Dragon Professional Individual for Windows

Who wants to risk or aggravate carpal tunnel syndrome at a keyboard? People who suffer repetitive stress injuries, type slowly, or dictate long documents for work are among the best candidates for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, which types as you talk. While not perfect, it's the best consumer tool available for digital dictation and can save time and headaches for the right user.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking's maker, Nuance, estimates that built-in speech-to-text capabilities in Windows Vista are about five years behind those of this application. You could get by with such features in Windows for occasional use, but Dragon is deeper and more accurate.

Version 10 is supposed to be 20 percent more accurate than its predecessor, both which supposedly offer greater than 99 percent accuracy. However, that won't likely translate to your personal experience. We found success with about four out of five spoken words. Should we blame our lisping, soft-spoken ways, the software, or the hardware?

The updates to Dragon 10 include support for people with accented English, as well as voice-command shortcuts for supported applications and Web searches. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is supposed to translate spoken words to text twice as quickly as version 9. We couldn't measure that, but did notice a speed improvement.

Setup and interface

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 runs only on Windows XP or 2000 SP4 or higher or on Vista, so Mac users are out of luck. (ViaVoice for the Mac, which uses Nuance's technology, is no longer updated.) It requires 512MB of RAM and 1GB of free hard-drive space. You'll also need a noise-canceling headset microphone, a 16-bit or equivalent sound card, and a DVD drive.

If you only need a tool to type as you talk and don't want to dictate commands to software or for Web searches, then opt for the $99 Standard edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Preferred, for $199, includes software voice commands as well as support for mobile devices. Preferred Mobile adds a digital voice recorder.

We tested the $899 Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 10, which adds support for forms, networking capabilities for an office, and the choice of a standard or Bluetooth headset. We wish a USB headset were an option; you'll have to buy a dongle to hook up the mic-in headset to a USB slot. The $1,199 Legal edition also helps you dictate briefs and court documents.

Make sure to uninstall an earlier version of Dragon if you have one. And if you already have the latest version on a PC, don't overwrite it with a lesser-featured version that may be bundled with a new, supported digital voice recorder.

Installing Dragon 10 on two Windows XP machines took around 20 minutes without incident. Unfortunately, Windows Vista installation was a nightmare. It took more than 10 minutes to install Visual C++ 8.0 Runtime, only to find out it hadn't fully installed. Or had it? We were caught in a catch-22 of circular commands after rebooting more than a dozen times. The issue was related to a known bug in Windows Vista. We spent what amounted to more than two hours with a polite, bright tech support representative who offered a workaround.

Once it's running, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 adds a small feature bar that sits atop other open applications on your desktop. The well-organized pull-down menus haven't changed from the past. The text will "type" pretty much wherever a cursor appears, including word processing pages, Web form fields, and the included DragonPad.

Dragon performs a microphone check during setup. When our volume was too low on the Windows Vista laptop, we couldn't use the software. Somehow reading our frustrated mind, it typed "I hate you I" when we said, "Type. Type!" Saying "crazy" got spelled out as "greasy." Then "greasy," spoken, translated to "leafy," then "greens fee," then "Greenstein." In fact, the included headset didn't deliver adequate voice quality to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking at all. We reverted to the same headset packaged with Dragon 9, with better results.

Training is optional, but we recommend stepping through its paces to get Dragon up to speed with your speech patterns. The software can also scan the documents and e-mails on your computer to look for commonly used words.

Features

New to this update is support for accents which include, oddly enough, Teen English alongside American, Australian, Southern Asian, British, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish accents. And there's improved QuickVoice formatting. For instance, now you can utter the command, "Underline The Grapes of Wrath" to underline the book's title, which took two steps with previous versions.

Dragon Professional Individual is a powerful voice recognition software designed to make digital tasks easier. Here are the main features of this update:

• Support for Multiple Accents: This software now works well with a variety of English accents, including Teen English, American, and British. This makes it useful for more people around the world.
• Improved QuickVoice Formatting: Now, you can say commands like "Underline The Grapes of Wrath" to format text quickly. This used to take more steps.
• Voice Shortcuts: You can easily search online through your browser. Just tell Dragon to search for things on YouTube, Wikipedia, and other sites, and it brings up the results quickly.
• Works with Many Programs: It supports software like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. However, it might work a bit slower with Google Docs.
• Learns from You: The more you use Dragon and correct its mistakes, the better it understands your words and phrases.
• Natural Speech Recognition: You don’t have to speak in a robotic way. The software understands natural speaking well, but speaking clearly helps.
• Transcribes from Audio Files: It can transcribe words from audio files in formats like MP3 and WAV. This is great for when you record ideas on the go and want to write them down later.

You can plug in a variety of voice recorders for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 to transcribe your own voice. The application supports MP3, WAV, and WMA audio files. You can create a profile of your voice for a mobile recording device, such as a Pocket PC handheld. After you record your thoughts on the go, you can feed Dragon that sound file later for transcription.

Unfortunately, the Dragon 10 license is only good for one user. To the woe of journalists and college students, Dragon won't transcribe your recording of, say, an interview subject or a college professor.

Service and support

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 includes free telephone or online chat support for one installation incident, without which we wouldn't have been able to run Windows Vista installation. Step-by-step setup help and tutorials are excellent. We found the searchable online knowledgebase to be well organized. Peer support is also available online.

Dragon Professional Individual and Dragon Anywhere are built for different needs. Here’s how they differ:

• Customization and Installation: Dragon Professional is a program that you install on your computer. It allows you to customize it deeply, making it great for detailed work that needs specific vocabulary.
• Cloud-Based Flexibility: Dragon Anywhere, on the other hand, works in the cloud. This is great for people who work remotely and need a simple setup. It's easy to manage and perfect for on-the-go use.

Dragon Professional Individual provides a range of features that help a wide variety of users, from busy professionals who need control over their documents to anyone who wants to interact more easily with their digital devices.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 isn't perfect, but it's the best dictation software available. We don't find this upgrade necessary for the most basic dictation, although new features may benefit heavily accented English speakers and those who rely heavily on voice commands.

• Faster and more accurate than ever
• Formatting and other recognition improvements, for minimal editing
• Optimized for popular form factors such as touchscreens
• Improved set up
• Improved user interface and experience
• Enhanced transcription
• Updated web and application support
• Improved help