I Speak Dragon to Improve My Work

Terry J.
My life changed drastically on April the 16th, 1976. I had noticed a series of weakness and other symptoms that was leading to a possible neurological disease. On the date above, I was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota when I received the terminal diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. They gave me approximately 6 months to live and sent home to my family. In 1977 I became part of an experiment that was approved by the Federal Drug Administration and was located in Boca Raton, Florida. There were 600 patients during a ten year study. As far as can be determined, I am the only survivor of that 600 and continue to grow stronger each day. A series of miracles, good nutrition and rest, along with the modified neurotoxin of the cobra snake; has led to my ability to return to my profession. [Yes, I took cobra venom injections for a period of 10 years]. Both my arms, hands, legs and feet are involved in the disease process. However, I'm strong enough to drive and complete my profession as a hospice chaplain. I work for a very wonderful company that is called American Hospice Management; and I am assigned to our local hospice here in Oklahoma City that is called Frontier Hospice. Our local administrators, as well as corporate executives, have taken a very personal interest in my life and its work. They have graciously supplied the Dragon Professional software that has literally changed my life. We have installed it on to a "tablet p.c." We have received excellence response from your wonderful product. Frontier Hospice even went to the expense of hiring a professional consultant that works with Dragon Professional products. I continue my work visiting my patients, facilitating support groups, and providing the necessary computer skills to complete my ministry and hopefully to be a blessing to many of our patients and staff. I hope you enjoyed my story, whether any prize is won would somewhat be immaterial. I am just thankful for the freedom and the flexibility that it provides to me. I am a published author of three different books. I only wish I had your product available in the "writing process”. Thanks again for this opportunity to express my thanks.

Michael R.
I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking in my work. I am a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. Because I work with patients who have mental health impairments, it is vital that I maintain the highest quality of record-keeping and educational commitment to my patients. Dragon helps me do both. During the first office visit, I turn the screen toward the patients so that they can see the template from my electronic medical records (EMR). This allows me and the patient to document the history TOGETHER AS A TEAM. For example, when they see a heading on the screen such as FAMILY HISTORY or EDUCATION, they simply tell me the information automatically without prompting. They see me dictate what they tell me on the screen immediately. I find by doing this the patients become more interested and involved in the process which also goes much faster. An unexpected benefit: many of these patients have gone home and bragged to various family members about how "cool" it was to come to my office and see me work with Dragon. The children are more interested in their visits and less resistant to coming to see me because of Dragon. Additional family members (from whom I was then able to gather valuable clinical information) have come to future appointments just so they could see how Dragon works. At the end of the visits, I often have a lot of educational information and instructions for the patients. Instead of scribbling on a piece of paper or saying complicated instructions out loud (most of which they would forget), I use Dragon. With the monitor in their direction and a large font size, they can read the screen from across the room, making the process a MULTIMEDIA EVENT. They HEAR AND SEE what I say to them. For the patients who are middle-aged and older, they don't need reading glasses to see these words on the screen. At the end of the appointment I simply print out the instructions from my EMR and they take home exactly what I wanted them to. If a patient needs a letter for some medical purpose, I dictate that letter in front of them, thus allowing them to SEE exactly the information enclosed. This often results in an improved quality of documentation because they often add details that otherwise wouldn't have been included had they not SEEN THE WORDS ON THE SCREEN.

Graf H.
I have been using Dragon Naturally Speaking Medical for about 2 years, now. I use it in conjunction with an electronic medical record, using a wireless USB headset, which I wear constantly. It has gotten to be a part of my workflow, and sometimes I don't even realize I'm using it. I was reminded of this fact by a patient, who on his second visit, said "Hello, doctor dot Hilgenhurst, exclamation point, pause, open parenthesis, cap that, close parenthesis. I hope you don't talk like that once you go home!" I hope he is right, but I probably do. It sure beats typing!

Robert B.
As a user of both PaperPort and OmniPage I was introduced early to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. When I saw the information presented and realized that for someone like me who had never learned to touch type (when I was in school only the girls took typing) it would be a real asset for me. So I ordered it and when it arrived immediately started the training... About the same time as I was starting with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I was asked by an association my company had been a part of to create a training program on the products and systems we sold. So with the help and input from some of our members, I started to create a PowerPoint presentation and, using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, to create a script outline to go with it. After about six months we had a 300 slide presentation ready to try out on a group of new and short-term salespersons. It went well enough that the association decided we should do it again about six months later and at that time make a video record of it for distribution to all the members. This too went well, as did the video recording. It was then decided that a transcription of the audio portion of the video would be useful backup in case someone else would be needed to do the live presentation since I, being a mature person, might not be available down the road. We found that the quality of the sound was not acceptable to have a transcriptionist take it off the slides, so again Dragon NaturallySpeaking came to the rescue. Since I had made the presentation and knew the subject I offered to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to create the script from the video. Using a copy of the video on one laptop I listened to my words with one ear and used Dragon Speak to transcribe the script, slide by slide into a Word document on another computer. It took some time and some editing but the job was done thanks to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Actually Dragon NaturallySpeaking probably was the only way this could have been accomplished. I continue to find Dragon NaturallySpeaking most valuable to me as time goes on. Naturally I'm using Dragon speak to submit my story.

Magnus H.
I work for a charity and everyone wanted to "podcast" our CEO's feedback meetings. Our network nearly crashed with many of our employees trying to download the file at the same time... so we tried using Dragon, you could say it saved our network!

Paul B.
I speak Dragon because I "speak" when I write. I write advertising copy. It's a little different form of writing than most others. Advertising copy has to read as if it were "conversational". You have to sound like you're actually talking to a person who's a prospect for your product. A lot of writers have a tough time typing words on a keyboard and making the final result sound as if they're speaking to somebody. That's where Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a tremendous help. When I'm putting together a package for a client, I have to make the copy sound as if I'm actually talking to somebody personally, who's sitting right in front of me. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the only answer I've found to create this effect. I can envision them in my mind's eye, and as I "see" them, I can tell them all about the benefits and features of the product that I want them to use. It's just like they were sitting across from me. Thanks to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I not only get the effect that I want with the copy, but I also save hours and hours of time. When you're working under a short deadline, it makes all the difference in the world to get the copy to the client on time. It would be fair to say that without Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I wouldn't be able to run the creative side of my business as well as I do. Everything about it is perfect for my needs.

John B.
Let me tell you a long story: I first tried Dragon when I met Mr. and Mrs. Dragon at a medical management show in Boston, I suspect over 25 years ago… Approximately 2 years ago… I read an article promoting Dragon nine. Coincidentally, my secretary/office manager of over 20 years had just contracted a major disease and could no longer transcribe my notes or do shorthand. Upon reading the article, I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9, spent about 20 minutes talking to it, dictated a 10 or 11 page document, and made about 10 or 11 single word corrections. Subsequently, my secretary died. I have not replaced her. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 takes her place in shorthand and transcription without a doubt. I have recommended this program to several clients who praise it. Just as I do. Thank you for developing Dragon nine.

Roni C.
I am currently a Licensed Professional Counselor Intern. In my work, it is critical to be able to file accurate and comprehensive reports regarding the mental and emotional status of my clients. One of the most important tools that I currently have available is Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Through its use, I'm consistently praised for my outstanding ability to conceptualize the content of my client's comments, as well as write comprehensive reports in a very timely manner. I cannot say enough about how this is assisted me in my professional expertise, as well as my professional academic pursuits to become a Ph.D. in counseling. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has saved me time and, due to the extensive amount of writing that I must compensate, significantly reduce the possibility of carpal tunnel syndrome. In addition, as my clients know that I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, they express confidence that the information they have provided to me has been accurately portrayed in my reports. The ability of this software to incorporate the specialized language involved in psychotherapy is critical to the care of my clients. Thank you for allowing me to provide my comments regarding the use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Beverley S.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes writing easier for many workers in the workplace. Suddenly, those thinkers who speak better than they write have a new tool to facilitate their work by eliminating the need to concentrate intensely on spelling and grammar and spend more time on the content. Frequently, writing with Dragon NaturallySpeaking frees the mind to think, but I teach Dragon to my students and clients who have learning disabilities. For them, Dragon is a lifesaver. My work as an Education Therapist consists of working with individuals with learning disabilities. Particularly those in college and high school, have a new found freedom for writing their papers. For example, a student who has difficulty spelling is often frustrated and the act of writing is a negative experience for them. Their energies are spent on how to spell a word, even if they have handwritten a rough draft, trying to type and spell correctly while addressing the content leads to a poorly written paper that receives a low grade and lots of criticism. Students with learning disabilities frequently have difficulty multitasking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking assists the students with learning disabilities with spelling since this is a common weakness for individuals with learning disabilities. Common spelling errors are nearly eliminated in writing when the person uses Dragon. For example, the words “what”, “does”, “their” and “there” are lifelong problems for those with learning disabilities -- no longer when the student dictates the paper with Dragon. Suddenly and miraculously these words appear on the page spelled correctly, as do all the words in between those words. The students can hardly believe their eyes that when those all too familiar green squiggly lines identifying spelling errors are not interspersed throughout the paper. The stress subsides. Dysgraphia is another type of learning disability that impacts writing. With the assistance of Dragon, the students no longer have finger and muscle tightness form the physical act of writing; again relief that they can focus on the content of their writing and not on the laborious task of producing it with their hands. Students who spend the small amount of time with me to learn the program are much less anxious about “writing” the paper. These otherwise intelligent students with learning disabilities who have done poorly in courses because of their spelling or dysgraphia are freed from the tasks that make them fail thanks to Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Tisa C.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking has drastically improved my ability to do the work I love! I'm a quadriplegic as the result of an automobile accident. Although I was able to find employment with a state agency after my injury, my work involved answering customer questions by telephone all day. It was very boring! I learned to use DNS almost 10 years ago and it has changed my life. Currently I'm a college instructor and I teach a variety of courses including career planning, orientation to college, and assisted computer literacy. I am now introducing other people to DNS through my computer class. Isn't life amazing?

Keith E.
I've spoken Dragon for 10 years for everything I do on my computer, including e-mail, spreadsheets, and writing. Recently, I finished a 600-page novel called QUANTUM ETHICS that I wrote from beginning to end using Dragon. Within a few weeks of publishing, QUANTUM ETHICS became the #1 best-selling techno-thriller on Amazon's new Kindle electronic book reader. Last week the print-edition finally hit the shelves. I couldn't have done it without Dragon!

Julie L.
I speak Dragon; therefore, I am . . . a highly efficient online instructor. I teach freshman composition courses. Virtually all of this instruction takes place though the written word, typed laboriously at computer keyboards. In all fairness, online colleges strive to help their instructors deal with the volume of repetitive feedback (grading) with tools such as online gradebooks that store common comments. These solutions are adequate as long as I’m only working in the gradebook application. I’m far more likely, however, to be switching back and forth between several programs as I teach, and my gradebook comments aren’t accessible for use in other applications, such as Microsoft Word. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has allowed me to save these feedback comments as commands. Now a few spoken words can offer a lengthy explanation of parallel sentence structure, chide a student about possible plagiarism, or even append an evaluation form to an assignment I’m about to grade – no typing, editing, or proofreading required. Online teaching just can’t get easier than that! Students also benefit because I speak Dragon. Not only have I cut my own feedback time by half with the help of Dragon, I am now able to provide more in-depth explanations than before. I can actually teach a grammar point to a student instead of just noting the error. This means that students have the chance to learn more in my classes because of the efficiency that Dragon provides me as their instructor. In fact, students often report on their end-of-course evaluations that they appreciate what they perceive as the “extra time” I took to help them learn to become better writers. Yes, I speak Dragon in my work. What better way to teach online than through a Dragon NaturallySpeaking-empowered virtual classroom?

