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A BIG THANKS to Marina of OneNetworkDirect (sorry for the incorrect name in the videos) and Digital River for providing the product for this review and allowing me the opportunity to try it out and share my experience of this amazing program with the Palm Discovery readers and viewers! Please consider purchasing the product via my affiliate links provided at the top and bottom of the review postings and help keep Palm Discovery running! Thanks for your continued support!

Please note that this review is based on the older Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred version and not the recently released version 10. Apparently, version 10 is 99.3% accurate- and 20% more accurate than version 9 if that is even possible!

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With the amount of work nowadays related to computers and the keyboard, and the time spent working there, typing it all out, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to lessen the workload? Sure, many executives have the privilege and money to be able to afford a personal secretary to type it all out for them, but what about the regular guy like you and me? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to dictate your reports to a computer and have it typed up for you? Are you one of those people who always have problems typing on the keyboard?

Well here’s the solution: Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software

Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking is quite an interesting software that enables you to tell the computer whatever it is that you wish to do, whether it be surfing the Internet, composing and writing a text document, or any of the many applications it can support. This is one software that can enable you to sit at your desk and simply let the computer do all the work. And this is exactly what I’m doing right now on this review. Obviously with some editions, as expected, since no software is 100% accurate, I am able to write this review without even typing on the keyboard. Speech recognition software certainly has come a long way!

This type of speech to text software would likely be most useful for those who are not very proficient in typing or those with difficulty using the keyboard. It could also be useful for those who are visually challenged or may benefit without requiring to use the keyboard. Since most of us are probably better at saying whatever we are thinking rather than typing it all out, this software could be the solution.

At first, I thought that it would be so easy to be able to use this speech to text program since it is expected to type out everything that you say. But unfortunately I found out that it takes a bit of practice to be able to dictate properly so that the computer can accurately type out what you said. Unlike a person who can determine what was meant based on the topic or content or other ways, the computer does not assume anything. So, that means you have to speak clearly and concisely, without slurring your words, omitting parts of it, or even mumbling them out. The main learning curve for me with respect to this speech recognition program is that I have to think about all the punctuation marks that I need to insert in each sentence and say them out loud. Without a doubt, this takes some practice. So, this means that you have to carefully think about your sentences before you say it. And that could be a good thing or bad thing depending on how you look at it. For me, that meant taking up an extra bit of time to think carefully in my head before saying it.

As mentioned before, no software is 100% accurate. But, Dragon Naturally Speaking is quite accurate. I have previously tried using the Microsoft voice and speech recognition software that comes with Windows XP and although it does work, to a certain degree, it was not that accurate. After spending hours training the software with the Microsoft voice and speech recognition, I was still finding that a lot of the words I dictated were incorrect. Although Dragon Naturally Speaking still requires some editing and correction, much less correction was needed to be done. But that isn’t all that this software is capable of doing. There is so much more.

Aside from simply dictating to the computer and have it type out your words, you can also do a variety of tasks. You can surf the internet simply by saying a few words. Scroll down a page and view interesting articles simply by telling the computer which link you wish to read. You can also switch to other currently running Windows programs and perform a variety of tasks on them whether it be Microsoft Excel, Notepad or others. Of course, not all Windows programs will be supported by Naturally Speaking but the program offers a “Dictation Box” and “Dragon Pad” which enables you to dictate into those boxes and windows and then transfer the text into the normally unsupported program. Even when you are not at a computer, you can still remain productive provided you have a portable voice recorder with you.

With the Preferred version of Naturally Speaking, you can import voice dictation files in wave format into the program and have it transcribe it for you, all within minutes! That means, you can dictate into any voice recorder (eg. Treo 650, voice recording PDA, etc) while you’re in the car, taxi, train, etc and have it transcribed into text when you get home or at the office. Talk about working anywhere! Is there anything that this software can’t do? Okay, maybe it can’t make my dinner or serve me my drinks. Nothing’s perfect, I guess.

In order to make the review easier to read, I will break it down into smaller parts. You are currently reading Part 1 which covers an introduction of the software. Part 2 will go through the set up process with the video reviews and screenshots. Part 3 will go over my personal observations and conclusion.

This concludes Part 1. Please continue to Part 2 for the setup and further details of the program including a video of it in action.

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