In the spirit of full disclosure, I did not write this post. In fact, my fingers never touched the computer at any point during the writing of this article. Nope, it’s not magic—it’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking and boy does it help me slay my daily to-do list.
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Dragon (from Nuance Communications) is incredibly accurate voice recognition software that help you get things done on their computer without typing. Write emails, draft documents, and surf the web simply by using your voice. I have been using the software for a couple of months now and I’m wondering how I ever lived (and worked!) without it. I don’t always use it to write full articles–I still need the pace of typing to push the words forward for me–but responding to emails, drafting outlines, searching the web…it’s all easy breezy and it really gives my hands and arms a rest. It takes some time to get used to and to train the software but once you get the swing of things, it’s truly a godsend.
As much as I loved the first edition I had, I landed out upgrading to the Dragon 13 Premium Edition ($149.99) and I couldn’t be happier with it. I just offers a little more top-notch features and flexibility and considering I write for a living, it was a smart idea. I can dictate, edit and format documents using Microsoft and other popular applications — all by voice — and exactly the way you need it done with custom word lists and commands. Use your voice to update and check your Facebook and Twitter status and pages, plus communicate with friends, coworkers and peers via chat clients with commands like: “Check out the #BEAUTY issue of BELLA NYC on newsstands in May!” (Yes, it even inserted the #hashtag without a hitch!) Dragon really walks its talk—it’s a productivity powerhouse that delivers as promised.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 starts at $99 for PC, and Dragon Dictate 4 for $199 Mac
