I have been using Dragon as an alternative to typing my novels. When used consistently, it provides for larger numbers of words per hour than I could ever type and it gives my wrists a break. It has a learning curve that's not something to ignore. You have to train the software and be patient with it and yourself at first. My preferred method of working with it is to record myself and then use Dragon to transcribe my dictation. It does a lot better with non fiction than with fiction at first. It's not great with exotic names (so if you write unconventional character names, you will have a few issues unless you use easier variants for dictation), but it can be trained to recognize even those if you take the time to correct it. It's great if you spend a large number per day typing, as it will reduce the strain you put on your wrists. With practice, it also increases the number of words per hour you can get on paper. Please bear in mind though that I spent more time training myself to dictate than I did learning how to use the software or to train it. Dictating a piece of fiction is a very different process than typing it and it will take time at first to get Dragon to understand you. Unless you have a very clean accent, you'll spend more time training it to recognize your speech patterns. English is not my native language and my accent is not a standard one, but I had very few issues getting it to accurately transcribe what I was saying.

Dragon is my preferred dictation software for my novels. I love the accuracy and how it can be improved through using the software repeatedly.

Dragon is not the best at handling accents and transcription can take a while.

Currently I was able to get the accuracy on my invoicing corrected and I use it daily. I also use it for customer descriptions on the custom products I design along with taking notes for new designs, customer meetings and for vendor resourcing. Being as though I can speak and do all of that it allows me the ability to keep working on the projects I am doing simultaneously.

I have been an avid user of Dragon Naturally speaking for several years. I have been on version 2 since it was released some 10+ years ago. I liked the software but was hesitant to upgrade it due to all the issues it had back then with integration and the limited amount of usability. I recently decided to upgrade to Dragon Professional Individual v.15. Being as though I was a previous user the setup was easy and the migration of vocabulary files was simple and worry free. The tutorial was simple and but could have been more informative. However the purpose for upgrading was to utilize the new features that it offered for my business. At first most users having never used a software of this nature could be easily intimidated by the amount of features it offers. I personally was a bit surprised by what all this version could do in comparison to my "dinosaur" version of the application. The overall integration to nearly every application that I use was simple and very effective in most cases. I can use it for invoices, taking short notes on ideas of new products to design, reply to emails and the list goes on. Virtually anywhere that text is used you can implement the use of this software. And with the Dragon anywhere subscription feature you can literally take it anywhere and use it whether on a pc, laptop, or cellular device.

I have found this version to be a bit clunky when it comes to invoices and overall voice depiction accuracy. For example every time I say the number 1 it puts in "none". Overall it does have a higher accuracy level than the previous versions and much better than most comparable software publications on the market. I do find the overall business integration to be rather smooth and simple. If I had any complaints it would be not having some general templates designed for voice use such as general invoices, sample email setups and items like that where the accuracy ration should be virtually perfect and just process through said items with speed and ease.

I wish I could say that this solved a business problem or for me rather an academic accommodation issue. I spend more time making corrections after this program dictates then I do if I just type it myself. The entire purpose of me purchasing this crap for a second time was to make life easier and leave me time to focus on more important things, but I could never be so lucky instead I wasted hundreds of dollars on a program that has done nothing but cause me to get creative with my use of obscenities.

I can read and not take at the same time- when it decides to work.

It is very inaccurate, I often have to type what I dictated and go back over the reading again. This is the only speech recognition that works with sonnocent except that it doesn't work with that program, it dictates hi, him, and ummm was a complete waste of money especially the premium price for dragon professional, there are cheaper programs that work better, it is a bummer that Dragon has an exclusive license with sonnocet, because I have to listen to and dictate 28 hours of recordings every week, since this hot garbage of a program does not work for the purpose I purchased it for. Some smartalic will say well you need to run the accuracy tuner, or let the program improve accuracy, well I am not a moron and I have done this and GUESS WHAT? IT GETS WORSE, YOU CANNOT DEFEND THIS GARBAGE!!!!

