Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

I’ve been using the various editions of Dragon ever since it came out. It is one of the most useful things for computer use. If one needs to do any significant amount of writing it is essential. I find that it is 90% accurate right out of the box, and approaching 100% after a little bit of use. I am of course writing this with Dragon and I will note any errors that it makes. I can see how some people might have some difficulty with it, particularly those who aren’t that computer savvy. One may have to adjust their sound settings for example. And of course having a competent computer is required. I just purchased this version for a new laptop. It is one half the price as the Nuance website. And the basic version does come with a Nuance headset. Which brings me to virtually my only complaint. The headset has excellent audio quality. But for the life of me I have yet to find any reasonably priced headset that doesn’t squeeze my head too tightly. I am trying to bend this one out so that it is a little more comfortable. Actually I am writing this using Amazon’s earbuds with microphone. Much more comfortable. I’ve also tried a Bluetooth headset designed more for listening than dictating, and the audio quality was not sufficient. I am going to look into a reasonably priced dictating Bluetooth headset which would be extremely convenient. You may have noticed that Dragon has not made a mistake yet even though I got it yesterday, and have only used it a couple of times.

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.

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.

I have only been using this for one day, but I must say that so far I find it incredibly functional and easy to use. My microphone is Sennheiser PC 25-S. I am speaking naturally, without having to awkwardly enunciate all my words, and the accuracy is really high, 90% or more. Whats great, too, is that telling it to correct is easy. The user interface is helpful, and prompts you in straightforward intuitive ways. I look forward to working with this more, especially as the program is learning my speech patterns and vocabulary. I purchased this after reading a lot of user reviews, and after trying to use the built in Windows speech recognition (which totally sucked! even though I was using the same quality Sennheiser microphone and spoke clearly and slowly-- accuracy rate at best was 40 to 50%-- very frustrating). One thing that was a hitch, though, was that the program did not install properly from the CD disc onto my Windows 7 Pro 64 bit desktop. But a quick call to Nuances tech support solved the problem. They walked me through discovering that, in my case, it was a .dll error, the solution to which was to uninstall, then download a new installer online which they sent me a link to. That installation went smoothly and I was immediately able to work through dictation! Whew, I am so glad! This is an important first step for me to heal from the bad tendinosis I have in both arms from too much typing and mousing!

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!

I am now going to review Dragon Naturally Speaking 13, Home. (Business comes with tools for using Excel and other business programs I dont use that much.) I found the installation process a little interesting as the program progress bar does not seem to move at first. After a while, when I was about ready to give up, it did move and the installation continued. However it was very, very slow. I had turned off my antivirus software as suggested and followed the prompts. Installation process was slow enough that I could have literally gone out, made a meal and then come back and found the installation still in progress. This concerned me a little because I was not sure that my computer was up to the task of running this program as expected. My computer runs Win 7 Pro, with a 2.66 GHz processor, four gigs of RAM even though Windows 7 can only utilize 3.5 gigs. I am now typing this in Word 2007 and it seems to be working quite well. When I went through the registration process, I noticed that it one point a window came up and said that it needed the serial number. The serial number was already in the box and was highlighted. When I pressed continue or next, a window popped up and said that the registration was not completed. I went back and took out the highlighted number and then retyped it using the numbers at the top of the keyboard rather than on the keypad, as previous experiences shown that some programs in some instances will not accept the import from the keypad the same way they accept information from the numbers across the top of the keyboard above the letters. DO NOT put n the hyphens, as I believe the program will not register properly if you do. There is a sentence that tells you not to put them in. Getting used to this is interesting as it seems to recognize all my words and unfortunately my bad grammar and my way of speaking in run-on sentences. However, as I learn the commands, I think that it will be quite helpful in getting my thoughts down at a higher rate of speed. So far the accuracy is very, very good probably more than 99%. It doesn’t like words like very, very good (two of the same word repeated.) I just tried using Dragon in Final Draft 2.5. I use it for script writing and for movie production. The Dragon box came up and would allow me to paste my text into the program and it seemed to work just fine. This one extra step is probably not a huge issue and will actually allow me to edit my thoughts better than if I type directly into the program. So very pleased with this program so far. Follow the instructions for installation to the letter. They are there for a reason and you probably won’t have any problems.

Unlike others I dont type 100 wpm so VR has been the holy grail for me. After reading a glowing review I was so excited abt getting Dragon 13. What I didnt realize is that you cant use it with any other software programs other than Windows related ones or easily with web browsers. (Just found out thiisnt even true!) I primarily bought it to use with Nolo willmaker which Ive been putting off...but now cant use. I called tech support and even he felt bad for me, lol. He told me to return it but it isnt possible. And PLEEEEASE its a nightmare to use unless you enjoy having a manual next to you while your trying to use it. I have ADD so concentrating is a bit difficult and I thought it would be so much easier to speak my thoughts but with each sentence I have to figure out how to issue about 10 commands. Its also soooo slowwww. I type faster when I hunt and peck. OK, after reading other reviews by longtime competent users who are still frustrated I dont feel as bad but Im stll so dissappointed that my slow typing is actually easier. It seems the Voice Recognition Id hoped for is still out of my reach. Ps I JUST FOUND OUT THAT DRAGON 13 WILL NOT WORK WITH WINDOWS 7!!! So now I can only dictate text into their text box...this was a total waste. I guess theyre working with Microsoft to force you to upgrade!!

I am not an author but I occasionally write long e-mail messages. I bought this package because I was curious what voice recognition capability I could purchase for less than forty dollars. (My Windows 8.1 computer fortunately already contained ample RAM; Dragon is a memory hog.) I was surprised when I opened that package. In addition to the software DVD and brief instructions, the package contained a communications-grade wired stereo headset with attached boom microphone. The headset and microphone plug into the mini-jacks on the front of most desktop computers. The package also contains an adapter that will connect the headset and microphone to a single USB 2.0 port. Software installation is straightforward but ponderous. The installation user interface does not indicate ongoing progress, and I wondered if I was stalled in mid-install. After a long wait, installation finished normally. After registering the Dragon software on the Nuance Communications website, microphone proper operation is verified and Dragon then presents an interactive tutorial. The tutorial introduces voice recognition dictation concepts (explicit capitalization and explicit punctuation), and the tutorial highlights the online help functions available during Dragon dictation. I played with Dragon while using Microsoft Notepad, and I was impressed with Dragons accuracy and vocabulary, but voice recognition dictation (explicit capitalization and explicit punctuation) IMO is cumbersome, and only capitalization will improve as you personalize Dragons vocabulary. A later problem: Dragon attaches two apps to Internet Explorer, and my IE 11 began crashing in non-Dragon use. I used the IE star -> Manage add-ons function to disable the two Dragon-supplied apps. Instead of Dragon direct dictation with IE, I will dictate e-mail messages into Notepad, and then copy and paste the messages into my e-mail program, a practical compromise.

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.

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