In the past, I have written other articles about Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Until now, I have interviewed other people who have used Dragon, but this week I decided to go out and buy a copy for myself. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a copy from someone at work. This meant that I could try it out and see how effective it was before I bought a copy.

I had read reviews of Dragon that seemed to indicate that Version 10 was highly accurate. In fact on the website the claims were in the order of 20% higher accuracy than Dragon Version 9. The accuracy level was supposed to be between 95% and 99%. 

There were several reasons that I decided to try speech recognition software. One reason was that I have a large number of writing projects happening at the moment. Another reason was that at work I am working on projects that involve sitting at the computer for long stretches of time. All in all I am spending a lot of time at computers and using programs that involve entering text. 

People who use Dragon naturally speaking a lot seem to be raving fans. I understood from what I had read that users of Dragon do need to put in some time training it. However the results appear to be worth it. All in all, it seemed as though it was worth a try.

 First Impressions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

I wasn't really expecting much of Dragon straight out of the box. The version my work colleague had was Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard. He couldn't find any of the manuals and the microphone that came in the box was broken, so I had to use the microphone headset that I had at home. I had no idea how well this would work, because it was a relatively simple Logitech headset for which I paid around $60. Dragon advertising seemed to indicate that a high-quality headset was needed.

After I installed Dragon, I spent 20 minutes doing the recommended training. This involves simply reading paragraphs from the screen into the microphone of the headset. Then it was show time -- time to give it a test and read some actual text into it! I chose to read half a page from a nonfiction handbook. 

I have to admit that I was blown away by the accuracy. I really didn't expect that the program would work so well. I printed out a list of the punctuation and symbols that you can dictate so I could refer to it as I went along. It does take a little time to get used to giving the program commands, but considering the time saved it doesn't really take too long to get up to speed. 

Dragon recommends that you use the program to dictate text, but advises that people usually end up working out a method that works for them using a combination of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and the mouse/keyboard. 

Dragon Step by Step...

• Create a user profile. The New User Wizard starts automatically the first time you use Dragon. You need to choose a microphone source and nominate the language you are using.
• This is followed by an audio check to see that your microphone and has been set up correctly and that you have the right volume and sound quality.
• The program then sets up accuracy tuning. To do this it runs a quick scan on some of the documents on your computer, and in your e-mail, to get more of a sense of how you talk.
• Next step: the New User Wizard asks if you'd like to start the tutorial or whether you just want to begin dictating. I strongly suggest that you do the tutorial, which doesn't take very long.
• The Dragon Bar will appear at the top of your screen and you can dictate into almost any Windows based program. This includes your e-mail program.

Conclusions (Well, Early Conclusions...)

It's early days yet, but I can already see that Dragon is going to save a lot of time. I ended up going back to the computer store to buy a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred, because this vision lets me import an audio file that has been dictated into a hand-held recording device and convert it to text. I like this feature because it means that I can actually record ideas and paragraphs of articles away from the computer then quickly convert it at a later time.

I realize that it's going to take a bit of time to become used to the commands and to correct text through voice - it doesn't yet feel natural: my hands are itching to take to the keyboard to correct a word or phrase! (I can remember feeling the same way when I moved from writing the first draft on the computer instead of by hand... I was sure that I would never get used to that!) Actually, making corrections with Dragon reminds me a bit of using predictive text on a mobile phone... sometimes the program picks a word that seems logical, but doesn't quite fit. You are then offered a range of choices, or the option to spell the word.

One final comment: this whole article was dictated using Dragon naturally speaking. Given that I am a beginner with this program, and Dragon is still learning the way I speak, it probably took about the same length of time to dictate the article as it would have to write it. However, there were some paragraphs of text that appeared on the page much, much quicker than they would have had I been typing them. The paragraph I am writing now fits into that category.

All in all? I'm glad I made the purchase. For writers who have back problems, RSI, or vision problems because of sitting at the computer screen for long periods of time, I would imagine that Dragon NaturallySpeaking could be a real boon. It would also be a huge asset for freelance writers who need to produce many short articles quickly. I'll follow this with another article after I've been using Dragon for a month or so.

© Marg McAlister 2009