Product Description

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred gives small business andadvanced PC users the power to create documents, reports and emailsthree times faster than most people type #8212; with up to 99%accuracy. Surf the Web by voice or dictate and edit in MicrosoftWord and Excel, Corel WordPerfect, and most other Windows-basedapplications. Create voice commands to quickly insert blocks oftexts or images #8212; such as your name, title, and signature.Dictate into a handheld device when you're away from your PC, oruse a Bluetooth microphone for the same great dictation resultswithout the wires. A109X-W00-10.0

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45 in Software
• Brand: Nuance Communications, Inc.
• Released on: 2008-08-20
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 2000
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: 3.15" h x 5.12" w x 7.87" l, 2.65 pounds

Features

• Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 10.0
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 10.0, EN

Manufacturer's Description
Create documents, reports and emails three times faster than most people type with up to 99% accuracy, perfect for business and advanced PC users. .Continued accuracy: Every time an individual uses Dragon and corrects their recognition errors, the software updates their user profile to enable better recognition accuracy over time

Works With the Applications Users Already Have. Users can dictate directly into Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook Express and most other Microsoft Office applications running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows-Vista. Dragon also supports popular programs such as Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and AOL. Users can even control menus and dialog boxes in these applications. Navigate the desktop by voice: launch or switch applications, save or print documents, and more - all by voice.

Add Custom Words and Voice Commands. Quickly add custom words, such as names, to the system's vocabulary. Create your own commands, such as "insert signature," and pre-set text and images will automatically appear in email and documents.

Easy Correction and Proofing. With "play back" feature, users can listen to their dictation while Dragon highlights the corresponding text on the screen for easy proofreading.

NEW Quick Voice Formatting commands allow users to issue a single voice command, such as "Bold Quick Voice Formatting" to make editing and formatting text faster than ever. Unique Natural Language Commands mean users don't have to memorize complex instructions. In Word, for example, a user can say, "make that bigger," and the font size increases instantly.

Punctuation. Select the "Nothing but Speech" natural punctuation feature so that punctuation is automatically entered into documents and messages.

NEW Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Web Search make searching for information on the Web faster and easier. Just say "Search the Web for financial management resources," or "Search maps for Italian restaurants in Guildford, Surrey," and Dragon will use the default search engine and default Web browser to enter the term in the search field and return the results. A user may also search specific sites using commands such as "Search Wikipedia for George Washington Carver," "Search eBay for Bluetooth headsets." Sites supported by Dragon Voice Shortcuts include Google, Yahoo, eBay, Wikipedia and more.

NEW Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Desktop Search allow users to quickly locate information on the PC - including documents, email and Web history - all by voice. For example, say "Search email for launch plans" and Dragon will complete the desktop search using Google desktop search or Windows Vista desktop search. Or command, "Find an email about the Robinson report," to open the top email.

Be Productive on the Go. Dictate into any Nuance-certified digital recorder for automatic transcription when it is synched with a PC.

Easy to Use. Quick installation and no special script reading required. New on-screen help and tutorials help users become experts in no time. A comfortable, high-quality headset is included or use with your own Nuance-approved Bluetooth headset for dictation results - without the wires.

Avoid Repetitive Strain Injuries. By using voice to control the PC and create documents, users reduce risk of developing RSI.

Customer Reviews

Voice recognition software has come a long way
It's unfair of previous reviews to give such low ratings because of their own uninstalled software conflicts or hardware limitations. The fact is, this is voice recognition (VR) as it's meant to be.

I installed the software on my XP-running PC (1GB RAM, 1.7Ghz Pentium processor) without any difficulty and was dictating letters within 20 minutes or so. Whilst the software does not need to be "trained" it is recommended that you take the time to do so. Training is done via Naturally Speaking's "Accuracy Centre" which consists of reading samples of text of various complexity.

I was sceptical of the 99% accuracy boast but having seen it in action, I will happily eat my words. As its name suggests, one of the great things about the software is that it positively encourages you to speak naturally, i.e. don't slow down, don't over-pronounce words, don't - say - words - one - at - a - time. I have a tendency to mumble and talk too quickly but Naturally Speaking adapted to this easily.

