Which Version is Right for You?
Recommendations and suggestions for Dragon NaturallySpeaking editions.
Note about System Requirements
With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or Legal editions, and Dragon Medical, we assume that one has a system capable of effectively using its features:
- 1GHz, 1GB+ RAM absolute minimum (not recommended except possibly for backup systems)
- 2GHz+, 2GB+ RAM suggested, if faster response time is important to you. 3GB+ RAM if using Windows Vista and 4GB+RAM if using Windows 7
Focus first on upgrading your system or acquiring a new system if it does not meet the suggested configuration.
Q & A
Questions and answers about your needs to help determine which version to consider.
- Home?
- Premium?
- Professional?
- Medical (includes Professional)?
- Legal (includes Professional)?
Do you write less than two pages per day?
- Premium is your likely choice. Home is OK if you just want a taste of the technology.
- If you write repetitive documents or want to do most of your work by voice including navigating from one place to another, then the added features of Professional may justify its added cost for an individual.
- If you need hands-free use then Professional is often justified.
Do you use an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system?
- You may be required to use Dragon Medical. The other editions (Professional, Premium) may not work with your EMR! Starting with Release 10, some EMR's support Dragon dictation only with Dragon Medical. Nuance does NOT support EMR dictation with any product except Dragon Medical. If you are dictating medical material, odds are very good that accuracy will be better with Medical. For more in-depth information on Dragon Medical, please visit our Dragon Medical site.
Do you need or want to automate repetitive tasks?
- If so, NaturallySpeaking Professional, Dragon Medical and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal have extensive tools for automating tasks.
- BUT--you have to apply these tools to get the benefits. Plan on either paying for assistance or spending considerable time to learn any but the most basic automation features included in these products.
- If the repetitive tasks only relate to producing text, then Premium with its Text and Graphics macros may be appropriate.
Do you need to use a recorder?
- If so, think twice. Recorders are “leading-edge” technology when used with speech recognition. Results vary widely.
- You need NaturallySpeaking Premium at a minimum to use recorders.
- Sony, Philips, and Olympus build the only under-$500 recorders marketed in North America we would consider today.
Do you need to dictate or operate your computer entirely hands-free?
- If so, obtain Professional (or Medical) and get professional help learning the software.
- NaturallySpeaking allows hands-free use of your system, but in practice one needs a clear understanding of the speech software, an understanding of Windows, plus understanding your applications.
top
User Profiles
Law Enforcement
Are you working in Law Enforcement?
- You will get similar results with Professional or Premium, IF you use the Vocabulary Builder.
- Within fire departments, we have users in arson investigation, training, community assistance, and health services areas of a major fire department.
- Please don't think you can buy this software and then put it into a squad car without LOTS of effort -- there are many nasty issues to be addressed in that environment. Dictating while in an office environment is easier.
You need Professional if you want to do substantial automation.
Legal
Is your writing “legal” in style and vocabulary?
- You will get BEST results with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal due to its Legal Language Model. The results are better than when using Professional or Premium, so you spend less time making corrections.
- Formatting of citations may not be consistent with what is required for your jurisdictions, and there is no practical means to change its formatting rules.
- Citation formatting works best with US Federal court citations.
Which Edition?
You will get similar results with Professional or Premium, IF you use the Vocabulary Builder. To do that correctly will typically take you at least 2-3 hours the first time you use it. The more legal language you write, the larger the advantage of the Legal vocabulary. In other words, an appellate lawyer will get more benefit from the Legal vocabulary than a family lawyer.
- Professional Edition for Substantial Automation
- If you primarily reference a few dozen citations, making explicit macros for them will let you dictate them with ease and give the desired formatting.
- You need Professional (or Legal) if you want to do substantial automation or if you want the benefits of complete support for Outlook for e-mail.
- Premium Edition for Straight Dictation
- Many lawyers get value from the Premium Edition.
- If you just want straight dictation of business correspondence, it is a fantastic value for many lawyers.
- Plan on buying a separate microphone if you go this route, and accept some limitations in dictation into Outlook, Lotus, or Groupwise.
top
Medical
For more in-depth information on Dragon Medical options, please visit
our Dragon Medical site.
Large Organizations
Are you part of a large organization? If so, we can help you create custom vocabularies that can be distributed to other users of the Professional/Medical products. Alternately, contact us regarding other development methodologies whereby we can create custom commands that can be used with ANY version of NaturallySpeaking.
Writing a Book/Memoirs
Are you writing the Great American Novel? Are you writing your memoirs? Premium or Home work well for these tasks, where typically there is little repetitive work.
Multiple Styles of Material
Do you write multiple styles of material? For instance, do you practice law during the day but have a hobby of writing mystery stories on the weekend? If so, the Professional/Medical/Legal products allow multiple "topics" per person which will save you time.
Data Collection (Spreadsheet Usage)
If you do data collection, then there can be outstanding benefits of using the Professional Edition to expedite the recording of your data. Dictating directly into spreadsheets, or dictating data into a recorder then playing it back to be processed into spreadsheets, tables, or other organized and regular formats may take a while to set up, but can save huge amounts of time.
Simple data collection using Excel can be done using the Premium Edition, particularly if you are willing to use the keyboard to navigate between spreadsheet cells.
Buying for a Group of Users
Are you buying for a group of users? If so, and you need/want to automate using speech commands, there are development alternatives allowing addition of speech commands to all versions of NaturallySpeaking:
- If you have 10+ users with needs for the same speech commands we may be able to lower overall costs by developing a custom set of speech commands to deploy using the Premium or Home Editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. See our Services section or contact us for information.
top
The Competition: Alternatives to Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Microsoft
Microsoft has speech recognition included with Office-XP, Office-2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
With Windows Vista, many report good accuracy for ordinary prose. Some aspects of the program, such as web surfing, are very good. But the user interface lacks the refinement of NaturallySpeaking. Specialized vocabulary is difficult to support with Windows 7 speech recognition.
Philips
Philips has continuous speech technology but most often works with high-end software/hardware suppliers to embed their technology into other products. These are mainly aimed at speeding up the transcription process where one person dictates and another person reviews/edits/corrects the document.
IBM ViaVoice
At one time a serious competitor, IBM ViaVoice hasn't been updated in several years. It is effectively defunct.
Need Help?
We're also happy to discuss your needs with you to help ensure you get the products and accessories best suited for your particular needs.
If you're ready to purchase, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is available through our online store.
top
