Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

I certainly would not recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13. First of all it was hard to get installed. I even called technical support for help and they had me download the program to install and it still wouldnt work. After many hours of trying to install it, it finally installed. However, it kept hanging up. It wouldnt even run long enough to go through any training for it. The training feature of this program gave the warning that the training program was not compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The program also gave warnings about a third party program interfering with it and I could never find any other program running. After searching on line for a solution I finally tried using the voice recognition feature in Windows. Windows voice recognition works wonderfully. It does everything that Dragon NaturallySpeaking says it would do and and takes dictation very fast. Naturally you have to give it some training as you would with any voice recognition program. I am writing this review with Windows voice recognition. It keeps up with me wonderfully gives me tremendous control of my computer through voice commands. No, I do not recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13. I just wasted a lot of money which I cannot afford to do. I see no reason not to use the Windows voice recognition program when it works so well.

So many ways to dislike this software. First of all, it took over an hour to install; but I guess I should feel lucky as, when I read the experiences of others, many were not able to install it at all. Next, setting up the microphone was a challenge. The software came with a new headset/microphone combo so when setting it up with the software, there was an option for Dragon Remote Microphone or something like that. There was no explanation that that option pertains to an Android app which allows your tablet to act as a microphone, consequently I wasted a lot of time and finally found the answer to that problem by Googling it several times. Tried setting it up for my wife who is vision-challenged, thus her display is set to high-contrast. This resulted in some of the setup dialog boxes being invisible. Wouldnt you think that this software is likely to be used by someone with vision problems and design it to work with high contrast displays? Anyway, once we figured that out, the next challenge one faces is that of having to read documents of 5000 words, yes FIVE THOUSAND WORDS, or so to train it. The Microsoft speech recognition software that comes with Windows allows you to train it as you go, reading as much or as little at a time as you desire, a much more user-friendly way to go. Also maddening is the fact that there are dead links within the Dragon software. For example, in the training texts, a link appears above stating something like Click here to learn how to improve visibility of the text. Guess what? You click the link and absolutely nothing happens. I always thought the Microsoft Speech Recognition software was pretty good but my wife insisted she wanted to try Dragon as she had heard so many good things about it. I set up a profile for myself and trained it; so far I havent found anything it could do that the Microsoft software couldnt do as well, so I would just as soon have saved the 50 bucks or so that I spent on Dragon Naturally Speaking as a gift for my wife.

Im writing this review using Dragon 13.0. I find 13.0 to be much better than 12.5. It has much fewer conflicts with other programs in memory. The only problem Im having is with training. One of the problems Ive had in the past is my spoken vocabulary is too extensive for my spelling ability. LOL. When doing emails I would have to use Microsoft Word with its spellcheck and then cut-and-paste to the email application I was using. There are times when I still do that, but not nearly as often as before.. Now if they could just speed up the update routine when you log off. Another thing, every time I go into Excel, Dragon reminds me that my version doesnt work in Excel. The bad thing is it will not stop.

I used to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking back in 2012 when I first started freelance writing. I found it to be extremely helpful and my accuracy was easily at 99.5% or higher. However, I stopped using it for some reason. But, Im back at it again. I picked up the 13.0 edition, hoping that it would work with Windows 10, and it has not had any problems at all. I did a little accuracy training, and now this thing is quite accurate. I write anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 words per day using DNS and have been doing so for the past month or so. I write faster and better now that I am actually saying the sentences out loud, as opposed to typing them out and hoping they flow well during the editing process. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to preserve their hands and/or increase their productivity.

I have been using Dragon Naturally Speaking for years. Over the years, most cell phones, iPhones and Androids have automatically come with constantly improving voice to text apps, but not Windows. Dragon soft has a learn period that cell phones dont seem to need, but Dragon soft has a much greater features list. For straight up composition, Naturally Speaking performs well, allowing you dictate a document with very few errors. In a direct test against Kindle, I found that the supplied Kindle app actually performed better fewer errors, provided you dictated with enunciated with sharp clear speech. That is the first place where Naturally Speaking differs from cell phone speech apps. Naturally Speaking learns your voice, slur and mumble patterns, and allows you to dictate in patterns that are not clear, sharp dictation. Secondly, Naturally Speaking uses quick voice activated boo-boo and editing commands: erase that, highlight that, and sentence removal commands. Personally, I still prefer to get it right the first time, so I cant help but try to enunciate well the first time. The ONLY reason that I dont give it 5 stars is that there are SO MANY commands, that sometimes (OK, rarely) you accidentally hit a command in normal dictation. It can be a little overwhelming. Nevertheless, I dont know what I would do without this program.

