-fi made real. Coupled with the Andrea headset, and after doing only the preliminary training, DNS worked almost flawlessly right out of the box. I havent yet (and probably never will) scientifically assessed the actual accuracy of DNS, but if it isnt the advertised 99%, its pretty darn close. Thats been my experience so far, at least. I still have a lot to learn and remember about some of the voice commands that you can use, and especially some its more esoteric abilities as far as controlling programs and such, but so far Im completely impressed with what DNS can do. I was concerned because of the several negative reviews about Premium 12 being less than some previous version or another. I honestly cant address that and, quite frankly, its now become completely irrelevant to me since Premium 12 has met and exceeded any expectations I had of it. It just flat works and it works amazingly well. If some previous version somehow worked better for some other person for whatever reason, more power to them. My only objection to some of those opinions is when they attempt to prevent the purchase of Premium 12 based on their objections. I think it is perfectly acceptable to state ones own experiences and biases about a product, but quite another to block the purchase of that product or tool that I believe many others if not most would find perfectly acceptable and useful without having to resort to some outdated and perhaps less supported version of the product. Im all for fair and reasonable criticism of a product, but some sense of reality needs to enter into our opinions. Which brings me to my criticisms of Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12. DNS is not without its flaws. The installation process, even with the CD was somewhat on the kludgy side. First, it was on the lengthy side, but that is okay with me, except that during this lengthy installation process I received at some point mid-way through installation some kind of error message that I didnt understand that seemed to indicate there was some kind of installation failure and told me something had not completed successfully. I thought Oh, great....Now Ive got either buggy software or Im going to have to try to start over again. But once I clicked the error message off, installation proceeded on happily and finally finished. And then, of course there was the whole registration process to go through (actually, I had to enter the same information--serial #, etc--at least twice) before I could actually start using it and tackle the preliminary voice training sessions. Since there was that installation hiccup along the way, I thought that something was surely going to prevent the program from running or cause some other bump along the road, but it hasnt happened yet, so I guess all is well in spite of the nagging feeling that something might be missing that needs to be there. In spite of the lengthy and somewhat convoluted installation process, I can still easily justify the 5 Stars I have given it. In the big picture of the world of software, this has to be one of the giants along with being, perhaps, even a potentially life-changing tool for many people for many reasons. All I really know and really care about now, however, that DNS Premium 12 is running and seems to be running flawlessly. The amazing thing about this incredible tool is that it tracks very rapidly. Im a pretty fast typist and I initially thought that I could probably type faster than what DNS could keep up with. Not so. I can start blabbering at a pretty good clip and DNS seems to hang right in there with me, even though I have to pause my flow to insert the punctuation, etc as I rattle on. The main catch here is that you have to have your thoughts pretty much under your belt already before speaking. If you are halting and stopping and kind of fumbling around as you speak, DNS doesnt handle that all that well. That is one advantage of typing; you can pause and think about what you want to say at any point in the flow without everything getting all hung up and bumfuzzled. With DNS, you will find yourself doing more corrections if that is the case. I really dont know how many people out there might actually need Dragon Naturally Speaking. I think if you are a troubled or slow typist, this would be an absolute boon to you. If you are a lousy speller, DNS handles spelling corrections extremely well, usually on the fly. I am neither of these things; I am both a fast typist and a pretty good speller most of the time. Nevertheless, I still find DNS an incredible tool. I must say that it may take me a while to find ways for me to use it and truly justify its purchase. But being the geek that I am, I will do my best to find a way to put it to good use. So, for right now, I stand extremely impressed with what I regard as among the more useful innovations in the software realm. Just as an aside: before investing in DNS, I did try out the built-in Speech Recognition feature of Windows 7. It works fairly well and is impressive to a degree in its own right. In my opinion, however, it doesnt hold a candle to DNS and quite frankly, suffers from too many weaknesses that would render it too frustrating for me to use for most purposes. It just doesnt offer nearly the accuracy or sophistication of DNS. In conclusion, I can highly recommend Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12 to anyone seriously interested in getting their feet wet using speech to text translation. I hope you will find it as amazing as I have.

After a lot of research, this seems to be the best thing out there for the price. It was hard to get started and not simple to use. Took quite a while to get used to it. But it does work and it beats writing down every word. The users manual could be improved on.

I had several issues with this product, When I finally got it to install it wont open on my laptop. I get an error that I dont have enough memory to operate it and I have over 50% of memory available. So I can tell you how well it works just that it wont. Not happy that it gives specs that it will work on my machine and now that I have it I cant use it...

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.

Started using Dragon over 10 years ago when as a court stenographer I needed a method to help with my typing. It took time to train the software and it worked pretty good. Over the years I upgraded to Dragon Level 10 and it had improved significantly. I bought the 12 Premium and it was not an improvement in my view, and recently purchased the 12 Professional and it still does not meet my standards. Simple words continue to be a problem when you dictate an, you get and, dictate on and you one, and on and on and on. I wonder how it operates with those who are neither as articulate nor enunciate clearly? Dragon gets away with it madness because its the only club in town, but its customer service really suffers because there is none and companies that depend upon computers to interact with human beings as their only line of resolving problems with their product will eventually fail. Dragon sucks every penny it can from its consumers by charging outrageous fees for live tech help when the free time ends (and thats when the system fails due to some software problem). Those who are physically challenged cannot find an alternative source, and I pray one will arise soon.

When I first installed the software, there were a couple of significant glitches that upon searching the internet, were common and should not have still existed. Further, Nuance replied that my installation question, might require a fee to answer, which is a poor customer service response. Ultimately, they supplied a solution, without charge, which took two days. Then, I ran into a compatibility problem with Word 2010, which I also found was a regular problem on the internet, also took two days to get customer service response. Overall, I very much like the product, with one ongoing glitch. The dictation box, on a somewhat regular basis does not transfer to the intended application, like open word document and the dictation is loss. I find, to be comfortable, you must transfer one sentence at a time to document, so as to not lose your work. This needs to be fixed. You must insure that you place the cursor in the document, prior to dictating, but then it still happens on a regular basis.

Dragon naturally speaking does not recognize my computer sound card and microphone. It does not recognize any speech at this point. At best I am going to have to try and teach it my voice for hours on end to get it to work at all. I thought that this would be quick and easy to get it up and running, does not appear to be the case. Wish I could get a refund!