Customer Reviews

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Standard [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is my review from version 8 preferred. The only differences between them at the link below.

http://www.dragonsys.com/naturallyspeaking/matrix/

If you're reading this, You are interested in buying Dragon NaturallySpeaking version eight. I highly recommend it! I had versions of Dragon software, dating back to 1995. Let me tell you the software was clunky back then, being a quadriplegic, I used it to type and move the mouse. But as soon as I got a touchpad mouse. I dropped Dragon altogether. Step forward almost 10 years, I decided that I needed to send longer e-mails than two sentences (because that's all I could type, it gets tiring using only one hand and one knuckle on that hand). So I took the plunge drop the cash on Dragon, and after three days am totally satisfied.

I added up and running and dictating in less than 20 minutes. The accuracy is amazing I'm actually typing this by voice. Since I can use a touchpad, I do not use the Dragon NaturallySpeaking for mouse commands. But for dictating it is perfect and quick!!!

I'm using it with a 2 GHz processor, and it is fine. Getting it set up was a little quirky with my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. I'm actually using it with a tabletop condenser microphone, not the headset that they came with it (which I found to be quite uncomfortable). Since I'm unable to get the headset on my head, but a tabletop mike is working perfect.

So I recommend this product anyone who has a disability that makes typing difficult. Anybody who doesn't want to learn to type (though I think he would be lazy, just suck it up and learn) will find this are useful, actually quicker than typing. Almost hundred words a minute! The software is leaps and bounds above previous versions go for it! Enjoy!

DNS version 8 is leaps and bounds better than earlier versions. I'm now achieving 98% accuracy - even the small words are properly recognized. Just be aware that you need a horse of a PC (1 GB RAM, a powerful processor, and a very good sound card) plus a good microphone (Sennheiser is best).

LET THE BUYER BEWARE -- This product requires "activation" from Nuance and they don't tell you this until AFTER you bought the product AND installed it. It won't work until you activate it and you get FIVE installs and then after that your CD to install is worthless. This means if you change laptops, replace a hard drive, need to reinstall because Windows got corrupted or the copy protection fails, etc. you are screwed. Nuance / ScanSoft also charges $20 per "support incident" and they are only open Monday through Friday. Email support is onerous too and subject to a charge FIRST before they will answer questions, although they will take all your information down first for marketing purposes. "Individual users can interact with Nuance Technical Support through a pay per-incident email process. Incidents can be reported by completing the Problem Report Form at a cost of $9.95 per incident." You also can't contact them until you take out an account, and that includes anyone -- and your activation code too. This is a company that does not want to talk to the customer.

This is the worst, most reprehensible kind of consumer abuse. Look elsewhere and support other companies. Don't buy Omnipage, Textbridge,, Via Voice or Dragon NaturallySpeaking because Nuance / Scansoft have begun to take out copy protection issues on the customer. Now I'm having an impossible time returning it even though I didn't activate the software. DO NOT but this software - don't say you weren't warned.

I'm going to give this review by using this product. This was very easy to set up and use. I use it for dictating long reports and letters. However, it is not the best software to use when typing a quick no. Yes there are mistakes of, but it does get better over time. One huge benefit is being able to type reports while holding my five month old baby. Normally, I type with one hand while holding her and that is very slow. I will agree with the other review worsened that the headset is very uncomfortable. My kids are amazed with this and they would like to start using this however we haven't begun at yet. As you read this review, you can see the typos. Normally I would go back and change these typos. I want to leave them for you to see. Using the software has made dictating reports way faster. It does learn technical jargon, pretty quickly. However it does have to be trained to recognize each individual voice, therefore my children could not use it without being trained. Was it worth the money, I think so time is money.

Out of the box the microphone isn't recognized although Windows simple recorder recognizes it. I tried contacting support but you have to fill out a huge form of info, and they also want about ten bucks to answer one email question, even after you've paid a ton of money for the program. Given that this is something that definitely doesn't work in the program, since windows see the mike, I can't see spending ten bucks to get an answer that will probably not be the answer so I'll have to spend another ten bucks to clarify things.

I really think first time users with an installation problem should have Some sort of one-time free tech support. These guys are too greedy, but I found the same problem with other Scansoft products.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 is not perfect, but I believe it is as close as possible with today's technology. In fact, upgrading your hardware may be the best way to improve the performance. It happily eats up all the processing power I throw at it, and then some. But the result is better dictation that some office workers could have taken. It misunderstands from time to time, but at least it can spell even long and unusual words.

The included headset is of poor quality and should be replaced as soon as possible. This has been the case all the way from version 5 when I first bought it. I have no idea why they would ruin their own reputation to pinch a few pennies like that. It would have been wiser to ship it without hardware at all: This is really a software product, after all. Personally I use a USB headset from Plantronics with very good results. It also works well with a common vocal performance microphone. Coincidentally it will also understand you if you sing...

For the last several months I have been transcribing hundreds of pages of handwritten journal entries into a word processor. I was getting really tired of typing and decided to see if dictation software would make the job easier. I researched the different software products available and settled upon Dragon Naturally Speaking (Standard Edition). Initially, the program made a lot of dictation mistakes, so I was rapidly becoming frustrated and skeptical of its usefulness. But I persevered for 2 or 3 hours and then ran Dragon's Acoustic Optimizer. After running the optimizer I found the accuracy improved dramatically. In fact, the improvement was so dramatic that I decided to keep the product. Now I'm glad that I did. It's amazing how well this product works (once its trained). I'm a pretty fast typist and have found that I can now dictate faster than I can type, with about 95 to 98% dictation accuracy. My only gripe (which is the reason I didn't give it 5 stars) was it took several hours of "training" Dragon before its accuracy was acceptable. But now that it's "trained", I don't think I would ever go back to typing.

I recently bought this having owned earlier versions.
I have no idea why the one reviewer is having so much trouble because it works flawlessly.
I installed it on a non-high end machine. 2.3 GHz, 256meg memory with the medium model and got great accuracy after minimum training. Correcting errors takes only a couple of seconds.
I suggest getting a better microphone than comes with it. My previous experience with the other versions showed that a premium microphone made a huge difference.
Bottom line: you do NOT need a 3.2 GHz 1 Gig memory machine for this. A lower end machine works just fine.

I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking several years ago, then went to IBM ViaVoice, then to Microsoft's own internal dictation. Recently, after a crash, I found that I couldn't get Microsoft dictation running again. So I shelled out the bucks and got Dragon in its latest version. While not absolutely perfect and without fault, (I am only starting to use it again.) I found it to be a significant improvement over the old version I remember.

I do have a tip for those who have installation problems. Some people, including myself, have gotten an error message upon starting the program for the first time. This error message says sapidll.dll has failed to register, and the program should be reinstalled. Reinstallation does you no good. After searching for a while through technical support, I found the solution. There is a file that you need to download and run.

(...) Once I did this, I found the program started and ran normally.

It's just me, but I can't imagine doing an e-mail or other document of any length, whatever while typing. I really can't stand typing. I have found the Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 8 is the best program I've used to this date. And I couldn't have written this review, among other things, without it.

This program is terrific. One thing to remember is that you need a good microphone, a good sound card and no outside noise. The first time I used it, it performed just as stated. I could open programs right away and it took me no time to start dictating to MS Word, my e-mail and other word processors. At my age (76) I could not remember all commands and had to refer to the quick start guide that came with the program. I hope this helps someone who is handicapped and can not use a keyboard as others do.