This blog post is 874 words and it took less than 5 minutes to create. Now that’s worth exploring, don’t you think?
As a technology minded person I am constantly on the lookout for software that increases productivity and saves time. Imagine my excitement when I downloaded and started using Dragon speech recognition software.
Because much of what I do involves the creation of content, I was really looking forward to the speech to text experience. However, I was somewhat hesitant because this type of software has received some pretty bad reviews in the past. Most of these reviews were due to accuracy problems.
However Dragon Speech is claiming a 99% accuracy rate. That alone got me excited. And so I couldn’t wait to download software and put it to the test. And I must say, I am totally impressed.
The Customer Experience
downloading and installing Dragon speech software from the Dragon NaturallySpeaking website is a fairly easy process and went off without a hitch.
One of the first things that you have to do once you install the software, is do various tests to ensure the quality of your recording equipment. Dragon speech actually comes with its own Bluetooth microphone. But any USB headset will work equally as well if not better.
I personally use a $50 USB headset and after the initial Dragon speech tests, which only took a few minutes, I moved on to the training portion of the setup process.
Training involves reading a passage from a book. There are several books in the Dragon speech database and you simply choose the one you wish, I chose Alice in Wonderland. By reading a passage from Alice in Wonderland the software literally trains itself to recognize your tone, speed, volume, pitch, and even accent.
After about 5 min. of reading the software prompts you that your finished and then it configures the software to work.
I think this is the most important aspect of the software because it’s the training that ensures its accuracy. In fact the software will not allow you to use it without training it first.
Overall Benefits
there are multiple benefits to Dragon speech recognition software. I shall endeavour to write them in point form;
1. There are a number of embedded commands that you can use to open files, save documents, switch from document to document and program to program.
2. Formatting is also advanced, and there are several formatting functions that you can carry out such as bold, italicize, font size etc.
3. You can also move around your document quite easily by speaking various cursor functions.
4. You can also zoom in and zoom out of documents.
5. Spell checking is also an important feature. There are many voice commands for using spell check.
6. You can also carry out various search functions on the computer by saying the word search and inserting what exactly it is you’re looking for in terms of its keyword phrase.
7. There are also various help functions with Dragon speech, and it’s fairly easy to learn all aspects, or at least the important ones.
8. Perhaps one of the most important functions of Dragon speech is the ability to create custom commands. For example if you have a command that is not included in its standard commands you could simply train the software to remember that specific command. And it would carry out the command based on its training either by following your movements with the mouse and keyboard or simply inserting blocks of text.
9. The installation process as I mentioned before is fairly easy and you will be up and running quickly and having a ton of fun doing it.
Choosing the Right Version
there are several different versions of Dragon speech software, from basic to advanced. I am personally using Dragon professional. However, I have found that the standard version 11 is a tremendous value and will do pretty much everything that you would have to do in a small business.
Cons
While the software is powerful it also uses plenty of computer RAM space. I would recommend that you use it with an up-to-date computer and run at least two gigs of RAM.
Well simple commands are fairly easy, some of the more advanced commands will take some memory on your part. Switching back and forth between the Dragon speech help area and your programs is a bit cumbersome but you’ll get used to it.
The professional versions of this software are in my opinion a bit overpriced but like anything that is worthwhile you will have to invest.
Pros
The software is very intuitive and a joy to use. It is highly accurate and does help you increase productivity and cuts down on the amount of time that you need to create lengthy documents. There is no one I know that can type as fast as you can speak, in the matter how fast you speak the software will keep up with a tremendous amount of accuracy.
Conclusions
Get this software, it will change your business life, save you a ton of time, and totally increase the amount of content that you create.
Click here to purchase from the Dragon Speech online store