Durwin S.
My partner and I guide Thinking Expeditions. These are team sessions that focus on specific, difficult problems, engaging the creativity of individuals and the team in very different ways. One of the critical aspects of successful Thinking Expeditions is leveraging everyone's ideas in real time. People can write their ideas - individually in order to capture everyone's thoughts - and these can be collected and transcribed using Dragon. These can then be printed and returned to the team in nearly real time to accelerate their thinking and ideation. As an Idea Catalyst, this accelerated leverage of people's ideas is a key part in the growth and development of ideas. Dragon makes this real-time interaction possible.

Aravind M.
My story is less about how Dragon Naturally Speaking has improved my work, but more about how it has enabled me and my friends to improve our productivity when it comes to finding and learning new material online. I am a CS grad student, and find that screen capture video tutorials are a great way to learn new programming stuff. To simplify the process, I wanted to create a website which has transcripts of these video tutorials. Of course creating transcripts manually, while highly accurate, requires a huge investment of time. So instead I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking to do the transcription. What a time saver! Though it is not 100% accurate, it is good enough to make my website usable, and lets people jump to specific words inside these video tutorials easily. So if you wanted to learn about a specific subtopic, you can search for the keyword on my website (www.mediastoryboard.com) and if any video contains that word… you can jump directly to that word. Overall, this website has helped me and my friends to use these video tutorials much more effectively and also saved us a bunch of time. Thank you Dragon!

William O.
In the late 1990's I developed severe macular degeneration and in the space of a couple of years became unable to read even a magnifying video monitor. JAWS, a screen reading program, compensated for this deficit. Shortly after that, however, some nerve damage caused to lose effective function of my right hand, so that I was no longer able to write or use the keyboard. I am a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and it is necessary that I keep some notes about my patients. Because of the confidential nature of the information it is out of the question to dictate these to a secretary. As a result for several years I had to rely on my memory (which fortunately is quite good!). Dragon Naturally Speaking has proved invaluable in enabling me to deal with this problem. I now use it with JAWS, with JSay as a bridge to Dragon Naturally Speaking. Instead of using the microphone I dictate into a model #9350 Philips Digital Pocket Memo (compatible with DNS) and download this into the computer. This allows me to do my dictating any place I happen to be and gives me more freedom. In addition, I have learned the keystrokes that allow me to print a hard copy. If I wish to review some of the material later I can scan it into OpenBook, another screen reader, which then reads it aloud to me. My disabilities remain unchanged but, thanks to Dragon Naturally Speaking, I have been able to adapt comfortably to the disabilities and continue to use your wonderful program. [Biographical note by Mrs. O…: This amazing man is 90 years old and still in full time practice of medicine, thanks in part to DNS.]

Rozanne W.
I speak Dragon NaturallySpeaking... and Dragon playfully "speaks" to me -- and my staff…A repetitive stress injury from computer overuse nearly 10 years ago turned me into an early user of Dragon in the days when you had to talk V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y, one-word-at-a-time. It was a daily exercise in frustration for me, a fast-paced, deadline-oriented marketing communications executive with a heavy workload whose hands formerly flitted over the keyboard turning out reams of materials, while also juggling hundreds of e-mails daily and managing a busy department. But I had no choice. It was either one word at a time or go on disability. Driven by my need to pay a mortgage and other bills for years to come, I struggled onward... Each new edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking generally improved my work performance. I couldn't work and wouldn't have a highly productive job where I have won more than 10 awards without it. As someone who lived through the era of manual typewriters, electric typewriters, and carbon paper, I am still in awe of being able to "talk" to my computer and have it process what I say...

George F.
I first started using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred, Version 3 in 1997. Since that time I have advanced to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, Version 9. I’m a practicing professional with more than 30 years of experience. Throughout grade school I struggled with spelling and reading, despite these limitations I graduated with a Masters degree. As you might imagine with limited spelling skills typing was also a challenge. Today I find that I have been diagnosed with dyslexia and a learning disability, which explains a good deal of my academic struggles. Prior to 1997 I dictated all correspondence for transcription by my full-time secretary. Dragon has enabled me to overcome my disability and give me complete independence with regards to work correspondence, e-mail and reports. It has allowed me to work independent of a secretary. As a matter of fact, it has reduced my secretarial need from 40 hours a week to 16. This alone is a major cost savings but the independence to express myself without the assistance of others is an immeasurable in this is directly attributable to Dragon.

Brian P.
I am an Internal Medicine physician who has been using Dragon since version 6. In addition to using Dragon for dictation, I wrote macros to help me be more consistent and thorough in delivering care to patients. Then I wrote macros that allowed my office notes to immediately go into our electronic medical record (EMR) system -- the first time that office notes were available through our EMR. Through the knowledge that I gained in working with Dragon, I was able to help other offices get their notes into the EMR. This ultimately facilitated a system-wide roll-out of a new EMR. Although this new EMR allows for use of traditional transcription services, most providers prefer using Dragon. Dragon now allows me to dictate my office notes in the exam room with the patient. Each note has a complete list of medical problems and current medications. I print a copy of the note and give it to the patient so that the patient can keep it for personal records, give copies to other doctors, or take along while traveling in case of an emergency. Dragon has improved speed of documentation, saved costs in transcription, allowed flexibility in implementation, improved patient satisfaction, and I feel improved delivery of care.

Howard B.
I speak Dragon to improve my work and life. I am a molecular biologist who has Multiple Sclerosis and using a keyboard is impossible. I often author detailed technical reports. Dragon has been able to accurately learn new and complex words and phrases easily. Without Dragon I would not be able to continue my career.

M. Ausubel
I am an Orthodontist. With the help of many assistants, I see 60-100 patients a day. I use dragon professional and wirelessly control my computer. I enter my notes for patient records and view treatment plans, x-rays and communications in a modified Excel software package. I can see this computer information as I move from patient to patient on a wireless near-eye device.

Ronald B.
I speak Dragon to help me overcome a physical loss. In 2005 I lost my left arm due to a cancerous tumor in the upper portion of the arm. This loss reduced my typing skills (I used the Columbus method of typing; you know SEARCH, DISCOVER, and LAND ON). I am a draftsman and Licensed Irrigator. Fortunately I work on a computer.

Luan V.
I am a patent examiner and have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking… for the last 3 1/2 years as a result of severe RSI. Because of RSI, I cannot type on the computer for more than a few minutes, and therefore I use Dragon for essentially all data input on the computer, including writing e-mails, filling out forms, and writing patent reports. Dragon has not only enabled me to keep my job but has also increased my productivity. Writing the patent reports require a lot of legal form paragraphs, and using the shortcut commands enables me to have instant access to these paragraphs -- without having to navigate numerous menus.

Brook P.
As an architectural "clerk-of-the-works" on commercial, jail, and school construction projects, one of my functions is to author complex and detailed punch lists, which DNS completes literally as fast as I can talk.

Michael P.
I work with AutoCAD. By the end of the day, my hand is sore from repetitively entering commands. I speak commands to my Dragon and it tells AutoCAD what to do for me so I don’t wear out my hand on menial repetitive tasks. When we get really busy, work takes its toll in the form of what feels like bad writers cramp. Dragon eases the burden by allowing me to ‘tell’ AutoCAD what to do. I say “circle” and it initiates the circle command. I say “move” or “copy” and… Well, you get the picture. It’s a life saver and it’s just plain cool. Everyone who enters my workspace when I am dictating is really wowed by it. Most are impressed that it actually works and works well. But, beyond the novelty of it, I’m just trying to save myself some immediate physical ailments and future health problems.

Sigrid J.
I am a family physician who delivers babies and plays piano in my spare time. I have an electronic medical record computer system in the office. Three years ago I required carpal tunnel surgery to correct my progressively numb hands. Since then, I have tried to protect my hands as much as possible for as long as possible so I can continue to enjoy my life. Dragon has allowed me to have voice activation on my work computers- speeding up transcription and freeing my hands to deliver babies and play piano again. Thank you so much! You are a life saver!

Howard B.
I speak Dragon to improve my work and life. I am a molecular biologist who has Multiple Sclerosis and using a keyboard is impossible. I often author detailed technical reports. Dragon has been able to accurately learn new and complex words and phrases easily. Without Dragon I would not be able to continue my career.

M. A.
I am an Orthodontist. With the help of many assistants, I see 60-100 patients a day. I use Dragon professional and wirelessly control my computer. I enter my notes for patient records and view treatment plans, x-rays and communications in a modified Excel software package. I can see this computer information as I move from patient to patient on a wireless near-eye device.

Kim D.
Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking has changed the way I do my job that I have been doing for 30 years. Dragon has increased my productivity by 80%. But that is not the only wonderful change Dragon has given me. My job is transcribing and if I would happen to break a finger, arm, or even get carpal tunnel, I would still be able to perform my job and not lose precious income in this day and age. I absolutely could not ever go back to manual transcription. Even with all of the above changes Dragon has given me, last but not least, it allows me to work in a much lower stress level environment! I love this product!

Reba K.
A childhood injury to my right hand forced me to become left-handed. Almost 50 years of doing double duty led to my left hand developing arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. While I can still work, sometimes the pain keeps me from being able to complete all of the tasks I need to. For example, each Thursday, I must complete a minimum of 26 screens typing letters and numbers (not words) to generate the reports my team needs to do its job following week. Talking to Dragon instead of keying the data makes this possible.

Dennis B.
I speak Dragon because I am the world's worst typist. I am retired, but work as a volunteer so I am responsible for a state wide telephone resource line serving people with brain injuries. In addition to taking calls, I must communicate with the volunteers and recruit and train folks to join our effort. Doing the job properly also requires a fair amount of advocacy, service on committees, giving speeches and dealing with public and private agencies. I never had a problem communicating before, because I always had an assistant; things are different when you are working by yourself. I started using Dragon about five years ago while I was still practicing law and it is a great tool. However, Dragon really proved its worth after I retired by enabling me to produce documents, correspondence, e-mails, and forms that previously would have been prepared by my assistants. Dragon enabled me to become more productive in my work, and to correspond with all the family members, whom I never corresponded with before because it simply took too long.

Robert H.
I primarily use Dragon in order to improve my work. I am a C 4/5 quadriplegic and as a result I cannot use my hands or fingers for typing. I utilize a stick in my teeth for typing. I work at the Florida Abuse Hotline and preparing reports for investigation is one of my primary job duties. By using Dragon I am able to prepare a report on a competitive basis with those individuals who can use all 10 fingers for typing. I am extremely pleased with the way Dragon currently works… I am able to speak in a natural manner, and complete my work much faster. I use Dragon to prepare reports, compose e-mail, assist in the development of PowerPoint presentations, and to prepare documents in Microsoft Word. Without Dragon there is no way that I would be and to keep up with coworkers who are not disabled. It also provides some assistance to some of my coworkers who developed carpal tunnel, or have other physical problems and require the use of Dragon. I have been involved in teaching others how to use the program on the job site for several years now. Dragon has become an integral part in my being able to perform my job duties, and in others being able to continue employment at our job site.

