Learn tips and tricks for using Dragon speech recognition on the PC or Mac to quickly compose emails, draft and edit documents, control your computer, and more. Nuance University Online Training Course for PC; Top 5 frequently asked questions. Dragon for PC. You can download and installed the Dragon Naturally Speaking software on your Windows as well as Mac computers. The latest version of the software i.e. Version 15 can be downloaded on the Windows system. Whereas, on the Mac computers, version 6 needs to be downloaded and installed. Version 6 is the Dragon Professional Individual for Mac computers.

1. Dragon Dictation For Macbook
2. Dragon Dictation For Mac Free
3. Dragon Dictation For Mac Medical

Whether you’re installing NaturallySpeaking for the first time or installing over a previous version, the process is easy. If you have user profiles from NaturallySpeaking version 10 or 11, the Upgrade Wizard finds those user profiles and sets them up in version 12. Otherwise you’re guided through the creation of a new user profile. Follow these steps:

1Find the envelope that contains the installation DVD.

The DVD in the white envelope has a label with a serial number on it. The serial number enables you to activate the program, so keep it handy. You’ll see duplicates of the number in a peel-off label format for your convenience.

2Paste the duplicate serial numbers in places that you can easily access.

For safekeeping, peel two of them off (leaving one on the envelope) and put them on your software receipt or in a file folder where you’ll be able to find them again.

3Plug in the microphone.

Microphones other than those with a USB (including the headset microphones that come with NaturallySpeaking editions) plug into your computer’s sound card. If you have a desktop computer, turn the computer so that you can see the back where all the cables are.

Because many people feel this way, Nuance has thoughtfully provided a user guide for the headset included with the software. Look at the the operating guide. Your computer likely has color-coded jacks for the microphone and the headset. The headset has two color-coded plugs that correspond to the ones on the headset. Insert the plugs into the jacks as shown in the photo they supply.

4Put the installation DVD into your DVD drive.

The Windows AutoRun feature starts running the installation program automatically.

If you wait 30 seconds or so and nothing happens, don’t worry. Nothing is wrong. Do this instead: Double-click the Computer icon on the Windows desktop. When the Computer window opens, find the icon corresponding to your DVD-ROM drive, and double-click it. Find the setup.exe file in the DVD-ROM window and double-click it. Now you are exactly where you would be if it had started automatically.

5Click Next.

The InstallShield Wizard starts. The End User License Agreement appears.

6Select the radio button that says “I accept the terms in the license agreement” if you agree, and then click Next in the License Agreement window.

You are presented with the customer information window.

7Type in your username and serial number where prompted and click Next.

The serial number will never have any letter Os in it. If you see something that looks like an O, it’s always a zero.

8Choose which components of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to install.

The screen displays two radio button choices, Typical/Complete or Custom.

Unless you are an advanced user, select Typical/Complete.

Also on that screen you see the capability to change the location of the files. The wizard suggests C:/ProgramFiles/Nuance/NaturallySpeaking12, which is the logical choice. If you agree, do nothing. If you’d like to choose a different folder, click the Change button. A Change Current Destination Folder window appears. Select the folder you want. After you select the folder you want, click the OK button in the Choose Directory window.

9Click Next.

A Ready to Install the Program window appears; its purpose is to make sure you didn’t make a mistake on the choices you made. You can click Back to return to the preceding screen and change the choices you made there.

10Click Install.

The files are copied to your hard drive. This may take several minutes. When all the files are copied, a screen appears, and you’re asked to choose a way to register the software.

11Select one of the three radio buttons to register.

You can choose Register Online, Print Registration Form, or Remind Me in 7 Days. Make your choice based on your needs. Deselect the check box if you don’t want to look for updates.

12Click OK.

A screen informs you that the wizard has completed installing your files. A check box that’s automatically selected looks for program updates when the setup is complete.

13Click Finish.

After a pause, a screen pops up prompting you to activate the software. You can either activate it now or within five more uses. Activation is required to use the program after the fifth use.

You’re presented with two options, “Activate Now,” or “Activate later.” If you click “Activate Now” you must be connected to the web. This is done to verify that you are using a valid serial number. No personal information is sent. If you don’t choose to activate now, you will be prompted the next five times you use the software.

14Click the Activate Now button.

If you checked your system requirements before you installed the program, it’s unlikely that you will get an alert screen. But if you do, this screen alerts you that you don’t have enough computer resources (probably RAM) to run some of the external programs listed with Natural Language commands and that performance will be slower.

If you see this screen, go to the Dragon Help menu in the upper-right corner and choose Performance Assistant to help you increase your speed and change options.

UPDATE 15/10/2016: I have now been using Dragon 6.0.1 for a couple of weeks, you can read my thoughts here.

UPDATE 28/9/2016: I received a personal phone call from Jeff Lieman, the manager of Engineering at Nuance, encouraging me to try out and review the new version, Dragon 6.01, which was released today. I will try it out over the next few weeks and give you an update.

I’m so disappointed with the latest version of Dragon for Mac 6 released yesterday that I’m not even going to write a review. I will make some comments though for those who might be thinking of upgrading.

