Review: Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Wireless (Preferred Edition) utility software

If the thought of being able to dictate text, rather than typing at a keyboard, appeals, some speech-recognition software will be required.

It doesn’t come much bigger than Dragon’s Naturally Speaking series, which has been recently updated for Windows Vista compatibility and wireless microphone support.

The Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Wireless package we're looking at includes a Plantronics Bluetooth headset and a range of attachments to fit the earpiece around your head or over an ear, working flawlessly with the software to allow dictation of text or commands.

The interest of most users in Naturally Speaking is to allow the dictation of notes or other documents into a word processor so they can be saved as text files. Previous versions required a labourious training process to get the computer used to the user's voice, but the latest version of Dragon can do the job without any training.

However, to get anywhere near the 99 per cent accuracy rate the makers claim, it's a good idea to go through the easy-to-use training wizard, to help the software get to know your voice by reading through a few pages of text.

You can continue to train the program by allowing it to scan the computer's My Documents folder and any emails you’ve sent from Microsoft Outlook, in order to teach it the kinds of words or phrases you use.

The Preferred edition of the package includes improved support for Microsoft Office, and for handheld devices such as Pocket PCs or dictaphones. It can even automatically transcribe previously dictated audio files by connecting the device directly to the PC, or by dragging audio files into a set folder, from which Naturally Speaking will automatically make its way through them, converting the spoken content to text.

In addition to the word processing application, the software can also be used to work the PC, for tasks such as running programs, opening files, browsing web pages and even moving the mouse cursor around on screen.

Those expecting flawless performance from such a package may be a little let down: the user still needs to speak quite clearly and fairly slowly to get decent accuracy, but anyone who is particularly averse to typing or finds it difficult will find that Naturally Speaking is still one of the best speech-recognition programs around.

Vista compatible: Yes