Does anyone have experience with Dragon Naturally Speaking?

[crhoades]

Best Buy is running a special of $110 instant savings for Version 9 for a sale price of $89.99. It says that you don't have to train it. I'm thinking about getting it to begin getting text outputs from .mp3 lectures that I have. Thoughts?

 

[VictorBravo]

If it works, Chris, that would be a real breakthrough.

I've been trying Dragon Speaking consistently since 1998. It gets better each year, but still it hasn't been able to get my own speech down without a lot of editing. I keep hoping (I haven't tried the latest version). If it could take dictation from an mp3, that would be a revolution, I think.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I'd like to see how it does with Sinclair Ferguson's Scottish accent. I love listening to that man talk.

I found a pretty good review here:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/speaking.ars

 

[tellville]

I have a pastor friend who uses it. He loves it. He writes all his emails and sermons on it.

I own it as well, however, I haven't gotten around to training it fully yet. Also, I bought a new computer and have not transfered my Dragon over to the new one.

It works I would say about 80% right out of the box. Then, after some serious training, you could easily get that up to near 100%. You can train individual words and once they are trained they are perfect. You will probably have a lot of training to do as plenty of Christian terms need to be included.

Unless you type like a madman who is also inerrant, or you don't type much anyway, I would highly recommend it. I don't think it would be worth it if you didn't use it all the time (like me right now )

 

[Semper Fidelis]

It works I would say about 80% right out of the box. Then, after some serious training, you could easily get that up to near 100%. You can train individual words and once they are trained they are perfect. You will probably have a lot of training to do as plenty of Christian terms need to be included.

The 20% the program doesn't get is all the "Eh"'s and "you hoser" terms that Canadians throw into their speech.

 

[Herald]

So let me get this straight. You guys all own pet dragons that you can train to speak for you? Interesting. Well I suppose if God can speak through the mouth of an ass, He can use a dragon too.

 

[tellville]

The 20% the program doesn't get is all the "Eh"'s and "you hoser" terms that Canadians throw into their speech.

Ok, we Canadians use "Eh" all the time. I admit. But hoser? You must be dating yourself Strange Brew is getting a little old, eh?

Hoser.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Sorry. That's a funny movie.

 

[Poimen]

The 20% the program doesn't get is all the "Eh"'s and "you hoser" terms that Canadians throw into their speech.

Take off hoser!

 

[fredtgreco]

Best Buy is running a special of $110 instant savings for Version 9 for a sale price of $89.99. It says that you don't have to train it. I'm thinking about getting it to begin getting text outputs from .mp3 lectures that I have. Thoughts?

Chris,

I have used it. Version 9 is much better than 8. The recognition is much better. A couple of caveats:

1. You have to have a good amount of RAM to use it well. In order to make good use of it, it needs to run in the background and be accessible from the system tray. Otherwise you won't use it. (It would take longer to think of it, open the program, get it going and then dictate than just to type)
2. You have to have a decent mic. One with headphones is good, but I would say the easier thing would be to have it be flexible. Do you know of a good bluetooth mic? That would make a huge difference for me (mobility in the office)
3. Preferred is different from Pro. Preferred does NOT have Outlook (email) support. So if you are thinking, "I'll dictate my emails" (which is a logical use, since email is closer to talking than writing) the BestBuy Preferred won't do it. However, if you are using Office 2007, Outlook actually uses Word as its editor. So you could dictate in Word and cut and paste.

 

[crhoades]

Chris,

I have used it. Version 9 is much better than 8. The recognition is much better. A couple of caveats:

1. You have to have a good amount of RAM to use it well. In order to make good use of it, it needs to run in the background and be accessible from the system tray. Otherwise you won't use it. (It would take longer to think of it, open the program, get it going and then dictate than just to type)
2. You have to have a decent mic. One with headphones is good, but I would say the easier thing would be to have it be flexible. Do you know of a good bluetooth mic? That would make a huge difference for me (mobility in the office)
3. Preferred is different from Pro. Preferred does NOT have Outlook (email) support. So if you are thinking, "I'll dictate my emails" (which is a logical use, since email is closer to talking than writing) the BestBuy Preferred won't do it. However, if you are using Office 2007, Outlook actually uses Word as its editor. So you could dictate in Word and cut and paste.

Fred, thanks for the detailed reply. This is what I was looking for.

1. I have 2GB RAM and an AMD 5000+ duo core proc. Shouldn't be a problem.
2. I have a mic that came with a logitec camera - not sure if it would work or not. Wireless mic would definitely be nice!
3. I have Outlook 2003 - can't you set up Word as your email editor in that one as well? Tools>Options>Mail Format>. Also I can use Gmail and even dictate into Word and copy paste if need be.

Can you use it to dictate posts into the PB? Now that would be dangerous.

For 90 bucks I'm thinking about trying it.

Have you tried importing an .mp3 of a different speaker and seeing how well it recognizes?

 

[inspector]

Yes it is cool. I bought version 9.5 standard last week. It was $100 and well worth it. When you first start the program you DO have to read several paragraphs, which takes about 15 minutes, in order for it to recognize your voice. After that you just speak. It opens/closes things by your word; it saves as; whatever.

Where ever you place your cursor you can start talking and it types it out. Right here, on emails, on word - anyplace you can type words you can spaek them instead. It is a million times faster than typing.