I upgraded from Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.5 to version 10.1. I was motivated by the fact that I was upgrading my operating system to Windows 7. There are no versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking below version 10.1 that will work either on Windows 7, or on a 64-bit operating system. So if you are getting a new computer, and you want to use Dragon, you will definitely have to buy version 10.1.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the upgraded version is more accurate than the older version. It is also extremely easy to train. I dictated several paragraphs to the program, taking less than one half hour, and that was all it took for the program to start recognizing my speech accurately. I do back up my user files to use when I reinstall my operating system, but there is really not that much need to do that since the program is so easy to train. Another feature related to training that may interest prospective buyers is that when you set the program up you can specify a number of English dialects, including Southern, Great Lakes region, Spanish accented, Indian accented, British, etc.
I found that installing this program was only moderately aggravating. I believe that you need to close certain applications before the installation will complete, and sometimes doing this involves invoking the task manager. The last time I installed it, it offered to close the offending applications itself, and the installation process went fairly smoothly.
I like to joke that Dragon NaturallySpeaking always spells everything correctly, but it doesn't necessarily get all the words just right, so a spellchecker is useless in picking up the glitches of the program. And there are glitches. I find that in general I have to make a correction or two every paragraph. For example, in the previous paragraph, Dragon interpreted the word my as being may. The glitches may be corrected verbally very easily, though occasionally you may want to type in the correct word. I find in general that I am able to produce text much more quickly using Dragon then by typing, and my hands appreciate not having to actually type. Since I got acclimatized to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I will reach for my headset out of habit before tackling my e-mail or dictating text such as what I am creating now.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking it is natively compatible with Microsoft programs, though it is hit and miss with other programs. For example, I use Thunderbird as my e-mail client, and I have to make allowances for the fact that Dragon does not dictate well into the e-mail pane. The workaround is very easy: establish a cursor where you want to start dictating, then click tools> dictation box, and then you're able to dictate whatever you want into the dictation box. When you want to transfer your text into the text pane, click or say "Transfer", and your text appears where you want it to be. Sometimes you can be surprised as to what Dragon will work with. My instant messenger is AIM, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking works perfectly well with it so I can talk rather than typing the text messages.
Another issue with Dragon NaturallySpeaking is microphones. It ships with a cheap headset microphone that you can use to get started with. You'll find, however, that upgrading to a noise canceling headset microphone increases your dictation accuracy rather sharply. I would advise looking for a USB microphone in the $30 and up range if shopping for an upgrade. One lesson that I found out the hard way is that if you start dictating with one microphone, and then you acquire another microphone and want to start dictating with that, the user profile for the previous microphone will not recognize your speech. What you need to do if you upgrade your microphone is to start a new user profile. This is how you do it: click "naturally speaking", then go to "manage users", and then click "new". This will get you started creating a new user profile. You will need to go through training again, but I do not consider this to be a real big deal, personally.
I REALLY like this program, and I would not consider going without it. I recommend it to anybody who either has trouble typing or does a lot of typing, in fact I recommend it to anybody who might be interested!
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This is an amendment to my previous review. I recently found out that Windows 7 has speech recognition built into it for free! At least the Home Premium and up versions. A friend clued me in to this fact. She is quite happy with the Windows 7 version of Speech recognition. I just gave the Windows version of speech recognition a try, and if I had to choose, with price not being an issue, I think I would still choose Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I did not try the Windows version very thoroughly, but I find that when I try to dictate an e-mail with the Windows version, it creates a very small text box to dictate into. I find that this box is excessively small, and really you can only dictate a sentence at a time into it. In the Dragon version, the text box that I use to dictate my e-mails into is quite large, and if I have a lot to say, it will create a scroll bar so that I can go back and reread my dictation before inserting it. Like Dragon, I believe that the Windows speech recognition program really works best with Microsoft applications. (My e-mail program is not a Microsoft application). But I sure wish that I had known about the Windows version when I upgraded my Dragon version. How do you find the Windows 7 Speech Recognition program? Just click on the "Start" button of Window 7, and type "speech recognition". In the upper left corner of the window, the name of the program appears. If it is highlighted, then you can launch it by pressing "Enter". If it is not highlighted, click on the name. If you intend to use the program often, you can right-click on the name, and choose "Pin to Taskbar", "Pin to Start Menu", or "Send To > Desktop". Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1 Preferred with Headset - complete package - Voice To Text - Voice Recognition - Speech Recognition - Voice Recognition Software'
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