Dragon Naturally Speaking : Java Glossary

To work well, you need a high quality noise-cancelling microphone and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) microphone pod. A pod is a  $90.00 USD external sound card that attaches to a USB port. This way the analog-to-digital happens outside the electrically noisy computer case. Even the pod leaves you susceptible to electrical noise from your monitor. You might go for an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitor to reduce that interference further.

You need a 700+ MHz computer and 256+ MB ram, in other words almost any PC less than 5 years old will do. You also need an approved microphone. Your productivity is greatly magnified by voice macros. You can arrange that any word type any series of keystrokes. Further you can create macros with parameters, loops and other logic. Unlike keystroke macros, there is no practical limit to how many macros you can define or how many you can remember. It can be used for word processing, programming, filling in tables and spreadsheets, anything you might do with a keyboard. The only things it can’t do are mouse intensive tasks like Paint shop Pro. Speakeasy Solutions create macro packages and special purpose interfaces to Dragon Naturally Speaking Pro. They also sell headsets, pods and handheld solid-state digital recorders. You can wander off, record your thoughts, then plug your handheld into the computer for transcribing.

For an app to permit voice editing, it needs to link with the voice interface. Usually all you must do to make an app fully voice aware is link it with an object file the Speakeasy people will give you. You don’t have to write any special code. Without this, you can still do data entry, but editing is not as clever. I unsuccessfully tried to talk the makers of my favourite software packages into doing this.

It comes in over five editions:

	recommend electronic⇒Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 Home
	asin: B003VNCRNQ
Comes with specialised vocabularies. Details.
amazon.de amazon.ca amazon.es tigerdirect.ca amazon.fr newegg.ca amazon.it amazon.com amazon.co.uk tigerdirect.com newegg.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

	recommend electronic⇒Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 Premium
	asin: B003VNCROU
Supports programmable macros. This is the version programmers would use. Details.
amazon.de amazon.ca amazon.es tigerdirect.ca amazon.fr newegg.ca amazon.it amazon.com amazon.co.uk tigerdirect.com newegg.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

	recommend electronic⇒Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 Professional
	asin: B003VNCRUO
Includes headset. Create documents, send email, and search the Web just by talking. Create macros to automate business processes. Even use a digital voice recorder and Dragon will transcribe the audio files back at your PC. Details.
amazon.de amazon.ca amazon.es tigerdirect.ca amazon.fr newegg.ca amazon.it amazon.com amazon.co.uk tigerdirect.com newegg.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

The less expensive versions have fewer feature and can run on smaller machines.

Downsides

• You need an office by yourself. Your babbling will disturb others, and other people talking will interfere with your work.
• It is a strain on your voice. You can’t talk non-stop all day long without strain. You need then to alternate between voice and key entry to give your voice a rest.
• The transcription will have perfect spelling, but perhaps totally the wrong word. This makes proofreading a quite different from proofreading typing.