Dragon for Mac 6 (renamed Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, v6) crashes every few minutes. It does crazy mistakes like “againn”, “consistsnt” and “won’tt”. There have been a couple of times it has taken complete control of my computer and spat out endless garbage like ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ

I cannot even force quit it because it is an invisible application. I cannot go into activity monitor to quit because I have lost control of my keyboard. I’ve installed it on my Macbook Air but it’s too unstable to put on my main Mac.

Here are some comments from actual users:

“profound disappointment.”Kevin“this version of Dragon is so much garbage that I thought I might be able to warn others”Zach“Upgrading to dragon 6 is the worse decision I have made in a long time.”Max“shouldn’t Nuance be beta-testing new releases with users so these bugs get squashed before a general release?”Jon“I find it surprising that this version has been released when it clearly contains so many errors.”Peter“I am also frustrated with version 6, and like Zach, I’ve been a user since the MacSpeech iListen days.”Stephen“Now instead of just messing up and quitting, the 6.0 version just stops working and gives you a spinning beach ball.”Mary“getting a little tiresome”adsub“very disappointed that Nuance would put out such an unstable version.”Mark“it is not a positive experience.”David“Getting Dragon version 6 for the Macintosh to work for me was a huge pain.”Fletch“What good is improved UI when the guts don’t work.”Andrew“Big promises for Dragon 6, but a complete failure on delivery. Don’t buy it!”Tersh“It has crashed more than 10 times in 6 days in the course of doing very ordinary dictation tasks.”Steve“by far the worst release I’ve seen as far as bugs and erratic behavior in a program version that’s virtually useless”Mark“I feel like Charlie Brown, each time they come out with a new version I think that it will be different but then they pull the football away.”

And my favourite:

“The only “Deep Learning” taking place here is that I must not allow myself to be ripped off yet again!”Arnold

We know we are desperate if people are suggesting solutions like this:

“why don’t you try Dragon for Windows (using a Windows bootcamp partition or a virtual machine)?”Marius

I am very disappointed because previously this was one of my favourite pieces of software.

You can read more on the Nuance customer forums here.

A final note, be wary of reviews like this one that are overly positive – they are selling the software!

Related posts:

Dragon Dictate Released!Macspeech dictate is renamed ‘Dragon Dictate’Dragon ExpressDragon Dictate version 4: ReviewDragon Dictate version 4, is it worth the upgrade?Waynesays:September 3, 2016 at 2:57 am

http://nuance-community.custhelp.com/posts/040ada05f3?commentId=20754#20754

ReplyKevinsays:September 3, 2016 at 2:59 am

Thanks for the heads up, though it is no less than I was expecting. At least you can get a 30-day refund if they do not manage to fix the problems.
As a side issue, I have been experimenting with open office, Neo office, and Libre office as alternatives to Word and Pages.
Personally, I had a pleasant surprise; Libre office is a delight to use, and while there ARE problems with Dragon, dictation does at least mean saving time again, instead of spending entire sessions problem-solving and cussing.

ReplyKevinsays:September 3, 2016 at 3:09 am

@ Wayne With you 100% on the upgrade/update issue. I bought 5 1 month ago and have been beset with problems. Now instead of receiving updates to fix the issues, I am receiving regular mailings asking for more money to upgrade my dodgy software for more dodgy software.

ReplyWaynesays:September 5, 2016 at 3:58 pm

It seems to be worse in the applications that it claims to integrate with, e.g. Pages, Word. It kind of works okay if I am dictating into an application that it does not recognise, like Mail, or Safari, or text edit, so maybe that’s why Libre Office works.

ReplyKevinsays:September 5, 2016 at 5:16 pm

I think that Nuance are having real problems and maybe are actually incapable of fixing this.

In another post, I described how Dragon 5 crashes when I try to transfer text from the Dragon Pad, their own app!!
I reported the fault and requested assistance three days ago. So far no reply apart from the automated response (you know, the one that says I may be charged for assistance)

ReplyKevinsays:September 10, 2016 at 2:59 am

OK, they replied after 5 days. First attempt was to delete the Dragon plist file, but it made no difference, crashes continued at a continuous pace.
Then they asked me to completely remove D5 and then reinstall.
They also provided a download link to version 5.02
Reinstalling may be an issue if you did not purchase the digital download service, though you can still buy it for about 7 dollars (I am in Thailand, so am a little hazy on US currency.)
The complete removal instructions are:

A. Completely removing the installation files of the software.

1. Click Finder.
2. Click Go from the menu bar at the top of the computer screen.
3. Press and hold the “Option” key of the keyboard.
4. Select Library and release the “Option” key.