The voice commands are simple to use (e.g. "Scratch That", "Bold This", "Select 'xyz'" etc.) and I'm sure that with practice they will become second nature.

I've only used the software in a quiet environment so I'm not sure how it would fare in, say, a noisy office but Naturally Speaking says it factors this in when you calibrate your microphone.

There is a plethora of commands that you can use to navigate programs and Windows itself but this hasn't really appealed to me, I've not used it and so I can't comment. However, if you're just looking for a great piece of software that can handle incredibly accurate dictation at great speeds, this is the market leader. I have used the product exclusively with Word and I'm churning out words at a rate that typists simply cannot match. (I am a touch-typist who can churn out 85 wpm but you can probably do 250 wpm with VR).

If you haven't used VR software before - or it's been a good few years - you will be amazed at how much it's developed.

It is excellent but do you need the features of the Preferred version?
First up the usual caveats. As with all software you need to make sure your computer is up to running it, and you shouldn't expect anything to run perfectly on the minimum spec. The more up to date and powerful your PC is, and preferably with 2GB or more of RAM the better your experience will be in general. That said, Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) does not need an absolute beast of a machine to run on. If your machine has at least a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM you'll pretty much be OK.

Also, when running software that is anywhere near critical you should avoid adding in or stuffing your machine with all manner of other software that might cause conflicts or other problems.

Now, the main thing that will concern you is which version of DNS do you want or need. If you are a student then get the most expensive one you can get a grant for of course. But if you are buying for yourself you won't want Professional, as that is aimed at the corporate market. So that leaves this version (Preferred) or the Standard version.

The only differences of note between Preferred and Standard is that Preferred has a text to speech converter (e.g. a kind of screen reader) and will allow you to play back your dictation. Lastly, Preferred can be used with dictation machines so you can record your words elsewhere and then get the software to convert them when you connect your dictation machine to your PC.

The actual text to speech engine is the same across all versions though, so if you don't need to work away from your PC, and can live without hearing your voice played back to you or your words turned into a computer generated voice then get the Standard version and save yourself a fair few quid.

Whichever version you end up with you will find it's an excellent piece of software. The engine is extremely good at getting your words correct nowadays, and the workflow when using it soon becomes natural to you.

Give it a go, you'll be glad you did, and if you opt for the Standard Version you'll save a fair few quid too.

Preferred Dictation?
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 comes with small manual, a CD-ROM, and a dinky headset. Once you've installed it, you give it a bit of training, and let it scan your documents, so that it can analyse your writing style. You then take the tutorial and you're up and running.

From the point of view of dictation, it's actually surprisingly good. I ain't played with this technology 10 years ago and had had a good laugh, but now it picks up on your voice and syntax remarkably well. Certainly for its core job of dictation, you can be very rapidly up to speed creating documents with the ease. To give you an idea, this review is being written, using the software straight after playing with it for an hour without doing any corrections. So you can make up your own mind about how well it works.

It takes a bit more effort to use it in a web browser, as it can be difficult to get the commands right. But even then it makes a pretty fair fist of it. I haven't tried it in Excel yet, so that's still open. One thing to note, is that the version I'm using, called preferred, does not natively support Microsoft Outlook although it does support Excel and Word. So if Outlook support was important to you you might want to go to the professional version.

One other thing to note is that some of the mistakes in this document, are actually due to me, where I don't remember to say the word ",". Also, as I'm new to this, you have to concentrate quite hard dictating, although it is very good at it. If you were trying to edit documents I can see it getting fiddly using the commands. One other nice thing is that you can use the keyboard and mouse while you're dictating.

Bottom line, it's much better than I thought it would be. Given that it's still learning my voice, this implies that the results should be even better in a fairly short period of time. I can see that it's real forte will be in document creation. And it understands apostrophes better than many humans!

P S apologies if the review is a bit jerky, dictating is quite hard when you're not used to it.