Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

I am using the Dragon (DS13) Software 13, and it is an extremely sharp tool. With his help, I do think my computer, and I can take over the internet. If I only had a brain, comes to mind, but this software is great! I recommend this product to any and every writer to preserve the quality of a penciled or penned draft. Have a nice word on me. DMF :)

Dragon Naturally Speaking works very well on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10s Operating System. However, you may need to make sure that you override any other dictation programs (including ones which may be associated with Microsoft Office for it to work properly). So long as you make sure your computer meets all of the minimum requirements this program should work well. This is very important as this program in conjunction with your OS and your Office program will use up a lot of memory. The program is very accurate right out of the box, however, following the instructions will allow for greater accuracy. Please note this review is for the Windows version of Dragon and not the MAC version. Order: Product shipped very quickly, with all component in the package. Product worked exactly as described and per system requirements.

I purchased this in 2015. It was working fine until my computer quit. Once the PC was repaired (new logic board) I had to reinstall all my software. When I reinstalled dragon the Serial number no longer worked. I called Nuance and they said since 13 is no longer supported I cannot activate it. THAT IS THEFT!

I have used Dragon since version 8. It had been pretty hit and miss back in those days. Version 13 is pretty tight. I very rarely swear at it like I did in the old days. : ) I am a writer and it makes it a breeze to do the rough draft of stories. Intricate editing not so much. But for me that is a huge time saver. One big improvement is getting a new headset. WARNING. Just because you think a headset is good doesnt mean that it is good for Dragon. There is a great company to help with finding it because Nuance is no help here. I have had great experiences with KnowBrainer.com. They help handicapped people use Dragon to enhance their lives. KnowBrainer has a list of headset microphones that work the best with Dragon. For example I bought a set of Sennheiser headsets which are normally a great brand. Well they werent very good for Dragon. One down side is Nuance is not the best with support. Dragon software has been sold a few times. And sadly support has not improved with the new companies. I will say that it has been rare that I have needed support.

Its too early for me to review this yet; I just got it loaded. First of all Amazon sells it as a bundle with a headset/microphone that you dont need as one comes with the software. Even so, it was cheaper than buying it directly from Nuance. Installing it only took me an hour or more. :-( First I tried to do an advanced install and not load the things I did not need like Australian English, Asian English... After clicking the final go, the pop-up said it was installing, but nothing happened. I finally told it to install everything and it then loaded without a hitch. I then tried to use my USB headset and mic that I already owned and it kept telling me that it couldnt recognize what I was saying, so I tried switching to the one that comes with the software and that kept telling me that I had to press the on button on the headset and there isnt one. I finally created a new profile with my USB headset again and dang, that worked. Again, I havent used it much, but I can tell that it is heads and shoulders above the speech recognition in Win 7. Im not a blazingly fast typist, but I still havent decided which I prefer. I write short stories and occasionally my ideas get partially forgotten before I can type it all out so Im hoping that DNS will help. I hope to edit my review in the future.

