Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 (Standard Edition) (PC)

Perhaps the best way of reviewing this software is by reading a text and not correcting it so that you can see how many errors Dragon naturally speaking makes.

Here is an extract taken from The Reason Why, by Cecil Woodham-Smith:

Before The Light Brigade had advanced 50 yards the Russian guns crashed out, and great clouds of smoke rose at the end of the valley. A moment later an extraordinary and inexplicable incident took place. The advance was proceeding at a steady trot when suddenly Nolan, riding beside his friend Captain Maurice in the first line, urged on his horse and galloped diagonally across the front.

Galloping madly a head and to the right, he crossed in front of Lord Cardigan -- an unprecedented breach of military etiquette -- and, turning in his saddle, shouted and waved his sword as if he would address The Brigade. Had he suddenly realised that his interpretation of the order had been wrong, and that in his impetuosity he had directed the Light Brigade to certain death? No one will ever know, because at that moment a Russian shell pressed on the right of Lord Cardigan, and a fragment tour at its way into Nolan's breast, exposing his heart.

As you can see, there are some errors, but once you have learnt to use the software correction is quite an easy process.I still use the keyboard, but much less than I used to.

I installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 on a Dell laptop with one Gb of RAM. the only technical problem that persists is that the software does not like to hibernate. I suspect that this is because the user files must be saved before shutting down the programme.

Having had an older version of NaturallySpeaking (7) I was aware of the versatility of this software. Unfortunately my old laptop went to the wall and when it my voice recognition software.

I returned to banging away on the keyboard which is frustrating and not very natural for me.

Once installed I was a bit disappointed to have to repeat the same training that I did on my old software, however 10 minutes later and it's all working.

And very impressed with the accuracy of version 9, the older versions required quite a lot of correcting and customising of the dictionary. In the hour since I've been using the new software I have hardly had to correct anything and I know that it is already adjusting itself to the kind of words I use.

Whatever anybody says about this software, it is simply the only voice recognition software (outside NASA) that actually does what it is supposed to do. For anybody who finds general typing a tedious process this programme is likely to enhance your ability and your motivation to put things down on paper.

I bought Dragon naturally speaking standard version 9 because I discovered that IBM ViaVoice millennium could not be made to work with Microsoft windows Vista.
Perhaps I should first say what my expectations are from a voice recognition package.
I do not expect the software to compensate for my disabilities, much as I sympathise with people who have disabilities. I do not expect the programme to cope with a pronounced regional accent.
Further unlike a lot of people I do not expect to be able to operate the controls of the computer, that is to say menu boxes and cursor movements by using voice commands.
Whilst that sort of thing may look good on Star Trek I have no use for it personally.
What I want is for the computer to write down what I've said in a simple text window.
If it can do that with a very small error rate then I am extremely happy. I am willing to input a mixture of keystrokes mouse movements and voice dictation provided the end result is accurate transcription of my dictation. ( I am running a Core 2 Duo E6320 with 2Gb memory and a very quiet machine - no fan on the PSU or CPU cooler.)
I have found that Dragon naturally speaking is very good at writing down what I have said with a very low error rate using the microphone provided. (Some people have complained that this piece of equipment is unduly cheap, but I have found it quite adequate.)
I particularly like the use of the plus key on the numeric keyboard to turn the microphone on and off, and the ability to choose between four modes of data entry.
These are normal mode, dictation mode (in which everything one says is interpreted as dictation and any words which happened to coincide with commands are simply written down), numeric mode (in which the computer is listening purely for the numerals zero to nine and the symbols point and comma ) and spelling mode in which the computer simply listens for letters of the alphabet.
The use of the appropriate mode results in a much higher accuracy of transcription in return for a small input of keystrokes. I have always considered that voice-activated software when it works with a reasonable degree of accuracy is something close to magic and this product lived up to my expectations. All in all I am very pleased with Dragon naturally speaking nine Standard Edition -- 1 of my better decisions.

PostScript
I should perhaps add that you need to do some further training after the script that Nuance prescribe. I suggest another 5000 words from some
source you are familiar with, before you need to do anything important. The program gradually acclimatises to your voice. Also outside noise like a motorbike passing can upset it. A shortcoming is that you cannot tell Nuance where it should put the backup. Backup needs to go somewhere safe on external medium, and there should be an option to restore from externally stored backup - there isn't. I personally don't use any formatting commands during dictation,preferring to do this manually afterwards. I try to reduce the number of things the program has to to the one essential and hope that it will do this well. Finally, it will misunderstand you just as easily if you talk too slowly as it does if you talk too quickly - this can be frustrating - use the plus key and think out what you want to say then switch back in an dictate calmly.