Talking to your computer

[bigpoppasan]

I'm just about down to buy Dragon Naturally Speaking (nuance.com) to become more time efficient on proposals and other Word work.

Before i buy it, does anyone else use software talk to their computer?

[Phil Tanny]

Yes, sorta, well, I did for awhile.

I used iListen on the Mac, not Dragon.

Honestly, I'm not sure time efficiency is the best reason to get voice recognition software.

Voice recognition is some of the most sophisticated software out there, and it involves a good bit of work to learn the programs, and get them running right.

You have to actually train the software over time to recognize your voice. It's not like regular software where you just read the manual, learn what the buttons do, and then you're done.

It's actually similar to training a wild animal, a lot of repetition is involved, and you get bitten quite a bit.

I don't mean to discourage you, because those who master voice recognition are often very fond of their setups.

I just mean to warn you to keep your expectations realistic. For the first few months, it will probably cost you time, not save you time.

I just didn't have the patience for the training period myself. If I was going to do it again, I'd set aside an hour a day to work on it, and not expect results for some time. Just be patient, and whittle away at it, bit by bit.

I'm interested in voice recognition too. But for now, I'm hanging back, and waiting for that industry to mature.

I'm hoping they'll have it really ready by the time I'm too old to type.

[business opportunities]

I use dragon and it worked very well. My only real problem was I had to learn the "language" that the software used. It really becomes a problem if you quit using it for awhile, you have to learn it all over again.

[ChristyK]

I got Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 about 3 weeks ago when Amazon was offering a rebate. I am very impressed with the software. I am not known for speaking very clearly in common conversation, but this software does a great job of understanding my speech and it took very little training. Be aware, however, that you should have at least one gig of RAM to run the software. I was a bit disappointed when I found I had to spend money on additional memory, but I guess my computer needed it anyway. A headset came with the software, but it is very uncomfortable. Though I am still using it, I plan to pick up a $14 headset from Wal-Mart that my husband is using (unless someone buys me a Plantronics headset for Christmas ).

My main purpose in buying the software is to dictate articles and re-write articles. I have not yet used it as much as I expected to, but I know I will in the near future. I just dictated this post and there were only two errors.

Christy

[ChristyK]

Hey, guess what. If you are going to get DNS and need more RAM, there's a huge rebate at Tiger Direct that brings final price on high quality ULTRA 512MB RAM to only $9. Cost is $79 - $40 rebate - $30 rebate = $9! So if you can afford the money upfront until the rebates come in it's a no-brainer.

The rebates are only good for 13, 14, 15th which means today is your last chance. I might have to buy one through my sister as well so I can get 2.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 6829&Tab=5

Christy

[MommyEnterprises]

When I first read the title of the post, I thought about yelling at mine when it makes me mad!

[CorpRebel]