Top critical review
103 people found this helpful
2.0 out of 5 starsDecrease in utility, increase in memory use.
ByJ. Kiteon June 12, 2015
My husband purchased this as he needs assistance with the use of a computer secondary to ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease and cannot reach over a keyboard nor use the fingers except for the right thumb. This is his review:
Prior to Dragon Premium 13.0 I have been using Dragon Home 12.5. Currently I am writing this review using Home 12.5. Earlier today I uninstalled Premium 13.0 and reinstalled Home 12.5. The reason?
My major use for the computer is genealogy work and historical document indexing. The indexing work involves the use of a third-party database program. Using voice recognition software or else the on-screen keyboard that I can click using the mouse, I enter names of people, places and dates into fields in the database. This data is uploaded and made available throughout the world as searchable information on people's family history.
Home 12.5 allowed me to use correction and other commands that are part of Dragon within this database software. Since the Premium 13.0 was on sale, I thought that it would provide greater functionality. I was surprised to find that Premium 13.0 had less functionality. When I dictated a name of a place or person, 13.0 would not recognize the word that had just been placed into that field. As a result, I could not ask 13.0 for word correction nor could I teach within that software the correct spelling. The only way within Premium 13.0 to make a correction for a name, would be the use of the backspace command.
As far as using Dragon for email or Microsoft Office products, it did not make a noticeable difference whether I was using Home 12.5 or Premium 13.0.
System Resources
My System: Windows 8.1, 4 GB RAM, Core I 3 processor, 15 inch Asus Notebook
Uninstalling Premium 13.0, I learned that even when the software is exited, it remains resident in the operating memory of the computer. Windows was unable to uninstall Premium 13.0 until I used Task Manager to force-stop Premium 13.0. As soon as Premium 13.0 had been fully shut down, there was a reduction in system memory usage from 42% to 30%. When Home 12.0 has been normally exited there is not any significant overhead on the memory demonstrated.
Conclusions:
Dragon Naturally Speaking software has been a useful tool for me. However the most recent version (13 .0), provides a fresh user interface, possible improvements in accuracy, but no improvement with actually a downgrade in utility with any applications outside of mainstream browsers and Microsoft Office. I am also concerned about the memory overhead demanded by version 13.0, even when the program is exited and not in use.
