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Common Questions about Dragon Naturally Speaking

Dragon is a powerful and advanced speech recognition application. It's important to understand what it can and cannot do.

Commonly asked questions are answered below. However, if you have a specific question Contact Us or call 1300 255 900. You can also reach us via our FaceBook.

What are the main differences between Dragon Professional and Dragon Medical?

Dragon Professional/Premium does not contain specialist medical vocabularies. For doctors, the normal Dragon will be inaccurate and prove frustrating. Dragon Medical contains 60 specialised vocabularies. So if you are a gastroenterologist or cardiologist (and so on), then there is a specialised vocabulary that contains the terminology and drugs names required. So Dragon Medical at about 30% more accurate than Dragon Professional. Also, Dragon Medical is optimised to work with Genie, Medical Director, Best Practice and other medical records programs. Dragon Professional is not designed to work with these medical programs. There are many other reasons, so please contact us for details.

Can Dragon replace traditional dictation and transcription?

Absolutely. That's the main idea behind Dragon. You can now dictate directly into your Word documents, email, Internet browser and any other application in Windows. And if you don't want to dictate directly, you can use a digital voice recorder or a recording application on your phone and then have Dragon transcribe your voice later on. See below for more information on this.

Do I need a headset or microphone to use Dragon?

It is possible to use Dragon using the inbuilt microphone on your laptop,however these microphones are designed to pick up a large range and are very prone to picking up noises. So it might be okay to use a Web Cam microphone in a hotel room, but this is not suitable in a noisy environment like an office. We highly recommend that you purchase a quality digital noise cancelling microphone to get the best from Dragon. Microphones have a large impact on accuracy. Our shop has many compatible microphones.

I have recordings on tape/CD/iphone/mp3 player etc. Can Dragon transcribe this audio or an interview?

Dragon is not transcription software. The program will recognise only one, trained, speakers voice but not a meeting or interview involving multiple speakers. You can use a quality digital recorder though to record your voice for Dragon or you can dictate directly in real-time when you are listening to a recording. Dragon is much faster than typing.

The technology simply does not exist (at this stage) to transcribe more than one speaker, like in an interview.

Dragon naturally speaking maintains its high accuracy by having a large vocabulary. This means that each user has to tune the program to their voice. This is an automatic process and you simply need to use the software every day for it to start to adapt to the way that you speak.

In the past, you were required to complete voice training which meant that you had to read several dozen paragraphs to train the software. This is no longer required - which is a huge advantage over previous versions. However, this does not mean you can simply teach it any voice. The other issue is that two people are not actually dictating when having a conversation. You still need to dictate to Dragon, that means you use basic punctuation such as "full stop" and "new line." You don't need to do these things, but it makes it much easier to edit the document later on.

What is in common use is ghosting or shadowing. You listen to a recording of a conversation and re-speaks it using the Dragon software. This is usually far more efficient than typing, but it is a skill that needs to be learned.Hansard reporters at state and federal parliament's in Australia use this shadowing method instead of typing. The Hansard reporters used to type at about 150 words per minute, but due to injuries and so forth they were unable to maintain this. They now use Dragon. 

I'm a fast typist. Why do I need Dragon?

Dragon voice recognition software empowers users to not only create reports/documents much faster, but they usually include more details, because they're able to speak and describe the situation verbally. This leads to more richer and complete descriptions/reports in most instances. You are also greatly reducing your risk of repetitive strain injury and other associated injuries from fast typing.

Where can I download a free trial of Dragon?

The developer of the Dragon, Nuance Communications, do not make a trial or demonstration version. This is because the software requires a good USB headset and a commitment from the user to use it regularly, so Dragon can learn about your voice. Trial users generally do not use a good microphone or learn how to use the software properly during the trial period - so they don't get a good experience.
Dragon will understand almost any speaker now. The limiting factor is your ability to dictate - not the software itself. Dragon will cope with most accents. So long as you can speak reasonably clearly and are prepared to spend a little bit of time learning about how the software works, then you will get good results just like in our YouTube videos
Dragon works extremely well. But you have to commit to using it as a proper productivity tool on a daily basis.

I have an older version of Dragon and I've lost my DVD/serial number. Who can help me?

Provided you registered software when you purchased it, then you can call the nuance support line on PH: 1300 856 388  and they will look up your account and provide a new download link and serial number. If you have purchased Dragon Medical from this website, then please call on 1300 255 900 and we will provide assistance.

I have a strong accent. How will Dragon Dictate cope with this and what will my accuracy be like?

Dragon has several Accent models built into it - Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, South Asia. US and UK Accent modelling is also available. The limiting factor isn't so much the Accent but your ability to dictate. Can you speak clearly and in complete sentences? If so then the Accent won't matter too much. A large percentage of our customer base has an accent and they're all doing great. Talk to us if you have any concerns before purchasing.

My organisation is after a quote for 10+ licences. Can you help?

Yes, Dragon volume licensing is discounted depending on the volume requested. This lowers the price. Think about how many licenses you need contact us for a quote. Did you know Voice Recognition Australia is the largest distributor of Dragon software in Australia and has been for 18 years? Experience matters when it comes to enterprise deployments.

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