ScanSoft Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred v8

"My Wicked Dragon"

I am just a lazy slob, retired abroad, who gave up all serious business in life years ago.Since 1998 my greatest pleasure has been to use DragonDictate for my emails to keep in touch with acquaintances worldwide. The DragonDictate version I originally bought required words to be pronounced separately, but I soon graduated to Version 2. I remained content with this version for a long time, and often sang its praises to my friends. However two years ago I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Version 8, and it is hard to exaggerate how delighted I am with it, and how ready to extol its many excellent qualities. I could always spell accurately, though not as faultlessly as the Dragon does, but the one thing I could not do was master touch-typing, despite having laboriously typed a 30,000 word dissertation, with just two fingers, in the early nineties. Besides, I like the sound of my own voice (even if very few other people do) -- not least when tucked away in my own room in front of my computer,where noone can hear me except my friendly Dragon.

The Dragon's many virtues do not need spelling out, but it also has one magnificent vice, which I choose to regard as a supreme virtue, namely its wicked, nay malicious, sense of humour, which it reveals at frequent intervals by indulging its penchant for (deliberate?) Freudian slips of the pen; I know they are not slips of the tongue (mine), for I pride myself on always enunciating all I wish to communicate with singular clarity, but then I suppose that as the Dragon deals in typescript, they cannot be described as slips of the pen either. But when I have finished dictating, these lapses, howsoever caused, almost invariably make the editing process,a process which would otherwise border on the tedious, a thoroughly hilarious one, and all because of the Dragon's interpretation of what it has allegedly misheard. It has not really misheard, of course; I think it chooses to come up with the all-too-often unrepeatable out of an irrepressible sense of fun. Then I have to go through the text with a tooth comb to ensure the safe removal of some of the more Rabelaisian comments before they can give offence to the email's intended recipient. ( And the Dragon knew the word Rabelaisian -- his memory is phenomenal!) I trust these few words, dictated in a matter of moments, may be enough to show that I am really grateful to the Dragon, and proud also to have such a splendid pet as he is.

ScanSoft Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred v8 Voice Recognition Typing Software Review

For the last year and a bit I have been having a nightmare of a struggle with RSI (mainly tendinitis), and my challenge has been to make my computing comfortable and easy. Typing recently started to really hurt my wrists and arms, I can literally feel the tendons every time I moved my fingers. Not good... not good at all to a 2-years young bloke who loves martial arts and so needs full use of his arms.

I've ordered a goldtouch split keyboard from America, and got it very cheap so I'm looking forward to that arriving as I work as e-mail tech support for an anti virus company.

However, after doing some research I decided I would give voice recognition software a try. Having never used it before I was somewhat dubious as to how well it would work, after all voice recognition software doesn't have a track record as being particularly accurate or user-friendly, does it?

I went out and got myself a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking 8 after reading lots of positive user reviews on Amazon and another website, and I can safely say the results have been nothing short of amazing.

The program is very easy to use and integrate with just about every application you can think of, whether it be e-mail, instant messenger, forums, or of course good old Microsoft Word. The product claims an accuracy rate of 95% straight out of the box, however, if like me you don't speak the Queen's English and happen to have a slight northern accent then you can expect around 80% to start with.

However, the true magic of this program is in the way it learns. If the program makes a mistake, you simply say aloud: "spell that" and the program analyses the last sentence or word spoken. You can then correct the spelling or tailor the sentence to what you intended, and also click the "train" button to repeat the sentence aloud and thus tell the program to recognise that word or sentence the next time you say it. Although it can be a little bit stop and start at first, gradually as you use the program and training more often, the less you need to correct it.

Another feature of the software is the ability to control computer functions using your voice, from opening folders to copying and pasting or simply accessing the start menu or opening and closing your programs, it allows a great deal of flexibility. Not the be all and end all, but certainly useful.

All in all, I am terribly happy with this product, and it is doing exactly what it says on the tin. I now no longer need to type away at the keyboard at home and my wrists are going to thank me for it!

I recommend it to anyone suffering from RSI or any computer-related injury, who finds typing painful or uncomfortable. It is now a permanent fixture on my hard drive... until the next version that is.

Oh, and did I mention that I used it to make this review?