When a lot of what you do involves the use of the computer, you run the risk of repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. There is also a vast majority that will suffer from arthritic conditions affecting the hands. There is a solution, however, that can help alleviate or prevent such conditions. Enter in voice-recognition technology.

Voice-recognition has indeed come a long way, and is very evident in ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 [Preferred Edition], the product in this review. DNS 8 provides the means to compose e-mail, documents, spreadsheets, and even surf the web…all by voice. It is complete with a huge vocabulary and simple voice commands, all customizable to fit the way you work.

Living in a non-Sci-Fi reality, where talking to computers is not the norm, I originally had doubts about voice-recognition. My doubts also stem from what I had heard others say about it, but I was happily proven wrong. I will say, however, that the key to success with this depends on the user. The program is not fully accurate right out of the box, and the results you may see can be quite comical when you first start using it.

First, though, how about a word on dictation? Though you are speaking to a computer, there is no need to speak in a choppy, monotone way. You do need to speak clearly and be aware of pronunciation; however, you can, and should use your natural speaking voice. The program adapts surprisingly well.

When you first start using the program, you'll be guided through set-up and training in several steps. During this process, the program gets acquainted with your voice and style of speech. You will read text passages, and can even have the program scan your documents to get better acquainted with your writing style. By scanning documents, this also adds to the program’s vocabulary, by the context that your words appear.

The set-up does not take long, and I found the program, on a whole, quite easy to work with. Before long, you can really get into customizing it. Yes, you can train new commands for normally repetitive tasks, such as adding a signature to e-mail, and can continually add to its vocabulary as well.

I tested its capabilities on the web, and found that it worked really well. Even posting in forums is a breeze. With an active cursor in a dialog box, just speak and your words appear with no more effort than a normal conversation. Especially if you’re a one-fingered typist like me, you have to love the comfort and speed of it.

Now, to get back to accuracy. As you work with it, the program will work more efficiently, and accurately. The best point I can offer, is that correcting mistakes is very important. Whenever a mistake is encountered, a correction will help to ensure that the mistake will not occur again. I have worked with this program for three weeks now, and had only one recurring word misrecognition between ‘quit’ and ‘with’, which has since been remedied by re-training the words. The program’s Accuracy Center, is the place to go anytime you have trouble, and is a big help.

There are also different modes you can work in to ensure accuracy, depending on the task at hand. For example, if you are working solely with numbers in a spreadsheet, then it is best to work in ‘numbers’ mode. There is also a ‘command’ mode recognizing only commands, and ‘normal’ mode which recognizes all three, and would be what most would use.

Here’s something for the writers out there. Have you ever lost your train of thought while typing? Imagine sitting back and speaking your thoughts, without concentrating on typing and spelling correctly. Imagine how a good free-writing session can turn out.

What I think is really cool, is the ability to control the mouse cursor and work from the desktop virtually hands-free. The Sci-Fi guy in me got a real thrill from this, like commanding a spaceship, though unfortunately you can’t beam yourself anywhere — just yet. However, you can open programs from the start menu, click icons on the desktop, and most Windows applications can be completely controlled by voice.

So, if you want, or need, to work at your computer hands-free, then this may just be the best investment you could make. It’s easy to use, easy to train, and can seriously cut down on the time you spend at the computer. Voice-recognition technology has never been better, so train a Dragon to speak for you today!

System Requirements

• Intel® Pentium® III / 500 MHz processor (or equivalent AMD® processor)/ 256 MB RAM
• 500 MB free hard disk space
• Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP1 or higher; includes XP Tablet Edition) Home and Professional, Millennium, 2000 (SP4 or higher)
• Creative® Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 or higher (free download available at www.microsoft.com)
• CD-ROM drive (required for installation)
• ScanSoft-approved noise-canceling headset microphone (not included with upgrades)
• Speakers (required for playback of recorded speech and text-to-speech features)
• A Web connection is required for activation
• ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 [Preferred Edition]
• feature comparison between versions