Go the exact locations below and delete the file or move it to the trash.

a. /Library/Application Support/Dragon folder
b. /Library/Preferences/com.dragon.dictate.plist
c. /Library/Preferences/com.dragon.dictate.plist.lockfile
d. /Library/Caches/com.dragon.dictate folder or Dragon folder
e. /Library/Save Application State/com.dragon.dictate or Dragon folder

5. On the left side of the window, select Applications and delete the Dragon Dictate.app

B. Running a Repair Disk Permission.

1. Click the magnifying glass icon on the upper right of your screen
2. Search for “Disk utility” without the quotations.
3. On a new window that will show up, you will see the available HD of the computer. Highlight the one with the name “Macintosh HD”
4. After highlighting it, at the top of it click the icon that says “First Aid” > Select Run and follow all onscreen prompts.
5. Empty the trash
6. Reboot your computer
7. Reinstall Dragon Dictate 5

Mike Zlotniksays:September 30, 2016 at 1:23 pm

I wish I had read this before I bought it. I had veresion 5 which version 6 ate. It is great for a minute or so and then it crashes or types garbage. Vocabulary editor does not work! Terrible stuff produced by incompetent fraudsters.

Mac desktops for sale. Shop Best Buy for Apple desktop and all-in-one computers, including the iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro models.

ReplyJohn S. Birchsays:October 20, 2016 at 9:50 am

Dragon Dictation For Macbook

I’ve been a Nuance user for years, way back to version 2 or 3 of Dragon Naturally Speaking, and can’t begin to tell you what a bitter disappointment I’ve found Dragon-for-Mac v6.

I’m 85 and have Alzheimer’s disease, and had high hopes that this product would make my life as a writer easier when I first saw your promotional material.

This application crashes constantly and you’ve clearly released it long before it was ready. I feel utterly cheated, and swindled out of the 100-odd $$$s “special offer” that I could ill afford.

Sincerely,

John s. Birch, New York City.

ReplyMarksays:October 21, 2016 at 2:34 pm

I’m disappointed in Dragon 6, it’s not much better than 5 on the Mac. Not only is it expensive, but you can’t use it at all without doing the training. I purchased a specific headphone to use with Dragon and it’s no better than the built-in microphone for recognition. To add insult to injury, my company updated my laptop, and now Nuance wants me to either buy it all over again (no!) or pay them an extra premium (no!). I’ve made digital purchases on the internet for years and I’ve never been treated like this.

ReplyNancysays:November 25, 2016 at 7:19 am

I upgraded Dragon for Mac and I cannot believe how buggy it is! It’s amazing that anyone would try to sell such a problematic product. One reviewer said it is so buggy it should come with it’s own exterminator. The cursor jumps to random paragraphs and erases word, sentences, paragraphs. It puts random letters throughout my document. The spelling is atrocious. I spend so much time editing for these crazy problems, Dragon is no longer the useful tool it once was.

ReplyAndrewsays:February 6, 2017 at 8:27 pm

I have been persisting with Dragon 6 for Mac for the last 4 months, hoping an update would fix most of the terrible issues described above. My experience to date is that Dragon 6 is by far the worst version ever. My latest version was 6.0.5. I tried downgrading to Word 2011, thinking Word 2016 (Office 365) could be the problem. It wasn’t! I finally pulled the plug and requested a refund. I am now back to using Dragon 5.0 Mac with Word 2011 and my productivity is reasonable again. I won’t be in such a hurry to upgrade in the future! There is no point in adding new sales features, when basic functionality gets lost in the process.

ReplyGlen Fishersays:April 25, 2017 at 3:44 am

Dragon 6 worked fine with Word on my Mac – up until now. Now I get garbage everywhere – split words, the cursor popping up in strange places, garbled sentences. Have tried closing and reloading Dragon, closing and reloading Word, rebooting my computer – nothing works. Might as well throw the programme in the garbage, like the garbage it is generating.

Oh, and this is a bloody expensive programme! especially when it doesn’t work reliably.

ReplyDon Johnsonsays:January 2, 2018 at 9:01 pm

I decided to try Dragon v6 (6.0.8) because I wanted to upgrade to OS X 10.11.6 Reading the mixed reviews I read a well written one on Amazon that helped me make the jump – So glad I did. The training period is much shorter than my version 4. It is accurate, faster and the cursor does not jump around as in prior versions. After 2 weeks the program is stable (no crashes) and a pleasure to use. I use an old Nuance USB headset with a 2014 Macbook Pro 2.8Ghz. i7 The program works really well with Scrivener, Word for Mac 2011 and of course TextEdit. I am a librarian and have put it though the paces dictating difficult text and it is so close to 100% accuracy.
Big Kudos to Nuance for finally getting it right.

ReplyMariasays:

Dragon Dictation For Mac Free

October 23, 2018 at 11:13 pm

Dragon Dictation For Mac Medical

I bought this product back in April and it has never worked properly and over the last two months it has been impossible to use. It now crashes every time I say “wake up”. I cannot even get started. I have had some technical support from a company call Hands Free Computing. They have been trying hard to help, but it is a faulty product. The most outrageous thing is that Nuance doesn’t solve the problem and apparently there is no way I can get a refund. They are completely unnaccountable. This is a extraordinary that they get away with it. I wasted my money and now they have announced that they are discontinuing Dragon for Mac leaving everyone in the lurch. They say they will give 3 months technical support but the product has not worked and it is not likely to work.

Reply