Dragon Systems Top Ten FAQs

Continuous speech recognition is when you can speak at the same pace as most of your conversations and your spoken words are transcribed immediately onto your computer screen.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses continuous speech, or natural speech. This eliminates the need to insert a pause between every word. Just talk to your PC naturally, at a conversational pace. Your sentences appear immediately on your screen and in your document. Dictate entire paragraphs at a time. Compose e-mail messages, create reports, draft letters, and edit proposals just by speaking.

Many people find Dragon NaturallySpeaking helps them to be more productive. As you can see in the example below, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is faster than typing.

Typing at 50 net words per minute, a person produces a 3-page, 900-word document in 18 minutes.

Dictating 140-160 net words per minute, a person produces a 3-page, 900-word document in less than 6.5 minutes.

**(Net words per minute determined by measuring a person's average gross speed in words per minute and subtracting the number of errors made.)

The minimum system requirements for Dragon NaturallySpeaking are a Pentium 133 MHz processor and at least 32 MB RAM for Windows 95 or Windows 98, or at least 48 MB RAM for Windows NT 4.0. Required hard disk space starts at 60 MB and will vary depending on which edition and what features you are using. Users will also need a 16-bit sound card. The sound card should be on our approved hardware list for NaturallySpeaking.

Optional components each require additional memory. An additional 16 MB of RAM is necessary to use the text-to-speech utility, or to use NaturalWord to dictate into Microsoft Word 97 or Corel WordPerfect 8.

Recommended hardware requirements to run Dragon NaturallySpeaking

For optimal performance, you should meet the minimum requirements to use BestMatch technology – a 200 MHz processor with 64 MB of RAM (80 MB on Windows NT 4.0). In general, faster processors and more memory will improve performance.

Yes. A high quality headset microphone is included at no extra charge.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0., 2000, XP Dragon NaturallySpeaking does not work in Windows 3.x.

All editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 3.0 offer integration directly with Microsoft Word 97 and Corel WordPerfect 8. Our patented Select-and-Say editing features are supported in both these applications. All editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 3.0 also provide the capability to dictate into virtually any Windows application. The NaturalText feature allows you to dictate in any text field by simply placing your cursor into the field and speaking.

With the older NaturallySpeaking Personal editions, you must first dictate into the NaturallySpeaking window, and then either save your work as a text file, or cut and paste it into the target application. The Personal edition does not include any macros for command and control of Windows applications.

All editions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 3.0 also provide the capability to dictate into virtually any Windows application which includes any e-mail packages. You can also use Dragon NaturallySpeaking in Internet and AOL chat rooms. Please note, however, the vocabulary that comes with Dragon NaturallySpeaking is standard business language so slang, jargon, or acronyms may not be recognized by the software. Dragon NaturallySpeaking does not currently provide any features that would allow you to conduct voice activated browsing of the Web.

Dragon Systems is constantly evaluating and testing new sound cards to determine compatibility with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Dragon Point & Speak. Tests were performed under Windows 95 unless noted otherwise. Windows NT 4.0 driver compatibility may or may not affect performance.

The Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 product family does allow for multiple users. You can have as many users as will fit onto your hard drive. (Each user requires approximately 10 MB of hard drive space).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is currently released in U.S. English, British English, Spanish, and French.