Talking to Your Computer - Dragon Naturally Speaking

Happy New Year!

My favorite Star Trek is IV - The Voyage Home. In it there’s a scene where Scotty tries to talk to the computer, which of course was impossible in 1986.

Not anymore!

One of my Christmas presents was a software program called Dragon Naturally Speaking.

I love this program! Put on the microphone, run through the set up, and you are ready to roll.

What does Dragon do?

“Dictate documents, send email and instant messages, search and surf the Web, and more -- using just your voice. Dragon adapts to your voice and the words you use. You can even personalize Dragon with your own word lists of acronyms, proper names and other unique phrases.”

This program is incredible and it’s spurred me to write again. Actually, I’m editing. I’d written out my next book, about publishing and promoting, but just wasn’t motivated to do the first round of edits and enter it into the computer. (Also because I’m still doing research for websites and such.) But with the Dragon software, I don’t have to type it into the computer - I just say it. What a difference! And so fast. I produced three pages in an hour the first night and that is a record for me.

I have the home version, which is $99 at Nuance and Staples, but there are many different packages. There is even an app in iTunes.

Now Scotty can talk to the computer!

Have you ever tried the Dragon software?