I am sitting at my wifes computer writing this review because the Dragon program messed up mine. I installed the Dragon Naturally Speaking Home on my computer, a Cybertron running Windows 10 with an i7 processor. The program came with a headset, so I used that on my computer. After installing it, the program has a set up. First you go through a long processes of registering the program, then it takes you to a set up sequence. During this set up it installs a menu that has a large button on it. Hovering over that button will tell you if the microphone is on or off. It started in the off position, and it never changed. It is impossible to turn the button on. As I was going through the set up, it wanted me to download Bonjour, an Apple program free on the internet. I tried to do that but ran into issues. I finally downloaded the program, but when I tried to continue to load Dragon it failed to recognize the microphone. Over and over it kept telling me to turn on the microphone before it could continue. Over a dozen times I went to the dashboard button and clicked it, but it never came on. I went to the help sites, both on Nuance and on the web, and never resolved the issue. I plugged and unplugged the line numerous times on the headphone/microphone set that came with the program without any progress. I also switched locations from the back of the tower, to the front of the tower, then to the monitor and none of them changed the outcome. The microphone stayed off. So I switched microphones. I put a KLIM USB microphone on the machine, and it still failed to work. The program set up will not recognize any microphone I have tried. And I plugged and unplugged the KLIM several times and used several USB ports. In addition, Bonjour turned off the speakers on my computer. When searching the system error messages I was told the download turned off my speakers, but it never told me how to turn the speakers back on. More problems. Because of this, I manually loaded the microphone specs into the program. It accepted them and said OK, but the microphone never turned on. I erased Bonjour and reloaded everything, to no avail. The microphone will not work. Its simple enough, no microphone no speech program. So, I am now faced with a total disaster. My computers speakers are disabled, and none of the microphones will work. The Bonjour seems to have turned off the ability of my computer to recognize any microphone for any purpose. Of course, it could have been the Dragon program that messed them up. Its hard to say. Even when I leave Dragon, none of the microphones work, but they did before - so why did they quit now? Without some kind of outside help this isnt going to resolve itself. I may be stuck with taking my computer into a repair shop and paying for some type of reset. All because I bought this program. Even if Amazon gives me my money back, which they might not, Ill have to pay extra to fix the computer problems caused by the program. Believe me when I tell you this is a dangerous program to install on Windows 10. In my opinion, this program has the potential to devastate your computer. This is NOT a benign install. Ive researched other dictation programs, but - at least on Amazon - none are available. AD2

Ive been a happy user of earlier versions but after my laptop updated itself to windows 10, I found myself forced to buy version 13.0. Purported to be a great improvement, I was sold, but Ive not yet gotten it to work. After the install, I went through the microphone preparation and launched Word. The supplied headset was used. Not a single word was understood. Nothing. Frustrated, I eventually did a clean install only to get an error message that some training directory could not be renamed. Installed again without trouble. Still didnt understand a single word. Switched mics. Nope. Decided to use my wifes brand new i-7 laptop with 16GB. Installed fine but still didnt understand a single word. I reached out to tech support and got a couple suggestions. No good. Reached out again and got a suggestion to check the settings. After 3 laptops, 3 mics, and multiple attempts at setting default mic, sound card settings, hardware acceleration, etc, Ive given up. Fortunately, I found an old laptop and installed version 12.0 on it. It works flawlessly. My new laptop? I use Windows speech recognition. While not as robust as Dragon, it isnt half bad. My only regret is that I tried to upgrade to new and improved. Im beginning to think there might be an error on my disc. Nothing but trouble for me.

I got it as a gift for my husband, and he loves it. He always thought the product was cool because he would just need to speak instead of typing the old fashion to get his papers done faster. He is currently in bible college and has to read a lot of books, which takes time. Then he feels the pressure of typing a paper because hes not the fastest typer and his thoughts move a lot faster than his fingers. Also he uses the dragon software with open office which was something he was worried about. So yes it works!! If you have a love one who isnt a great writer or fast typer, Id recommend this (:

When I purchased Dragon I was a little pessimistic in the accuracy of the softwares abilities, but I can honestly say that 97% of my speech, at least, is faithfully transcribed into text. I needed this product because I injured my hands and cant type, and it has been a godsend. There are a few problems though. There is a little avatar that hovers around your text, and for me it constantly looks like its loading, trying to recognize speech, even when Im silently thinking. Also, sometimes when I turn it off and on again it doesnt work and I have to restart the whole program. Still, Im pretty amazed at the technology and thankful that I can write stories again.

this is a good option if you have trouble typing . the out of the box accuracy is very good. On the negative side, I have outlook 2010 and windows 7 and the dragon software is totally messing up my outlook and visa versa about every other day. you have to shut down the system, disable add-ins, stop tasks that are frozen using the task manager and all sorts of magical thinking types of activity to get things back on track. then it happens again. Also, if you discover that you are having problems running programs that worked before after you installed Dragon, it is dragon . My advice. call the tech line at nuance early and often. They provide free support for the first couple of weeks, after that, you are on your own with a computer that is quite idiosyncratic. Like I said, good option if you cant type.