Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide
Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide
By Skip Taylor
When people think of talking to a computer, most visualize the way it’s shown in movies. The current state of the art in speech recognition is nowhere near the picture painted by Hollywood.
If you are frustrated using any edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7, help is at hand. Dan Newman, author of several books on Dragon NaturallySpeaking, has created an excellent CD based video guide entitled “Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide”. Dan is obviously comfortable teaching this way, and it shows through lessons that lack intimidation, giving you the feeling a friend is showing you the ropes. Dan also tells you the video guide is not intended as a replacement for one-on-one training. The video guide’s advantage is you can take the lessons multiple times for the same investment.
In taking the lessons in the guide, I learned tricks I had never thought of before, and some I had completely forgotten about. The author chose to leave misrecognitions in the video guide as they happened. This not only helps orient you to the realities of working with speech recognition software but you learn how to recover from them by watching him do so. This is something missing from all the manuals I ever read on speech recognition!
Depending on the package you purchase, the video guide consists of 2 or 3 CDs. The Table of Contents for each of the CDs is available at the website so I won’t repeat them here, but will give a synopsis of what’s covered. When you look at the Table of Contents, the numbers in parentheses are the lesson’s length in minutes.
The first two CDs cover day-to-day usage of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You are started with a brief introduction, differences in version 7 from previous versions, then taken into the installation and initial training of the program.
By the time you finish the first Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide CD, you should be comfortable with the basics. You will know how to maneuver through Dragon NaturallySpeaking and its menus, perform corrections by voice or keyboard and be introduced to using Microsoft Word by voice. The training in Microsoft Word is a little light, running 7 minutes. He explains how to do different commands within Microsoft Word by experimentation and explains the natural language processing Dragon uses for this. The total running time on this CD is 2 hours.
The second CD’s lessons cover sending email, using Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Internet Explorer, mouse control by voice and tips on how to do Hands-Free computing. When you’ve completed this CD, you should be pretty confident of how voice computing works. The total running time on this CD is 2 hours 10 minutes.
The third CD is an optional purchase. This CD covers more advanced commands, goes into macro commands, templates, legal citations and the use of recorders with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The total running time on this CD is 2 hours.
Included are both QuickTime and Windows Media formats. The QuickTime installation program is also included if you want to use it. My machine had some trouble with QuickTime, so I used the Windows Media format and it worked fine. The only difference is you move from lesson to lesson easily in QuickTime by clicking on the next menu item. Windows Media format requires loading each lesson manually. Creating a play list for the lessons can circumvent this.
The only other problem encountered was the CD holder. It was crushed in shipping. When Dan learned of this, he immediately shipped a replacement to me and has upgraded his packaging to hopefully prevent a recurrence.
Dan has a real winner for those wanting to train with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I much prefer this format to the manuals and books I’ve sweated over so many times. Even a seasoned expert with Dragon NaturallySpeaking will benefit from using this tutorial as a refresher. To absorb the content of these tutorials, it will require you viewing them more than one time.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide is available at SayICan and current pricing is as follows:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Video Guide
Complete three-volume set $149.95
Volumes I & II only $99.95
Volume III only $59.95
Note: Since my review of this title, it has been updated to reflect Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8. I'm sure it's as good as I found this version. The good news is that the prices haven't changed!
