Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred - Medium Box
by Nuance Communications, Inc.
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred - Medium Box
Customer Review: Great Time Saver
Summary: 4 Stars
Even if you are a skilled typist, this is a great time saver because it can transcribe from a dictaphone (certain makes only, including Sony). You can dictate content while on the treadmill or in the car when you are away from your keyboard and make Dragon transcribe it later.
Of course if you are not a skilled typist, then this software effectively makes you one, since it types what you are dictating with very little delay.
After about an hour of training, the transcription is about 93% accurate.
Customer Review: Great time saver
Summary: 5 Stars
Very handy and easy to use, and works as advertised. The only drawback is the cheap headset. Customer Review: Not satisfied
Summary: 1 Stars
Did not meet my expectations and I tried so many times to dictate and practice and nothing worked. Customer Review: pricing and causing problems?
Summary: 3 Stars
Been having odd errors wwith Dragon running. Attempt a link from Outlook and computer reboots. In initial review window font size is less than 6. Browser fonts are now small! Unable to install on laptop, from downloads or from 10.1 CD. Writing for Nuance tech support for solution. Alos, keyboard does not act "right", even with mike off. But what is worse, is totally phony pricing from Nuance. Bought 10.0 Stndard from Staples at very attractive price, well below $50. Just got offer from Nuance to "Upgrade from Standard to
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1 Preferred for only $79.99* - that's a $120 discount." But this review is from an Amazon page with a 10.1 preferred (NOT AN UPGRADE) FOR $58.99! Medium box, whatever that is? Who needs their headset. My 9.5 ran just fine.
Something tells me that some Ivy MBA'S have brought their "discpipline" to what heretofore been a well run(I think) company.
Customer Review: An excellent tool for pain-free productivity!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love using this software! In fact, I am using it right now to write this review. I purchased it about 2 weeks ago and it has transformed the way I work. I am a church administrator who sits in front of my computer for many hours a day between my work tasks and personal tasks. I have struggled with carpal tunnel syndrome for about 4 years now. This product has not completely eliminated my need for the mouse and keyboard, but it has cut down dramatically on my typing. As a result, I no longer have to sleep with wrist braces at night and I have much less pain while I work. Before using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I found myself keeping e-mails short and using the phone as much as possible simply to avoid typing. I would never take the effort to type up a review such as this one because I would want to minimize my wrist pain. But now that I have the software, I find that I can do whatever I choose to do without fear of pain. I can even get up and walk around a bit near the computer to alleviate my shoulder and back stress from sitting down.
After a few days of using the software, I really got used to it and figured out which programs I like to use it in and which I like to just type in. For instance, it is not as fast as using keyboard shortcuts when manipulating Excel files or using my task manager program. I have found a happy balance between using it and using the mouse and keyboard.
I use Gmail as my e-mail program, and have found NaturallySpeaking software to be extremely useful in conjunction with the keyboard shortcuts that Gmail provides. I am also using the Google Chrome browser. So even though Chrome is not a supported program, you can get around that by knowing the keyboard shortcuts and just telling the computer what keys to press. If you used Outlook, I'm sure it would even be easier to use e-mail with the software.
I did have one installation issue with the software. There was some sort of problem with the physical DVD. The program would not install out of my disk drive, but I was able to get around the problem by copying the disk files to my hard drive and then installing from the hard drive.
The program works surprisingly well. There is a short pause where it recognizes your text and then it pops up on your screen. But I can read or talk at a normal pace and the program keeps up with me just fine. I have trained it to recognize all of our employee names and all of my common acronyms, so it keeps up with my flow and I rarely have to correct words as I'm speaking. There are some little intricacies you have to get used to, but that comes quickly as you learn the program better.
I have found a few tips that you might find helpful: The included headset is pretty tight on my big head. It is a little uncomfortable to wear as a headset, but what I do is just hold it around my neck (like you would do when you take off the headset to answer the phone). The boom comes up to my mouth instead of around to my mouth and the speech recognition works perfectly in this position. I didn't like having my computer audio coming through one headphone speaker anyway. So what I do is plug just the microphone portion into my microphone port and I keep my regular computer speakers plugged into the speaker port. I can use Dragon just fine while listening to talk radio or music at a reasonable volume. It doesn't get confused that there is other sound in the room because the microphone knows my voice and requires a higher volume of speaking directly into it.
All in all, it is a very fun, useful program to own. If you struggle with wrist pain like I do you will find that this software is worth its weight in gold!