Speech (or voice) recognition software performs a valuable function, giving business owners, writers, students, and others the ability to create documents by dictating words rather than writing them down. This type of software is also extremely useful for the blind and visually impaired as well as people with learning disabilities who find it challenging to write.
Dragon Speech Recognition, or Dragon Naturally Speaking, has long been a leader in the field of voice recognition software. The company consistently upgrades quality, adds features, and releases a growing number of specialized products. In this Dragon review, we’ll take a look at some of the leading products offered by Nuance’s Dragon Speech and suggest currently available promos and discounts in the pricing section.
Dragon Naturally Speaking is one of the leading voice recognition software suites. This type of software is designed for people who want to be able to speak words out loud and have them converted into text. It can be used for any number of purposes, including:
Letters and emails
Post to social media
Term papers and other academic work.
Blog posts and articles for the internet.
Short stories, novels, and other creative writing.
Brainstorming ideas.
Creating records of meetings and conversations.
There are also more specialized uses for speech recognition software in fields such as education, healthcare, law enforcement, and law.
While the concept of speech recognition software is simple, it’s not always easy to get accurate and user-friendly software to perform this function. Many devices today come with rudimentary software that converts speech into text. Users, however, are often frustrated with the results. Lack of accuracy, background noises, and difficulty using the software can detract from results.
Dragon Speech has a great reputation when it comes to providing high quality, reliable, and user-friendly speech recognition solutions. Now let’s take a look at some of their products.
Dragon Home
Dragon Home is the best choice for individuals who want voice recognition software for personal use. This includes small business owners, entrepreneurs, students, writers, and anyone who wants the freedom to write by speaking out loud. The latest version, Dragon Home 15, is available either as a digital download or as a physical shipment. Here are some of the features and benefits of Dragon Home:
Up to 99% accuracy. When it comes to speech recognition, accuracy is everything. Many free and popular applications fall short in this area, distorting messages.
Uses Nuance Deep Learning Technology. This is the most advanced solution for speech recognition. It naturally adjusts to the environment and nuances in speech.
Transcribes words 3x faster than typing. One of the biggest advantages of Dragon Speech is that it accelerates your productivity. Even the most proficient typists can’t match the speed of speech. This lets you get more done in less time.
Playback feature. This is a recent feature that lets you playback a block of text that you may want to review or edit. This can save you time by letting you edit your speech rather than having to perform extensive edits on the written version later.
Works with Windows PCs and tablets. You can use Dragon Speech with the latest touchscreen PCs and tablets so you can record your work wherever you go. You can dictate in Microsoft Word, send emails in Gmail or Microsoft Outlook.
Web search. Another way to use the voice recognition software is web searching. You can search on Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. You’ll find that searching by voice can be faster and more convenient than by typing in your searches. This gives you a hands-free option to search. The Shortcuts feature lets you break down complex searches into simple voice commands.
You can use Dragon Naturally Speaking for just about any task where you’d normally type on a keyboard. Some users find that they’re immediately more productive with Dragon Speech. For others, there may be an adjustment period as they get accustomed to speaking rather than typing. However, it’s a simple fact that we speak faster than we write or type. After a few days of use, you’ll most likely find that Dragon makes many tasks easier and faster. Anyone can benefit from dictating rather than typing as it’s faster and, for many people, easier and more intuitive.
Writers often find that Dragon Speak makes them a lot more productive. If you’re working on a novel, nonfiction book, or screenplay, you can get pages written faster with dictation. You can also integrate Dragon Naturally Speaking with Scrivener, one of the most popular and feature-rich writing tools.
Scrivener is a software that makes it easier to manage any type of writing project. It helps with outlines, storyboards (called Corkboards in Scrivener), screenplay format, footnotes, and dozens of other tasks. Combining Scrivener’s powerful writing tools with the dictation capability of Dragon can help any writer maximize his or her output.
Dragon Speech Recognition Systems Requirements
Dragon Naturally Speaking is a Windows-compatible software. It works with Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. It’s compatible with IE, Firefox, and Chrome browsers. Other than that, you only need a microphone. You can either use your device’s built-in mic or get a Nuance-approved microphone for even better performance.
Cost of Dragon Home
You can either download or order a physical version of the software for $150. Dragon comes with a 30 day money-back guarantee.
Dragon Promo Codes and Discounts
At the moment, the only place where you can buy discounted Dragon licenses is on Amazon. All other promo codes are not active and we will update here when a new set of discounts is released.
Dragon Professional Individual
Dragon Naturally Speaking has several versions for professionals and those in specialized fields. If you want a general, feature-rich software that offers a little more than the Home version, Professional Individual is worth considering. Dragon Professional Individual v15 has all the features of Dragon Home in addition to quite a few other capabilities useful for business purposes.
Dictate from anywhere. You may not always have your PC or tablet with you when you want to dictate. You can carry around a portable voice recorder so you can dictate from any location and transcribe the recordings later. This is convenient for business travelers, anyone conducting interviews, or anyone who wants to record something from wherever they happen to be. You can transcribe from .mp3, .m4a, .ds2, .wma, .wav and .dss formats.
