Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

I first tried using Dragon Naturally Speaking more than 10 years ago. Back then I received an earlier version of the program as part of a give away software bundle when I purchased a computer. I gave up trying to use the program because it did not function at all with my computer. For years after that experience I considered voice recognition programs as useless. Recently I experimented with the voice recognition features on my Android cell phone. The voice recognition features worked so well I did some checking to see who wrote the program. I learned the Android voice recognition program was from Nuance, the company that now owns Dragon. Because of the positive experence with my cell phone I decided to buy Dragon 12.0 a month ago. Well the hardware and software have obviously advanced and the Dragon 12.0 program really works on my dual core computer. In a short time the program has become an invaluable tool in the writing I do for my job. This program is a game changer for me and I highly recommend it.

If you skip all of the promotional and advertising copy and search the very fine print (it should be more prominently displayed), you will find out that Dragon Naturally Speaking v.12 is not compatible with electronic medical records (EMR). Nuance wants to force those in healthcare to pay up to $2000 for the so-called medical version. If you purchase Dragon v.12 and try to use it with an EMR, the Dragon program will eventually detect that you are using an EMR and will cease working. This is a deliberate incompatibility that was engineered into the program. Nuance designed Dragon to actively look for an EMR, and to disable the Dragon program if an EMR is detected. This is discrimination, pure and simple. It also raises the question of whether the Dragon program violates the privacy of the owner of the computer on which it has been installed. I believe that this policy of crippling the software will end up hurting Nuance in the long run. If so, the company would deserve it.

I dictated an email message after the 15 minute initial training set up and it did about 90% accuracy or more. I was flat amazed. I dont dictate as well as I speak especially when Im reading the words I am dictating. If I did additional training it would produce much better accuracy. Im waiting for a version which automatically inserts punctuation and corrects grammar. This software is so advanced, Im predicting that day will be here soon. I use Logitech wireless H800 headsets as recommended in the list of qualified headsets. I have noisy fans, but the noise cancellation of the H800 eliminates the background noise. I have an IVY Bridge 3770K CPU with 8 GB of RAM. Im sure that helps a lot, too.

I took delivery of the product Friday afternoon. I spent the next couple of hours Installing, updating, and training the software to understand my voice. Yes, it does need to learn your speech patterns (and any minor stuttering patterns) you have, but once i finished the first training that is required, it was amazing how accurate it was. Once I had it read through a bunch of my documents and emails to gather up some grammar and vocabulary, it got even better. Compared to the Built In voice recognition that is already inside windows, this is a 10, and Microsofts is a 2.

For any of you that hates to type papers well cut your time in half. I mean cut the time of you paper down to were you have more time to focus on other things in class not the time for spelling or grammar once you learn this easy to use program. For me 15 min., and I cant believe the amount of time I saved. I now can focus on getting good time in on the material not the worry of how to or when I can write a multi thousand word paper! I just turn on mic and talk away and even if I get stumped on words to say I can just yell at myself and laugh that I just wrote a paper of me yelling at myself. Just say a few words and the program can wipe out the yelling and your back on track. Love this program everyone needs this program its the greatest thing to toast.

Before you purchase Dragon 12 you may want to read their privacy policies, and if youre okay with them, then youll find the program works okay with Windows 8. It is slow though. You will find that Nuance installs a 3rd party program on your computer called Common Software Manager that automatically loads upon starting your computer. According to Nuances Privacy Policy, Nuance is not responsible for how that 3rd party collects and uses information about you and your computer habits. Nuance (the maker of Dragon) Privacy Policy link: [...] Im sure those who are die hard fans of Dragon will vote this review as not helpful. That is a common practice with online reviews even when someone is giving an honest experience. However, my review is simply informational. If youre alright with the habits of Nuance then theres no problem for you, buy their software and enjoy it. It does work. Update: If you go to the Nuance community forum youll find a lot of people concerned about the forced installation of Common Software Manager. ( Forum link: [...] ) These types of 3rd party programs can, in some cases, be vectors for malware infecting your computer. The link to remove the Common Software Manager: [...]

DNS 12 does a great job. I work in finance & investing and it works. Some things it does not get the first time, after you correct the program, it will get it the second time. One example is that I work with a Cris, thats right without the H. Because I work in a small office, Cris is the most common spelling. I got Dragon NaturallySpeaking primarily to enter meeting notes after a meeting, and it is serving that function. If I say two hundred thousand dollars, and I say quickly, then it will show up as $200,000. You do have to take time to learn how to use this program effectively; for example, it is best to say long phrases so that the program can get more context around the words that it is defining. If you are already pretty good at typing, Dragon NaturallySpeaking might not save you any time. But it still feels very liberating to use this kind of software. If you are a hunt and peck typist, DNS 12 or similar could be a huge productivity booster.

