Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

Its too early for me to review this yet; I just got it loaded. First of all Amazon sells it as a bundle with a headset/microphone that you dont need as one comes with the software. Even so, it was cheaper than buying it directly from Nuance. Installing it only took me an hour or more. :-( First I tried to do an advanced install and not load the things I did not need like Australian English, Asian English... After clicking the final go, the pop-up said it was installing, but nothing happened. I finally told it to install everything and it then loaded without a hitch. I then tried to use my USB headset and mic that I already owned and it kept telling me that it couldnt recognize what I was saying, so I tried switching to the one that comes with the software and that kept telling me that I had to press the on button on the headset and there isnt one. I finally created a new profile with my USB headset again and dang, that worked. Again, I havent used it much, but I can tell that it is heads and shoulders above the speech recognition in Win 7. Im not a blazingly fast typist, but I still havent decided which I prefer. I write short stories and occasionally my ideas get partially forgotten before I can type it all out so Im hoping that DNS will help. I hope to edit my review in the future.

Would not recommend this software to someone with a southern accent - I could not get product to understand my words no matter how many times I tried the setup feature that should teach the program my voice. Im fairly decent with computers but this is one of the few items Ive had to return to Amazon. It did come with a nice headset which impressed me, so Ill give it 2 stars instead of one. I felt bad that it didnt work since it would have made my life much easier. The software install and setup seemed easy and software was easy to navigate. Just a caution - once installed it seemed to make some of my other programs open slower. Update 12/1/19: I returned this software for a refund a week after purchase. However, I really needed a voice to text software and ended up buying the pro edition (even though I feared it wouldnt be any better). It was a struggle to get the software loaded but I called Dragon support and they helped. Turns out the pro version works great for me. Im using a low-cost USB mic that had high ratings (not a headset).

I have been wanting to write a book for some time. In looking at reviews about and functions of this product I thought I would give it as try. The first problem I had with this product was the install. Most products install from a disk or even with a download from a web site in about 5 to 10 minutes. I started the install and after 20 minutes I thought there was something wrong. I canceled the install and started over. After waiting another 20 minutes I was sure that I had a bad DVD. I did some research and found that others had experienced this same problem or similar issues with the install. I called Nuance tech support and after talking with three people I finally got a tech who could discuss the issue. He told me that I should wait 40 to 50 minutes as the install could take that long. He was wrong. It took one hour and forty-five minutes. I have been using the product for about 10 days and it recognizes most of my speech. I think that as I use it more the acceptance rate will increase. I do find the placement of the Dragon Bar annoying and when you change it to a floating bar it is even more annoying. The Learning screen pops up at times when I didnt ask for it. Depending on the browser you use there is an annoying message that pops up that I havent been able to disable. Checked the web and it seems to be an issue other have described, which has something to do with their add-in. All in all I would just say it is OK. I have seen other reviews that say the premium product is better but it also comes with a premium price.

Works great. Ive even used it to voice command Assassins Creed Syndicate. Placed on commands it works great to activate eagle vision, the rope launcher, or weapons etc. Just make sure you have plenty of RAM. Ive used this to dictate a book section that I needed, emails and other applications. Remember that the more you use it the better it gets. It does take a while to get used to the commands, but it recognized most words and is easy to correct using the mouse if needed. CONS: The microphone that comes with the product. You will get error messages that the sound is too low no matter what you do. I recommend the purchase of a USB microphone adapter. It will solve that issue and is cheaper than buying a usb headset. Will also allow you to listen to movies, games etc through the headphones which is great if you are a night owl like me and dont want to keep everyone else awake watching a movie at 3am. Would recommend for anyone who needs to do a lot of dictation such as converting hand written journals and letters to type etc.

After loading I get email telling me about new Home 14 or 15. I was ticked off. Started using Dragon when first came on market the newer versions don’t take down your words down any better, just seems to do more stuff that make program over bloated. But for you it might just be perfect.

