So, read on below and enjoy our Dragon software review. Who for? It is designed to listen to your speech, understand it, and convert it to text. Understands accents — Because individual speech patterns and accents can vary significantly, Dragon software utilizes machine learning to recognize and understand your speech patterns better over time.
Easy commands — It can also execute simple commands, which allow you to do things like open and close software, post status updates on social media, and edit text. Dragon software comes in different versions to suit your tastes and requirements. The core functionality is present in Dragon Home, with professional versions providing additional features likely to be of use to the targeted niche. As I discuss below, for those who decide they need dictation software , the choice of which version to go with can be as important as the choice of the software provider.
This capability is borne out by the experiences of users all over. People report being able to speak at a natural cadence.
As long as their hardware was powerful enough, Dragon Home had no issue keeping up with their voice. Playback feature — This is an exciting addition and one that is unique to the Dragon software. It does what it sounds like: it plays back entered text. Although it can be eerie at times to hear your voice, with subtle modifications, played back at you. Fast — Nuance claims to be able to transcribe three times faster than a typist, though this does not include the time spent dictating punctuation and special characters.
Dragon Home also requires you to indicate every punctuation mark and special character verbally if you want fully punctuated text. Tutorials are available here. Resources — Keep in mind, real-time speech-to-text recognition and translation are bound to be resource-intensive. Especially when paired with their machine learning functions, users should prepare for that reality. Unless you have a powerful machine, avoid running it, even Dragon Home, alongside other beefy software.
Commands — Dragon software provides extensive command functionality for selecting the text, fixing mistakes, moving in lists, searching or copying and pasting information. However, it is good to know the limitations here. While it can be convenient to be able to launch and instruct applications with just your voice, one must be careful not to leave the functionality on when not needed. Practice commands — It can also be a clumsy tool until one has the hang of it. Individual commands must be voiced in the correct manner and sequence for them to operate.
Once one is familiar with the feature though, it can significantly increase the ease with which one interacts with a PC or Mac. Cheat sheets are available. Verdict — Dragon Home has much improved over the course of the years, and it does what it is meant to do: reliable voice communication. It is suitable for those who want to use a voice-based approach to web browsing and search, shopping, writing or social media.
As discussed it is also resource-intensive and requires some type of training that is available online. Those who need more business features should, however, consider one of the professional editions which I review below. Visit website. Promo: Add USB and get a free headset. Get Deal. Dragon Professional view website contains the features of Dragon Home with some additional customizations intended to make life easier for the typical professional.
Dragon Professional makes it easier to create custom words and phrases consisting of proper names or unusual industry terminology. There is also custom functionality to make it easier to work on multiple kinds of devices, like PC touchscreens, smartphones and tablets. Benefits — Do you find yourself repeatedly using the same text and graphics? Use custom voice phrases to have Dragon Professional include them instead.
The Professional edition allows you to leave your work at your desktop PC and pick it up again on another device using the Anywhere functionality. Documentation — Apart from memorizing words and phrases, it is possible to set smart format rules to implement abbreviations, contact details or dates based on corporate styling schemes. Text can be highlighted, underlined or set bold or in different sizes by voice. It works within common business applications.
Verdict — In some ways, though, Professional is the app without a home in the Dragon software portfolio. Dragon Home is ideal for home users. Legal is custom-built for lawyers and legal professionals. Nuance also has solutions for law enforcement, financial services professionals, and medical professionals. Well, Dragon Professional is suitable for businesses, freelancers and even ambitious home users who want to settle between Home and Legal, and do not need specific vocabulary but require solid documentation functionality.
View website. Dragon Legal view website is a specific version of Professional and designed for anyone in the legal industry. The Legal edition comes preloaded with hundreds of legal terms and words, obviating the need to train the software in the use of those terms. It has the same features as Dragon Professional, including custom voice commands, names and terminology as well as Dragon Anywhere functionality.