David G.
I have written many unpublished short stories. Prior to using Dragon, I depended on taking notes of fleeting ideas but often they would disappear in the process of jotting them down. Dragon resolved that problem. I dictated my ideas as quickly as they appeared, but with this solution another problem arose. I had to proofread and correct the typos and sometimes I was unable to decipher what I wanted to say. This actually became a blessing in disguise. While proofreading my mind could see the story going into a more interesting direction than the original plot. I now dictate my storyline at a fast pace and any notes I deem of importance. I do not stop to proofread until I have all my ideas down. I now specifically look for typos and see if I can incorporate them into my stories. Some of my friends are awed at some of the twists in my stories. Granted, the greatest majority of ideas are mine, but some are due to these “typos” which creative juices took advantage of in my stories. Even as I’m dictating this submission, a phonetically correct entry was made but the wrong word was typed. That triggered some more ideas for another story.

Margaret D.
ALONG CAME A DRAGON Judges and clients breathe fire at me,
Deadlines galore, I'm busy you see.
My notes are all cluttered - oh, such a mess!
Who is to rescue this damsel in distress?
Some like dictation the old-fashioned way;
Pens are mightier than swords some say;
But this monster of paper, I need to slay.
Is there a hero, my fears to allay?
Along came a Dragon to set my hands free,
Alas, to command with my words, not a key.
The power to punctuate using my voice,
Across the kingdom, there's no better choice.
I've come out of Dark Ages and into the light,
and I see how Dragon unleashes my might.
Research, pleadings, contracts, and letters,
How nice is to work without fetters.
Along came a Dragon, a lawyer to save,
Its praises I cannot help but to rave.

Doug E.
I am a Property Inspector for Residential and Light Commercial inspections, as well as a Licensed Public Adjuster. My typical inspection takes several hours to several days depending on the volume of work, number of units and extent of discrepancies encountered. Many of my contemporaries complain bitterly about the inspection reports taking hours just to write and how by the end of a long, often hot, dirty day they are exhausted. This can result in errors in the body of the reports and in a day when customers and their agent want and expect a high quality report in a very short turn around time, any errors can spell disaster for all parties involved in the transaction. I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking because it allows me to take about tenth of the time normally used to generate an extremely clean, accurate report. It is virtually like dictating my field notes and checklist items to a stenographer. The more you use it, the better it gets as the program learns from you and the way you speak. The program has saved me untold hours of having to input thousands of important details into a fine finished product. I can almost always generate a polished report that can be emailed to my customers in less than 24 hours from the end of the actual inspection. Our customers are very happy and impressed. I do many home inspections for Realtors and their family members, which says they trust me to give them a first rate inspection report package in a very timely manner. Thanks to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I am way ahead of the curve as well as my competition.

Joan F.
I recently went through major hand/wrist surgery and Dragon saved the day! I was able to keep up with emails, projects for work and all written correspondence without others knowing that I only had one hand. I was amazed at how easy it was to learn and use and how quickly I was able to "come up to speed" again! It is a great program.

William P.
For the last several years, I’ve been writing digital albums for the generations to follow me… I’ve written an album of our roots, including descriptions of how people lived during all those years and art work to illustrate the clothes, the politics, and other aspects of the times. I’ve also been writing my autobiography spanning seven decades in a series of digital books illustrated with scanned family photos. Last August, my right hand was seriously injured in a home accident and I feared that, at the age of 70, the autobiography may never be completed and the rich stories from my memory would be lost. Then I heard of Dragon NaturallySpeaking… Now I’m able to continue, but with even greater speed than before my accident. What is so exciting to me is that Dragon works in dictating text blocks in the software that I'm using to write my genealogy and autobiography; on a computer monitor, it looks like a real album or book, complete with covers, table of contents, and pages that can be turned. It’s really hard to describe how grateful I feel to have Dragon, quite literally, as my right hand assistant. Once more, I have the drive to complete my life’s story for my decedents.

Jason S.
After getting severe RSI I learned how to use Dragon and found that I could continue to work for my firm. I work as a computer programmer programming COBOL on the IBM iSeries machines. We supply financial back office programming solutions to private banks. I do my programming using Dragon’s spell mode and using a lot of set up macros on the Professional edition.

Ralph R.
We use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to help preserve the past. Over the last half-century the New York State Museum, our place of employment, has undergone major changes in both staffing and facilities. After the untimely deaths of a few prominent staff members we realized that our former and retiring colleagues carry within them the ‘institutional memories’ of these changes at the Museum. As a result, we have initiated a project that seeks to capture these recollections through a series of digitally-recorded personal interviews, before they are lost. The “New York State Museum Institutional Oral History Project” has now been internally funded for three years now, and has received an enthusiastic response from all who have heard about it and participated in it. Dragon NaturallySpeaking comprises an essential element in justifying and realizing the project. Since we both have other daily duties at the Museum, and are only allowed 10% of our time for ‘personal research’, the software allows us to fit the arduous and time-consuming process of transcription into our weekly schedules. In conjunction with digital transcription software, we re-speak our recordings into Dragon, significantly cutting down the hours needed to transcribe each interview. Dragon has proved to be a reliable ally in this process. We anticipate the project will continue well into the foreseeable future, with or without us as the specific overseers. We have no doubt that Dragon NaturallySpeaking will also grow and expand its remarkable capabilities alongside us. We have already upgraded once during the first few years of the project, and have seen significant improvements in the functionality of the software. We are excited to think about Dragon’s future upgrades and how they will provide even greater ease and accuracy in the transcription of our Museum’s memories. We want to thank you for providing us with such a versatile and easy-to-use program. The New York State Museum Speaks Dragon.

Brian M.
I was introduced to Dragon a little over a year ago by a co-worker who uses it to write her reports. I got thinking about how I can use the program to my advantage and I came up with a very creative way to use it. I cover a great deal of territory in my job and spend hours driving, well you can only listen to so many audio books and the radio is just bad. What I now do is after I make my customer contact I boot up my laptop, open up my report page and start Dragon. I start driving and verbalizing my contact report. I can complete an entire report in under 30 min. Because I don't have to look at my laptop screen or type on the keyboard I simply capture my thoughts right after the contact and then transfer the information into the formal document. This not only helps my long drive go a little faster I save time when I get back to the hotel or my office. This process saves me hours of office time and makes use of down time on my drives. Thanks for the great product and super updates.

Steve W.
I'm a technical support expert for Fiber Optic Test Equipment. While the equipment is designed to be user friendly, the menus and screens are nonetheless intimidating to novice users. I am responsible for providing "Quick Cards" for the users to navigate the menus to accomplish various tasks. It's extremely inefficient to push the buttons on the machine, and then type what I did, then push the next button, set up the next menu, and then document that operation on a keyboard. With Dragon, I just put on my digital headset, open Dragonpad and execute the task at hand, narrating my actions. When I'm done, I simply paste it into our Training Aid format, and cut and paste bit maps of the screens and buttons across from each action. It makes a terribly tedious task a breeze. I've knocked out task specific Quick Cards in a hotel at night for presentations the next morning. .....Similarly, users send me either requests for help on non-standard tasks, or results files that need to be manipulated on the instrument in order to output the desired results. Again, I simply perform the operation myself on one of our testers, and narrate my actions. I can often get an email reply with Help instructions to a Client in a matter of hours. Their satisfaction with both our instruments and our support is directly related to how fast they can get an answer to a question. And to how quickly they can get a tester to perform to their needs. As you know, writing a set of instructions that a user will understand is not always easy. However, by describing my actions aloud as if I was instructing myself, the instructions have a very "conversational" and the user typically doesn't even have to call for clarification. Dragon (Preferred 9.0) has improved my efficiency, improved Customer Support and Satisfaction, and increased sales.

Robert P.
I have been a Dragon user for over two years and as an IT professional I find this is a program that one should learn to use it you can't live without it. I write my Outlook e-mails with the program including inserting my signature. All of my business proposals are pre-done templates but new information is just dictated for any new proposal. After years of typing and having some arthritis in my fingers, it makes it a pleasure to write a document or letter or e-mail with 90% accuracy versus my less-than-perfect personal typing. Recently, I had to reformat my main PC hard drive and had to go without my Dragon program for several weeks because I couldn't locate my installation disks and had to wait for replacement ones from Nuance. I was so spoiled by the ease, accuracy and fun of talking what I wanted to say rather than actually typing, that I couldn't hardly wait until I got it reinstalled and able to use it again. Thank God for Dragon!!

Mary Lynn B.
My Dragon is trained every day so that "he" will perform well. I am a court reporter. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional along with court reporting software five days a week making the court record in family court. I repeat the testimony of the witnesses, the attorneys and the judge using a voice silencer. I can train brief forms to identify speakers and to speak common phrases. Making corrections and saving speech files improves speech recognition even at the fast speeds that a court reporter must use. My software formats the document, records audio and other functions that help me to produce a transcript, but Dragon is the heart of the process.

Dale H.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking helps me at work. I am a physician, and physicians are required to keep detailed notes on patient encounters. This is a very time-consuming but important part of our work. DNS has helped make this an easier task, and a more affordable one, and also helps me in my creativity so that I am able to better describe these encounters for future reference. First, it's important to say how I learned about DNS. My friend, Martha Mason, first introduced it to me. Martha contracted polio in the late 1940s, only days after her brother died with polio. Martha's disease took over her body. She was unable to breathe without assistance, and was placed in an iron lung in 1947. Today, Martha still relies on an iron lung in order to breathe and live. Being placed in an iron lung did not stop her. She continued her schoolwork and graduated from high school with honors. By way of a two-way speaker system set up with Gardner Webb junior-college, she graduated from there with honors. After that, she went on to Wake Forest College, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, number one in her class. Her father found a job in Winston-Salem so the entire family could go. About 15 years ago Martha learned of DragonDictate. She used DragonDictate for communicating with friends, but more importantly for writing a wonderful book titled Breath: Life in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung. I went to medical school late in life, so late that I became a grandfather while doing my geriatrics fellowship, also at Wake Forest. Now with my own practice, Martha has introduced me to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I'm a pretty good typist, but using Dragon keeps both hands free to look through charts, texts, and other reference materials while continuing to dictate. It's also a lot faster than my typing. Many people have commented positively on my notes. Had I handwritten them they would be illegible. Were I to have to pay per character typed I could not afford to be as descriptive as I want to be. With Dragon, I think I cover issues well and am able to clearly describe very complex situations and, therefore, communicate thoughts with other physicians and keep good notes for myself to refer to. So there you have it. You asked "Do you speak Dragon?" The answer is a resounding yes. I speak Dragon to improve my work. Martha Mason speaks Dragon to improve her life. We both speak Dragon to improve our creativity. What more could we ask for?

