Dragon Naturally Speaking Home 11, English

I'm writing this review, ours should set the computer and NaturallySpeaking 11 home are writing this review as I dictate. Please note I'll be doing no editing whatsoever. So if there any misspellings or miss words or whatever, it's either the software or I can't talk correctly. I'm guessing it's software since I have not been drinking, suffered any head trauma recently, or taken any hallucinogenic. So let's begin.

So what I'm going to do in this test is simply say a few phrases and words that are well-known and you can judge for yourself accuracy.

Mary had a Little Lamb whose fleece was white as snow and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.
I'm mad as hell when I couldn't take it anymore.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Here's looking at you kid.
Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are rated equal yada yada yada.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop? The world may never know.
Should a taken a left at Albuquerque.
Once upon a time there through the pigs each one had a house. One pig had a house of straw, another had a house made of sticks, and the third had a house made of bricks.

As suggested, words with same sound different meaning:

(Typed by hand) To, too, and two.

Voice:
I want to go to the store.
Are you going to the store to?
Are the two of you going Russian Mark?( program took ? As Russian Mark)

(Typed by hand) There, Their

voice:
their houses over there.
There's no business like show business.
Their car, their house, there you are.

(Typed by hand) Write, right.

voice:
I'm going to write a letter details of your 150 are right or wrong.
Go three blocks down then turn right.
I'm looking for the right words to write.
looks like the programs pretty good getting it right when it writes.
I write about the left.
How do you know when you're right, we come from the left to right about the book he read.( catch you on that one)

Thing seems a pretty good about context. I've tried pretty hard trip it up. I'm sure there are those were more clever than me could do a better job though.

(Typed by hand) Hour, our

He spent hours in our house.
We spent hours on our house.( should have been our)
looking for hours at our photos.
Yours mine and ours.

The biggest words I can think of:
subdural hematoma.
Dialectical materialism.
ribonucleic acid
Czechoslovakia
paranormal
psychoanalysis
here he Winkle - Perry Winkle -. Winkle
mitochondrial
dodecahedron
spontaneous human combustion
Freudian slip
hallelujah
aluminum
character
Australia
February
Presbyterian
Academy
xylophone
sink Russell
wildebeest

In general, the program does seem to do pretty good job. The hardest part that I had is learning to speak rather than type. Learning to say the punctuation rather than press it with my fingers. And you really need to look at what's being written in a field proofread closer than normal. That should say proofread closer than normal. For me what seems to be the bind is that I'm talking and then watching it type in reading what types and then talking the next sentence. So I'm not hundred percent just speaking it proofreading as I speak. So the difficult transition to go from typing with my fingers to diving with the program.
But I have to say the number one advantage is that I don't have to think about words like to say but taking consideration can I spell that correctly and simply to say him. So from my perspective of being a very good speller I can express myself much broader and much more in depth than I would have naturally by simply typing them pretty much sticking with the words I knew how to type or spell.
So in general I feel that Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 11 is a very good product and was a very good decision to buy and would recommend

update:
after using the program for about a week or more, I and the program seem to be working together much better now. I'm not sure if it's that the program has learned my speech or that my speech is learned program. But after looking and reading over what I wrote at first, I can see a significant improvement in my words and with the program's writing. All in all I have to say this program pretty much does what it says it is ( does). I would only think that over time I'll get more use to using the program and the program will get more use to how I speak.

(This whole review is done with Dragon I will not edit it at all)

As a quadriplegic standup comedian (okay I'm the cant stand up comic) I spent a lot of time doing voice dictation and I have been using Dragon naturally speaking since 1995 and I must say it is truly an amazing product. One thing you need to think about when you get into voice dictation is speaking in word clumps. You have to think about what you want to have Dragon type for you then you have to say those sentences in chunks (I hope that makes sense) most people who complain about voice dictation don't take the time to realize this.

in the following example I did edit the text when errors were made for continuity of thought.
[Example]
if I wanted to say "Is that the wheelchair that goes upstairs?" "No it is not but it goes downstairs one time really fast!"
The way I attacked this sentence was "Is that the wheelchair -pause- that goes upstairs question mark -pause- no it is not -pause- but it goes downstairs -pause- one time really fast exclamation point

Here is another one "what is the worst thing that a handicapped person can hear? Is it a doctor telling you you'll never walk again? Or someone saying you can't go with us because you are disabled? No the worst thing we can hear is someone in a crowd yell "run for your lives" at that point I know I am boned.

