I recently saw Ron's offer of VoicePower for $99. I have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking since version 7. I have used version 8 Professional and now I am using Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.5 Preferred. I have a Pentium 4 2.6 GB processor with 2 GB of DDR one memory. I am using an Andrea NC 7100 USB headset microphone with a USB card in line with the microphone cord that plugs into a USB port. Both Martin and Linus say this gives very poor speech results. I am having absolutely wonderful results with it and only paid $13 for it on eBay.

After using Dragon for two years, I purchased the Say I Can video set from Dan Newman. I thought I had taught myself how to use Dragon fairly proficiently , but when I viewed the video set I found out how many things I had missed. Now I have the VoicePower program installed. By I have only had it installed for 4 hours. I have just gone through most of the tutorials. I like the Say I Can videos because I can watch somebody actually dictating. For some things I find that it is easier to watch somebody do a process rather than to try to read how to do the process and then do the process. Also, the Say I Can videos cover some advanced areas such as using a digital recorder that I did not find in the VoicePower.

But, I really liked the VoicePower. I think that it has a wonderful initial tutorial. I really like the fact that I can have a VoicePower window open on the right side of my computer and an application window open on the left at the same time. Also, I like the inclusion of some of the tech bulletins that VoicePower has. I think they have a wonderful 10 step initial startup for the new user. After that you can easily find commands for any application that you are using simply by asking VoicePower to open the command while working in an application. Also, VoicePower does have some demonstrations. And after you see the demonstration it will ask you to perform the tutorial. This is very similar to the tutorial set up in Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The Say I Can videos showed me how to search for a word and then correct all instances of that word. I liked that.

I have not used the KnowBrainer product. From what I understand it has an advantage of being able to make macros. Unfortunately, I have never understood what macros are.

If you go to the VoicePower webpage, you can see three short videos on what VoicePower can do and how to use it. I don't think I have seen videos on the knowbrainer webpage. Perhaps if I could see videos on what macros could do I might want to purchase the knowbrainer product. I also understand that there are macros in Microsoft Word but I don't think that I have ever learned how to use them either. The Say I Can videos showed me a lot of things on using Excel and Microsoft Word. I don't think there is anything in VoicePower that shows you how to create a spreadsheet and then to add a chart like there is in the say I can videos.

Nuance has been offering Dragon NaturallySpeaking preferred 9.5 at half price or $99 for several months. The first two Say I Can videos are $100 and the third one is another $50. I would love to see the VoicePower CD offered at a special for a few months for $99. It seems to me this this is a fairly new training product for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I think it would help them to create a user base of people who have tried their product and selling it at $99 would help to create this base and then I think these people would probably start talking on the forums. This would help to advance sale of the product. I am not sure if there is a special form on the VoicePower webpage like there is on the knowbrainer webpage. But maybe Ron could take some points from Linus and create a forum on his webpage. Maybe he could even lurk in the ScanSoft forums like Martin and Linus do and post answers.

I think Dragon naturally speaking is an absolutely wonderful, marvelous program. Unfortunately, since it offers so many things I have found that it is difficult to learn. I wrote to Zephyr Tech, one of the Nuance approved vendors, about training and found that it would cost about $1600. The Say I Can videos are $150 and Ron was offering VoicePower for $100. That would only be $250 instead of $1600. I think it with these two programs you could learn to do anything you wanted with Dragon NaturallySpeaking (except make macros).

If you could only afford one of these two programs, I think you would decide on how you learn. If you learn better with the visual input then I would recommend the Say I Can video CDs. If you can learn well by reading and then doing I would recommend the VoicePower program. Although, there are also some demonstrations on the VoicePower program. Additionally, the VoicePower program has a huge advantage in that you can open it right next to the application that you are using. It also has its own type of "Explorer" window which lets you search and open files. If you absolutely were only able to choose one program. I would think I would vote for VoicePower.

In one of the other forum posts that I read somebody mentioned that VoicePower was "pricey". I would have to agree with this also especially since Nuance has been offering Dragon NaturallySpeaking preferred for $100 so often. However, Nuance probably has a much greater volume sale than VoicePower has.

When I talked to Ron on the phone he seemed to indicate to me that his product was fairly new on the open market. Before now he had just been using it with rehabilitation in California. I might be wrong on that. I think that he has an excellent product but, in my opinion, he needs to build a user base and get himself established. I think the best way he can do this is to offer a discount on the product for several months. After that I would vote that he would only charge $150 instead of $200 to keep it more competitive with other products.

I apologize to Linus if I have missed a videos on how to use Knowbrainer. But I see that he is reading this forum and I am sure that if he has them he will probably provide a link for me.

To anybody who is new to voice recognition for controlling your computer t I would highly recommend the VoicePower training. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is just not a voice typing program. It is a program that will control your computer by voice and also includes voice typing. I have found it so much easier to do e-mail and search the web with Dragon NaturallySpeaking rather than keyboard and mouse. I brag to people that I have hardly ever used my keyboard or mouse in almost a year. To me, it is almost sinful that Microsoft Vista has so plagiarized Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Their command and menu structure is almost an identical ripoff. I am an adjunct clinical professor at a College and Buffalo, New York and if anybody had turned in a term paper to me like Microsoft Vista has with their speech recognition tool, not only would they have been failed, but they would have been kicked out of the college. I guess that "plagiarism" is not a legal technicality in the software business.

I ordered VoicePower from Ron on Monday and he shifted on Tuesday. I received it today Friday. The only other thing I might want with VoicePower would be some kind of a printed manual to show me where to find the different sections that I wanted.