These features are very useful in the legal realm, which relies heavily on boilerplate contracting language and precedent documentation. Benefits — Legal comes with the ability to dictate and pre-record a string of text, or conduct an interview, and transcribe it using the tool at a later time. Governmental organizations including the courts frequently have access to proprietary methods of dictation and transcription, while large firms can often afford to hire full-time transcriptionists.
If you find yourself at one of the small or medium-sized firms and are without a transcription or dictation solution, this Dragon software may be an appropriate tool to use. Good to know — Similar to the legal issues that may arise for professionals using Dragon Anywhere discussed below , Dragon Legal may raise some problems for lawyers. Regulations surrounding solicitor-client privilege and confidentiality are notoriously stringent.
Lawyers and those who work with them will need to pay close attention to the storage and security of the files created by Dragon Legal. Privacy and data security will be paramount considerations for legal professionals here. It is designed to be compatible, and sync with, several different cloud-based notetaking and file storage apps like Evernote and Dropbox. Effectively, Anywhere is a solution for anyone who requires Dragon software functionality away from their desks or laptops.
The app works on Android and Apple phones, tablets, and allows for seamless cross-functionality between mobile devices and desktop or laptop computers. Benefits — The app will enable you to share your work with colleagues and other people, making it a possible solution for teams of more than one person. Unlike some other software, Dragon Anywhere also imposes no word or time limits. You can speak for as long as you wish, and the program will continue to convert the words to text. There is only one feature that takes top billing in speech-recognition tools, and that is, obviously, its ability to recognize and translate voice to text.
Here, Dragon software does not disappoint. Dragon software understands a wide variety of speech well and converts it to text accurately. Downsides — The major drawback to Dragon software is that, for many people, it will be a solution in search of a problem. In other words, if you are a reasonably competent typist, dictation will not be your bag. I am a full-time writer, and I have yet to see the need for such tools, despite spending eight hours per day at a keyboard.
Voice vs typing — That may be an unfair criticism though, given that many people are not reasonably good typists. For them, this product could be a godsend. Alternatively, typing programs offer a good opportunity to help speed up pace and accuracy and to reduce the time needed for editing, hence, getting the best of both worlds. Wrapping up our Dragon software review. Dragon software products do what they say they are going to do, and they do it well. If you have difficulty typing accurately and quickly, and you deal with a lot of written work, this may be the product for you.
However, there are videos, webinars and material provided by Nuance to get you started quickly and to enjoy the benefits. Furthermore, there is eMail and phone support to ask questions. Below are some of the FAQs listed. Visible changes help you to use NS more effectively, particularly in terms of navigating your PC, but the underlying engine is improved only marginally. Other extra features found in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium are transcription from digital recording devices, support for Bluetooth, and the ability to create custom commands.
Nuance claims that Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium is up to 99 percent accurate out of the box. In our tests this was a little ambitious - but only a little. Off the blocks we achieved around 96 percent accuracy. After completing the initial training, we were able to get around 97 percent. The training requires you to read from a set text as the software gets used to your dulcet tones. With a little more work we settled at around 98 percent. In practice this is impressive and useful, and the more you use Dragon, the better it gets.
Just how useful Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium will be for you depends on how much you use it, and what form of copy you need to dictate. Taking notes and composing informal emails by voice requires very little revision and saves time, formal letters and essays are less suited. Making corrections is not difficult, but takes a modicum of getting used to. As with any program there are specific commands, and in this instance you need to speak them aloud.
In terms of corrections, if you're a good typer you may find that the traditional method remains the best. No matter, just as Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium needs to learn to understand you, you need to get to grips with the way the software works: and this is where the update shines.
Nuance has tweaked the interface, adding in the all-new Dragon Sidebar, which sits next to open windows, anticipating commands according to what you are doing. Think of it as a verbal MS Office ribbon and try not too think badly of it as a consequence. This makes it easier to access important Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium features and options. Opening and using apps, addressing and sending emails, surfing the web You require a microphone headset, which Nuance thoughtfully provides.
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Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
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