Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

Easy to install, works almost effortlessly, helps my husband take notes for his academic courses, and may help me write the great American novel! I did have some trouble with tech support while installing - they tried to upsell me to a newer version when I reported that the microphone that came with the program was not interacting with the Dragon, and recommended I buy a new microphone with different connectivity. They also said that the sound drivers on my system were incompatible with the program. I was ready to return the product when I changed where I plugged in the microphone, and all worked perfectly. Tech support - bleh; product - great!

Essential software for so many people for so many reasons, Naturally Speaking offers opportunities to express oneself in writing when writing is impossible. Integration is relatively seamless and voice recognition is spot on. Dragon Naturally Speaking is a robust piece of software that would take one many months to completely master. I use it in Word, but also in my browser and search engines. It functions beautifully and intuitively with Word. However, in other applications one must really learn how to best employ Naturally Speaking. Its worth the effort!

Im NOT at all sorry I bought this. The concept is exciting. I will say that theres a lot more to it than meets the eye, though. Let me explain: Im 80+, long since retired, with stiff fingers, and some other issues. My learning curve has slowed down, and there is much to learn to make Dragon fully functional. However, I have had it up an running for about two weeks or so, and Im impressed. Im using it as a kind of overlay, within which I call up my email systems, Amazon, MS Word, and verbally have them do something for me on screen. Currently, Im playing around with transcribing into a recorder [Olympus-722-PC], thence to the Dragon mic. Its still a little weird to see what I say pop up on screen, though. I would add the most of the really negative responses were earlier versions, and for inadequate computer systems I have a 2.1 micropressor, and I thhink it is a bit slow. I upped my RAM from 3 to 6, and am having no discernable problem with speed of processing. [Im slow, too

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 have had various editions of Dragon since version nine. The problem is, very often, it works a little differently than the last time. And sometimes it works much worse. Thats a pain in the butt. Also, changing mics is always an adventure. I use a good quality USB mic and it works much better. However, the mic that came with the program wont work with my profile created with the USB. So today, for instance, I only have the supplied-mic with me at the office, and Dragon is not going to let me use it without a fight. Now we know why they call it DRAGON!

This program is not as easy as one would think. First thing you should do is buy a better set of headphones with the program. The pair that are included did pick up my voice well and caused me hours of frustration. It also does not work well if you are reading things like recipes. It clearly states that you should speak in a normal voice and at a normal pace, but reading a recipe doesnt always work that way. After about two hours of continually having to correct the word eggs I gave up. By the time I went back and corrected all the mistakes in the text it would have been faster to just type it myself. I would guess if I wanted to dictate letters or work on a term paper this would work fine, but its not what I purchased it for. What a pity.

Had some serious stability problems with version 11.0 when it worked it worked GREAT but would do things unbidden and lost data so stop using it -Have not used version 13 much but Dragon seem to have cured the stability problems of 11.0 - Controls / pull downs / commands are different and will probably get used to them with more practice - Still cant get out of the habit of backing up on up three different files every few lines and then having to reread EVERYTHING each time because of problems with 11.0 which sometimes would make a change to a document file which would go unnoticed (some times working on page 20 and unbidden change occurred on page 1 !) and if backed up on only one file errors picked up after a back up were sometimes irrecoverable

The ballots still out on This software. It doesn’t like learning my cuss words very well but overall not a bad product. Speeds up my typing and I’m really learning how to use the correction functions. I don’t have much of an accent but I feel sorry for somebody that has a southern drawl or other accent because some of the words I say her way out of the park but when I backspace it seems to clear up when I talk slower. I think it’s worth it worth the priceEasy to install just watch out for COM problems see my review. I had the external microphone in my laptop microphone down at the same time and it was giving me an error so make sure you go in your control panel on your computer and turn off your internal microphone if you have one otherwise this joker will jack you up ha ha. They had such pretty tight but the microphone works good

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 used this when I had a really bad accident and couldn’t use my hands. Got this for my mom for her Christmas present for her business that she writes 50+ emails a day. Of course she hasn’t even opened it yet. Sigh. Only con when I used it was that it took a good week or two to recognize my voice, but perfect for nagivating the web, creating word documents/excel, and sending emails all without using your keyboard!