Entered CNET Catalog: 12/02/2004
SKU: A209A-X00-8.0
Manufacturer: Nuance Communications, Inc. (ScanSoft)
Manufacturer description
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Professional will save you and your organization money because it enables everyone to create documents up to four times faster than typing and protects against repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome that increase insurance premiums and temporary labor costs. It's simple: you and your employees can use Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Professional to create documents and e-mails, write reports and fill out forms, without having to type at all. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Professional is fully integrated in the Microsoft Office applications you use: Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. In fact, it works with just about any Windows application. You can dictate directly into a PC, or be productive on-the-go with dictation into a ScanSoft certified handheld device such as a digital recorder, Pocket PC or Palm Tungsten. It's easy to have Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically transcribe recorded dictations when you synch with your PC.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 02/09/2006
Dragon's tutorial takes you through the basics of using voice commands to create and edit documents.
After installing the program, you must activate it online. We spent another 10 minutes following the New User Wizard, which explained how to create a personal profile and train the software to recognize our voice (using the included microphone for the latter task). You can add another half-hour to the installation by letting Dragon scan documents on your hard drive, which allows it to learn more about your writing and speaking style. Next, Dragon steps you through a thorough tutorial.
Once you've finished installation, a discreet DragonBar toolbar appears at the top of your Windows desktop, with five pull-down menus to manage multiple users, improve speech-recognition accuracy, handle files, transcribe recordings, and seek help.
We reviewed the full-featured Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 8, which costs a hefty $795, or $349 if you upgrade from version 7. Dragon's speech-to-text offerings include $1,099 Medical Solutions and Legal Solutions editions, each with industry-specific vocabulary files. The $99 entry-level Dragon 8 Standard provides most features a solo user would need, including the microphone, but it lacks the Smart Formatting and Smart Commands features, as well as support for multiple users and handheld devices. Like Standard, the $199 Preferred edition doesn't allow multiple custom vocabularies. However, unlike Standard, Preferred supports dictation for Pocket PC and Palm PDAs.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Professional works with Windows XP Home and Professional (SP1 or higher), 2000 (SP4 or higher), or Me. You'll also need a 16-bit, 11KHz sound card installed on your computer and an Internet connection to activate the software. Does speech-recognition software really work well? Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Professional claims up to 99 percent accuracy and a 25 percent improvement over version 7. Our tests found closer to an 80 percent accuracy rate, but Dragon still performed exceptionally well. Unlike with ViaVoice, we didn't have to stop and repeat sentences. Since Dragon interprets the natural phrasing and pauses of human speech, it has an uncanny ability to distinguish voice commands from straight dictation. Once you've trained Dragon to recognize your speech patterns, it can accurately transcribe your spoken words. Plus, you can further tweak performance with the software's Accuracy Center tool.
Dragon did well with standard business phrases and language, such as, "Will you attend the conference in Miami?" You'd need to train it to better understand more industry-specific words. You'll also need to train yourself to memorize and use the voice commands effectively. Luckily, they're intuitive. For example, you say "Select" to select a word, "Spell that" to spell a word, "Scratch that" to erase text, "Click" to click the mouse, and so on. To help you learn the long list of commands, a Command Browser is just a click or a voice command away. You can also verbally "press" any key or combination of keys as well as edit, select, and drag text. For more complex, command-driven functions, such as clicking and dragging items on a screen, the longer verbal process--and the occasional speech-recognition glitches--might tempt you to grab the mouse and do it by hand. With patience, however, you can learn to mouse with voice commands. You can also train Dragon to recognize your voice in different settings, such as noisy or quiet environments.
We were impressed by Dragon's ability to let us navigate Web sites by speaking. Notice how Dragon numbers each image on a Web page for quick reference.
Dragon's ability to surf the Internet knocked our socks off. Its voice commands can open a browser, type in a Web address, and even "click" on text and image links. You can use Dragon with word processing software, including WordPerfect, Dragon's bundled DragonPad, and Microsoft Word 2000, XP, and 2003. Except for the Standard edition, Dragon also works with forms and spreadsheet programs, such as Excel, and with AOL up to version 8. Only the Professional edition works with Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, and InfoPath.