Upgrading my review to three stars. I had to uninstall then reinstall the program. Now it seems to work. It is a bit slow on my OS (vista 64-bit with 1.8 GHz). Maybe it is better on a different OS with a faster processor? Accuracy out of the box seems pretty good, but I havent used it that much yet.

Ive been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking since version 3. Many people try this program and almost immediately stop using it. when I first began using it years ago I did the same thing. I would put it on my computer system, go through a lengthy training process to teach it how I speak. The training process teaches it how you pronounce different words and it used to take about an hour. While there is still a training period it now takes roughly 5 min. in the past even after training the program to recognize your voice through that hour-long process it would still make many mistakes. And like most people I just got frustrated and uninstalled it. If I gave this five stars you know there has to be a bright side coming. :-) One day, back in version 3, I decided I was going to use it no matter what. And Im glad I did. What frustrates people the most about using voice dictation software is that its not 100% correct all the time. Now a big however. However, when the program makes a mistake (and it holds true right up to the newest version) instead of getting frustrated all you have to do is correct the mistake. Teach the program what you wanted it to type as opposed to what it did. Once you do that it usually doesnt make the same mistake again. As an example, I have a medical condition called Ménières disease. I guarantee you the word Ménières is not in any standard dictionary that computer uses. So the very first time I was dictating a letter and said the word Ménières the computer typed the words many ears. Coincidently, Ménières disease does happen to be a problem with the inner ear but the term many ears isnt certainly what I was looking for. To correct the error went like this: say to the computer select many ears, then say spell that and a dialog box pops up and all you do is speak into the microphone and spell the word correctly. In my case it was to say cap m e n i e r e s, say the words click train and the computer automatically clicks a button labeled train and then you speak the word that you just spelled and it enters it into its dictionary. And it will then replace the incorrect spelling with the correct one automatically and you can continue dictating. When people read this in the manual that is usually what deters them from using the program. I like everyone else thought I was going to be spending all my time saying that entire paragraph to correct a word. Also like everyone else I thought I didnt have the time. The thing is, to actually perform the actions that I described in the previous paragraph actually takes less than 15 seconds and once you do but you dont have to do it ever again. I have created a website dedicated to information on Ménières disease so the term Ménières came up constantly. After the first time it made the mistake of spelling Ménières as many ears it never made the mistake again. Being a website dedicated to a rare medical condition I used the term Ménières probably 100 to 120 times. Like I said, after correcting it the first time it never made the mistake of misspelling Ménières again. In this review alone Ive used the word Ménières at least 6 to 8 times. This review is being dictated through Dragon NaturallySpeaking. If you do see a mistake in any of the words in this review its due to my laziness, not the program. I say that because besides just speaking into a microphone and watching the words appear on screen you can even use the program in another way to check what youve written (or what its written). Both the premium and the home versions of this program have the ability to read what has been typed out loud. The only reason Im not doing it is because Im starting to run late for an appointment and lost track of time. So there isnt time to have it read the entire review back to me and listen for errors. But once more, if you read this back to me and there was an error all he would have to do is go back and correct it and it wouldnt happen again. When I started using this program it was for work purposes but I didnt think much of it when I stopped using it because I typed 111 words per minute accurately. What can I say, I did a lot of typing so my speed just naturally built up. Another however coming. However, now I have osteoarthritis and not only do I type very slowly but its very painful. Using NaturallySpeaking once I start the program I dont have to touch the keyboard. It even has an entire set of commands for several of the most common web browsers so you can use it to surf the Internet as well. And that is also in either the Home or Premium versions of this program. As of today (April 9, 2014) Amazon is selling the previous version (11) for an extremely reduced price. While I purchased the Premium 12 version for a few extra features I found I really dont use them so I went back and purchased two copies of version 11 (I have multiple computers). As THE final note, which ever version of the program you by, it also comes with a plug-in headset. I didnt feel like sitting a few feet from my computer – which is the length of the cable to the headset – so I simply purchased a wireless one for $20. But you do have everything you need to get started right out of the box. Would I recommend it? I own four copies… you guess…

After seeing this around for the last 19 years or so, I figured they may have gotten their act together. My ex-wife warned me three years ago that it still was far from a good product. I found out quickly. It literally takes over your computer adding all kinds of bars and tools, then has you read various scripts to learn your voice. I chose three, including the hardest one. Playback time - UGLY! Who has time to continue playing with this in the hopes that someday the skies will open and I can get usable transcripts? Three weeks, three months, three years of my focusing on this software learning me? Add it to my gotcha shelf of you bought it, youre screwed and threw away your money because they dont take back opened software.