Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was also a user of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 12.0 (and later 12.5 when they updated it) because I purchased it from Amazon a while back. On the whole, I would say that I was happy with 12.0's ability to transcribe what I was saying, but I really didn't like how often I needed to work in a separate window to accomplish what I wanted (I do a lot of work within web forms and apps, and it did better in its own Dragon transcription window than in the browser directly). I'm pointing that out because that has improved a lot, and this is the biggest improvement I personally see in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13. I am much more consistently able to just speak and have it transcribe directly into a form on a website itself, without having the cursor occasionally seem to just run off and be in the wrong spot for reasons that weren't always completely apparent. For my personal pattern of use, this is a vast improvement. If your intention was to mostly use the software within a Microsoft Word window, of course, this won't be such a big deal to you. I also like the interface a little better, because it does a better job of folding itself up into a tiny space in one spot rather than taking a bar across the top of your screen the whole time. I'm a fan of holding onto all of the vertical space I can get. I sometimes even move my task bar over and make it horizontal along the side of a window. I wasn't really a fan of Dragon sticking a bar across the top of my window. The transcription accuracy does seem to be slightly improved, but it's nothing revolutionary for me personally. That said, I have a relatively neutral U.S. English accent (by this I mean I speak a lot like news anchors and such), so I don't think I'm the most challenging person when it comes to doing voice recognition anyway. For people who have a stronger regional accent, I wouldn't be surprised if the change is a little more pronounced. If you're curious about the difference between home and premium, that's mostly just things like being able to work on an Excel spreadsheet, or to do recordings on your phone when you're out and have the software transcribe them later. Not a big deal to most people, but something to keep in mind if you're a big spreadsheet fan or you were hoping to dictate letters in your car during your commute and have them converted into text later. On the whole, I'm reasonably happy with the software. I'm a little hesitant to recommend it wholeheartedly, because every report I've ever heard from anyone about dealing with the company's customer support has been negative, and that means it can be a big headache if you do run into trouble. On the other hand, I have never personally had to go looking for support and you can always hope that you'll have the same experience. It's also worth noting that Nuance is one of those companies that periodically offers rebates and sales on its products. When I first bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12, I think it was actually an Amazon GoldBox deal. Anyway, my point is that you can get a pretty decent price reduction if you have the luxury of waiting. I'd also like to point out that, for me personally, writing through Dragon is SLOWER than typing. I see people talk about getting it so that they can go faster, but this isn't true of everyone. I spend a lot of time on computers and I'm a fairly fast typist, so it's not really faster for me to talk. Also, I've done a lot of writing on keyboards and so I more naturally frame my thoughts as I go with a keyboard. When I speak, I have to stop and work out how I want to organize things a lot more. I'm not saying that to try to make it sound like the software is useless. I did choose to buy it anyway, after all! (Well, originally. My copy of 13 was given to me so that I could try it out and review it). For someone who doesn't type very quickly or comfortably, the software will make you faster. If you do type quickly and comfortably, it'll let you do things hands-free. This means I can pet the dog, move different papers around (like if I'm looking at different sources that I want to reference for information), or just generally give my hands and wrists a rest for a little while. For me personally, I have to use computers for so many things that having voice-recognition software that I can use is also an emergency backup plan. I view it as something that would help me keep my life from turning into an absolute train wreck if I were to sprain a wrist or something. Anyway, the software genuinely works pretty well, so long as you're willing to go through an adjustment period where you work out how to speak your papers and letters and whatever instead of typing them. I don't actually know of any particularly viable competitors to Nuance in this field, so if you want voice recognition software this is pretty much what you're stuck with (though you might be able to get a copy of a previous version very very cheaply if you prefer to go that route rather than getting version 13). So if you want voice recognition, this gets the job done, and it's really the only viable choice I know of. You might try the built in voice recognition on Microsoft Windows or something, for basic tasks, but that's not good enough for anything elaborate. Within the voice recognition field, as far as I know, this is the best product that's available to consumers.