Tim C.
I am a first time user and huge fan of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This program has revolutionized my computer work and both improved my life and my work. I use Dragon predominantly for dictating medical opinion cases. I have been doing this for over seven years using traditional dictate and transcription methods. When I started to use Dragon, I was able to substantially cut the time needed to complete my work and to nearly eliminate manual typing. Further, by importing all of my previous files, Dragon was able to recognize a large medical vocabulary prior to any training. I found this to be very impressive. By dictating directly into the computer, I am able to better consider my dictation and to make immediate corrections. This has helped me focus and speeds up the entire process. I recently attended a medical conference and every day I dictated my notes immediately to my laptop. This enabled me to retain more information and will help me prepare for an upcoming presentation on this conference. I wish I had this tool back in medical school! Additionally, I've had a 10-year history of right forearm tendinitis related to computer overuse and not completely responsive to ergonomic changes or occupational therapy. Using Dragon has allowed my arm to completely heal and this problem has not recurred. I cannot thank you enough. This is a wonderful product and I find myself using it more and more often to save both time and wear and tear on my body.

Dwayne M.
I often do presentations for my company and create new presentation materials in the process. The challenging part is that I then have to enable others to use some of my slides, and even deliver my presentations. Typing up speaker notes a tedious process. So, I don't type them up. I simply use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to do the hard work for me. It's simple - I go into slide edit mode, click in the notes area, and deliver the slides as if I were presenting to a live audience. Dragon captures what I say and puts it all right there in the speaker notes. I find that I create better, more usable speaker notes by working this way. I love Dragon NaturallySpeaking!

John S.
I bought Dragon 8 years ago & it was a total waste of money. We threw out the program and recorders. I was reintroduced to Dragon 18 months ago so I could make electronic medical records more efficient. I was naturally extremely skeptical after my first experience, but after the presentation and its ability to transcribe my dictation and the orthopedic vocabulary I use with a very high accuracy, I committed. I needed to upgrade my laptop and took lessons in the use of Dragon, but my dictation has freed my transcriptionist to work on billing and collections. I also am able to make addendums and add detail while it is still fresh in my memory as I am dictating without having to reread the report later for accuracy.

James A.
I was diagnosed with dyslexia, but only after I beat my head against an educational brick wall for 17 years to get my Ph.D. Then a friend, a professor of special education, noticed that my fluent speech did not match my writing. In five minutes, he taught me an adaptation that I had been searching for all those years. His solution; first create an outline of your subject, thinking only logically. Second, put it away for several days. Third, drink a glass of wine to lose the tension! Fourth, convert each heading of the outline into a question. Dictate your answers into a tape recorder like you are explaining the question to a friend. Fifth, transcribe your dictation into your word processor. My writing and spelling problem disappeared and my productivity went up 300%. Then I rediscovered Dragon 7,8 and now 9. Dragon takes out the last tedious steps. Compared to the labor I once put into writing, I now can produce over 300 pages of single spaced prose with 1000% efficiency. I refer most of my clients who can no longer do labor/hands on work to Rehab Agencies who add Dragon to their work plans. Most of these people chose labor jobs because they had an undiagnosed language problem and learned experientially. They hated school and most felt dumb. Most believe a language based job, like school would be just another failure. 95% of our public schools use didactic reading and writing methods and berate people who can't get it. Once they see me use Dragon, these people eagerly and easily transfer into computer-user jobs. So, this story belongs in all of your categories. My creativity, and my life have been completely transformed by Dragon. My ability to save the career of several hundreds of mid-life careers, is also due to Dragon. I love this product and can easily dictate 150-200 words a minute with 2-5 errors. Thanks Dragon, Doc "A"

Patrick C.
“Working in social work/social services it is necessary to document each client/consumer contact. This is similar to an attorney’s need to document and make money through phone calls, meetings and interviews with their clients. For many years, I have used Dragon NaturallySpeaking to record the events that take place during each of my workdays. Lawyers use documentation as a means of making money and social workers must document to justify what they do as they perform the duties of their job as well as a way of preventing interference and/or law suits from family members of their clients. Having switched from hand writing and typing daily and monthly reports to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking I have reduced my report preparation time by several hours each week. My job required a large volume of reports to be generated daily and monthly. Knowing that voice recognition software was available; I purchased ViaVoice and used it for a couple of years with an analog headset and an IBM ThinkPad. I upgraded my computer, a digital headset, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred. I acquired a Sony digital voice recorder so that I could record case notes while in the field. Linking the voice recorder to my notebook computer Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred transcribed the field notes into text that could be transmitted to my secretary. My colleagues observed my use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and asked me about it. I developed a presentation, “Documenting with Voice Recognition Software” for them, professional associations and area computer user groups. The presentation covers the essentials of documentation, the hardware and software I use and a demonstration of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Members of the groups who have heard this presentation have made positive comments and the Tampa PC Users Group’s newsletter, “Bits of Blue” (May 2008) reports, ‘Patrick’s presentation convincingly illustrated that the software that most had considered a toy or a curiosity has been developed into a valuable tool that can effectively perform a very difficult and exacting function.’”

Andrew R.
“I first became aware of Dragon Dictate in the earlier '90s. I was writing voice recognition software for the handicapped. Dragon was the standard. I could never get the accuracy even close to Dragon. Now, I am a Pastor of a church. Therefore, I have to prepare sermons every week. I struggled to purchase Dragon Naturally speaking, but now I never look back with any regret. I bought it back in school for my Masters. I had to type five papers. I thought it would take me five weekends to type in, but with Dragon, I did all five papers in one weekend. I can get 5 times the work done thanks to Dragon Naturally Speaking. I would not be as effective as I am without Dragon Naturally Speaking. I recommend it to everyone in my church and anyone else who needs to type much of the time. Even short emails are so much quicker by voice.”

Patrick G.
“Well let me tell you. I work in Law Enforcement and worked at an agency that dictated reports. Then I went to a smaller agency that typed reports. Wow, what a change. I went from contacting the person. Filling out a Face Page to a crime report and dictating the report into a tape recorder to typing. Well let me tell you something. I started cutting stuff out of reports that I did not want to type. P.S. I only type 35 words per minute in a patrol car. I saw Dragon Naturally Speaking and decided to buy the product. I now dictate my narrative in Microsoft Word and cut and paste the narrative into the report form. Easy, but wait there is more. We constantly send computer messages to dispatch and to other officers in the field. I use Dragon to talk to dispatch and fellow officers. They send me a message typed on the keyboard and all I do is put my cursor in the return message box talk into my hand mike and press enter to send the message. I constantly get can you install that (Dragon) on my car computer. I can speak faster than I can type and get critical information out to the field officers faster. Faster information out can make the difference in Life and Death. Thanks for a great product. P.S. I can demo this at my department for you.”

Joseph J.
“I was spending a great amount of time doing research for a book I plan to write. Writing down my key thoughts (longhand}, categorizing them and filing them took up most of my time. This time I speak Dragon and on the book I'm working on at the present time, I estimate a saving of about 300% in manpower. Where it would have taken me an estimated 3 years to do my research, store it and retrieve it, now it's taking me by one year. Thanks to Speak Dragon!”

Anonymous
“I never learned to type but as a professor I am obliged to write books and articles. For thirty-five years I wrote vocally into audio tapes but when my funding dried up two years ago I no longer had an assistant to transcribe them. Since I began using Dragon I have completed three articles and a book and am well into a second book. Couldn't have done it without Dragon!”

William B.
“I use Dragon Naturally speaking(DNS) for the submission of investigative reports to my employer. In 1970 I became an FBI agent and as such, had to do reports on my investigations. I did not learn to type as a high school or University student, but that did not matter to the FBI as they furnished a steno pool , all of whom were stenographers/typists and they took care of my typing needs. I retired in 1970. I would have stayed retired, but for the terrible day 0n 9/11/2001 when most of our lives changed. The volume of the work of the FBI suddenly exploded and it was almost impossible for them to keep their traditional work going and address the huge increase in anti-terrorism matters. They needed more manpower, but it takes a while to bring a new hire up to efficient working speed, and they needed the help immediately. They had already been using retirees, but now that took on new urgency. They reached out to retired agents to help them as that group was already trained and experienced. They assigned those recycled agents to the investigation of new FBI applicants. We do the security backgrounds, which is a very good fit. However, I seriously doubt that I could take on this work without my DNS software. Referring back to my first paragraph, I do not type, and I no longer have stenos at my disposal to take my dictation. The FBI has currently furnished me with Macro software to handle the forms needed for the reports, and I simply dictate my reports to my computer, which assembles the reports, spell and grammar checks them, and I submit the completed reports to the FBI via coded federal protected networks. However, none of the above “electronic Magic” would occur, except for my Dragon. The FBI likes these reports as they are professional in appearance and ready to disseminate. I might make do without my DRAGON, but it would be much harder.”

Chet M.
“I regularly produce detailed reports for clients. Dragon allows me to focus on my thoughts while it does the typing. It writes the report faster than I can and the content is richer as a result”

Richard H.
“I am "sliding” into retirement. 44 years of practice an architect, but some clients don't want to let go. No employees/no downtown office... but I still need to grind out the work. My wife is nine years younger and works full time. She has functioned as an after-hours secretary in the past, but I am having great reluctance to ask her for much involvement nowadays. She needs to have her nonwork time also. I do not type/keyboard. I've tried courses in high school, college, short courses; just cannot become proficient enough to use it efficiently on a day-to-day basis. Yet I do have a need virtually every day! Obviously I still have correspondence to clients, builders, code officials, etc. Sure I do snail mail... but with increasing frequency I'm going the e-mail route. Could not do so before. HOORAY DRAGON SPEAKS!!! At least now my clients don't feel I'm totally stuck in the past century. Some find it also surprising that I do not do computer-aided drafting. I hand draw everything (with most my projects being one of a kind, the “repetition” advantage of CAD does not often come into play). However, DragonPad is great for composing voluminous notes, finish schedules, title blocks, etc. I then print to "stickyback" clear 8 1/2 x 11 transparencies and slap them on my tracings. WOW! Drawings look better and there are definitely time savings over the hand printing I've been doing for so long. And the bonus is that, again, my clients know I'm not totally obsolete. I love Dragon Speaks!!! It is very appropriate for my continuing in practice; bottom line is that I can do it ALL myself now. Factually, I view it as being indispensable for the professional time I have left until my wife retires. Even after such I'm sure I'll continue to use it for personal uses, hobbies, etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you... a great product.”

S.S.
“As a professor of law, I use Dragon to prepare power point presentations for conference talks or classes I teach, to communicate by e-mail or mail, to write scholarly papers, and, last but not the least, to write expert legal opinions in connection with consultancies for international agencies or multinational corporations. Dragon allows me to be as efficient as if I had a number of secretaries.”

Maurice T.
“I speak Dragon to facilitate submitting reports of experiences during WWII and since of my experiences and participation in Operation Argonaut, 27th Fighter Squadron records, 1st Fighter Group records, the development of Military Aircraft and Weapon Systems and worldwide accounts of experiences related to all of the above.”

India H.
“I have tennis elbow and purchased DNS to assist with work so I would not have to use my arms as much. I had to fight my employers to get it on my work computer, but it was recommend by my Orthopedic doctor and Physical Therapist so it was approved for me to use at work. it took a minute to learn but it has been amusing and kind of fun to create your own speech library. it was also a relief to know there was a product that would help in my recovery before and after surgery. my co-workers think I’m having a private meeting when they see me with the head phones on and talking and now most of them want to try the product.”