Beware!! Nuance changed its software support policy with Dragon 13. Any program that is not explicitly supported by Dragon now has to be accessed through either DragonPad or the dictation box. This means that text within legacy programs, especially legacy email programs, can no longer be edited within that program. Instead you have to do all of your edits within DragonPad or the dictation box and then transfer the result into your legacy programs. This slows down the writing process at least 50% and interrupts your train of thought repeatedly. I reverted back to 12.51 without fighting for a refund. Dragon 13 may indeed have a 15% increase in recognition accuracy over version 12. But it also has at least a 15% decrease in usability, in my case considerably more than a 15% decrease. Having said that, if you know you will only be using programs that Nuance lists as fully supported, version 13 may work well for you. However, Nuance lists Mozilla Thunderbird as fully supported. A quick search of the net will reveal that there are many users that disagree and claim that Thunderbird is not fully supported in Dragon version 13 regardless of Nuances statements to the contrary. I STRONGLY advise against upgrading from Dragon version 12.51. Also, be sure to install Dragon from a disk copy rather than a downloaded copy. Regardless of the version there are many more installation problems with downloaded copies. Time for the scalpers to stockpile disk copies of 12.51. Get them while you can folks. Additionally, do NOT judge Dragons recognition success rate in any version using the microphone that is included with a disk copy of Dragon. To use this program effectively you MUST buy a separate good-quality USB microphone. I recommend the Logitech business line of headsets. At the time of this writing these Logitechs were designated with a B somewhere in the model number rather than an H. These may only be available on eBay at this point.

this is a good option if you have trouble typing . the out of the box accuracy is very good. On the negative side, I have outlook 2010 and windows 7 and the dragon software is totally messing up my outlook and visa versa about every other day. you have to shut down the system, disable add-ins, stop tasks that are frozen using the task manager and all sorts of magical thinking types of activity to get things back on track. then it happens again. Also, if you discover that you are having problems running programs that worked before after you installed Dragon, it is dragon . My advice. call the tech line at nuance early and often. They provide free support for the first couple of weeks, after that, you are on your own with a computer that is quite idiosyncratic. Like I said, good option if you cant type.

Ive been a happy user of earlier versions but after my laptop updated itself to windows 10, I found myself forced to buy version 13.0. Purported to be a great improvement, I was sold, but Ive not yet gotten it to work. After the install, I went through the microphone preparation and launched Word. The supplied headset was used. Not a single word was understood. Nothing. Frustrated, I eventually did a clean install only to get an error message that some training directory could not be renamed. Installed again without trouble. Still didnt understand a single word. Switched mics. Nope. Decided to use my wifes brand new i-7 laptop with 16GB. Installed fine but still didnt understand a single word. I reached out to tech support and got a couple suggestions. No good. Reached out again and got a suggestion to check the settings. After 3 laptops, 3 mics, and multiple attempts at setting default mic, sound card settings, hardware acceleration, etc, Ive given up. Fortunately, I found an old laptop and installed version 12.0 on it. It works flawlessly. My new laptop? I use Windows speech recognition. While not as robust as Dragon, it isnt half bad. My only regret is that I tried to upgrade to new and improved. Im beginning to think there might be an error on my disc. Nothing but trouble for me.

Im NOT at all sorry I bought this. The concept is exciting. I will say that theres a lot more to it than meets the eye, though. Let me explain: Im 80+, long since retired, with stiff fingers, and some other issues. My learning curve has slowed down, and there is much to learn to make Dragon fully functional. However, I have had it up an running for about two weeks or so, and Im impressed. Im using it as a kind of overlay, within which I call up my email systems, Amazon, MS Word, and verbally have them do something for me on screen. Currently, Im playing around with transcribing into a recorder [Olympus-722-PC], thence to the Dragon mic. Its still a little weird to see what I say pop up on screen, though. I would add the most of the really negative responses were earlier versions, and for inadequate computer systems I have a 2.1 micropressor, and I thhink it is a bit slow. I upped my RAM from 3 to 6, and am having no discernable problem with speed of processing. [Im slow, too

This program is not as easy as one would think. First thing you should do is buy a better set of headphones with the program. The pair that are included did pick up my voice well and caused me hours of frustration. It also does not work well if you are reading things like recipes. It clearly states that you should speak in a normal voice and at a normal pace, but reading a recipe doesnt always work that way. After about two hours of continually having to correct the word eggs I gave up. By the time I went back and corrected all the mistakes in the text it would have been faster to just type it myself. I would guess if I wanted to dictate letters or work on a term paper this would work fine, but its not what I purchased it for. What a pity.