Over the past few months I?ve been so busy with work related writing that by the time I?ve finished for the day, the thought of typing anything else makes my hands ache. So, between Elance, Triond, and Iwriter, I just haven?t had the time or energy to work on my blog. Luckily, that has recently changed.
No, I haven?t quit my job as a freelancer. I haven?t even been doing less work. In fact my writing output has increased by quite a bit. The difference is in how I am actually doing my writing.
About a week ago, I bought and installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 on my computer. I worked with Dragon once before, a few years ago and really liked it. However, the computer I had been using was old and outdated and the microphone wasn?t much better. Because of this, the speech to text software didn?t work well enough to warrant using it. I put it aside as something I would eventually want to use.
Lately, I have been seeing quite a few commercials for Dragon NaturallySpeaking and it seemed that the program had been greatly improved.? Add that to the fact that both my laptop and microphone are new and giving Dragon another try seemed like a really great idea.
So I bought the program, installed it, and set to work training my new software. I was immediately surprised at how intuitive the program had become. Though I had spent hours training the old version of Dragon without much success, I was able to begin using Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 with nothing more than the initial basic training.
I?ve been using the program for about a week now and it continues to surprise me. From the first paragraph to the last with each article I write, I am seeing noticeable improvement. As I use Dragon to write articles, descriptions, and e-mails, the program steadily learns how I speak.? With each project, dictating to Dragon becomes easier and more natural. Not only am I able to write faster, I find it easier to edit as I go because I am focusing on words rather than keystrokes.
Though I?ve noticed a few simple mistakes, such as missing or extra spaces, that seemed to occur about once every other paragraph, I am otherwise extraordinarily happy with the way this program works. As I train it simply by using it, I?m gradually learning little tricks to make the program learn faster and work better.
For example, if the program writes something other than the words I say, I use the command, ?Correct That? to make the correction. When the little pop up correction box shows up, I choose the correction option, spell out what I meant, or say the word or phrase again.? Not only is this easy and fast, the program is less likely to make the same mistake in the future. However, if I decide to change a bit of text for my own reasons, I say, ?Select? and the words I want to change followed by the words I want to replace them with. This one simple distinction in commands has dramatically improved the way the program works for me. In the future, I plan to learn even more and incorporate this fantastic speech to text software into more of the things I do.
In fact, today I learned that I can use Dragon?s global commands to perform tasks such as posting to my Facebook, updating my twitter account, and performing online searches. Now, before this begins to sound like some sort of cheesy paid advertisement I want to point out that I am in no way being paid by the company that produces Dragon. However, I will be adding a link to the software on Amazon at the end of this post simply because it is where I found the software. Should you choose to purchase Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 through this link, I will receive a small credit on my Amazon account.?
The point I am trying to make is that I am writing this blog post because I am honestly impressed by this software.? In only a week, it has dramatically altered the way I work and write.? Writing an article or blog post feels much less like work and a little more like having a conversation. If this program works this well after only a week, I cannot wait to see how well it works after a few months. In fact, I will be doing a personal experiment to see how much better the program works over time. I promise to share those results with all of you when I have them. Until then, know that I was posting on this blog more frequently, as well as writing more articles to be posted on residual income sites like Triond.
What about you?
Do you have any experience with Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 or previous versions?
How do they work for you?
How do they impact your day-to-day work?
Share your experiences with Dragon or other speech to text software in the comments below.
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