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Dragon Naturally Speaking:

A Software Review
by Anita Plutchik, PhD*
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.

For the uninitiated, Dragon Naturally Speaking is the king of voice recognition software. Speak into its supplied microphone-headset and your text magically appears on your screen. Having used this fine software from its inception, this is the fourth review that I've written about it for SPCUG. I began several years ago by reviewing Version 1 and am now doing Preferred Version 5. As each upgrade has come out, there have been improvements in the recognition accuracy as well as general spelling, grammar and various other aspects of speech recognition. Version 5, however, contains major changes and I'm not referring to the fact that the familiar desktop icon has changed from the tiny blue and white scene to a cute red dragon!

Until now, you had to open the Naturally Speaking program separately for each word processor in order to use it. With version 5, you can open it and simply leave it open. That is, it will be available to you in your various programs; you will not have to recall it. If you choose to leave it open, you have a choice of having the new DragonBar on your screen at all times or simply sending it to the task bar. This took a little getting used to, but now I love this feature. Anyone who uses voice recognition, know that it does not open in a flash; rather it has to load your specific voice training each time you want to use it. Therefore, this saves you a good deal of time.

Version 5 has further increased accuracy and yet retains the ability for more than one person to use the same program. Each user can train it for his or her particular voice. When opened , the dialog box asks the identity of the user. This is clearly a very large advantage when the program is going to be used by more than one person, whether in an office or within a family. Furthermore, you can now dictate in a second language by installing multiple languages.

The new Quick Correct Box enables easier proofreading and correction of text. Also new is the Add Words from Document feature. It scans your documents for particular words you use and adds them to the NaturallySpeaking vocabulary. The Text-To-Speech and Dictation Playback greatly assists with editing. You can listen to your own documents or other files such as email being read aloud to you and then make changes. Finally, the Add Words from Document feature improves accuracy by quickly adding new words to the vocabulary from existing documents.

Although previous versions have supported WordPerfect and Microsoft Word, this latest version can be used with any popular word processor. More important, it adds an extensive set of new voice commands to browse the Web and manage email navigation by voice. Most popular email programs can be controlled with your voice. New commands such as Check for New Mail, Send Email, and Reply to Message have been added.

Another improvement is having voice commands readily available with helpful on-screen reminders, extensive online help references, a detachable command reference card, and a top 10 commands sticker for your keyboard or monitor. The package contains several cards with reminders of the instructions that you need to use for these special commands. Lastly there is a new feature which simplifies things by allowing you to create dictation shortcuts to insert multiple lines of text, such as a letter closing, with only a few words.

Since I had the previous version on my computer, it copied all of my speech patterns immediately upon installation. If you are new to the program, it will require about 30 minutes of training for it to take normal speech dictation with about 90 percent accuracy. Although the program will correctly read a single word, it typically waits for a whole sentence or clause before typing on the screen. This is in order to use the correct word since, for the most part, it differentiates beautifully between homonyms. That is, it decides from the context of the sentence if the word is whether or weather; there or their, etc. There are many first names, and some common last names, already in the memory.

There is true continuous speech recognition allowing you to speak to your computer naturally and at a normal pace, up to 160 words per minute, without pausing between words. There are commands for all aspects of punctuation as well as verbal commands that enable you to move words, lines, and paragraphs around within your document. You can also copy, cut and paste verbally. A special dialog box enables you train new words to the extensive existing vocabulary. The package contains several cards with reminders of the instructions that you need to use for these special commands.

As with all of the earlier versions, most of the difficulty lies with small words and pronouns, such as: and, the, of, etc. It is sometimes necessary to retrain the program with the dialog box to catch the nuances of exactly how you say these words. With regard to this particular problem, I found that by speaking a little more quickly, I actually had less problems with the small words. As in the past, the accuracy improves with time and use.

The Preferred Version 5 also features expanded support for a program called NaturallyMobile. This feature provides support for approved hand-held recording devices to let you create text even when you are away from your PC. We bought one of these about a year ago. Although it required some extra training, we are able to use the hand-held recorder to dictate anywhere in the house, car, etc. A cable is provided which is always plugged into our computer at one end, and we simply plug in the recorder to the other. Simply turn on the power button and the dictated material appears on the screen.

Overall, Naturally Speaking is a wonderfully efficient way to dictate material. Anyone who decides to use this program must realize that it takes some training before you can depend on it. Although it comes with more than a 30,000 word-active vocabulary which can be expanded up to 250,000, there will always be many words, especially names and places, that are not on the list. Some of the many features allow you to verbally edit, format or correct words and phrases; to insert frequently used phrases and sentences by saying a single word or phrase; to find words in text files and enter the words, their pronunciations, and the word usage information into your personal vocabulary; to detect accents and dialects; and to add your own unique words, terms and names automatically. For regular usage, the spelling is excellent.

Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98, 2000, Millennium, or NT 4.0 (with SP-6 or greater) operating systems; a 266 MHz processor or equivalent; at least 64 MB RAM; a minimum of 150 MB free disk; a Dragon Systems certified sound card, CD-ROM and speakers.