Here is how I approached saying that joke out loud I will put in a - where I pause
what is the worst thing-that a handicapped person-can hear question mark - is it a doctor-telling you-you'll never walk again question mark - or someone saying-you can't go with us-because you are disabled-question mark - no-the worst thing that we can hear-is someone in a crowd-yell-open quote- run for your lives-end quote- at that point-I know I'm boned period
[end example]

I hope that helps you again understanding how to speak in clumps of words remember to keep your word count between pauses at about 7 to 10. If you do this you will be successful in using voice dictation. If you put a microphone near your mouth and learned to speak in word clumps I say you will have 99% accuracy every time.

DO ALL THE TRAINING Is all I have to say! Sorry for yelling out better now. But really one thing I found super helpful in doing voice dictation is doing all of the training that you can. While you might not feel like reading a bunch of chapters from random books it really helps and should be done. I make a rule to do all the training the program provides so that it gets used my voice.

Now the microphone that comes with Dragon is decent and will get you almost 99% accuracy. Right now I'm using a tabletop microphone I'm sitting about 6 inches away from the microphone and still getting perfect accuracy! Truly amazing how far it's come in 15 years.

what I appreciate also about Dragon is its low resource usage. I mean as I use Dragon through the years it would talk a lot of resources i.e. CPU power and RAM space but now on even a low-cost computer will be fully capable of running this powerful program. I would happily recommend at least 2 GB of RAM though.

Till I Collapse by Eminem lyrics,this is unedited straight dictation. First line is dictation - (Second is the true verse to compare.)
--------------------
As soon as the verse starts I eat it at MC's heart - (Soon as a verse starts I eat it at MC's heart) * ERROR
what's he thinking? How not to go against me? Smart. - (what is he thinking? How not to go against me? Smart.) * PERFECT
And it's absurd how people hang on every word - (And its absurd how people hang on every word.) * PERFECT
I'll probably never get the props I feel I ever deserve - (I'll probably never get the props I feel I ever deserve) * PERFECT
but I'll never be served my spot is forever reserved - (But I'll never be served my spot is forever reserved) * PERFECT
if I ever leave Earth that would be the death of me first. - (If I ever leave earth that would be the death of me first.) * PERFECT
Visit my heart of hearts I know nothing could ever be worse. - (Cause in my heart of hearts I know nothing could ever be worse.) * ERROR
That's why I'm clever when I put together every verse - (That's why I'm clever when I put together every verse) * PERFECT
my thoughts are sporadic, I act like I'm inadequate - (My thoughts are sporadic, I act like I'm an addict) * ERROR
I rap like I'm addicted to smack like I'm Kim Mathers. - (I rap like I'm addicted to smack like I'm Kim Mathers.) * ERROR
the fact is I would rather sit back and bomb some rappers. - (The fact is I would rather sit back and bomb some rappers.) * PERFECT
So this is like a full-blown attack I'm launching Them - (So this is like a full blown attack I'm launching at them) * ERROR
the track is on some battling raps who wants some static - (The track is on some battling raps who want some static) * PERFECT
because I don't really think that the fact that I'm slim matters - (Cause I don't really think that the fact that I'm Slim matters) * ERROR
a plaque of platinum status is wack if I'm not the baddest. - (A plaque of platinum status is whack if I'm not the baddest.) * ERROR
--------------------

I would say that there were a few errors in that resuscitation of that rap but not bad, and good enough that it would save me about 30 minutes to type that okay maybe 15 but I do type one key at a time.

ONE BONUS OF VOICE DICTATION TO NOTE:
Is that voice dictation sometimes makes mistakes but those mistakes can really be great. So sometimes voice dictation will misunderstand what you say what the end result is better than or uses different words then you are going to ever use. For example the other day I went to use "definitely demonstrates" and Dragon burped out "deftly demonstrates" and in the context it's error was a better fit is so bonus when that happens! Keep that in mind voice dictation for the win!

So all in all I recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking to anyone with a disability for sure even if you are dyslexic Dragon NaturallySpeaking can really help you I think you'll find that this program will free you from the keyboard when it comes to entering tax into e-mails or documents web forums and the like.

I am Chuck Bittner of AskACapper dot com and I approve this message LOL!

Got it on Monday and sent it back to Amazon on Friday. I was using Windows 7 Speech Recognition with surprisingly good results. After hearing all the ads for Dragon, I decided to give it a try to see if its accuracy was better than Windows. It was, except Dragon's speech recognition engine is 20 times slower than Windows. While I could speak naturally with Windows, Dragon required me to stop at the end of each sentence and wait a minute or two for it to figure out what I was saying. Dragon slowly populated one phrase at a time. The product is completely unusable. I recommend you use the built-in speech recognition of Windows 7, which is far better than Dragon and it's free!

BTW - this review was written using Windows 7 Speech Recognition. If I used Dragon, I would still be waiting.

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