I originally bought Dragon Speech Software for my Dad as he was aging and had growing difficulty sitting at his computer and typing accurately. For him it actually proved more of a nuisance since the program had to learn his voice and much of his vocabulary before it could be of any real use to him. I did find more use for it myself, but still had to get through that original adjustment period.

This software is great for people who have difficulty typing and/or for anyone who wants to transcribe a large physical document into digital form and does not have use of a scanner.

The learning curve of the program can be a bit difficult to overcome in the early stages as the program learns the user's voice, intonations, and inflections. It does work better with more use, but you must be aware of errors when you first get started.

Very good and will continue using as it saves me a lot of time.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is a great concept and saves me a lot of time when writing long emails. It is much quicker than typing.

You have to proof read the writing thoroughly, otherwise you may have completely random words thrown in. Also, when used for gmail on a browser there can be quite a bit of lag.

Extensive Laboratory use

We have been using Dragon for years - while the concept is excellent, the execution is only fair. Easy to use, easy to set up, very nice "canned comments" and functionality to use.

Errors are frequent enough to cause concern - going into, then back out of records for recording and re-recording can be problematic. Incorrect translations are frequent enough to cause concerns - translation of words like "thymus" into "time us" is not acceptable. The company does appear to come out with real-time improvements and efforts to correct, however, the errors that make it through are concerning.

This software provided encouragement to a special needs student so he would make better attempts at speaking loudly and clearly. I benefited by making progress with a student and he benefited because it made him focus on producing clear speech.

I used this software with a student that needed encouragement to speak clearly. He was a special needs student and being able to speak and see his spoken words was very motivating to him. Also, if he didn't use his best articulation skills, his words would not appear correctly on the screen. It was a fun challenge to him to say his words clearly so they would appear correctly. This may not be the intended purpose for the software, but it was a great program to use for Speech Therapy.

As with any affordable voice to text recognition software, there are times when you speak fairly clearly but it still displays an incorrect word. Generally, a second attempt will produce the correct word.

This application allows users to type from speech. This is very valuable for social scientists doing a lot of interviews. Instead of spending time, which is usually a very long time, to transcribe the data, it is easier to use the application to type the data for you. It has good voice recognition quality so your data will likely maintain its form, around 80-90% accuracy.

It requires a lot of memory. It would run fine and smooth at first but the longer you work with it, the more memory it will consume until it crashes.

Once you spend some time training the algorithm, you start getting a pretty accurate recognition of the dictated sentences. The Mac and the Windows version work both comparably well.

Their customer service basically is terrible, to give them a compliment. Expect few crashes here and there, so save often or you'll lose your work. I have a feeling that my smartphone does a comparable job if not better in terms of voice recognition.

A decent tool for those who are not fast goers and are very limited on time for transcription.

Ability to speak my transcription notes as a provider into the electronic medical record system at my clinic.

Inability of the software to decipher complex words. Notes are choppy and have to be edited by hand. If you are a fast typer it would be easier to do that.

I do some of my most creative writing late at night. I’ll set up Dragon and then just start talking without paying attention to the program. If I get stuck I’ll just think of something else and just start talking again. I won’t even check my work at the end of the night. Just save it and go to bed. The next day I’ll go over it and be amazed at the quality of most of the copy I’ve written. The text seems noticeably improved over what I write when I’m poking and pecking at a keyboard.

I'm an author. I've written a book and many short articles that were published in a variety of online magazines. I have been using the Dragon Speech Recognition software for over 3 years and I love it. I'm not a great typist and in the past I'd have an idea but my sluggish typing would slow me down before I could get my thoughts recorded. With Dragon you simply speak and the software does the typing. While Dragon unquestionably saves you time and effort, more importantly it allows you to maintain your train of thought and commit your ideas much more concisely. Dragon has positively improved the efficiency and the quality of my writing.

