Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

DNS 12 does a great job. I work in finance & investing and it works. Some things it does not get the first time, after you correct the program, it will get it the second time. One example is that I work with a Cris, thats right without the H. Because I work in a small office, Cris is the most common spelling. I got Dragon NaturallySpeaking primarily to enter meeting notes after a meeting, and it is serving that function. If I say two hundred thousand dollars, and I say quickly, then it will show up as $200,000. You do have to take time to learn how to use this program effectively; for example, it is best to say long phrases so that the program can get more context around the words that it is defining. If you are already pretty good at typing, Dragon NaturallySpeaking might not save you any time. But it still feels very liberating to use this kind of software. If you are a hunt and peck typist, DNS 12 or similar could be a huge productivity booster.

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 bought this to help my daughter write papers for school. She spent over an hour programming her voice into the software and when she began using it, it couldnt follow her voice accurately. She is in the 7th grade and her vocabulary is not sophisticated. When she spoke into the software it would type about every third or forth word incorrectly, requiring her to go back and manually edit the text. Once the editing was finished she had lost her train of thought and had to go back and try to recall where she was in her writing. By the time she got through the first two paragraphs (175 words = 45 minutes) her writing was incomplete and far below her ability. I am going to post the software on Craigslist where I will be competing with many other dissatisfied customers selling theirs.

This is a good way to talk and compose a report or book. It does take some extra effort to educate the program to the persons speech pattern and to find ways to correct the errors that find their way into the document. At times it is a slow process, but as the program and the writer continue to practice it gets better and manageable.

It takes quite a lot of time to train the software, but if you keep working at it you can get it to work well. Helps save the hands & wrists. I bought this version because it comes with a headset (mic & speakers) and Im glad I did.

I had problems, not with Amazon, they were supportive, but with the software. To make a long story short,. the first purchase & the 2 additional replacements wouldnt load ( the disks couldnt be read), (Version 12.0 from Amazon), perhaps a bad batch of DVDs. I eventually paid $200 to Nuisance for version 12.5, which works good. Not the easiest software to learn, but it works.

I dictated an email message after the 15 minute initial training set up and it did about 90% accuracy or more. I was flat amazed. I dont dictate as well as I speak especially when Im reading the words I am dictating. If I did additional training it would produce much better accuracy. Im waiting for a version which automatically inserts punctuation and corrects grammar. This software is so advanced, Im predicting that day will be here soon. I use Logitech wireless H800 headsets as recommended in the list of qualified headsets. I have noisy fans, but the noise cancellation of the H800 eliminates the background noise. I have an IVY Bridge 3770K CPU with 8 GB of RAM. Im sure that helps a lot, too.

So far its working really well. Granted I cannot compare it to anything else or earlier versions because I have never used any of them. As for me I have dyslexia and have become self-conscious of my ability to spell anything over the years.(Constantly using spell check or Google when spell check doesnt work in order to find definitions of a word) needless to say it has made it hard to function in a world filled with emails and Twitter accounts, or at least more time-consuming. Personally would not recommend a speech recognition program for a high school student or a child in grade school. (with a learning disability or no). For learning how to spell and type not to mention grammar is so important in this day and age.that I fear a speech recognition program would hinder their ability to do both in the long run. For there will be times when they will not have access to a speech recognition program or will have to communicate with pencil and paper.

Its a interesting and useful piece of technology, however every piece of technology has its flaws. The headset works well for the most part, however there are a notable amount of times where the speech isnt recognized. Had a couple problems with text to speech as well.

I am sure that people who receive emails would like to reply but dont want to take time to type it out so we let it fall into email garbage. Then again, you would like to just compose a letter to a friend or a complaint regarding a product but just dont want to take the time to type it out. I fell into these two categories even though Im a fast typist. A little over 15 years ago I purchased a word recognition software and found it to be useless as I spent more time going back and correcting errors. A majority of the time manufactures will spot their weaknesses and work to improve their product. I am super pleased in the improvement that Dragon has made in the word recognition field. It is not 100% perfect but darn close. The biggest factor in dictating is pronunciation and not slurring your words but then again it is proper to speak good English. I really like this product and I have no regrets in purchasing it. It is definitely a timesaver for me as I handle a fair amount of correspondence each week.