Michael has been talking to his computer again
With its latest speech recognition software, Nuance has opted move towards a product that's more suited to office workers than a home user. This review is based on the Dragon Professional Individual product, which provides features designed to improve productivity potential.
Following the software's modus opperandi, it first fires up in trial mode. This gives the user up to five launches; a restriction removed by entering the product’s serial number. If any earlier version of the software is detected, then an offer will be made to make use of its data to help create your user profile – otherwise you're led through a process of selecting your geographical region, accent, and setting up your microphone. In either case the software will offer to analyse your documents and sent emails to get a better understanding of your writing style and use of vocabulary. This process, depending upon the amount of data, can be time consuming, but is worth it.
An interactive tutorial covers good dictation habits, using the software to apply corrections as you navigate and select text and web-based features (there are extensions downloadable for IE, Firefox and Chrome). Taking time to go through this will certainly be beneficial for first time users.
Dragon Professional Individual presents access to its functionality in the form of a graphical 'DragonBar', which by default arranges itself at the top of the screen from where it can be moved left or right. The bar can be moved to other positions on the screen, but this does result in a change of appearance to a rather plain version. When not in use, it will collapse itself down to a single icon representing the microphone button.
In its fully opened state, the DragonBar features icons covering options including Profile, Tools, Vocabulary and Audio plus the ability to turn the microphone on/off (the icon changes from red to green accordingly), and select from a choice of modes listed under “Now listening for”. By default you are placed in recognising dictation and commands mode. Other modes include being on the look out for numbers, spelling words plus targeting either dictation or commands.
Several new features have been added to this software. You can create new smart format rules and apply them to selected text, and auto-text commands used to insert boilerplate text into a document following a specified phrase being uttered by the user. The boilerplate text can include variables as can any created commands.
Whether using audio files you have recorded yourself or those created by others, this software can transcribe the content and produce editable text. You will need to create user profiles for those audio files recorded by third-parties. A wizard will lead you through this process. Any elements created within Dragon Professional Individual can be synchronised for use with the cloud-based Dragon Anywhere app for iOS and Android devices.
First and foremost Dragon Professional Individual is speech recognition software, and Nuance claims it to be up to 99% accurate. I was able to match this accuracy when dictating a 533-word document. The resulting text contained just five mistakes, including one relating to formatting. Michael Fereday
Excellent software, more suited to office workers, who can afford the price increase, though.