Dragon does make mistakes. It Claims to have a 99% accuracy rate but that means if you are writing a 1000 word essay, you’ll have 10 mistakes. You definitely have to go over your work and fix any problems. Dragon creates a user profile. Over time it ‘learns’ your voice and pronunciations and improves its accuracy. Dragon also has difficulty with punctuation. I deal with it by speaking the punctuation where I need it. When I end a sentence I’ll say the word “period” or “question mark”. Doing this, while using Dragon, gets to be second nature very quickly. In my opinion Dragon’s benefits far outweigh its minor shortcomings.

I dictate regularly, and it makes it so much easier to write notes (and saves my fingers from early arthritis, I'm sure). I'm able to "teach" this program medical terminology, and it makes my job so much easier. Would highly recommend for anyone who needs to write notes at length.

Dragon is one of those software apps that seems to have been around forever, and for good reason. Having used this for medical dictation, I can say Dragon is perhaps the best in the field. It's easy to use, easy to set up, and it adapts rather well (you can add your own words that may not normally be recognized, so medical terminology can be programmed in based on your pronunciation). In addition to dictation, which Dragon does extremely well, you can also use Dragon to execute commands based on voice prompts. While I use this feature less, it is still rather functional. In short, Dragon adapts well and performs well. It's the leader in dictation software for a reason.

My only complaint would be that it uses up a lot of memory, which can be a problem on older machines. I personally use my laptop primarily, which is newer and does not run into these problems, but if you're forced to use an older desktop it may be laggy at times.

As an Occupational Therapist, I use this software with many of my patients who can no longer type, or who have difficulty with vision. Dragon Speech is by far the go to product for all of us in my field because what it does can be learned so quickly, modified very simply, and adaptable and sophisticated enough to help students needing to write papers, create assignments, etc. It is also helpful for those of us who do point of service documentation because dictating basic information while performing an evaluation removes the laptop from between me and my new patient. I cannot stress how extremely important that can be when working with someone who cannot process with even slight distraction. So much good in one small package. Worth every penny.

The only drawback i ever have is cost for people with low income situations but we typically find a way around this. An academic specific program would be nice for students with various differing abilities who need to be able to utilize specific programs with their classmates for group projects, etc. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say.

Having used this software for over 15 years I have finally given up on it and changed to an online free service that is not only good, but doesn't use up massive amounts of computer resources, and interfere with other running processes running on the computer and gives a surprisingly accurate output albeit not as sophisticated as Dragon.

Its basically a very good program but recent upgraqdes have become increasingly buggy, and have incompatibility problems with windows 10 that causes crashes and freezes and random changes in font size and configurations.

The company takes no notice of customer complaints about the program, and have made no attempt to correct them or issue upgrades to overcome them. Trying to anyone to help in managing these problems is almost impossible.

Overall experience has been very satisfactory. I have cut my work time in half.

The ability to just be able to speak and have it transcribe accurately and quickly. I do student assessments and curriculum adjustments daily. It is time consuming if you are stuck at the keyboard all day. This allows me to get other tasks accomplished simultaneously. Spelling is usually error free and it gets accustomed to words and phrases you use often. I am getting so many words per minute accomplished using this method rather than typing.

A little pricey. I would recommend for people who will use it multiple times per week to make it cost efficient. You may want to invest in a good microphone. I got one online at a reasonable price. my children are Home schooled and also use it from time to time. If you are using this for children be sure they speak loudly and clearly as it may make more errors when words are not spoken clearly. Cumbersome installation but worth it in the end!

No need for transcriptionist as Dragon is more efficient, and can keep up with fast talkers like myself.

I love that the more Dragon is used, the better it recognizes words and voices. I use Dragon in clinic when dictating notes, and the program transcribes flawlessly. The program seems to remember previous notes and is able to spell things like medication names and medical conditions with no problems at all. Can add multiple users all with unique voice profiles.

