I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking today at target. I got the elements package which includes the basics, and not some of the fancy toys that the full package has. It was a good deal at $39. There is a special this month, if you buy the full version, at $99 you get a regular headset with microphone, but there is a rebate if you buy before August 31 you can get $49 back. Since this abbreviated version covers the basics that I was interested in, I didn't see a need to get the full version, not that any stores have the full version on the shelf. I looked in several stores and all were sold out of the full version.

The Bluetooth version or wireless version was $249. Too much for me. Even with the rebate, too much for me. Just like Adobe Photoshop elements has all of the basic things that you use for your photographs it appears the element version of Dragon speaking naturally seems the same for a lot less money.

Does anybody else own this? I got version 10 which has the feature "what can I say?" If you speak that phrase it opens a help box that tells you all the things that can be said or commands that can help you. I'm hoping somebody else has this and can give me some tips. I have played a little bit, and have used it to open and send e-mail, open and close other programs, it's been kind of fun learning how to use it.

Does anybody else have this? Can you give me any tips?

Is this the one that you use to control your computer? Or is it the program that you can use to control the computer AND the computer can speak back to you??

When I had to do a project in my Desktop Publishing class about using computers as aides in school (the teacher was aiming towards using Word or Powerpoint as teaching aides) I did my project on the basic built in narration and voice control programs that come with Windows computers. Had a lot of fun making the teacher's computer follow my voice commands in class.

I had to "teach" my laptop and the teacher's computer to respond to my voice, which meant that I had to turn the program on and read the pre-programmed phrases into the computers so they'd learn my voice and inflection.

I would like to get the same program that you got and install it on all my Windows computers, it would be great to have a better version of a program like that than the bare bones one that comes on the Windows computers. I dont use it much on the ones I have, probably because I dont need to use it, but sometimes it's fun to play with.

I'm not sure if my iMac that I use more than my Windows computers has the same capability. It probably does, it has way better narration capabilities than a Windows computer, so it probably has better voice command capabilities too. I'll have to check.

it is the one that YOU speak to your computer, and it responds.

Open internet explorer...go to address bar...nuerotalk.com...

Open outlook express...go to message from Toni...open message...reply...

open address book...


its been pretty good. I have been training it to my hickafied way of speaking. Like instead of spelling my last name it would type 50...WTF?? is that even close? so, you can say ADD WORD, then spell the word, chose ADD, and speak the word, and it knows how you want it spelled and it remembers how you said it. it has trouble with messed, vs missed, vs mist. it learns from you after you read speaches, and or presentations full of S sounds, or H sounds. The more you read to it, the better it gets at what you are looking for so rewards doing turn into Re whore. I cracked up when I saw that. For now, I dont trust it, and have to keep my eye on it.

It wont open the files here, but once I place my cursor in the box, I can speak, and it will type in the box. you have to say COMMA or space, next paragraph. if it messes up you can say delete word. or delete paragraph. or highlight paragraph, change font, Georgia 14, bold. and tada! it happens. kinda cool, but I will have to get used to it.

its been a great toy for the money. I get tons of emails, and tons of stuff that I need to get done, and this will hopefully save me some fatigue. I am on chapter 8 of my new book, and reached a point of just being fatigued, and not wanting to type anymore. I am hoping this will spur my forward.

I bought an older version that had about the same features you're describing. I did not have very good luck with it recognizing my speech.

I had to retrain it over and over. It would get words and phrases wrong I'd say 15-20% of the time. Since I got it for writing, it was just easier to learn to type, lol. Sadly, as bad as I type, I'm still more accurate and less time consuming than the old Dragon.

I hear they have improved a lot on that though.

And honestly, some of that was probably me - I had a lot of laryngitis back then. Still, you'd think after 2 hrs of training to my new sound, it would respond.


It was helpful hearing the words read back to me - that was one of the things I really like about writing with that program. It helped me to edit the work. Now that I don't use the software, I have MS Sam narrate.

I've read that the microphone quality & placement is very important too.

Quite a few people with repetitive strain injuries use speech recognition software. That's how I learned about it.
I got Via Voice back in 1999, but haven't had to use it for quite awhile.

There are some free ones that you can try out also.

http://www.e-speaking.com/

some of these are trials and some are free,
http://download.cnet.com/windows/voi...torsRating+asc
{you can sort by clicking on the left side of their webpage}

Built in on Vista - I didn't know that.

Accessibility in Windows Vista
[Windows Speech Recognition
Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista empowers users to interact with their computers by voice. It was designed for people who want to significantly limit their use of the mouse and keyboard while maintaining or increasing their overall productivity. You can dictate documents and emails in mainstream applications, use voice commands to start and switch between applications, control the operating system, and even fill out forms on the Web.]
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/prod...ta/speech.aspx

Didn't know that about Vista, Jo*mar. That totally rocks!



(I'm still xp, but I know people that may help)

I have been working with it, and am not used to using my voice this much. I have long since complained that using my voice too much makes my voice box feel full and crackly. Merideth Veira's husband has that same raspy voice after he talks too much. I am told its an MS thing.

I have had to train and retrain this thing. its making less mistakes now, and doing a better job, but its been some work. Messed, missed, mist it still mixes up some words. I have a friend Lu (louise) and it keeps typing Lou. I have added the word Lu and work carefully on pronouncing her name when using the thing, but it still says Lou. grr...It misspelled my last name for a long time, but has finally caught on that its spelled the wasy I want it, not the way it wants it. The DH LOVES it! he is a hunt and peck typist, and can spell to save his life (silly italian man) and things this is the best toy ever. Actually for him, so do I! no more "honey! how do you spell..."

I am hoping I can work out the last few kinks so I dont have to constantly check its work. that would help

Wow Dej, sounds like once you get it trained, it will be great.

I may look into this, because the last three fingers on my left hand have been numb for months and I'm having a very hard time typing, with my fingers not being able to feel the keys.

Oh something I learned after I bought a cheaper sound card.. you must have a decent sound card along with a decent microphone.

I have a Plantronics head set mic that is 8 yrs old but it was only 20 bucks at the time. It worked well until I installed a replacement sound card that was not as good as my sound blaster card.
as soon as I installed a upgraded card everything worked fine again.

So if you keep having recognition issues you might want to do searches for "best microphone" or "best sound card" and maybe you can narrow it own to find which is the problem.

The sound card & mic are as important as the software in this case.