Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred [OLD VERSION]

I tried so hard to make this product work. I bought soundcards and headphones galore. I fiddled with the settings and training for hours. The frustrating thing is that it almost works. Sometimes, it can reasonably do the job. The real problem is that the program is so full of glitches and bugs, that what seems like a pretty good data engine is rendered largely useless. Nuance is of absolutely no help. They are the worst kind of software company. They seemingly spend all of their resources on hawking the product, endlessly hammering you for paid upgrades, and virtually nothing on support. Actually less than nothing, as they make you pay for everything, even for just simply calling them.

The main glitches and bugs, for me anyway, revolved around using the program with even the most basic applications such as Word. It would usually work for a while, and then start having an increasing series of problems integrating with the Word document, finally becoming virtually useless. Any time saved by dictating is spent by proofing, fixing problems, fiddling with the program, etc.

If one exclusively uses the Dragon Dictation Box, and then transfers the dictation into whatever your document is (an inexplicably tedious process) it's better.

My advice is, forget about this program if you are capable of typing faster than 20 words per minute.

Also, I would bet serious money that many of the glowing reviews here are plants.

I've been using Dragon Naturallyspeaking (Ver. 9.5)for over a month now to transcribe a type-written memoir with many spelling and grammar errors for possible publication. I started the process by scanning the pages and running them through an Optical Character Recognition program, but this program did not correct the errors (we all know the limitations of Spell-checkers). Then I decided to try Voice Recognition, and while there were errors (even after significant training of the program), they were much more manageable than trying to re-type the entire book. One of the major problems I had was the difference between "in" and "and", which may be my speech, but I still haven't been successful at correcting this so far. On the other side of the coin, I was fequently amazed at how often the program ran into fairly esoteric words (especially odd names) and got them correct! I feel it was certainly worth the money and time spent (I am not a touch-typist), as I was able to correct grammar errors as I spoke, and otherwise edit on the fly (for clarity, as an example). Plus, I've spent a little time having fun with having the program actually run the computer, not just transcribe dictation. When I've finished the current project I intend to develop this further - maybe someday I'll be able to stop using the keyboard and mouse almost entirely!

A complete waste of both disk space and money. If you purchase this product, buy a gun with one bullet and shoot yourself. You'll thank me later!

Repeated efforts to dictate are an agonizing exercise in futility.

Dictating to a monkey on meth would produce better results. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND RUN FAR, VERY FAR, AWAY!

I go all the way back when Dragon Dictate was a research project, saw the engineers demo it at Rehab Institute of Michigan before it was ever on the market (was then a tool for people with paralysis.) I've been through version 4 on, now on 9, won't be getting 10. My version of 9 needed an update patch, it worked fine on first 2 installations, but never after that. I was told that after 2 installations, it won't allow another installation and registration, won't allow another service pack update, to prevent piracy of a copy. I complained to a sales rep who contacted me (trying to sell me V9, which I already had) that it should not require my credit card number just to contact tech support, the system should allow any number of installs as computers in such settings as mine (Univ of Florida Health Sci Center) change very often, etc. He said he'd call me back with answers but never did. I've presented to faculty groups here at UF on DNS and helped sell many copies of Preferred over the years, but no more. I suspect the purchase of the original company by Nuance has killed customer service. When DNS works, it works pretty well. If you have problems, you're on your own. And you better never move it after the first 2 computers you install it on, you could hit a wall after number 2. Thought you owned it? You pay to rent it.

NO ONE TOLD ME THAT THE NEW PREFERRED VERSION 10 WAS ABOUT TO COME OUT AND THAT LOCAL STORES WOULD OFFER THE PREFERRED VERSION 9 FOR $99.00!!! I PAID MUCH MORE THAN THAT!
BY THE TIME I FOUND OUT, I ALREADY OPENED THE BOX AND INSTALLED IN MY COMPUTER. I AM STILL TEACHING IT HOW TO UNDERSTAND MY SIMPLE LANGUAGE WITH ONLY A MARYLAND ACCENT!
I PAID TOO DARN MUCH!!!!!