Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 8

However, after doing some research I decided I would give voice recognition software a try. Having never used it before I was somewhat dubious as to how well it would work, after all voice recognition software doesn't have a track record as being particularly accurate or user-friendly, does it?

I went out and got myself a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking 8 after reading lots of positive user reviews on Amazon and another website, and I can safely say the results have been nothing short of amazing.

The program is very easy to use and integrate with just about every application you can think of, whether it be e-mail, instant messenger, forums, or of course good old Microsoft Word. The product claims an accuracy rate of 95% straight out of the box, however, if like me you don't speak the Queen's English and happen to have a slight northern accent then you can expect around 80% to start with.

However, the true magic of this program is in the way it learns. If the program makes a mistake, you simply say aloud: “spell that” and the program analyses the last sentence or word spoken. You can then correct the spelling or tailor the sentence to what you intended, and also click the “train” button to repeat the sentence aloud and thus tell the program to recognise that word or sentence the next time you say it. Although it can be a little bit stop and start at first, gradually as you use the program and training more often, the less you need to correct it.

Another feature of the software is the ability to control computer functions using your voice, from opening folders to copying and pasting or simply accessing the start menu or opening and closing your programs, it allows a great deal of flexibility. Not the be all and end all, but certainly useful.

All in all, I am terribly happy with this product, and it is doing exactly what it says on the tin. I now no longer need to type away at the keyboard at home and my wrists are going to thank me for it!

I recommend it to anyone suffering from RSI or any computer-related injury, who finds typing painful or uncomfortable. It is now a permanent fixture on my hard drive... until the next version that is.

Oh, and did I mention that I used it to make this review?

4.5/5.

In all I can say the software more than adequately does the job, hence I gave it five stars, but (and I can't stress this enough), make sure you have sufficient RAM in order to deal with the program. My computer (1.8 GHz, 256 MB of RAM) runs a little too slowly at present, although I am buying 256 MB of RAM tomorrow to try to remedy the situation. A second issue, which comes to mind is that you do, and will, needed quite a bit of patience in order to train the software. It works fairly well out of the box (well above 90% accurate), but in order to perfect it, it will take a while (five hours or so). My only gripe is that it is fiddly to use it to edit and correct text, but to be honest, that may, again, be my lack of familiarity rather than the software itself.

That aside, the program does an outstanding job in regards to all its claims. In my situation, part-time legal adviser, part-time Master's student, it is doubtlessly going to prove invaluable.

To all and anybody with enough RAM in your computer, I highly recommend this program.

Just for the record, I own a preferred version, as I hope to use the mobile dictation option in the near future. I will write up another review when I've tried it as I can't find anything on the Internet to help me decide whether it works or not. I will probably be using the Sony M.S525, although I might use one of the SX models-if you know which are good please send me an e-mail. Many thanks in advance.

....and yes I only used the software to write this review (and I even posted this article using it, so maybe I'm getting the hang of it!)

PostScript: I have left is the errors where they happened so they you may have an idea about the accuracy of the software, pretty much straight out of the box (I've been playing with it for an hour or so).