Product Description

Have you ever wanted to rig a microphone to your computer, throw away your keyboard, and dictate everything instead of having to type it out? Dragon NaturallySpeaking enables you to do just that, but turning it from a technological miracle into a working tool takes a little practice.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking For Dummies targets new users who are impressed by its capabilities but want to optimize its features. The book is organized thematically and addresses the following topics:

• Installing and launching NaturallySpeaking
• Training yourself (and others!) on basic editing, formatting, and dictation features
• Proofreading and correcting text transcribed from your voice
• Using NaturallySpeaking to interface with other applications (like Web browsers or word processors)
• Dictating e-mails, memos, and calendar appointments remotely
• Customizing NaturallySpeaking to adapt to your way of speaking and to recognize more words in your vocabulary

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38091 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-21
• Released on: 1999-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 386 pages

From the Back Cover
Dictate to Word, WordPerfect, Outlook, and other popular applications

Packed with tips for all NaturallySpeaking editions

Write and edit anything on your computer just by speaking! Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the most accurate voice recognition software available, but getting top results can be tricky. Here's everything you need to kiss that keyboard goodbye — including advice on dictating, editing, Web browsing, and running your computer with voice commands.

About the Author
David Kay wrote Microsoft® Works For Dummies® and WordPerfect® Web Publishing For Dummies®. Doug Muder is a math Ph.D. who's written about Windows 98, the Internet, and 3D graphics technologies.

Customer Reviews

It's old!
This book was written to help the average user with techniques, hints, etc, for learning to use the Dragon.

However, it was written, in 1999, for Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 4!

The current version is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8.0, which is quite advanced.

There have been so many improvements in Dragon Naturally Speaking, since the book was written, that much of the information has become quite dated, and much-needed newer information is, of course, not included.

I bought this book unknowingly, when I was using version 7.0, and it did not address my needs.

Until they update this book, or write a new one, I would suggest buying a different book. Spend your $20 on something that will be useful!

Perfectly Useless
This book is seven years old. It was written for version 4.0. We are now up to 9.0.

Avoid it.

Update to my previous review
I still consider this book excellent. NaturallySpeaking no matter which version can be challenging. I believe there will be confusion though if this book is used for other then version 4. There are many changes since then.

With all speech recognition failure will happen unless you do the following:

1. Computer specifications about double of what is recommended.
2. Computers have been prepared using original CD's to load the operating system.
3. Vocabularies are pre-populated with words and phrases from previous documents.
4. The starting pace of the person's voice is determined.

If the above is done, the user can enjoy close to 100% accuracy.