Jeffrey T.
“I use Dragon everyday to make me a better student. I cam complete many of the papers I have to write using dragon. Being free from typing improves my speed and creative writing ability. I like the easy-to-use features that seem to sense my next move. I can complete course outlines and assignments in nearly 1/2 of the time, leaving me the change to improve my grades and achieve my educational goals. THANKS DRAGON!”

R.E.
“Earlier versions of Dragon were tried by me, but the learning curve and reliability were really not cost effective in my one man law firm. Work is generally split between myself and a secretary. I have always relied on dictation systems (seemed to always be losing tapes) and direct "come in here" for a quick letter approach which she did not really appreciate. About a year ago while at a friends home I saw him doing some dictation in real time. I was shocked to see that he was speaking conversationally and it was all being taken in by with amazing accuracy. When I saw he was using Dragon 9, I was amazed. I remembered when Dragon 1 came out it was almost like talking in slow motion, and i wasn't impresses with the product at that time. Apparently, while I was getting older, Dragon was getting better...much better! The next day.....the way I practiced law changed forever. I purchased Dragon 9. After the short learning session, I started setting up macros. The program zips through real estate documents, allowing me to actually type up policies with specific exceptions more quickly then dictating into a machine and reviewing drafts. If I need a quick motion or have to set a hearing in Court ....Piece of cake. If I have several letters to do or other work that I would previously delegate to the paralegal, I now use dragon and dictate instructions and drafts directly into a special file on my computer for her follow up. This process has also given us a bonus. We are more efficient since we can time stamp when I generate work, and time stamp when the work gets done. If I want to review work given to her ....I don't even need the physical file. All I do is find the electronic folder and review from my desk. Even better then that .....emails are now faster, and because I am not hunting and pecking I don't try to minimize my thoughts. These messages are more complete and actually have cut down on the use of snail mail in the office. Two other attorneys I share space with saw what I was doing and now both use Dragon 9 as well. Finally, my secretary is happy because after being with me for over 15 years the use of Dragon has enabled her to have a more part time position which she has been wanting for the last few years. And me, it sure doesn't hurt the bottom line! Thanks Nuance.....Keep up the good work.”

Jeff W.
“My story is short; Dragon did not improve my life, but a life of a co-worker. He went through some trying times being diagnosed with Cancer, then Radiation Treatments and Chemotherapy. When he was well enough to come back to work, he had a hard time typing on a keyboard since his fingers were so sensitive. We bought him Dragon Naturally Speaking which was so easy to setup and for him to use. He was up and running right after the tutorial, yes Dragon still needed to learn his 'quirks’, but it did it effortlessly and he was able to stay working until he retired this year. Thank you Dragon!!!”

Mark J.
“As investigator working with the Department of Defense, I started using the Dragon Naturally Speaking product about one year ago. I have an injury to my wrist, which makes it painful to take long testimony. I have now started using it for taking affidavits and I also use it to transcribe my interview notes. I have found that the more that I use it the better the the end product to be. I see nothing on the market that's going to slay your Dragon.”

Marvin A.
“I speak Dragon to improve my production. I never got the hang of typing without looking at the keys and as I got older I developed a little dyslexia. I was off work for about a year which slowed me down further. Add the three together plus my age of 61 and I was typing at about 20 wpm. I am in Sales & Marketing and communication skills are very necessary. I read an article about a writer with a broken arm who tried Dragon and was able to do his work. So I tried the product and in a few weeks I was typing at around 160 wpm. WOW the amount of Sales correspondence and emails I am now able to put out has helped me tremendously. I have always had the gift of gab. Now I can put it in print before I forget what I was thinking about. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.”

Alyn A.
“I am a physician, and used to send my dictations to a dictation service in India. They would come back to horribly transcribed that i was spending more time correcting them than I was dictating them! I would sit up late at night, after the kids were finally in bed, and try to figure out what it really was i said several days earlier, so i could fix all of the mistakes. It was a task i dreaded, and put off. Now I do all of my dictations with Dragon, and they are finished when I walk out of the office. I email them to my secretary to put on letterhead, and i never have to look at them again. My dictations come out better, and my life is easier. I'd never go back!”

Steve R.
“I use Dragon to improve my work. In the last 13 years I have held three different positions in state government. All three positions required me to operate out of a single man office. Currently, I work as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. In rural South Dakota my secretarial support is miles away. With the need for case notes and narrative information I used to use a handheld recording device, then mail the tapes to support staff for transcribing. This was expensive and prevented the information from being entered on a timely basis. Once Dragon speaking was offered as an alternative I had no hesitation in accepting the proposal. As a vocational rehabilitation counselor I am fully aware of the incredible advantage Dragon speaking has over other means of data entry. Entering my own information now is completed in the same time formerly spent dictating. This frees up all of the support staff time spent transcribing and eliminates postage. As you can see there is no question Dragon speaking eliminated two steps of the three step process.”

Carolyn M.
“I first used Dragon Speak (ver. 7) when I needed to transcribe about 36-40 hours of oral history interviews for my dissertation. I have never learned how to type and was overwhelmed by the prospect of doing all this transcription. I considered hiring someone to do it for me, but since I was dealing with highly sensitive issues related to trauma, I would need to hire a bonded transcriber and the cost was just prohibitive. A friend recommended Dragon Speak, so I gave it a try. Since I was unable to "train" the software for the voice of each of the participants in my study, I needed to get a little creative. I trained the software to my voice, and then by simply listening to the audio-file of each narrator and repeating the words into the Dragon microphone, I was able to transcribe the interviews very quickly. I used a recorder that allowed me to slow down the playing speed slightly, and basically I just spoke what I heard and the software did the rest. I loved being able to italicize and bracket non-verbals, such as pauses and such, as I went along and insert notes to myself on comments that I needed to follow-up on. Dragon Speak worked perfectly. I now use it (Ver. 9) to transcribe all my interviews and encourage others at the university to switch to this time and labor saving miracle!”

David K.
“I am a lawyer who practiced law for over 20 years. During that time, I acquired a proclivity for efficiency through the use of computers. I developed a formula for prosecuting and defending cases by employing concise fact summaries which could be fed into computer databases with ease. At the end of 2003, I withdrew from the day-to-day practice of law and used this formula as the foundation for a new business. The essential component of the formula: Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Using Dragon, I have been able to annotate complicated medical and legal documents while reviewing them. Annotations include properly spelled medical and legal terms, and perhaps equally important, macros which I created through Dragon enable me to include easily understandable definitions of that terminology merely by dictating the word. None of this would have been possible without Dragon.”

Angie F.
“I speak Dragon to write about horses! I'm a freelance writer for equestrian magazines. I get to interview the best horseman, trainers, breeders and riders in reining, dressage, jumping, English and Western riding. I love talking to horse people and writing about horses. What I DON'T love is transcribing taped interviews. Every hour of interview material used to mean 2-3 more hours' time spent playing tapes, typing, rewinding, playing tapes, typing, rewinding ...until I found Dragon. Now I simply listen to my tapes on headphones, dictate what I hear into Dragon, and we're off to the races! Dragon even learns the jargon that is specific to what I write about. If Dragon Naturally Speaking were a horse, I'd give it a blue ribbon.”

Dora
“Dragon speak has been a God send for me. I am an addictions counselor who does alcohol/drug evaluations on a daily basis. Typing them out not only takes more time, but it causes me a lot of shoulder pain. With Dragon speak, I dictate what I want on the form, and it takes 1/2 the time to get it done, than if I had to type it. I only work part-time, and Dragon speak helps me to dictate 1 or 2, possibly 3 evaluations, daily, whereas if I have to type them, I am lucky if I can get 1 done. I make a lot of typing mistakes and have to constantly correct them. With Dragon speak, it types the word right the first time. Also, if I have to type the evaluation, my shoulder hurts the next day so bad that it is hard to type. I tell others that I don't know what I would do without my Dragon speak. Thank You!!!!”

Mitchel C.
“I am an Emergency Physician at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis, MO. In my specialty, we struggle to balance the need to see many patients with the imperative to create a medical record that is clear and useful. All of the people I see go to other doctors for definitive treatment or follow up and those physicians need to know how the patient looked, what I did and found, and a host of unique patient details. Moreover, our forward-looking facility has gone to an electronic medical record and we needed to get the Emergency Department record integrated with it when half of our doctors type with two fingers! The information is simply too individualized to put into a check list. Hand writing it all would keep me from seeing patients as fast as I need to and adds an extra step in scanning it into the electronic record. Subsequent treaters couldn't read it, anyway. Transcribed dictation is delayed and expensive. We solved our problem with Dragon. With very little ramp up time, we had doctors with every sort of accent creating clear, personal, and detailed documents. They were created on the spot, are edited in real time and available in a readable, faxable, storage friendly form. There is simply no way we could make our medical records this complete and still see 38,000 patients a year. Our billing is better, our relations with the private attending doctors, the intensive care unit and the operating room team has improved, as well. It is a science fiction dream-come-true. I speak in a rapid natural cadence and the words appear typed on the page. The medical vocabulary is complete and includes the most arcane references. The transition in the medical field to an electronic medical record is virtually inevitable with Federal programs, coding and billing organizations and hospitals all pressing for it. The transition is far less challenging if the doctors can simply speak their message into the computer and let Dragon type it for them.”

Martha N.
“I am a sole practitioner attorney with limited resources and I find that using Dragon allows me to work without needing to hire additional staff. With this program, I can prepare letters and legal documents at any hour of the day or night.”

Karen H.
“For the last 20 years of his life my Dad wrote short stories in spiral notebooks. He was left handed and his penmanship was poor. I use my Dragon to put his stories in a form his family can read. It is faster and easier than my poor typing could ever be.”

Jacqueline J.
“I travel for a University visiting alums. Without Dragon, I'd spend more time in paperwork vs. visiting alums. I typically meet with an alum, record my notes on a digital recorder, download into Dragon, and then use that document however I need to (email, notes, to do's, etc.) It saves me valuable time! THANKS, Dragon!”

Peter H.
“I use my dragon like Tom Sawyer used the River...like Lindburgh used altitude. Dragon is my bridge to being a virtuoso in a nearly hands free environment...and the better you are with commands, the more dragon can do. I over-write my emails and most word documents using the dragon. If you ever develop edit features I could adopt for long contracts, I feel sure I could see a 4 stroke improvement in my handicap. Keep developing. Yes. Keep Developing.”

Jennifer R.
“I use Dragon in my job. It is my life!! Without it I wouldn't have a job. I am a court reporter. I spent 7 years of my life in court reporting school. I originally was a steno writer. I was in my 200s. For you who are not part of the court reporting community, 200s means 200 words per min. I had to get out of school. I started when my son was 5 months, at that time he was 7 years!!! To make a long story short, I found Audio Scribe!!! They introduced me to the wonderful land of voice writing!! I had to go back to my 120s (120 wpm), but it only took me 3 1/2 months to qualify for the state CSR!!! Can you believe that it only took me 3 1/2 months to go from 120 to 225 wpm? I had been in school 7 years and only in my 200s. It was truly a God send!! I am now a working court reporter!!! Thank you soooooo much for your wonderful product!!! I love it!!”