Say "What can I say" to view a list of voice commands that allow you to navigate documents and edit text.
Dragon Professional also lets you customize commands and exchange them with other users. The new Roaming User networking feature lets you store and update your unique speech files on a central computer and access them via a number of supported handhelds. Dragon can also transcribe recorded speech to a supported PDA. A Playback toolbar within the DragonBar lets you listen to text you've dictated or saved, and the Text-to-Speech option reads text out loud in a computerized but intelligible voice.
These advanced features come at a price, however. Dragon's memory requirements can be considerable; for example, one minute of saved dictation (available only with Professional) can eat up to 1.5MB of hard drive space. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 arrives with a thorough and useful printed user guide, in-program and online help, and a quick-reference card listing common voice commands and training tips. These sources can answer most questions for free, which is good because further help will cost you. Nuance offers training programs for Dragon Professional's extensive features at a whopping $1,500 per day. Telephone support, available weekdays from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, includes one free call. After that, each incident will set you back $19.95. E-mail support costs $9.95 per incident.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
User Rating: 
5/10
Not as good as the reviews lead you to believe
Pros: Speak boldly and clearly and this product will do as it should. If you can't use a keyboard, it is a good alternative. Good for general note taking.
Cons: Still need to proof/edit results which utilizes more time than just using a keyboard to begin with. Not a viable use for shared offices as decreased volume multiples the amount of dictation errors.
Review:
It is a good alternative if you are unable to use a keyboard but it is far from a replacement for a keyboard. Be prepared to spend quite a bit of time going over your dictation as you will likely need to make quite a few edits. If you share an office space with multiple people where volume is a factor, this product is not for you. I find that in general, the results of this product are unreliable in comparison to what the consumer base is looking for in a voice recognition package.
User Rating: 
2/10
Nice App... Horrible Support
Pros: Most accurate of all the Voice to Text programs
Cons: Very Expensive & Horrible Support/ Licensing!!!
Review:
So I like this Product for it's purpose, compared to the junk that IBM produces.
BUT, there's a BIG problem(s) with ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking 8... I do a lot of (self-employed) business travel and I wanted to installed on both a New fastered PC(This program SUCKS CPU Cycles) and my laptop for my business trips. Their (SCANSOFT - DRAGON) Customer Support is horrible in dealing with them under my circustances. Like pulling teeth, but they made 1 (ONE) exception on a new license for my new PC, the old one cannot handle the load(Dragon cost me money here, because I had to buy a faster/more powerful PC) BUT, and a BIG BUTT, They make you deinstall the program on my older PC first. then would issue a new license for the new PC! Then INSULTING... They want me to shell out another $700+ for my Laptop. I can only use either my PC or my laptop on the road at one time about 60/40 on travel! Like the other person who's review mentioned problems/Poor Support with ScanSoft Dragon NS8 on this program/licensing/yotta, yotta...
I thought I was the Customer? I spent over $700 on their product, had to buy a new more Powerful PC because of this product, and they treat yah like a software criminal! No Customer Service as far as I'm concern. This company is much Worst than Microsoft, if you can believe that!
BTW, Dear CNET, when you evaluate product, you better take into concideration, all facids of the company, product, pricing and CUSTOMER REVIEWS!
(UNLESS these companies are giving you SOFT MONEY on their ADVERTISING, which is most likely the case)!
I DO RECOMMEND THIS SCAN SOFT's NS#8 PRODUCT!!!
0 - LICENSING
0 - CUSTOMER SERVICE
0 - PRICE (VERY EXPENSIVE)
8 - FUNCTIONALITY
--------------------------
2.0 - Value because of the above low/zero scores
BUT, there's a BIG problem(s) with ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking 8... I do a lot of (self-employed) business travel and I wanted to installed on both a New fastered PC(This program SUCKS CPU Cycles) and my laptop for my business trips. Their (SCANSOFT - DRAGON) Customer Support is horrible in dealing with them under my circustances. Like pulling teeth, but they made 1 (ONE) exception on a new license for my new PC, the old one cannot handle the load(Dragon cost me money here, because I had to buy a faster/more powerful PC) BUT, and a BIG BUTT, They make you deinstall the program on my older PC first. then would issue a new license for the new PC! Then INSULTING... They want me to shell out another $700+ for my Laptop. I can only use either my PC or my laptop on the road at one time about 60/40 on travel! Like the other person who's review mentioned problems/Poor Support with ScanSoft Dragon NS8 on this program/licensing/yotta, yotta...