The Professional Individual version lets you customize the software in many ways. You can create your own custom keywords and commands, such as automatically inserting text or even graphics that you commonly use. You might also customize the software to insert your email signature, call-to-action, or contact information. Another customization lets you import and export your own word lists that contain acronyms or industry-specific terminology you might use.
Dictate and transcribe spreadsheets and presentations using Excel and PowerPoint. Avoid tedious data entry by dictating names, numbers, and any type of data into your spreadsheet programs.
Transcribe a speaker’s voice into text from pre-recorded files. You can also do this from podcasts.
Dragon Speech Professional Individual is a good choice if you want more features and customization that the Home version provides. You can upgrade from the Home version for an additional $150 or buy the software on its own for $300.
While the Home and Professional Individual versions are the most popular, there are also quite a few other products that are useful for individuals and businesses in certain industries.
Dragon Professional Group. If you want to give your entire team or organization speech recognition capabilities, you can do so with this product. You can give your employees, including a mobile workforce (works with Android) documentation capabilities from any location. You enjoy centralized admin management as you increase efficiency across your organization.
Dragon Legal Group. The legal profession has unique needs when it comes to documenting and transcribing. Dragon lets you speed up legal documentation. It includes a specialized legal vocabulary, drawing from over 400 million legal documents for recognition. This solution works for law firms of all sizes, letting you manage user-accounts throughout your practice.
Dragon Law Enforcement. Paperwork is a major challenge in police work and in all law enforcement agencies. This software lets you create incident reports and other documents quickly and accurately without tedious writing or typing. This makes law enforcement personnel more efficient and frees up their time so they can focus on protecting their communities.
Nuance Winscribe Dictation. This is a business solution that lets you automate transcription tasks. Automatically collects dictations and delivers them to the appropriate individual or team. It’s flexible and customizable to each client’s needs. Manage data and create reports that contain the data you need. Keeps your information secure with two layers of security, HTTPS and file encryption. Winscribe Dictation integrates with other Dragon Speech products such as Dragon Legal Group, Professional Group, and Law Enforcement.
Dragon For Education. Transforms the educational experience and helps students reach their potential. Students can use voice recognition for research, to complete homework assignments, and create reports and term papers. This approach is helpful for all students but especially for those with issues such as dyslexia, ADD, and ADHD who may find writing and spelling difficult. Dragon For Education also makes life easier for teachers, making it faster to create lessons, reading lists, and syllabi.
Dragon Anywhere. Professional mobile dictation for Android and iOS lets you perform dictation on the go. You can share documents via email, Dropbox, Evernote, and other applications. The Train Words feature actually learns how you speak so it gets more helpful and accurate the more you use it. If you only want to use Dragon for your phone, this is a viable alternative to buying the desktop package. You can get Dragon Anywhere for $14.99/month or $149.99/year. You can also get Dragon Anywhere Group for organizations with employees in the field that need a robust dictation solution.
Support For Dragon Speech Products
Dragon Speech Recognition products come with full support as well as many training resources to help you get familiar with all of the features. In addition to a searchable knowledge base, there are user guides, cheat cheats, and videos for all Dragon Speech products. You can also get more thorough training from Nuance University in the form of online courses and webinars.
Getting the Most Out of Dragon Speech Software
Dragon Naturally Speaking now includes a wide array of software applications that can fit many purposes. If you want to reap the benefits of this professional grade voice recognition software, there are some points to keep in mind.
Choose the right Dragon Speech product. The Home version is fine for most individuals. If you have a business, however, you may require one of the other products.
Try Dragon Speech for as many tasks as possible. You may not realize how many things you do every day, both in your work and personal life, that could be made easier by dictation. Whenever you catch yourself writing or typing, consider dictating instead.
Take advantage of training and resources. Dragon Speech offers training videos and webinars that explain how to get the most out of the software. If you’re working with a team, make sure everyone is trained to learn how to use the features.
If you’re new to speech recognition software give yourself time to get accustomed to it. Don’t expect to be comfortable with it right away. At first, it may seem forced and unnatural to dictate, especially if you’ve been using a keyboard for many years. However, you’ll probably find that within a few days or weeks dictating will become quick and easy.
Proofread the results. Although Dragon Speech is very accurate, it’s not perfect. You might combine it with a grammar checker such as ProWritingAid to catch errors. However, it’s also useful to manually proofread your work.
Is Dragon Naturally Speaking a Good Value?
It ultimately comes down to personal preference if you want a dictation software or to stick with traditional keyboarding. However, there are undeniable benefits to using Dragon Speech. It’s a simple fact that you can speak faster than you can type or write. You can also dictate in places and situations when writing is not possible, such as while driving or walking.
If you are looking for an efficient way to start using dictation, Dragon Speech offers the most complete solution available anywhere. With its high-quality performance, many versions, frequent upgrades, and thorough support, it gives you the widest range of options for turning your spoken words into accurate text.
