Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard
Jonathan Bray
|
Jan 7, 2009 3:31 PM
|
Dragon | http://www.australia.nuance.com
RRP: $300 (time of review)
Performance: 
Features & Design:
Value for money:
Overall Rating:
User Rating: No user ratings.
|
Accurate speech recognition, a flexible control system and a good price – for those in need, Dragon delivers.
There was a time when speech-recognition software was all
the rage, and packages from the likes of Lernout & Hauspie and Dragon were thought to be the next big thing. “Talk to your computer,” they said. “It’s
a revolution.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t catch on. For some reason, people felt awkward talking to their PC screens. The software didn’t always work well, required lots of training, and you often spent as much time correcting errors as you saved by not having to type. Now Vista has voice recognition built in, too, so the new version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking needs to impress.
And right from the off, it does. After installation we were able to dictate reasonably accurately straight away. All you need to do is select a regional accent (copies purchased in Australia include Australian and South-Asian accents, as well as US and UK English) and you’re good to go. In fact, after an afternoon’s use, the first draft of this review had been written using the software. That’s very impressive.
But there’s a lot more to speech-recognition software these days than simple text dictation. As with Vista’s speech tools, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 gives you voice control over many Windows functions and application-specific features. Using the software’s command mode you can access toolbars, menus, and select and manipulate text.
You can even launch and control programs not specifically programmed into Dragon’s list of supported applications by using mouse control tools and voiced key presses.
Navigating around web pages is surprisingly easy, too. Once you’ve learned a few basic commands you can click on links by speaking them, scroll up and down pages, and even enter web addresses.
If you choose, you can also have a selection of important commands displayed in a pop-up window on the right of the screen; this gets around the problem of forgetting important keywords. A nice touch here is that the list of commands changes as you switch from application to application.
And the application’s three modes – command, dictation and “normal” – allow you to adjust the way you work to suit the task at hand. Use the command mode to browse websites, edit documents, and control windows; use dictation mode for entering plain text at speed; normal mode, meanwhile, combines both modes for more convenient operation.
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.