I thought I was the Customer? I spent over $700 on their product, had to buy a new more Powerful PC because of this product, and they treat yah like a software criminal! No Customer Service as far as I'm concern. This company is much Worst than Microsoft, if you can believe that!
BTW, Dear CNET, when you evaluate product, you better take into concideration, all facids of the company, product, pricing and CUSTOMER REVIEWS!
(UNLESS these companies are giving you SOFT MONEY on their ADVERTISING, which is most likely the case)!
I DO RECOMMEND THIS SCAN SOFT's NS#8 PRODUCT!!!
0 - LICENSING
0 - CUSTOMER SERVICE
0 - PRICE (VERY EXPENSIVE)
8 - FUNCTIONALITY
--------------------------
2.0 - Value because of the above low/zero scores
Updated
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
AND...
I just found out, Microsoft OFFICE XP PRO... it has speach-text built-in for FREE!!!
Give ScanSoft a "0" now~!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ScanSoft's NaturallySpeaking PRO 8
AND...
I just found out, Microsoft OFFICE XP PRO... it has speach-text built-in for FREE!!!
Give ScanSoft a "0" now~!
User Rating: 
3/10
He did say: "Painfully" Expensive
Pros: Not made by Monopolysoft (appologies)
Cons: There are many other Speech products that are astonishingly less expensive.
Review:
There are many alternatives offered at CNET websites. Go to www.download.com and search for Voice Recognition. You will see several listed for under $40. I've used e-Speaking and it definately meets my needs and budget.
User Rating: 
10/10
Dragon is great for carpal tunnel syndrome and medical transcription
Pros: 98%-99% accuracy and hands-free computer operation
Cons: I recommend 2 hours training with a consultant
Review:
Dragon professional is incredible! I have carpal tunnel syndrome and use Dragon NaturallySpeaking constantly. I also work as a consultant with employees who have carpal tunnel syndrome and have successfully trained employees at the San Francisco Chronicle, Borland Computers, Plantronics, UC Berkeley, Homeland Security, Social Security, and low California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Dragon is much better than Microsoft's speech recognition engine because of the ability to create commands to operate the computer hands-free. I also have many lawyers and doctors who use Dragon for medical/legal transcription. With the right digital recorder Dragon is 98% accurate out of the box. In order to be successful with Dragon it is usually necessary to hire a consultant to set up the hardware/software and provide initial training. Call us toll free 866-580-1131 and visit our web site at www.ComputeByVoice.com
User Rating: 5/10
activation is a problem
Pros: works as advertised
Cons: support and activation
Review:
While the product works fine, if you need to resinstall it too many times or move it between PCs, you have to reactivate each time unless you have uninstalled it. Support, when asked about this, said you could fax them proof of owenership and they would reluctently give you more activations, but only once, then you need to rebuy the software.
User Rating: 3/10
pointless software
Pros: only if you dont have office
Cons: office does a better job
Review:
This software is an exercise in waste for anybody that has Microsoft Office. By going to the "tools" tab in the toolbar and clicking on "speech" button, you can do the exact same thing as Dragon and just as easily. As an added benefit, your speech is directly transcribed to any of the programs in your Office suite and comes included in the package price. The only oint in buying this is if you don't have an Office suite which it would be a really good idea to buy if you're looking to increase productivity or simply to be compatible with today;s market which is totally Microsoft dominated.
User Rating: 
6/10
word does the same thing
Pros: Not Available
Cons: Not Available
Review:
This program costs $650 and Microsoft Office has the ability built in. I use that and after reading as many things as i have, it very rarely messes up. Overall i don't think its worth the cost unless you never plan to use the keyboard at all.