Emily D.
“I am a graduate student in a counseling psychology program. I purchased Dragon software to help me transcribe my sessions with clients. This turned out to take hours! I looked all over for a software that would save me time and I kept coming across Dragon. I am so glad I bought it. Instead of spending up to 5 hours transcribing a 50 minute session by hand. I have reduced that time to about an hour and a half or less! It is truly amazing and my fellow classmates are in awe at how fast I am able to get my work done. This software has been a life and time saver!”

Robert
“I am a six grade teacher in Phoenix, AZ. I have used Dragon Speaking 8 to help students improve their writing skills. I work with students who are English Language Learners. Most of the students speak and write Spanish. Many of the students are able to speak English but have a difficult time writing English. The Dragon Speaking 8 assist these students to visualize English in coherent fluid sentences. Several of the students are learning disabled. They can not write without a teacher dictating every word, but when you ask them to verbalize their thoughts they can give you an inspirational speech. Dragon Speaking 8 has greatly increased my students writing skills and assist students with learning disabilities, to give them confidence and not feel "different" then the other students. Thank you Dragon Speaking 8 for making education easy and fun for my students.”

Matt T.
“As an Expert witness in Real Estate Related malpractice law suits it has saved me time and my retaining attorney's clients money on the per hour cost to do with notes on research and deposition transcripts and composing my written reports. I really find it a time saver which helps me handle more cases as requested by attorneys. I am still working on making it 100% without going back over it the dictation but that will come with time. I have the 9.5 preferred. I have spread the word to other professionals about dragon and know they have also gotten the program.”

Gary W.
“I speak Dragon for many reasons. I first enjoy it the most when I answer e-mails each night. During the office hours, I use it to make patient chart notes, and to do thank you letters and correspondence with other physicians. But my favorite use for Dragon is to do short essays. These range from subjects on future house developments plans, future farming plans, and ideas for future home projects. By doing those essays, I don't have to worry about remembering the details of important ideas, and they are always available to both recall and improve when stored in Microsoft Word. It would be much more time consuming if we did not have Dragon to help us speak more freely while we both think and write at the same time. Thank you for an excellent product, and Dragon 9 is.”

Franklin M.
“I used Dragon for work and also personal use as I do not type very fast so this is saves me much time thank you.”

John U.
“I used Dragon to grade student papers at the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. Using Dragon keeps me from procrastinating the difficult task of responding to student papers and allows me to give them prompt and extensive feedback. Students are very happy when they receive thoughtful feedback from professors by the next class, especially feedback that they can read, which is not always true with my handwriting. I also feel that being able to dictate my academic work saves my fingers and hands from developing repetitive stress injuries. I recommend Dragon to all the other professors. They are impressed, but slow to act, while I believe my use of Dragon helps me receive higher student evaluations of my teaching.”

John M.
“I am the Director of LCFS counseling. We're a small nonprofit agency serving families who are in crisis. Your Dragon speak program has saved us much time and money. Letters and reports that took hours to type map can be done in minutes. Thank you for your wonderful product and thank you for helping our many families by saving us money so we can serve more clients. Thankfully yours, John”

Christie H.
“Hello~ I am a psychologist intern and am learning to 'speak DRAGON' :) for use in doing my psychological reports! My clinical supervisor runs a Huge private practice and does NOT have the need for a secretary because he Has learned Dragonfly and says it is a Life (as well as TIME)saver!!! Just thought you would like to know how professionals are using and greatly benefiting from this Great program!!! Thank you! ~Christie”

Manuel G.
“I am an Adult Probation and Parole agent. In my line of work; the public, my employers, attorneys and the courts expect concise, accurate and timely reports. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has assisted me in fulfilling these expectations. "Business as usual" consisted of dictating reports on a recorder then submitting the recorded reports to a secretary to have them typed. Due to the volume of reports to be typed, it would take three days before my reports would be returned to me typed. I thought to myself there had to be a more efficient way of doing business. While researching voice-recognition programs, I spoke to coworkers who had tried voice-recognition programs in the past (not Dragon NaturallySpeaking) and the consensus was they were cumbersome, inaccurate, and overall inefficient. Not being discouraged, I continued my search for a program that would appeal to even the most skeptical. After reading several articles about Nuance's newest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 9, I successfully convinced my department to purchase a copy of this program and put it to the test. Since having field-tested Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I found this program to be incredibly accurate. I demonstrated this program to my superiors and they were convinced that Dragon NaturallySpeaking was a resource that could be used to enhance the department's overall productivity. As the saying goes, “it's all history now.” The department has purchased several copies of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 9 and several agents, who agree the program has saved them time and effort in writing their reports, are now spoiled and have redefined “business as usual.” Dragon NaturallySpeaking has made it possible for me to complete each and every one of my reports in an accurate and timely manner. No longer do I have to wait three days for my reports to be returned to me. So all I can say is, thank you Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking for making our lives a little bit easier.”

Bob M.
“My favorite story about using Dragon voice dictation is a couple of years old. I think it’s a story you will like because it incorporates other Nuance products. A few years back my company incurred a botched ERP implementation that resulted in a lawsuit. When I had to compile the history leading up to the issue, I relied on my suite of Nuance products to help me. For putting all my memory to print I relied on Dragon Naturally Speaking. This was great because I could keep a flow going as I was recollecting all that had happened. Of course I used the text to speech to proof read everything. In this part of the exercise I used voice for approx 95% and actual typing for technical words etc. I then used PaperPort to scan hard copy invoices etc. written communications etc. I also used OmniPage to OCR scanned images that I wanted to incorporate into my historical text. Lastly, I printed everything to PDF Converter to email to my attorney. When I told people about doing this, they were amazed and gave me the nickname “Macro Bob”

Dr. S.
“I find Dragon to be extremely useful in recording histories & physicals as part of my electronic medical record in my practice as a gastroenterologist. I frequently have need of a typed history on an urgent basis and Dragon has been invaluable.”

Dwana F.
“I use the program to help me through college. I use it to help me write my papers, because I have trouble writing papers. I am a college student and writing papers for college is hard enough and the software helps me more than anything. I love the software and I don't know what I would if I did not have to software. It helps with lots of stuff.”

Nitza S.
“I use Dragon Naturally Speaking to do Spanish and English transcriptions in my home business. One day, I got a project of 180 hours Spanish interview of baseball players! I used the software to dictate all the interview and get it type in a document. In 2 weeks I got the job done and my client was very satisfied and get more further projects after that! It wasn't because I have the Dragon software I will never be finished. This is a fantastic software.”

Michael F.
“I don't have time to type. I have less than fifteen minutes between clients in my practice as a mental health counselor. During that time I have to return phone calls, resolve billing problems and re-schedule clients. I use Dragon to create my notes, records, and reports, to capture my clients' experience accurately and vibrantly, in the time it takes for me to choose the best phrase, finely nuanced.”

Donald S.
“I am a professor of criminal justice at Old Dominion University. I have always wanted to put our curriculum online for the benefit of those in the military, law enforcement, single parents and others who are geographically isolated from college campuses. During the past two years I created online versions of most of our courses. I used Dragon regularly in creating these courses. For each video or audio lecture that I place in these courses I use Dragon to create a text file, and then convert it to a PDF file. This means that students can take the materials with them on any portable device that shows text and most importantly the course can be offered to those who are hearing impaired. Now below each mp3 player or video player that appears in the course is a PDF button with the text of each lecture created by using Dragon.”

David C.
“I speak Dragon to improve my work. I work in Kabul Afghanistan and I have to write daily and weekly reports. Reports must be professionally written and typed. I have never been able to type and now with Dragon I don't have to learn. Before I had the Dragon system reports took more than three hours to type. With Dragon I've cut my time to 45 minutes to one hour. Saving nearly 2 hours a day from typing frees me up to do my other duties. Thank you Nuance.”

Bruce H.
“Dragon has been a great tool for me, an outside dental equipment sales representative in the Chicago metro area. My car is my office and I spend all my work days in it constantly on the move from appointment to appointment. I recap my appointment conversations using Dragon. It allows me to provide a much more complete review of the appointment and items that I need to follow up on rather than the old way of typing cryptic notes. Utilization in my day to day work have been a blessing. Thanks to Dragon, I'm more productive and complete in my paperwork - the salesperson's nightmare. Thanks Dragon, Bruce”

Robert R.
“I am the operations manager for victory to victory church in beaumont, texas. i started using dragon naturally speaking to do the church newsletter. I listen to our pastor;s message and dictate it into dragon to transfer to our newsletter file. what used to take me hours to listen and type, now only takes 30 minutes with dragon. i have even gotten my pastor, who is still catching up to the computer age to start using dragon in all of his day to day document work. we are very pleased and excited with this product.”

David J.
“I have been using Dragon since the late 90's, when I was selling computers. Back then I though of it as a cool tool for computer geeks. Dragon has come a long way since those days. I am a recruiter in the Insurance industry and I work with resumes and ACT! (contact management database) all day long. I often go a year or more between calls to candidates and take notes on each call. In the past I have broken down my calls to the salient points from the conversation but don't waste time taking elaborate notes on the non critical elements of the conversations like where the candidates children go to school, or where they went on vacation. Since Dragon lets me enter information so much faster that I can type, I can capture much more elaborate notes. This gives my follow up calls a warmth and feel that other recruiters can not match. Dragon makes me a better recruiter. It's as simple as that.”

Douglas G.
“I own 2 businesses and sometimes work 60-80 hour weeks. With meetings, reports and travel time I need any tools I can find to help make my work day more productive. I speak Dragon to improve Creativity, Work flow and my life. As a productivity enhancement (work) it gets me away from the keyboard. I can speak and then edit, which allows me to get more done in any given time period. Since I don't have to focus on the keyboard I can think more clearly thus enhancing my creativity. By improving workflow and decreasing the time spent on any given task I can get more done in less time allowing me to decrease my time spent at work, thus improving my life.”

David G.
“I work as a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the blind with the state of Mississippi. I had never learned to type and the requirements of our case load recording require extensive case notes on counseling sessions that used to only require documentation with one or two sentences now require at least one or two paragraphs on each case and I have 100+ cases now. I had purchased the Dragon NaturallySpeaking products for some of my blind clients and noticed how effectively they were using it. With the new found requirements on our case recording I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking myself and installed it on my work laptop computer. Verbal comments from my superiors which used to be that the case notes were lacking in content occasionally now I get the comment that I have written too much. Besides not having ever learned how to type I am now experiencing age-related arthritis in my hands and even with the skill of how to type it would be physically difficult to do so now. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has allowed me to concentrate on working with my clients and the ability to quickly and efficiently handle case notes.”

Richard D.
“I am a Radiologist. I have made over 80,000 Radiology reports with Dragon over the last 8 years…My reports are out so fast to the wards and referring doctors that I hardly ever get phone calls any more asking me for x-ray results.”

