Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred review

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the longest established and best known speech recognition program. It has two main purposes: to dictate word processor documents and emails, and to control your PC system using your voice.

Speech recognition is a difficult task for computers, but after the training exercise was over, dictation worked surprisingly well. Initial progress was patchy; results appeared slowly and with lots of wrong words. But then something just clicked, and Dragon speeded up and starting getting more things right than wrong. The ratio of correct to incorrect words still varied greatly. The software coped well with some things we thought would bamboozle it (the difference between computer program and TV programme, and recognising and capitalising the names of businesses) but tripped up on relatively simple things, like recognising a word we'd trained it on only seconds before.

Using Dragon to control our PC was less problematic. Most of the predefined commands are logical, and once you're used to the way the software works you can usually guess what you should say to get the result you want. If you can't, the Command Browser will tell you what you want to know. Dragon can open programs from the Windows Start Menu or from shortcuts on your Desktop, and open named documents. You can also use specific menus and commands within the software. Navigating the web was easy, but the trial and error required for freeform speech recognition didn't lend itself to online chat and IM.

New features include improved compatibility with Firefox, support for Office 2007, and simple formatting ('bold', 'underline' and so on). But what's really significant is how well the software does its job. Yes, it needs a lot of training, and it's still hit and miss, but with some time and effort it's now a viable way to communicate with your PC.