g_force_alt's Full Review: Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 7 Full V...
I have been a Dragon user for approximately six months now, and I feel I can authoritatively say that the program works despite the negative reviews below.
I am an attorney and writing is my life. A large portion of my day is spent dictating, so my Dragon gets lots of use. In fact, I am dictating this review. I have found that the recognition and speed (on a mobile P3 1.1MHz notebook w/384MB RAM and Win2000 5.X) is more than acceptable. Results, however, may vary to a large degree based on how much you put into using the software.
The installation went smoothly. After installing the software on the included CD ROM, I visited the Dragon web site and downloaded and installed the latest service patch. Thereafter, I have had no problems either with Dragon or with other software running on my system.
After training Dragon according to the installation prompts, and without reading the remainder of the included instruction book, I was able to begin dictating. The accuracy at this point was unacceptable, but in the ballpark. I was getting approximately one to two errors per line dictated.
After reading the instructions, I found there were several adjustments I could make to improve the accuracy. The instructions suggested I let Dragon "read" several of my documents to learn my vocabulary and adjust an accuracy versus speed slider in the options menu in favor of greater accuracy and reduced speed. After making these adjustments, my accuracy improved to approximately one error every three to four lines dictated.
Now, after having used the system for six months, corrected its errors for six months (it learns from the errors that you correct), having learned to better enunciate my words, and having learned Dragon's idiosyncrasies, and am getting approximately two to three errors per 10-15 lines (i.e. two to three errors per paragraph). I get the best accuracy when using Dragon's word processor.
Two to three errors per paragraph may seem like a lot, however, the errors are so easily corrected that it is not an issue. The errors are corrected by right clicking the error and selecting the proper word from among Dragon's guesses. Occasionally you may have to type the word in by hand if Dragon's guesses are way off. Therefore, for example, after dictating a two-page document, it takes just a few minutes to correct Dragon's errors.
One caveat to this is that when the subject matter of the dictation is difficult, causing me to pause to think about the wording, the accuracy goes way down. This is because Dragon uses the context of your speech to interpret what you are saying. Therefore, when you speak in continuous long phrases, the accuracy is very high. If you speak in short two or three word phrases the accuracy drops way off (in my experience, one errors every other two to three word phrase).
All in all, I am pleased with the performance of Dragon. What I mean the title by "garbage in garbage out" is that if you do not read the instructions and take the time to understand how Dragon operates, you will not have good results. Within an hour after installing software it was working well enough that it was still useful, but not an acceptable alternative for my secretary. The things I did to improve my accuracy were not time-consuming, but if not done (for example, if I had not allotted an hour one evening to read the Dragon manual in lieu of my normal bedtime reading) I do not believe my results would be acceptable.
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