The only reason I'm reviewing this upgraded version of Dragon is because of all the negative reviews I have read. To be perfectly honest, I was hesitant to install the software because of all the problems I was reading about in the past 10 days. I received the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 CD almost a week ago and have not installed it for fear I would mess up my computer, LOL. Finally, after reading all the negative comments and doing a lot of research on installing the program, I crossed my fingers and took the chance.
I can say in all honesty that it installed without a hitch. I receive no error messages, no constant reboot requests, no lost user files, nothing. Everything went smoothly. I have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 preferred for the past two years and decided to upgrade because of the faster recognition and updated features. After inserting the Dragon 10 CD in the drive, the software loaded and proceeded to install. It recognized that I had a previous version installed and asked if I wanted to keep my user files for the new version. I clicked yes and the software did the rest.
I am using the program to dictate this review right now. It is very fast and accurate as you can tell. The words appear on the page much faster than version 9. When they say it's 20% faster, I think that is accurate. I am also noticing many less errors in recognizing my words. I'm not sure if that's because of my extensive user file or simply because the software is better.
If you are on the fence about purchasing the software, you can wait for an updated version or do what I did and upgrade now. I'm glad I did even though there were so many discouraging reviews on Amazon and other websites. My experience was trouble-free and I hope yours will be also if you purchase and eventually install the software. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred - Medium Box
I am writing this review with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred. I finally had to cut and paste "NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred." because this program was performing so poorly. If ever this program was going to fail this is not a good time. LOL
This program is buggy and tech support is horrible. I have never been able to get results like the ones I see advertised on the Internet. If I could type and spell well I would leave this program alone. Unfortunately I have dyslexia and am a slow typist. Dragons speak definitely adds to my productivity significantly. If you are in a similar situation like myself, I would advise purchasing the preferred version over the standard version because this program can read back what you have typed in. I find this very helpful because often times my mind wants to read what I think should be on the page instead of what's actually been written. Dragon speak has a funny way of changing your words slightly so that your sentences don't make sense. I would advise future customers to consider an upgraded microphone, plenty of RAM, and a decent CPU. I know people have complained about loading this program but I had no trouble. I'm using windows XP.
Over the length of this review I probably touched my mouse or keyboard 10 to 20 times to correct minor errors with this program. this next sentence is an example of a common Dragon speak error."Fortunately I believe I only type I or two words." Correction Fortunately I believe I've only had to type one or two words.
I hope you found this review helpful
I have used Dragon NaturallySpeaking more than seven years, starting back with version 5. Each new version has been better, and version 9 was clearly a substantial improvement. It was fast, accurate, and reasonably stable. I use it every day for e-mail, notes, and letters.
When I saw the advertisement for version 10, I trusted the ad line that it was even faster and more accurate. Besides, shouldn't my new Dell desktop with dual core Pentium processors (running Windows XP) be able to handle version 10.
Wrong I was. After installing the software last week, I have experienced software lock-up every 15 or 20 minutes. Closing Dragon and restarting the software is not enough. I have to reboot my Dell to clear out memory in order to get another 15 or 20 minutes of reasonable function, until the software locks-up again.
In addition, I frequently experience long (up to 15 second) delays between pronunciation of a sentence and appearance of the words on the computer screen. I will confirm that word recognition accuracy is good, even better than Dragon version 9 (which wasn't bad).
My opinion: if you are running version 9, stay with it. Version 10 is unstable and interfaces poorly with other programs such as MS Word and MS Outlook. Version 10 still needs a lot of work before it is ready for prime time.
Update: As I said, I emailed customer service. I heard nothing so I checked the "support" site and looked at the action on my request. Here is what appeared:
New Email
*** Call Date: 8/15/2008 8:50:58 AM
Agent: LorenC Level: 3
Status: Closed
I called the 800 number, followed the several voice prompts to "customer service" and got the recording, "all of our agents are assisting other customers, your call will be answered in the order in which it was received." I waited 15 minutes and then called the listed headquarters number (not toll free) There I ran into more voice prompts at three levels and wound up with the same robot telling me again how everyone is busy.
I used to enjoy this program. Now I have such a bad taste for Nuance that I will go back to typing or to a quill pen and papyrus before I use anything from Nuance again.
Here's my original review:
I have a new HP laptop with plenty of memory and speed. It runs vista home premium. I tried to load DNS X and kept getting the message I needed to restart my computer in order to load the required runtime C++ I let it play that game with me about four times until I realized I was being played. I went to the Nuance technical support page and looked up the problem in the "knowledgebase." There it was - continually telling me to restart is apparently a common problem. There are detailed instructions on how to delete temp files and modify the registry to cure the problem. I did it all and still got the same message - "restart." So, it was time for an email to tech support to find out what I need to do. Well, the first thing I needed to do was pay Nuance 10 dollars to send the email.
I wrote to customer service instead and said I want my money back under the 30 day guarantee. It's a good program and I upgraded from version 7. But I absolutely refuse to pay anything to any company to be able to install the program I just bought from that company.
By the way - there is no way to download a trial to see if it will install before buying. - Dragon Naturallyspeaki - Voice To Text - Speech Recognition - Voice Recognition'
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