Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred Edition

In addition to better accuracy, other improvements include the "training period" and vocabularies for teen, adult, and advanced users. After you have chosen the applicable vocabulary, this training period gives the computer time to get to know your voice patterns. Instead of a 45-minute training session (as in the 4.0 version of this product), NaturallySpeaking 5.0 thankfully only requires up to 10 minutes of preparation. The program even offers dictation pointers for those of us who enunciate poorly.

One obvious advantage to voice recognition technology is that your hands are free to hold the telephone or twirl your hair while you dictate. For example, this review actually was written with the program and not with the keyboard--a feat that previously was impossible. The only problem was found when loud noises occurred during use (make sure to keep your kids or noisy officemates out of the room).

While NaturallySpeaking 5.0 is not perfect, it is a vast improvement over earlier versions, as well as its competitors. So, while you can't tell your computer to take out the trash, you can have it write your documents hands-free. Now, if only they would invent the transporter. --Madeleine J. Miller

Amazon.com Product Description
Write business letters, e-mail, and reports by voice with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred. This full-featured speech-recognition product is designed for the creation and editing of text documents, reports, and e-mails in a small-office/home-office environment. Version 5.0 features improved accuracy from a company already recognized for its accuracy. Make corrections faster and easier with the new, convenient Quick Correct Box. Learn with a hands-on tutorial that leads you through basic dictation techniques. Dictate into popular e-mail programs, or use voice commands to send and manage your mail. Use the new Add Words from Document feature to add terminology quickly. Get started promptly--all machines that meet the minimum system requirements of the software now learn your voice in under five minutes. Advanced features include Text-to-Speech, letting you listen to your work, hearing any text--such as incoming e-mail--read aloud; Dictation Playback, to help your editing and proofreading; and Commonly Used Text, which allows you to create dictation shortcuts so you can insert multiple lines of text (such as a letter closing) with only a few words. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred also supports the transcription of your words directly into documents from approved portable recording devices (sold separately).

I was especially disappointed to find out how long it takes to get started once you actually start to software. For example, when you click the mike on, sometimes it would be almost a full minute before the program would start to understand your speech. Sometimes I had to turn the microphone off and on a couple of times.

The software fascinates me and does impress me to a certain degree. It is truly amazing technology. However, there is much to be desired in terms of usability. I paid a lot of money for this software, and I expect it to conform to a certain standard.

I am going to try IBM ViaVoice.


Very Good but the new version 7.0 is much better   October 25, 2003
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

The Dragon 5.0 is good but the new 7.0 version is EXCELLENT and is the way to go if you want to optimize your money.Dragon 7.0 is very accurate and has more speech capabilites.


Great Product   August 19, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I was extemely pleased with this product. I bought it used off of Amazon.com. I loaded it on my desktop and I was writing a research paper for law school from note cards within an hour. I was extremely pleased with the accuracy of recognition. It was well worth the cost.


Excellent Product   March 14, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Excellent product - not perfect. Takes a little time to "train" the software, but it works well. Actually does a number of things that I did not expect. Documentation is excellent which is a major plus compared to some software.