Jesse M.
“As a medical doctor I tried Dragon to cut my overhead costs as dictation services are both expensive and slow. I dictate letters to a long list of doctors on subjects that regularly reoccur. I have found that I can program each doctor's name, address and a brief salutation in a saved template. All my regular "spiels" I also save with a 1 or 2 word command. All I do is say the doctor's name and voila, up it comes - 2 words conjure up a whole paragraph. I have a list of templates of things I say over and over. All of them I bring up with a designated command. It cuts my time and saves the office money. I save all my dictations on a flash drive and give it to my secretary and she prints them out. Done.”

Kevin S.
“I am a special education teacher and have been using Dragon with several of the special needs students that I work with. It has saved me valuable time letting Dragon do the scribing and also allowed for students to express themselves and participate in regular education classes without standing out so much. Their conditions would normally have kept them from completing the tasks within class periods like the rest of their peers. This has helped raise their self-esteem, confidence, and leveled the playing field creating learners that are enjoying writing.”

Mark B.
“I have had the Dragon program in my computer for 3 years. I use it for sermon preparation to read in stories and illustrations. I use it in construction of our church bulletin and when I write a letter to a business or in personal communication. I have had other programs in the past such as ViaVoice and the difference in quality and size of vocabulary is like the difference between night and day. Even the training period was easier. In 5 minutes I was ready to use my Dragon and nearly every word, even religious language, shows up correctly spelled. My old programs could not recognize half of the words I spoke and was a constant hassle to stop and correct. With Dragon I can complete my work, scan over the document and may have to fix 2 or 3 words out of a 2 page document. And the time it saves me is remarkable! I can't type except to peck at the keyboard with two fingers. This program has been a blessing to me in many ways. I am thankful every time I use it that such a program exists for folks like me!”

John V.
“I think that I am one of your most innovative users. I am a landscape architect and a builder, I own two companies, one a high end landscape design/build firm, the other a high end residential home improvement contractor. Since the better part of my day is spent out of the office, managing clients, prospects and ongoing projects, I handle as many as a dozen projects at any given time (between both companies). The logistics involved in the design and construction of high end projects are extensive, the only way I can keep track is to actually dictate notes on all significant conversations into client management software, specifically, ACT. I have set up a voltage transformer in my truck with a permanent fixture that allows me to have my laptop open and running throughout the day. I have installed Dragon on my computer, actually running the tutorial while driving so that the system could adjust to the ambient acoustics. After every significant conversation, I put on my headphones and dictate notes into ACT, I write proposals, formulate estimates, etc, all while driving. Since I am an efficiency junky, I am able to complete large portions of this work during my commute rather than during family time. Since my commute averages 200 miles in a day, I get most of my work done during business hours and not during personal time. That said, I am able to maintain revenue in the several million dollar range annually with a staff of two, myself and a project manager. Most people who hear how much business I do are baffled, they think I'm either lucky or well connected. I know the answer is simply my efficiency and skillset, one of which is directly connected to your product. Thanks so much, it's changed my life!”

Irene H.
“I speak Dragon to improve the skills of my students in a class I teach called "eCommunications." The students learn traditional transcription techniques as well as review business grammar rules. They scan text documents and hone their e-mail habits. The most interesting segment, however, is when I show them how to speak Dragon. They are usually shocked at the accuracy level and amazed that a whole class of 15+ students can dictate all at the same time. They share their experiences with their families and then report back. Showing this 20something group something that they have generally not been exposed to in the past is a great addition to this class.”

Hank M.
“I have been using Dragon for probably 8/9 years. I am a 61-year-old man who never learned to type. Dragon has allowed me to utilize my computer,e-mail, and other electronic functions. Without this program I would be useless on my computer. This has opened up a completely new way of doing business. I can work with my younger associates communicate utilizing their formats. Without Dragon this would not be possible. I have been a great salesman for my naturally speaking for a number of years. All of my friends and work associates continue to be impressed with my abilities to communicate electronically”

Anonymous
“I speak dragon so I can be accurate and efficient with my work. As a busy pastor I have to teaching and preaching responsibilities every week. Regardless of what or who comes my way during the week with the demands it places on my time-Sunday's still a-comin' I have 100's of people who will show up every Sunday morning expecting a well researched sermon, delivered with freshness and creativity. The only way I can do this with the busy life of a pastor is to speak dragon. Monday morning I start into researching the historical, cultural and linguistic background of 1st century living or the ways of the Ancient Near East when teaching from the Psalms-dating back to 1000 BC. All this research needs to be collected, organized and delivered with flowing rhetorical style. I need to speak dragon so my teaching is interesting, clear and relevant to my listeners week in and week out.”

Jim V.
“Dragon saved my career! When I began my law enforcement career in the early 1980s, it was my dream to become a Detective. Shortly after assuming the position in 1987 I discovered that this exciting career came with a tremendous amount of PAPERWORK! Through the years I continued to drown in the ocean of very detailed reports. Unlike those television Detectives, the true life Detectives must submit their investigations in report fashion. The details in those reports allowed me to prosecute every crime between vandalism and murder. Dragon allowed me to dictate reports and finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I am typing this I have been promoted to Sergeant. Thanks Dragon for saving my Career.”

Tom A.
“Dragon has come a long way since i started using it 8 years ago. I am a school Business Manager responsible for Building/Ground, custodial, maintenance,Food Service and Transportation. I am out of the office a lot and use my digital recorder to take notes and reminders of things that need to be taken care of. When i get back to the office i upload the digital recorder and i am amazed at the accuracy of the transcription. My secretary love it and allows her to get additional work done. I speak Dragon in the office to do letter and its a huge time saver answering e-mails. In fact I am using it right now to write this letter, how cool is that.”

John J.
“Speaking Dragon has had a tremendous impact on my work. As Chancellor of a diocese we are ever mindful of each dollar. Speaking Dragon allows me to be quite prolific in my correspondence without utilizing the time of an administrative assistant. It no doubt has also enhanced level of internal communications by allowing me to be more articulate in a shorter period of time. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking to improve all aspects of my life. Thank you for this wonderful tool.”

Steve S.
“As a non typist typing up exams is a "pain". I use Dragon to ease that pain while preparing the text for my chemistry exams. Now if Dragon could draw chemical structures, I would really be "pain free”

Darrick L.
“I used the Dragon Software to apply to Pepperdine's Grazadio School of Business and Management. After I was accepted, I notified the Admission Director that I spoke about 75% of essays and she seemed stunned (In a good way). I have a hunch that I was the first person or one only a few people to utilize your program for my admission to business school. The initial reason I thought of this idea is because I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and I have trouble keeping my focus. Often times, I lose my concentration from my thoughts to the keyboard. Therefore, I highly recommend this for anyone who has (ADHD) for it may help improve their writing skills."

Paul B.
“When an accident left me half paralyzed years ago, I never dreamed that I would be able to carry on my career in technical writing, let alone excel. As a right handed person without a functioning right hand, keyboard activities were pathetically slow. In a high-pressure, competitive field surely I had no future. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has made me not only employable, but competitive. I generate copy as fast, or faster, than my colleagues. In addition, features like simultaneous correction not only weed out vocal errors, but catch misspellings before they happen. For over a decade, every article, brochure, speech and invoice I have written comes from Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Virtually alone among software products, Dragon NaturallySpeaking improves its core technology and baseline performance with each generation. The product has steadily become more versatile, forgiving and effective."

Richard M.
“I use Dragon every day. I was one of the unfortunate ones who never had the chance to go to high school. I have a sixth-grade education. I use Dragon to do my e-mails right my contracts, and I use it in my everyday business. I am a contractor, self-employed. I write out my proposals do my spreadsheets, and everything else. I am a hotel renovator and my contracts are mostly for the Hilton Hotels. I am a vendor for interstate resort, which is largest hotel chain in the United States thank you Dragon thank you.”

Nicholas H.
“I have used Dragon since 4.0 and am now on 9.0 or 9.1 Pro, and I have used it in my law practice since version 4.0. Dragon does not call in sick, does not leave at 5:00 PM, and costs nothing to take on a trip. As my practice is an environmental practice Dragon, once taught the spelling of dichloroethane, etc. gets the chemistry right each time.”

Jean B.
“Dragon speak opened a whole new world for myself and my coworkers by effectively communicating efficiently. Allows me to use WordPerfect and do Email without being restricted love it.”

Tony J.
“I am a CPA. I have just completed another very busy tax season. Thanks to Dragon I have become more productive at my work. I use Dragon to input all those numbers into the tax software. I hold the source document e.g., W-2 in my left hand, right hand on the mouse and simply read the information to the computer. Before the number appears on the screen I have moved the cursor to the next input field. One click of the mouse and I read the next number. Its fast, its accurate and its fun. There are only ten digits so it never gets them wrong.”

Dusty H.
“I speak Dragon for my work. I am a Private Investigator in Northern California. I perform interviews with clients. There are times I have 2 hours of interviews that I have to tape on cassettes and then transcribe them into document paper form. I know this is not a story and it is not very exciting to most people, but, Dragon helps me to perform a task that I would have to send out to a transcriber and would cost me and the client lots of extra money. I would like to thank you for Dragon and help many people save money in my line of work especially when they need it the most. Thank you.”

George R.
“I use Dragon as an interface to my model-based systems engineering (MBSE) programs. I am able to "speak" the system architecture to my modeling tool (Vitech Corporation's CORE MBSE tool) and the Classes, Elements and Attributes are quickly entered. Using Dragon also allows me to quickly translate logical and physical models from other tools, such as Unified Modeling Language (UML), Colored Petri Net, statistical tools and Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools. Dragon lets me "stack up" my data entries in powerful Windows clipboard extenders (e.g., Thornsoft Development's Clipmate, and then use the PowerPaste functionality to create objects. Sometimes, I only receive diagrams and drawings, such as computer-aided design (CAD) drawings or PowerPoint, and Dragon allows very quick capturing of design details by speaking the diagrams into the MBSE toolset. Dragon is a great time saver and eliminates much of the tedious entry that is sometimes required, when using sophisticated modeling tools. Thanks for making such a powerful assistant.”

Alan W.
“As a working journalist for 35 years, I always relied on the transcription services contracted by my network news organization to transcribe the interviews filmed or taped for my reports. As time went on the quality of the transcripts declined dramatically, much to my frustration. But over the past three years, I have been writing books. Instead of sending my taped interviews out for transcribing (which costs big for a low-quality return) or doing them myself the old fashioned way (stop and go with the tape recorder) I discovered I could simply talk the interviews into Dragon and watch the transcripts come up line by line. Sure, some corrections had to be made, but, by and large,the results were faster and far superior than I would have received with the other methods. My hands remained free, my fingers weren't sore, and the transcripts were clean and accurate. I highly recommend Dragon to authors whose work involves transcribing hours of interviews. It's a fast, cost-effective way of completing your book. And it amazes my friends!”

Michael D.
“I am in college and use dragon to have the online research papers I'm supposed to read, read to me by the dragon software. I clean my room or rest my bones on the bed and experience the joy of learning!”

