drobvious's Full Review: Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 7 Full V...
After reading the majority of the views here on the site, I was pretty reluctant to put the program on my machine. However, I have had a very busy summer businesswise. My business is on the Web, and I get a lot of e-mails asking questions. These questions can't be answered easily- they take lengthy answers. Now here I am sitting here at my desk with one million things to do, and I have people e-mailing me constantly for answers. I have to take care of them, because they're potential customers. However, the length of time to give the answers was inundating. So I figured I'd give this program a try and see if it will help me to dictate letters...and faster.
I loaded the program onto my computer and had no problems whatsoever. After launching the program, it launches the tutorial for you to learn about the program. As I am playing with the tutorial I'm amazed at the things that this program can do. In the tutorial, it offers you to actually try to the things it's showing you to do. For example you can select and delete and move anywhere you want within a document and make changes either manually or the computer offers you options to do it for you. I was absolutely amazed at the things that could do. I was speaking commands and it was executing them. Even though I hadn't really done any voice training yet.
After the installation of the program and completing the tutorial, I went to go improve the vocal accuracy. Basically, it gives you words to read, and you read them, and it starts learning your voice inflections. The way you say things, twangs that sort of thing. They have several options available ranging from very easy reading to very difficult reading. I started with the easy reading. Then I went on to play with their DragonPad, which is basically your WordPad but, for the Dragon software. It went very well however, there were several inaccuracies, but that's to be expected.
Later on that night I went and tried be harder voice accuracies. So far this is the only negative thing I can say about the program. However, it is a necessary situation. In order to increase your accuracy, I highly suggest that you continue to read what is on the screen and continue to increase the accuracy of the program. I selected a very hard reading accuracy practice, and I practically had to read a whole book. It must've taken me, 45 minutes to finish. But after it was completed, I couldn't believe how accurate, this program was. I cannot emphasize how important it is to increase the accuracy, if you really want to use this program. If you are buying this program just for fun- and it is fun- I am not sure you'll really like it. However, if you need for something to increase productivity, this is an amazing program.
Now, I have a 1.3GHz computer with 512 meg of RAM, and I have a professional microphone. This may help in some way, but I'm sure people have faster computers than I do and are using this to greater accuracy. I have heard that the microphone makes a huge difference in the accuracy of the words. Since I have been involved in the music field, I have some very high end and mics. Currently I'm using a Shure SM 58, which runs about $150. Now there are microphones out there that are $13,000 and there are microphones out there that are seven dollars. My suggestion would be to pick something in between, and preferably on the lower end of the scale. If you choose a good microphone, it will make things a lot easier. Now I'm not saying you have to spend $150, but if you choose a higher-end mic I am sure the accuracy will be much better. It is also important to listen back to what you said... The program offers you that option, if it sounds fuzzy or like it's too loud or too messed up than that could be most of your problem, if in fact, you are having problems with this program. The program has several options for optimizing your vocal accuracies. I highly suggest using them.
The negative reviews on the site has stated that the program messes up Internet Explorer or gives them problems and so far I have had no problems whatsoever. I have used my e-mail and already dictated 10 e-mail answers to people. It has worked like a dream. The time it would have had taken me to type all this in would've been maybe 40 minutes, where as now I can say it in five to 10 minutes. And being from near Chicago, I speak relatively fast and it's been able to keep up with me and understand what I'm saying with very, very few inaccuracies.
Now, granted, I just started using the program. So I haven't encountered too many problems. I do not work for this company who made the program, so don't accuse me of that. I have seen the negative reviews on here, and I believe you that they are bad. I just am not having a bad situation. I have never had to call customer service, although no customer service is ever any good, and I believe it would be the same with this company's customer support.
So to conclude this review. I think this program is absolutely amazing. It is one of the few programs out there that is actually excited me about the computer again. Now granted, I have had no problems with it. That is not to say, you won't. Also, this is only my first 24 hours of using it. So trouble may come in the future. I will update this review, if anything bad happens. The only negative thing I would have the say about it is that it takes a good hour of overall vocal training to increase the accuracy of the program. But for me, that's a necessary evil. And I completely understand why it would take that long.
I would absolutely highly recommend this program to anyone who types a lot or dictates a lot or talks a lot and needs that transcribed. This is one of the best programs out there that I've ever seen that does that. I have not tried any other voice programs, but I have heard about this one quite a bit, and I am very glad I purchased it. For the right person this program could be a savior.
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