NUANCE Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 11

Pros: Works extremely well with a voice recorder. I have tried many versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking, version 11 is the first one that really works well for me. It works so well that I hardly have to correct the dictation results.

Cons: I use Dragon Naturally Speaking only to transcribe dictation. The program defaults to voice-based computer control, which just gets in the way. I wish the program made it easier to remove the interactive features: computer control, Microsoft Office integration, Web browser integration. Sometimes the dictation goes horribly wrong: too much background noise, sometimes I was too nervous and did not speak correctly, perhaps I was not organized enough. When this happens, Dragon Naturally Speaking produces gibberish - and learns from that! It would be helpful if the program had the option of discarding any learning from the session. Instead, I discard my profile and build a new one. Only runs on Microsoft Windows. I write using LaTeX (wonderful equations, good graphics, excellent tables), and would just as soon use UNIX/Linux.

Overall Review: Use a high-quality digital voice recorder, it makes a real difference. I'm using an Olympus LS-7. Olympus makes lower-cost units that are just as good for dictation. Writing by dictating into a recorder requires organization and practice, but for me it works extremely well. Not only does voice dictation save time, the resulting documents are far better than if typed on a computer. Enunciate each word clearly and separately. Use a very fast computer. I have to use my notebook computer, because I transcribe while traveling. Dragon Naturally Speaking runs very slowly. This does not matter if I just put the machine aside and have it transcribe, but is very irritating if I use DragonPad to correct the results. I no longer bother to correct the results in DragonPad, instead I catch the errors while revising the document.

Pros: Does everything as advertised after training Will become what did I do without this very soon

Cons: an on-board sound card will not be good enough.

Overall Review: If you are not good with punctuation like Victor Borge then you will also need whitesmoke. Total is now dragon 150.00 sound card 50.00 whitesmoke 130.00 But this combination absolutely ROCKS! The total combination will turn out high level thesis very quickly, only limited by content not production time, punction, or spelling.

Pros: so convienient powerful

Cons: a little bit expensive

Pros: Does well at turning text to speech.

Cons: Terrible at computer conflicts, poor customer support.

Overall Review: This software has some serious issues. Yes, when it is working, it is pretty accurate at turning text to speech. However, over time, the program causes serious problems with computers and it becomes unstable. I keep buying the new versions (I think I have had every one since version 8, meaning over $500) of the software in hopes of improvement, but the program continues to be very buggy. It consumes large amounts of system resources and frequently causes system errors. I have had to develop "tricks" to even use the software. You can only use it for a certain length of time before closing it and restarting it, usually about 20-30 minutes. After that, the software starts to get unstable, slowing the system down and frequently stalling. It will eventually give stall and give a message such as "attempting to recover from low system resources". Once it starts to do this, it will soon completely crash.

Pros: I was suffering from major keyboard fatigue from the 3 to 4 hours of time I spend writing emails a day. It is so nice to let my fingers relax while typing emails and filling in spreadsheets. I learned all the basics and the program works quite well to transcribe my words and allow me to punctuate.

Cons: The auto punctuation doesn't really work very well. I find it is faster to just do it by hand and saying the punctuation. The worst is the system conflicts with other software. It seems to have completely messed up my Firefox, and it makes your Windows calculator unusable. When Dragon is on, the calculator function keys, such as multiply or divide, on my keypad just don't work. Turn off Dragon. It works fine turn on Dragon doesn't work.

Overall Review: I had waited to purchase the software for several years, expecting that it would be improved to the point where it was fully usable without a lot of frustration. Sadly, the software is not there. I'm going to check in with their customer support, but don't have high hopes.

Pros: OK if you want old version

Cons: NaturallySpeaking version 12 will begin shippping on August 3, 2012 (download) and a week or so later for the boxed version.

Pros: seems to work well

Cons: I feel I must return the software because 2 days after it was sold to me, they upped the version to 12 that included significant improvements. No discount for me - other than the standard upgrade cost (which is way too much) - for a 2 day old product. They did not indicate that I would be receiving an out of date product. Would not buy again for this reason.