I've been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking off and on for a few years now. I started with version 6, upgraded to version 7, and just a few weeks ago, I upgraded to version 8. When working on my book or writing articles, more often than not I just type. This is probably just habit, or more what I'm used to. I should probably use NaturallySpeaking a whole lot more than I do for this sort of thing.

I do have an occasional primitive streak. Sometimes, just for a change, I shut off the computer and write with a Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil on a yellow legal pad. I'm even tempted by a set of quills and and ink-well that I saw in one of those "for the person who has everything" catalogs. But. . . .

One thing I find it particularly useful for is entering articles or passages from books that I want to keep just by starting NaturallySpeaking, then reading the article into the computer. I'm also trying to get the songs I sing into a notebook, and sitting and typing all that can be a real hassle. It's a whole lot easier just to recite the words into the computer and watch them appear on the screen.

I find that the text-to-speech feature is very handy for more than just having what I've written read back to me. It can read any piece of text to you, not just what you've dictated. Sometimes I'll want to read a fairly lengthy article that I get in an e-mail newsletter or that I find on the Internet. Often for an article on the Internet, I cut and paste it into a Word document (I may not actually have to do this, but there's still a lot about DNS that I haven't learned yet), say "Read document," then sit back and twiddle my thumbs or do something else while "Jennifer," in her somewhat stilted but otherwise fairly natural sounding voice, reads the article to me. Neat!

Considering the sort of manuals that you get with software these days --- or sometimes the complete lack of a manual --- I have high praise for the one that comes with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It's clear, well organized, well indexed, and packed with information. Very useful.

Don Firth.

P. S. Dictated with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.