Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

The microphone which was included with the product is either junky or defective because the Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12 software reports it as not being good enough quality to get past the initial setup/configuration steps. I also had serious quality problems not being able to get it to transcribe recorded files even thought I followed the steps to train the software. The accuracy was horrendous. There are also some feature limitations which are not apparent or obvious on their website if you are a first-time user like myself. If you are already familiar with their past software there would probably be fewer surprises (although unless the older software works better than this one I doubt you would be upgrading anyway.

The software I can recommend. I got this for my son that had trouble writing so that he could keep up in school. Everything was working well, but the headset is cheap and it broke. So just keep in mind that you may need to purchase your own.

I purchased this product for my daughter going away to college. I believe the product works but I also know that it takes some time to get used to. Time is a very big issue with me so I decided to return it. I contacted the company and there were no issues, I would recommend the product for someone who has to the time it takes to learn it correctly, I think it could be a big help and I would recommend the company because they did everything they said that they would.

I will dictate this complete review using Dragon NaturallySpeaking premium 12. I purchased Dragon natural speaking premium 12 for two reasons. First, I wanted a product that would transcribe material from a digital recorder. Much of what I do is first recorded on a tape or digital recorder. I would then spend as much as an hour and a half to two hours transcribing the material. My keyboard skills are medium to good but I am in no way a 100 word per minute typist. Dragon natural speaking will transcribe an 1800 word document in less than four minutes, although the result is an 1800 word long. Once transcribed it now takes only 10 to 15 minutes to punctuate and format into paragraphs and sentences. The accuracy of the transcription is very good and is getting better as I train Dragon Natural Speaking. Secondly, I wanted a product that I could use for dictation purposes which is the hallmark of Dragon Natural Speaking. I have several volumes of handwritten material that I want to publish and with Dragon I can now transcribe that material with ease. I rated this product with four stars for one simple reason. The Viacom microphone included in the package did not work with my computer soundcard. I contacted tech support and was told that Nuance knew there was a compatibility problem with Realtec soundcards and that I needed a USB adapter. My research led me to finally purchase a Viacom adapter from the Nuance website which ended up costing me an additional $25 ($15 for the adapter, and $10 for shipping). If Nuance knew there was a problem with certain sound cards the adapter should have been included in the package with the headset as it is with the upgraded professional version. For those users with compatible gaming headsets or existing adapters you can add the final star to the rating. Overall, I am satisfied with this product and use it regularly to dictate new material and to transcribe recorded material. I have only scratched the surface of this products capability and anticipate continued satisfaction as I learn to use its many features.

Im still learning it and its still learning my voice but already it relieves a major headache for me transcribing my notes or just plain dictating. I do have to go back and fix errors but its still faster than typing myself from scratch. Although there are tutorials, I wish there was live tech support on specific issues. For example, how to teach it the difference between spelling out paragraph or period and performing the function. Its a tremendous time-saver, I can dictate in about 3-5 minutes what would take me 15 minutes to transcribe. I love this product.

Got Dragon NaturallySpeaking premium 12 just the other day, arrived as ordered. I’m actually writing this review using it. Takes a little bit of practice to get used to talking to your computer as you need to make sure you articulate what you want to say although making corrections is pretty simple. Works a whole lot better if you don’t have a lot of noise in the background and if you have a quiet area like me it works very very well. I’m also surprised at how accurate the thing is… this is my first time using something like this ha ha. Thinking of getting another copy for my wife.

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.

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: [...]

I have only been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for a few weeks now, but I am thoroughly satisfied with it. It was very easy to install and the training period was easy to get through. I have been using it for a variety of tasks. The primary reason for which I purchased it was to be able to dictate manuscripts for books and I was surprised at how easy and accurate it is to use. In fact, this review is being dictated through that same program. The number of mistakes that the program makes is far fewer than I had anticipated. Quite a few years ago I had used an earlier version of Dragon and was satisfied with it at the time, but there is no comparison between that version and the present one as far as ease-of-use and accuracy are concerned. I am very much satisfied with what I received.

So far its working really well. Granted I cannot compare it to anything else or earlier versions because I have never used any of them. As for me I have dyslexia and have become self-conscious of my ability to spell anything over the years.(Constantly using spell check or Google when spell check doesnt work in order to find definitions of a word) needless to say it has made it hard to function in a world filled with emails and Twitter accounts, or at least more time-consuming. Personally would not recommend a speech recognition program for a high school student or a child in grade school. (with a learning disability or no). For learning how to spell and type not to mention grammar is so important in this day and age.that I fear a speech recognition program would hinder their ability to do both in the long run. For there will be times when they will not have access to a speech recognition program or will have to communicate with pencil and paper.