Jeffrey F.
“You know, I didn't like have to choose categories, because my use of Dragon improves my creativity, my work and my life. One is all and all is one. First, I am 58 years old and I feel arthritis sometimes. Its a welcome break to get my thoughts down without exclusively exercising my fingers. Score one on the life side. Second, L am a real estate lawyer, so my concept of creativity is different than most. But, to me, a well crafted complaint or motion, or a persuasive document, is creative. My job is to persuade people to do what they should be doing anyway and the easiest way I can accomplish that, the better. The words flow better at natural speaking speed than on a keyboard. I like what I say better. Score on for creativity. Finally, and most technologically dazzling---I'm on an airplane. No computer available, but my cell phone with a recording function and a data card are. I receive an urgent memo just before the plane leaves and an urgent response is necessary. I dictate while in the air. When I land, I load my data card in my laptop, process it through Dragon, do any editing. Now I still don't have internet, so I pop my date card back in the phone--and send that baby through the phone. Done. Handled. Score one for work. Its part of my life. Thanks for giving me the chance to share.”

John G.
“I use Dragon to get my thoughts down on paper while they are still fresh in my mind. After a meeting, after an important phone call, after an interview, I know I should capture the facts, my ideas, my gut level impressions and, most importantly the "next steps" that I agreed to complete. Before Dragon, I would hope the sketchy meeting notes I took in my somewhat illegible hand writing would suffice. But, hard experience proved to me that I couldn't count on the notes - they weren't complete, they weren't decipherable, and, too many times, the physical page containing the notes disappeared into a fourth dimension - the same dimension where "the other" sock from a pair enters through a space/time portal in the back of your dryer. Now, immediately after the meeting, before I do anything else, I get my ideas down, in writing, in a text file that I can not loose. I glance at my hand written notes and using Dragon, quickly record in "hard copy" all important facts and follow up items from the meeting. It's easy, it's fast and it has saved my rear on several occasions. I also use Dragon when I have to get my ideas down at the end of a hard week but I am just too pooped to write or type. Thanks for creating such a powerful and convenient product.”

William S.
“I an disabled and cannot write, from a brain aneurysm I have used Dragon 7-8-9 since 2001 I have recommended to my doctors and friends. I given my Dragon 9 manual to an aspiring author. I hope your program should be provided to anyone with similar problems,including returning disabled vets.”

Barry S.
“I have, for the past several years, used Dragon to document patient encounters in my free medical clinics. We care for over 5,500 patients who are without health insurance and Dragon allows me to maintain excellent patient records without the high costs of a medical transcriptionist. Given the nature of our work, this is an important contribution to our bottom line. I am presently trying to encourage several of our volunteer physicians to take advantage of the digital recording and downloading features of Dragon Professional. I find it to be the most efficient and reliable of any of the other three systems that I have tried, and discarded over the years. I am especially impressed with the ease of recognition that Dragon offers. I am not able to afford the Medical Vocabulary software, so I have done a lot of training for medical terminology. Its quick and easy.”

Eric V.
“Who could make good use of speech recognition software? Anyone who writes. That probably includes you. All of you bloggers, take note. Same for all of you professionals. For instance, I work as a lawyer and I spend an hour or two each day using Dragon. The software packaging indicates that Version 9 is faster and more accurate than typing. This is an understatement, in my experience. According to tests described on the package, most people can dictate 140-160 words per minute. A 900-word document can thus be produced in six minutes. If that same document were typed at 40 words per minute, it would take 22 minutes to produce. In my experience, I suspect that Dragon allows me to cut my writing time in half when I am summarizing meetings and depositions. I use Dragon to produce the initial drafts of most of the long documents I write. I find first drafts to be especially frustrating to key-in. When doing first drafts, one’s mind typically races ahead and sometimes morphs in midstream, leaving one’s semi–nimble fingers behind. It is truly a joy to turn one’s thoughts or scribbled notes into a highly accurate document painlessly filled with text. I create the first drafts of almost all of my blog posts using Dragon. It is easy on the fingers. Dragon keeps up with you. It allows you to think instead of focusing hard on pecking away at the keys. There is no need to slow down in order for Dragon to work. As the manufacturer indicates, Dragon is at least as accurate when you read in fast fluid fashion as when you slow down and read in a staccato manner. It doesn’t take a lot of training to get the Dragon up to a high level of accuracy. Out of the box, Dragon invites the user to dictate for about 15 minutes as the initial training. At that point, you’re up and running. You can fine tune and tweak Dragon further, of course, and this is highly recommended. These corrections are easy to do. They become second nature to experienced Dragon users. If you do a lot of writing, consider whether this product will pay off for you. If you dare to give it a try, you might be so incredibly pleased that you’ll be out there preaching the virtues of this product, just as I am doing.”

Brian P.
“I am a freelance technical writer. I am currently working on my 35th book, and I have published well over 4000 white papers and technical articles since 1995. Because of the technical nature of the documents that I write, I have to do quite a bit of research for most pieces. Given the short deadlines that I am subject to, and the volume of material that I write each month, I need to be able to use my time wisely. With Dragon Naturally speaking, I have found that I spend a lot less time with the actual writing process than if I typed each article. This allows me to spend more time on research than I would otherwise be able to, which ultimately results in a better article. Because I produce such a high volume of content I was also starting to suffer with repetitive stress injury in my hands. Being able to dictate most of my articles has greatly reduced the amount of pain that I experience.”

Kirk C.
“I needed to revamp my old merge letters and data base I had been running off word /works on a 1989 Mac SE. Yeah, I know, but it was working! I decided that I liked Paradox 10 and Corel WP for the job, but did I want to do all that retyping? NO! Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0 to the rescue! What a breeze. I got all the main merge letters done in an evening (I can't type worth a darn). Any words it did not understand from my voice were easily re-typeable, and or trainable. I am still using it for filling in the database for my patients, just tab-speak, tab-speak. It's nice. I was so happy about it that I got one for my father and also for my receptionist's daughter. She is a school teacher and needs something fast like this. I am pretty impressed. Thanks!”

Leonard B.
“As a Special Education Teacher in NYC I have utilized Dragon Speaking with another windows based program to enhance the writing ability of all the special education teachers in my school. We are all responsible for writing Individual Educational Programs (IEP) for the children we service. Utilizing a windows based program and integrating Dragon the teachers were able to speak their IEP's rather than write them. Thus, greatly improving their productivity and reducing the amount of paperwork they are responsible for.”

Dan W.
“I have been a paralegal/private investigator for over 25 years and currently do contract work for several attorneys in Ventura County. I use Dragon Preferred 9.1 to summarize discovery, deposition transcripts and prepare investigative reports. I have found that this tremendous system has increased my productivity over fifty (50) percent, since I acquired it. Dragon Preferred 9.1 has learned my vocabulary extremely well and improves daily. I want to thank Nuance and Dragon for helping me to become a well respected professional in my fields. I speak Dragon!”

Gregg R.
“I use Dragon to help me develop course content for my online classes. We use PowerPoint and Impatica to place narrated slide shows on our school's Learning Management System. Once I have my PowerPoint presentation ready for narration, I fire up Dragon naturallySpeaking and begin the narration. I've found it to be more accurate and easier for the students to understand because not only do they have the voice but also the transcripts as well thus improving their study time as well as improving my efficiency.”

Joseph G.
“Psychotherapist in private practice and my time is valuable to me. I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for case notes, treatment plans, and correspondence with other professionals regarding clients. I never took typing in high school and I have struggled with typing programs because I have large fingers and I have found Dragon NaturallySpeaking to be an incredibly wonderful tool that I use every time I sit down at my computer. Not only do I use it for my business but I have found it useful in completing forms, case reports and other items that require typing. I have made many numerous special commands and added special words to my vocabulary and have found it to be extremely helpful. When I first got Dragon NaturallySpeaking I peppered my family and friends with lengthy e-mails and got in trouble because people did not want to read through all of my e-mails they just wanted brief ones. LOL so I began to shorten my e-mails using Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I have referred many people to the product! When I demonstrate the product to friends and clients they are amazed and surprised at how accurate the typing is. Thank you very much for a wonderful product and I will continue to use it for many years.”

Herman L.
“I use Dragon to improve my work, and my life! Dragon creates more free time for me. My wife is a school teacher and I help her my typing her lesson plans and newsletter every week. This doesn't sound like a lot, but I suffer from arthritis in my fingers and hands. Typing is good exercise for me, but sometimes I just can't and Dragon helps me by allowing me to get the job done in less than half of the time!”

Allen L.
“Dragon NaturallySpeaking has completely transformed the way I work. I have been a user of Dragon NaturallySpeaking since its inception. It has allowed me to be far more productive, since I no longer have to turn dictation over to a secretary or try to type manually. Since I did not take typing in high school, anytime I had to type anything not only does it take longer, but I am terribly prone to typos. Dragon has eliminated those issues. I now dictate directly into Dragon pad and then revise the document immediately afterwards. There is no delay between dictation and revision. As a result I am able to get more work done and satisfy the needs of my clients much more quickly. I have been a dedicated user of Dragon since version 2. People are still amazed when I demonstrate the program's abilities and can't wait to get the program for themselves.”

Heather H.
“Dragon Naturally Speaking was a life saver to me. Dictation is a major part of my work day. I developed problems with my left elbow and hand involving tendons that affected my ability to type large quantities of dictation. I purchased Dragon Naturally Speaking and began speaking the first drafts of dictation rather than typing them. I was able to keep up with the work load and was even able to rely in the program when I had elbow surgery to assist me with typing tasks while I recovered from surgery that repaired tendon damage and continued working. Dragon Naturally Speaking allowed me to keep up at work and follow my physical therapy and rehab instructions without jeopardizing the recovery from my surgery! I would recommend the program to anyone! (And have!)”

Albert
“I run a bamboo nursery. With botanical names such a Sasaella masamuniana albostriata typing is a major chore. i've taught the Dragon to recognize them all and produce them error free. . This is an enormous time saver for a busy nurseryman who does not touch type.”

Jim G.
“I am an author. I used Dragon Speak to write my latest novel bythepeople.gov published in 2008. I recorded the book on a tiny digital voice recorder, and then transferred it into my MacBook for final editing. It took almost two years for me to write my previous novel, Dead Rite, published in 2005, using my home office computer. I actually wrote the second half of my latest novel in just two months, sitting or walking the beach on an Abaco cay in The Bahamas. Dragon Speak allows me to write anywhere anytime simply by talking. And I love to talk and tell stories.”

Steve K.
“Dragon NaturallySpeaking has been an important tool in my busy small town law office for the past six years. Each day I use it to efficiently answer e-mail and do preliminary drafts of contracts and other documents. Not only does it save me a great deal of time (I am not a good typist) but has allowed me to avoid hiring additional staff to do nothing but type. My legal assistant really appreciates my use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking because it frees her from the drudgery of typing and allows her to use her expertise to correct and properly format the documents that I prepare in a draft form. When I use this software in the presence of clients, most are absolutely amazed that such an inexpensive software can accomplish so much…Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the most important piece of software I own.

Alex M.
“I speak Dragon to improve my efficiency as a teacher. One of the biggest headaches for any teacher is record-keeping. In my case, teaching nearly 200 students per term, simply inputting grades for an assignment consumes an enormous amount of time, even if you're a touch typist (as I am). Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes this nuisance so much less of a pain because I can input the numbers essentially as fast as I can speak, and without constantly having to move my eyes from the list I am copying from to the screen that I am copying to, and vice versa. Of course, I also use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to answer e-mails and provide feedback on assignments - but the data input be