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Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 by Karen Warren Hollywood movies have long had computers that respond to spoken commands. I have often wished that I could talk and my computer would respond. With Dragon Naturally Speaking V7.0 (DNS ), at least part of this dream is now a reality. New documents, spreadsheets, and even slide show presentations can be created by voice. In addition, programs can be started or folders opened by simply speaking. Many web activities can be performed simply by talking. The combination of Dragon Naturally Speaking and faster computers have improved speech recognition significantly over a program I tried a few years ago. I installed the program on an AMD Athlon 2600 with 1GB of memory and an 80G hard drive. The sound card is integrated on the mother board (NVIDIA K7N2G). To install DNS, insert the CD and follow the on screen instructions. Everything went smoothly until I clicked on the finish button. After I clicked on “finish” the program died. However, everything seemed to have installed fine. The first task with this program is to learn is how to position the microphone for best results. Computers do not recognize speech the same way that people do. We automatically filter out background noise, which interferes with our understanding of speech. The computer does not filter out anything. Proper positioning of the microphone together with a quiet environment will aid speech recognition. Training for DNS has two aspects: training the program to recognize each user’s voice and then training the user to use the correct commands. People recognize sound patterns very quickly. This means that we have no trouble understanding spoken words from many different people, including some with very strong regional or foreign accents. In order for the computer to be able to translate sound patterns into written words or commands, Dragon Naturally Speaking creates a file for each user. To create a user file, the program has each user read a page or so of text. The program provides several choices including general computer related text, a Dave Barry story, and an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland. This initial training is very simple and only takes a few minutes. After the initial training, the program continually updates the user file for your vocabulary, style, and voice idiosyncrasies. For example, I used the word Orthoclase in a test dictation. The first time I used it the program did not recognize it. However, the next time I used that same word, it correctly recognized it. In addition to initial and general updates, the program has built in advanced training. This is especially useful for individuals with unusual or strong accents. Dragon Naturally Speaking has an Auto-Punctuation that helps insert periods and commas. However, if you wish to add a “?” or an “!”, you must say “question mark” or “exclamation point”. The user has to learn to say, “Is the weather hot question mark”. In addition to actually saying special control words, you have to learn how to say them. The program may write “?” or it may write “question mark”. You need to pause after speaking the text and then give the punctuation. Finally, to use DNS for tasks other than dictation, the user needs to learn the vocabulary the program recognizes. Dragon Bar DNS must be started and the microphone turned on using the mouse to activate the program. The user can either click on the DNS icon on the desktop or the system tray to activate the program. As soon as the program starts, a small icon bar is displayed. This is the Dragon Bar. The Dragon Bar icons provide most of the control to the program. The most important icon is the microphone. The microphone must be turned on by clicking on the icon with the mouse. Without an active microphone, the program has no ears. The other major icon is Help. I used the help system continually to learn how to perform most tasks other than dictation. Dictation Speaking and having the text appear, in written form is the most useful aspect of this program for me. After the initial required training, I chose several articles and began dictating. To my surprise, the program recognized almost everything that I said. The mistakes were only some very specialized words (Orthoclase). As I became more confident, I started speaking faster, or perhaps less clearly, and the program made a few mistakes, which I easily corrected using voice commands. I could successfully dictate into the “dragon pad”, the work area provided by the program. I was also able to quickly enter text directly into Microsoft Word. Entering data into Excel proved slightly more difficult than entering data in Word because “one” appeared instead of the “1” I wanted. I finally figured out how to enter numeric digits by simply saying “one point oh”. In PowerPoint it was also simple to enter text. Simple voice data entry in most programs increases the speed that reports are finished, memos are composed and work is completed. For anyone in a work environment that currently includes a lot of typing, Dragon Naturally Speaking facilitates more work being done in a shorter time. In addition, the program is more accurate in both typing and spelling. Thus, many mistakes are simply avoided. This is especially useful with spreadsheet programs such as Excel. Formatting I spent a lot of time learning many of the formatting tools available with this software. Most of the time when I tried something new it did not work. The learning process for formatting tasks would have been made easier by a few detailed written examples or a tutorial similar to the one provided as a basic introduction to the product. With some effort, I eventually figured out how to do many things, including moving around the document, correcting spelling, and adding bold, italic, or underlined text . I was also able to correct many mistakes using only voice commands. I find it difficult to switch to voice commands to format documents. I have too many years experience using the mouse and keyboard to be comfortable using voice commands for most formatting, although I found that as I practiced I got better. I will need a lot more practice and training to comfortably use voice commands to format documents. Working with Applications Voice input is available for more than dictating text. DNS can start up programs or open folders that appear in your start menu or desktop. Simply say start and the name of the program or folder. For example, to start Word, say, “Start Microsoft Word”. I had to practice a bit to get this to work. Notice that you must give the full name of the program exactly as it appears on the Start menu or below a desktop icon. An interesting feature of this program is the interface with Internet Explorer. The user can enter URL’s, go to favorites, and even go back pages. These capabilities bring Dragon Naturally Speaking one step closer to full voice control of the computer. I used DNS with Excel to enter data and also to do some specialized calculations such as totals and averages. The program I particularly liked using with Dragon was Power Point. I entered the text easily. However, the best part was giving the presentation using voice commands. Simply say “next slide” and the next slide is displayed. Recommendations Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 is an excellent program. I would recommend the program to anyone who currently does a lot of typing, or has difficulty typing. If dexterity is a problem due to stiffness of fingers because of arthritis or other diseases, or one simply does not have the good hand-eye coordination, this program would be invaluable in using the computer. Anyone who has difficulty typing or using the mouse will be much more comfortable using a computer once they start using Dragon Naturally Speaking. Finally, decreased use of the keyboard could help prevent the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome or other such problems. This program will save you a lot of time and effort. I suggest at least the Preferred edition. If you use the program with Power Point, you must use the Professional edition. The professional legal and medical solutions provide a large technical vocabulary and are clear choices to people in those professions. |
Review date: August 2003