Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

This seems like an unbelievable product but it does seem to work. Were having some problems getting it to recognize a voice with a decided Southern accent but am sure it will do well after we complete the process of training the cd to recognize Sarahs voice.

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.

I just purchased Dragon 12 and was trying to install it on my company provided computer. It wont install without .NET Frameworks 4.0. I contacted Nuance support which the confirmed, that Dragon 12 requires .NET Framework 4.0. This is not documented anywhere on the box, or online product requirements. Because my company IT policies are controlled and are not up to this version of .NET I cannot install Dragon 12. Of course I ran into this when I tried to install the software and had opened all the seals on the packaging, so just a straight return is not available. Im waiting for word from Nuance if I can return 12 for a version of Dragon 11.5 and if 11.5 will work on my older version of .NET Frameworks. Also to confirm other reviewers comments the headset provided is crap, and crushes your head. So if there is a package that is cheaper without headsets purchase it and buy a better headset separately.

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.

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!

Has issues working with MS Word. I want to be able to dictate into word and not its proprietary dragon pad. I worked with help desk for over an hour and still no luck. you would think this would work without a hiccup as word is a popular word processing package. Doesnt work well with MS Word 2010 (so far). I have found it to work seemless with MS Excel, note pad and Xactimate (custom program for estimating)

If you are willing to spend some time on the training and getting the program used to your voice, its well worth it. It allows me to enter all kinds of information from a document into a spreadsheet, for example, without having to do that look down, read entry, look up, tab and type, look down, make sure the right thing went in the right box. Im a fast typist and I do a lot of typing, so sometimes its just fun to give my hands a rest and let Dragon do some work for me. The only downsides I find is that it still cant always keep up with me and it does have a couple of accent recognition issues, but other than that, its a fun and useful product.

I took delivery of the product Friday afternoon. I spent the next couple of hours Installing, updating, and training the software to understand my voice. Yes, it does need to learn your speech patterns (and any minor stuttering patterns) you have, but once i finished the first training that is required, it was amazing how accurate it was. Once I had it read through a bunch of my documents and emails to gather up some grammar and vocabulary, it got even better. Compared to the Built In voice recognition that is already inside windows, this is a 10, and Microsofts is a 2.

I type fast. I was hoping to use this to allow me to take notes on the computer while I photograph items for sale. This is not possible, as so much of my speech is not recognized that I have to pay more attention to the computer and its little try again popups than what I am photographing. If I stare at the computer, and notice every time it gets something wrong, it works OK, but if Im staring at the computer anyway, I can can type WAY faster than it works. So, no go for me.

I can type fairly well, but thought by having this I could save a little time. WRONG. First Ill say that I dictated reports for 20 plus years and never had an office assistant complain about my dictation. I understand the commands to use, talk clearly, into the mic. I also took the time to train Dragon, and edit its mistakes. I use the provided headset in a quiet office. It still couldnt understand what I believe are easy things: wood stove not would stove, light bulb not white ball, etc. In the end, it takes me so much time to go back, locate all the errors, correct them, and reproof that Im spending twice the time I did without Dragon. So....if you can type at all, youre better off typing. This is not a time saver. It does however provide some entertainment reading its mistakes. No, its not abandoned Raj, its a band in the garage.