A Quick Tip for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Users
I know that there are quite a few of us who are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking or other voice recognition software here at Wealthy Affiliate, I am one of them. I'm on my fourth version of Dragon naturally speaking, I think I started at about version 7 and now I am on version 15.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking or Dragon unnaturally speaking as I sometimes call it is much better than it used to be, I do believe that a lot of this is due to me using a much more powerful laptop, which I'm told is very important when using Dragon. Apparently, 8 GB plus of RAM is ideally required and a decent processor.
One of things that I find annoying is Dragon is how erratic it seems to be at times, sometimes the accuracy seems really good and other times is absolutely pathetic! I don't know if this is how I am talking or if my laptop is not running 100% on these occasions, either way it can behave in a very childish manner at times!
Something that I have found that helps a lot is to create new profiles on a regular basis and just delete your old profile. It seems like when I create a new profile the accuracy increases hugely.
I created a new profile in September 2018 and by 13th October Dragon was behaving terribly, so yesterday I created a new profile and problem solved. The accuracy now is probably about 95%, whereas before I created a new profile I was almost correcting every single sentence or more, it was absolutely appalling.
I would be interested to hear about your experience with Dragon and what tips help you.
Thank you for reading.
Roy
Recent Comments
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Amendment
I'm actually using Dragon naturally speaking version 15 not 13 as I originally quoted in my blog post.
Roy
It is something I haven't used for a long time. Perhaps I need to start using it again.
Derek
It's probably worth trying Derek, I don't know which version you have? Just make sure that you have a reasonably powerful PC.
Enjoy your day.
Roy
I will have to upgrade mine as I am using windows 10 and I have dragon 11 - quite an old version which they say is not compatible with windows 10.
Derek
Thank you for your reply Derek, it's probably well worth upgrading if you think you're going to use Dragon, I think you'll find a considerable improvement.
Enjoy your day.
Roy
I had this program years ago to use with my son while homeschooling. I hadn’t thought about it for blogging. Thanks!
It's probably worth a try Heidi, you may want to update to a later version though, just make sure your laptop or PC has plenty of power.
Enjoy your day.
Roy
Other than starting a new profile, did you clear the cache? This helps me with this and other applications. I use several different types of software. This one is among the best
Thank
Thank you for your reply William, in answer to your question, I haven't, I will try this next time and see what happens. Thank you for the tip.
Enjoy your day.
Roy
I too recently updated my Dragon profile and it's behaving better since then. One of the things I found that consumes a lot of memory is having a lot of tabs open in Chrome. At least I've got a really great laptop with a brilliant processor and heaps of RAM.
Occasionally I'll actually let Dragon get away with some of its mistakes because they're funny. 😂🤣😁
Thank you for taking the time to reply Marion. It's interesting that you say about tabs that I often have around 35 tabs open, it's amazing how they build up! I know that having a good processor and loads of RAM makes a huge difference.
I hear you regarding Dragon's mistakes, however, referring to Mrs Ugen as Mrs Fatso is a mistake that I felt I had to correct! (A true story.)
Enjoy your day.
Roy
Hello! I found on my windows 10 laptop that it has speech to text recognition. I haven't played with it much but it does work. However, I did see quite a few errors and had to fix so much I figured it's just easier to type it. By the time I said "period" "space space" "comma" "new line" etc... Was driving me nuts lol...
Is there a better way to use these programs to make your article writing quicker?
Hello Sabrina,
In my experience, I would use a professional speech recognition program, like Dragon naturally speaking, otherwise, it just leads to huge frustrations.
Enjoy your day.
Roy
I haven't tried Dragon yet, but it's on my list of things to try. Thank you for pointing out creating a new profile in case Dragon goes juvenile on me. Great info Roy!
Thank you for your reply, Florencio, I have used Dragon for quite a few years now, it can be frustrating at times and you have to check everything very carefully as Dragon can make some horrendous mistakes, which can give a sentence a totally different meaning! It's definitely worth a try though, I can't type particularly quickly so it is quicker than me trying to type.
Enjoy your week.
Roy
Hi Roy!
I too have struggled with the "Dragon"!!!
I have Parkinson's Disease with variable voice tonal quality from minute to minute...also a Scottish/Irish lilty voice even though I'm 100% Canadian born...Dragon doesn't like that either! LOLOL!
Brilliant regarding the Profile Reset - "I'll give that a wee-whirl" and see if it helps!
Many thanks!
Barb of Easy-Moneys
Thank you for taking the time to reply Barbara, I do appreciate it.
First of all, I am very sorry to hear that you have Parkinson's. My father had Parkinson's and I have to say that the doctors looked after him very well, I do believe that huge improvements are being made with this disease, which is great news.
Just one thing Barbara, are you using the latest version of Dragon and do you have a PC with a good processor and plenty of RAM?
Let me know how you get on, please, I hope it works!
Enjoy your week.
Roy
Hi Roy!
Thank you so very much for your kind and encouraging words!
I have ample processing and RAM but I could splurge on the latest edition of dragon!
I will let you know how it goes!
If you see me blogging up a storm that would mean that your Profile Update suggestion has worked!
Barb
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for your reply, I'm guessing that there may be a new version of Dragon coming out soon as I believe that version 15 of Dragon has been around for a couple of years.
Roy
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I've personally never used Dragon, although I've always wondered if it really worked as well as they claimed. After going through cancer treatments, I actually have a harder time verbalizing my thoughts than I do type them out, although my fingers do still have a mind of their own and I have some horrendous typos every once and awhile. From what I recall, that software wasn't exactly cheap, and it seems quite frustrating to have to keep creating new profiles just to get it to work correctly. Hopefully, they figure out the bug so this issue doesn't continue in the future.
Hello Jennifer,
Thank you for taking the time to reply, I do hope that your health is rapidly improving.
I would definitely say that for me Dragon definitely doesn't work as well as the manufacturer claims! I would like to have some proper tuition on how to get the most out of Dragon. I spoke to a Dragon naturally speaking trainer and he claims that he has a 99% accuracy rate, which is excellent. I don't know what my accuracy rate is, all I can say is it is quite erratic.
Just for your interest, I had to make three corrections to this reply to you, however, my wife is asleep upstairs, so I am probably not talking hundred percent how I should be!
Enjoy your day.
Roy