And there’s an impressive amount of customisability here as well. If it persistently gets a word wrong you can train it to recognise the way you say it. Spelling awkward words is as simple as saying “spell” and then literally spelling the word out, letter by letter. The software learns from its mistakes, too: as you dictate and continue to correct words it builds a more accurate picture of the way you speak, giving it a better chance of getting words right first time.

The question is, would you use it in your everyday work? The answer to that question very much depends on you and your needs. There may be those who are forced to use dictation software – those who cannot physically manipulate a keyboard and mouse, for instance – and for these people it may prove a lifesaver. But for the average office worker looking for a quicker way to enter text, it isn’t as effective a tool as you might think.

The key problem is that moving the cursor around, editing text and generally fiddling around with the way something has been written is still clunky. Telling a piece of software to “move up one line”, “go back three words”, or “go to end of document” doesn’t make for swift document editing. And neither are the web-browsing tools perfect: advanced Ajax-based websites such as the BBC and Gmail flummox its link selection engine, with many rendered unclickable.

However, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 works extremely well otherwise, and its accuracy and extra features – the context-sensitive help, automatic learning system and web browsing controls – push it ahead of Vista’s built-in offering. If you choose the standard version, which includes a standard headset, it’s pretty good value at $300. For that alone it deserves to be applauded, although we still can’t see ourselves making a habit of talking to our PCs in the office.