Slows down the computer, especially when needing to switch from Word to EMR. Seems that in order to use this software, you would need quite a bit of memory to support it.

I haven't found anything to top DNS for what it does. I wish the company behind it was more interested in product support than pushing out paid upgrades that aren't ready yet.

It's the best on the market. If you put the time into it, you can get excellent results. It can be lifesaver for your hands and wrists if you type a lot.

It's clunky and is prone to glitches and issues. When it's working it's great. When it's not, it can be a pain. Instead of fixing issues and issuing a patches, the company is more concerned with frequent paid upgrades without fixing the problems in the version you already paid for.

Overall, once tailored to my voice found this very easy and pretty accurate. As noted above, I actually looked this better when I used EPIC and found it more user friendly and efficient. Still use it now, but mostly for A/P.

Once set up for the user, is easy to use and definitely helps facilitate charting/notes to be done quickly. Have seen other providers used this in the patient room though I prefer the use it once the visit is complete.

This software is easier to use in different EHRs - I actually found it better suited when I had EPIC as opposed the allscripts.

As someone who crafts as a job, my hands are often busy, or covered in glue or paint or stain. I often have emails to write, or reply to for customers asking questions about sizes, and colors and the like. Its not always easy to stay on top of emails!! Dragon has saved me!! I don't have to put down my pliers, or my paint brushes, or whatever is in my hands to answer a customer question! I have a New England accent, which my phone hates, but Dragon gets just about every word I say! Very rarely does it make a mistake, and I am super grateful for that. Great product, highly recommend.

No cons in my book, this has saved me so much time and hassle.

it is an intuitive speech recognition program so even those with accents can use it relatively easily oncve they train it to recognize their patterns.

I'd been using Dragon Medical for years when I transferred to a new position. When I arrived my dragon had not moved with me ... I considered it a deal breaker. "No dragon no transfer" It took a few weeks but finally my dragon turned up on my computer snuggled down on my task bar .

I work at multiple sites and the dragon icon doesn't transfer easily

You can customize your own templates which is intended to make workflow more efficient. You can also customize hotkeys and pedal buttons if you are recording with a foot pedal. If you buy the learning software it can learn your voice and remember your preferences. It can also be integrated into other software systems.

The voice recognition is very poor most of the time. I have had a lot of problems with this program crashing. It is very unfortunate if the program crashes and you are in the middle of a long dictation. I also think the functionality could be more intuitive.

Although it isn't perfect, it's the best option out there from what I hear, and I'll continue to use it while hoping improvements continue to be made to the software.

I like that I can use it to write my novels without exacerbating my carpal tunnel syndrome--it's extremely easy once it's all set up and I've written entire novels with it.

I'm not crazy about its ability to recognize certain words. Swear words are impossible. If it mixes up a homonym, it can be hard to fix if it's something like to/too/two and there are many in the document already. Basically, it isn't perfect.

Overall Dragon is a nice product that can save you time. I don't know very many people that can type fast than they can talk.

Dragon is great and will type for you. The more you use it the better it works. It has other functionality besides just typing text for you.

Sometimes words that are spoken to not type correctly within the application I am using like word or outlook.

This software enables me to run my business efficiently and quickly. The dictation is highly accurate. Editing is easy. I have used this software for decades and it has developed into a useful and necessary tool.

Navigation could be improved. It can be difficult to navigate around certain webpages.

I have nerve issues in my hands and arms, and so typing is not possible, and I was very worried it would make me unable to do my job. Dragon let me to regain that part of me that I lost, allow me to voice type (and format by voice), and so I've been able to continue doing my same job.

It's pretty straightforward to use, offers good tutorials if you need it, and learns from your voice and your speech patterns. I mostly use it for dictation and voice typing.

Controlling the mouse by voice is difficult, and especially difficult on two monitors (which is my set up at work). Some applications don't allow direct dictation, or you can't correct things once you dictated them, which is annoying but possible to work around.