I am a Computer Tech and I use this for emails and creating detailed Trouble Tickets. Mostly this is pretty good, but sometimes it misunderstands me. As I said, I am a PC Tech. I can be doing Tickets for clients and say Installed a Printer. Instead of the typed message, Windows opens the New Printer Wizard. Once I said Rebooted the PC and DNS almost rebooted my PC. Ive tried turning off the Commands portion, but that does restrict the functionality of the PC. BTW, it does not type curse words. You still have to delete the gibberish, but at least it is not profane. :)

Ordered this for my friend who is not a quick typist. He absolutely loves being able to dictate directly in Word files. Its a great tool for those who arent used to typing, cant type, have a disability or simply want to relax without using the keyboard. Dragon learns your speech patterns and words over time so the longer and more you use it, the better it becomes at recognizing your distinct speech. You can even tell it to recognize British English, Indian English, southern US English, Pakistani English, etc. so it will adapt to your language. Granted it also works with many other languages, not just English. Heres my Pros & Cons List PROS: 1. It has a very accurate Speech to text system. It understood almost every single word very quickly. 2. It was very fast. I was able to finish my document just as quickly as I had typed it. 3. It comes with a Headset and microphone already in the box. 4. It has many short cut commands like backspace, delete, next line and space. CONS: 1. It took 30 minutes to install from the DVD.

When they say turn off your anti-virus software they mean it. It will not install with your anti-virus software active (all sorts of strange errors). Also, this is a very big application. It took so long to install (almost an hour) that I thought something was wrong. I called Nuance and they provided a link to download the product to my computer so that it would install faster. By the time I found the link and started to download, the application finally installed. I First used this product back in the late 1990s when I was temporarily unable to use my left arm. I bought this one for my mother. I was pleased to see the learning module. While my mother is having a lot of trouble with the product, Im chock that up to being a technophobe who does not follow directions. I found it easy to configure and use. It is not a perfect solution, but then again we do not live in the Star Trek Universe. You still need to do some mouse clicking and some typing, but it does save you from having to do a lot. If you take the time to learn how it works and take more time to teach it what you need it to do, it will serve you well. I did not give it 5 stars because of the install issues (they really should tell you how to turn off the major anti-virus softwares and warn you that it will take a long time). Also, Im a little tired of sitting with my mother teaching her how to use it. The education lessons were not designed for the generation who can really benefit from the product; aging adults over 70.

Im dictating this review so you can get a sense of how accurate it actually can be. I usually need to make at least two or three minor corrections in one short paragraph. Dragon is a godsend for people who really have problems with their arms and cant type or input text the usual way. Dragon 13 does seem to be a improvement over Dragon 12; theres a considerable uptake in speed. A huge problem remains that it is practically dysfunctional in Microsoft Word. I use the dictation box or pad and then copy and paste my text into my word file. I did not have any particular problems with the installation, beyond the fact that it took a very long time (a few hours). Dictating this review, there was one major error: Dragon typed men instead of improvement. However, Dragon is typing the words almost as quickly as I can say them. I like that a lot.

I bought this product ten days ago because Im dyslexic and I wanted to write faster and with greater accuracy. The same day I purchased a new laptop that runs on Windows 10. I realized that because Windows 10 is rolling out slowly, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 software might not be compatible with the new OS. I checked the Nuance Communications website and it confirmed that Dragon 13 is Windows 10 compatible. The thing is, it isnt. After installing the program and performing a microphone check, I found that the software was not only completely unresponsive to voice commands, it also crashed at random intervals. I uninstalled and reinstalled the program, purchased a different headset and deactivated the Cortana application in an attempt to get Dragon to work. None of my attempts were successful. I sent a message explaining the situation to Nuances tech support staff. After repeatedly explaining that I had already employed the above troubleshooting methods online and over the phone and proving that my microphone works, I was e-mailed a download link for what I assumed was an updated version of Dragon 13. In actuality, it was just an exact copy of the program I had already purchased. The version of Dragon I was sent was also completely unresponsive and buggy. When I relayed this information and my frustration at being sent a copy of a program I had already proved did not work on my machine to Nuances tech support, they stopped responding to my inquiries. Subsequently, I used Google to see if anyone else had encountered the same problem I was dealing with. I discovered that Nuances tech support forums were filled with complaints from other people who had run into the same issue and had also been blown off by the companys tech support staff. It was then that I gave up trying to make Dragon 13 work and returned the software. As near as I can tell, the program worked optimally with older versions of Windows, but despite the lies on Nuances website, Dragon 13 is completely nonfunctional on Windows 10, so buyer beware.