- Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
- Next message: malkajef@@orthohelp.com: "New versions of Nat"
- Previous message: Holland St.John: "Re: NaturallySpeaking correction foibles"
- In reply to: Ben.Pashley.APH@@mktmail.com: "Re[2]: NS 202 german Ed. problems"
- Next in thread: LVASoftnet: "Re: PCMag review of ViaVoice & NaturallySpeaking"
I don't get PC Magazine anymore. I do however consider NaturallySpeaking
a fairly frustrating and irritating program to use. I haven't used
ViaVoice Gold but so far everything I've seen posted makes me believe
that NaturallySpeaking is the best program available for continuous
speech dictation. I use the program, daily in my work, and it has saved
me a considerable amount of money. I consider it a truly remarkable
programming accomplishment and has many nice features.
However compared to many other programs in mature fields I consider it
somewhat temperamental and irritating. Since I have had a good financial
interest in making NaturallySpeaking work well I have stuck with it. I
do however believe that those with little interest in this type of
program, little financial interest or other motivation in making the
program work well may very well give up after an initial brief trial.
This is especially true if there are no experienced users around to
"hold their hand".
The low accuracy rate you say the magazine reported is surprising
however. I have no particular explanation for this. I have no particular
quarrel with their failure to award a "editors choice award", this is
especially understandable with the low accuracy they reported.
Certainly the people that read and post on this news group in have a
greater than average interest and devotion to making the program work
well and I don't consider them "mainstream users."
For instance, in the sentence above when I dictated "greater than" I got
">". I brought up the correction box and got no alternatives. Since I
never use ">", I went to the topic editor and tried to delete the ">"
symbol, only to find that it is one of the words that I am not allowed
to delete. To get the program to display "greater than" I have to leave
a pause between "greater" and "than" when I dictate. Irritating.
Holland
David Rollo wrote:
>
> Does anyone have comments on the fairly negative review of
> NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice in the March 10 issue of PC Magazine?
>
> PC Mag gave both NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice a thumbs down as
> currently-worthwhile tools for the average user. Five different reviewers
> tested the programs, and according to the report, all described lots of
> frustration in use, and accuracy no better than 89% after training.
>
> The magazine declined to award an Editors' Choice, and suggested
> "mainstream consumers" wait for further improvements before buying. The
> magazine concluded that "some users could benefit .. if they're willing to
> invest the time...".
>
> These findings may not square with the experience of many established
> users, but PC Magazine hardware / software reports have a reputation for
> reliability, and usually carry a lot of weight in the marketplace.
>
> David Rollo
- Next message: malkajef@@orthohelp.com: "New versions of Nat"
- Previous message: Holland St.John: "Re: NaturallySpeaking correction foibles"
- In reply to: Ben.Pashley.APH@@mktmail.com: "Re[2]: NS 202 german Ed. problems"
- Next in thread: LVASoftnet: "Re: PCMag review of ViaVoice & NaturallySpeaking"
 |  |