I would like to purchase Dragon naturally speaking software but have heard that the Tech support sucks and is expensive. Has anyone had experience with this? Or can anyone suggest other good voice activated software? Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi m,
I bought Dragon N S 9.5 about 18 months ago and installed it on my laptop and desktop machine, both running XP, I had no real problems, it seemed to slow down a bit if it had been running along time, but logging off and on again would usually fix it. The software is very good and you can control mouse and keyboard functions easily providing you spend time training it to your voice, speak clearly and don't have a lot of background noise. I would not expect to use any tech support, but there is a forum for help. The biggest thing is learning the commands (read the manual), but you can get going fairly quickly. The headset which came with it soon got chucked as it dug into my head, but any type of usb microphone or headset will do. If you do a lot of letter writing it is great. On the other hand I have found i dont bother with it at all and now just use a splint on my index finger and have sticky keys (shift X 5) turned on. I find a laptop with its compact keyboard and mouse pad easiest. Checkout imbonnie on you tube for quad typing, ist a skill you do relearn, I used to be exhausted after an hour, but now i type all day.

Hello gents

I completely agree with you on the cost of the DragonSupport.

I have always used the knowbrainer Forum which can be found here.

http://www.knowbrainer.com/PubForum/

I have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for years now, so feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try to help.

If I can quickly give you one piece of advice it would be this.

The key to good speech recognition is the quality of the microphone and soundcard.

The microphones packed with the standard version of Natural Speaking is of a very low quality and does not provide ambient noise cancelling.

Also it is highly recommended to use a USB sound pod to provide your soundcard.

If you spend the money on getting these perennials right you will have drastically improved results.

If you join the forum you will find information about what I'm talking about.

Like I say any questions just personal message me.


As for an alternative at the moment it is the only game in town, although Microsoft are slowly coming round to this technology and you may see it working well in the next version of Microsoft windows which will be Windows 7 scheduled for late 2009 (so expect it in 2011!)

Cheers Sean

hi sean,

what is a USB sound pod and where would i get one?

i use dragon 10 preferred on my laptop and desktop however the recognition is much better on the laptop which i think has something to do with noise in the case as it is much better in terms of spec than the laptop.

cheers,
j

I have always used DragonDictate and yes the technical support is not always up to par (which technical support is?) They will always tell you to check with your computer provider first before actually giving help or suggest going to their website.

How does one go to a website when they cannot control the computer anymore?? but eventually when we paid for the technical support (extra) obviously they helped immediately. All in all I have never really had any problems with it, it has always been my computer's fault

I'm ready for another upgrade!