Key Feature Differences
Between
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12
Professional & Premium
WHICH PRODUCT IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
If you are thinking about Dragon NaturallySpeaking, please consider the following when
comparing Dragon Premium with Dragon Professional. While all products within the
Dragon family offer the same speed, accuracy and ease of use, each edition is designed
to meet the needs of a specific user. Dragon Premium is ideal casual users, but only
Dragon Professional offers the network features and advanced capabilities required for
corporate enterprise deployments.
Dragon Professional is preferred by:
Managers
Increase organizational efficiency via fast text entry and reduction in
support personnel
Staff and
Field Workers
Decrease task time in Microsoft Office applications, use voice
shortcuts for sending email and scheduling appointments or to
handle correspondence and calendar, Roaming User profile allows
multiple device use and maximizes recognition accuracy on
workstations and laptops, custom commands to automate repetitive
tasks or make sophisticated documentation environments easier,
company/personal custom vocabularies for maximum recognition
accuracy, plus transcription tools
IT Departments
Ease of network installation for simplified management, centralized
administration for easy control and backup, user tracking for
monitoring deployment effectiveness and license use, additional
security features
HR Department
Both proactively help to decrease the risk of common workplace
strain injuries associated with extended use of keyboard/mouse and
also reactively implement policies for disabled employees in need of
adaptive or assistive technology
How are Dragon Premium and Dragon Professional the Same?
 Both have the same speech engine and thus the same base accuracy
 Both have a plain English vocabulary, to which you can add individual words and
phrases
 Both allow Dragon to adapt its vocabulary by analyzing emails and specific
documents
 Both allow the creation of “Text & Graphics” custom commands to insert images
or boilerplate text
 Both will transcribe recorded dictation
How are Dragon Premium and Dragon Professional Different?
Only Dragon Professional Supports:
 Natural Language Commands for Business Applications
 Advanced Personal Administration
 Advanced Custom Commands
 Network & Advanced Administration
 Transcription Tools
 Remote Desktop Connection
 Advanced Security Features
 Section 508 Certification
NATURAL LANGUAGE COMMANDS FOR BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
Dragon's Natural Language Commands are high-level commands that tell the computer
to do a task that might take many steps if you used the mouse and keyboard. For
example, saying “insert two by four table” will insert a table in a Microsoft Word
document. In Dragon Premium, we provide Natural Language Commands for the
applications most used at home. In Microsoft Outlook, Excel, or Lotus Notes, users are
restricted to the standard application commands. In Dragon Professional, we've made it
easier for business users by providing Natural Language Commands for those additional
business applications.
ADVANCED PERSONAL ADMINISTRATION
Dragon Professional has the ability to export custom words to XML format to capture
their properties. Also, Dragon Professional has the ability to create or add multiple
custom vocabularies to improve accuracy rates when compared to Dragon Premium.
ADVANCED CUSTOM COMMANDS
Both products have the ability to turn talk into text, but only Dragon Professional has the
ability to fundamentally improve workflow. How? It’s about automating manual processes
with simple voice commands to streamline repetitive tasks. Dragon Professional allows a
level of customization not seen in Dragon Premium, with variability in command names,
fillable templates, the ability to use Macros to define a series of actions in one simple
command, and the ability to speech-enable applications with programming language.
DragonTemplates
Filling out forms and files that have fields can be a challenge, but Dragon Professional
makes it easy to use your voice to complete the task. With the ability to add variable
fields to a template in any text document, Dragon Professional allows you to easily fill in
commonly used forms, simplifying the process and saving time. You simply have to say
"Next Field" to navigate to each form field.
Smart Commands
Smart Commands allow you to change the meaning of a command depending on the
context in which it's used.
Macro Recorder
Use Dragon’s Macro Recorder to record your keystrokes and mouse-clicks, then save
the series of actions under a single voice command. This is a great feature for
something you do often that would normally require a series of multiple commands or
hand actions.
Step-by-Step Commands
The Step-by-Step option in Dragon’s command-creation wizard lets you automate a
series of actions (such as turning the microphone off or waiting 300 milliseconds) one
step at a time, even if you're not a programmer.
Speech-Enable More Applications
Those with some programming knowledge can speech-enable many things, like forms
and interaction with several applications, using Dragon’s VBA-like Advanced Scripting
language. This language contains, for instance, the HeardWord function, which allows
you to instruct Dragon to act as if it just heard a certain word or phrase.
NETWORK & ADVANCED ADMINISTRATION
If you are managing a corporate network and have more than one Dragon end-user,
Dragon Professional is the way to go. A centralized network allows multiple users to
discover what others have created (vocabulary, commands, macros, etc.) and quickly
and easily share them across the user community. Many Dragon Professional enterprise
users create an internal “Dragon Information Center” (often on their intranet) to post
specific demos, tips and tricks, FAQs, sample word lists and commands, a “suggestion
box” and more.
Multiple Vocabularies
Dragon Professional allows multiple vocabularies, and offers the ability to both import
and export as needed. Having targeted vocabularies for each main type of dictation (for
example, general correspondence versus specialized templates) allows users to further
increase their dictation accuracy and therefore their time-savings and satisfaction.
Centrally Stored Files
All Dragon Professional custom commands, word lists, and custom vocabularies can be
centralized on the network. It automatically stores and synchronizes updates and
adaptations centrally. For data distribution, network administrators will like having
everything in one place, rather than at the individual-user level.
Custom Commands
Have a list of things that your organization needs to do with Dragon on a regular basis?
Give custom commands to everyone with Dragon on your network. Dragon Professional
has the ability to import/export custom commands in the Command Browser, or via the
Data Distribution Tool. Special security features for custom commands are also built-in.
Track Usage
Want to give targeted advice to new users of Dragon? Want to know how much your
licenses are being used? Asking end-users directly can be time-consuming, and the
feedback received is rarely comprehensive. With the Dragon Professional edition,
administrators can easily obtain rich, objective usage data (including the applications
used, the type of audio device used, whether users are remembering certain voice
commands, and more), by turning on the setting that generates a cumulative recognition
log file for each end-user. This helps them know how often and how well Dragon is used,
calculate return on investment and make changes to their setup as needed.
Network Management
With built-in MSI installation, the network administrator is in control of what is installed on
client computers. Also, Dragon Professional offers enhanced tools for network
management of Dragon user profiles, vocabularies, and installations using a new GUI.
Without Dragon Professional, administrators and IT departments are tasked with staying
on top of who-has-what and cannot easily manage this process.
TRANSCRIPTION TOOLS
With Dragon Professional, the audio portion of your dictation can be saved, embedded in
the document. This allows third-party editing, or later editing by the user, with audio.
Also, in Microsoft Word, users can include un-transcribed instructions for third-party
editors using "Voice Notations" which is helpful if you want to say something but not
have it transcribed.
REMOTE DESKTOP CONNECTION
Working from home? On the road? Dragon Professional supports remote use on a
computer running Windows server 2000 8R2, Windows 7 ultimate, or Windows 8 Pro.
Users will like this feature as their user profile is available anywhere on the network via
mapped drive, UNC path, or http. With Microsoft’s free Remote Desktop connection
software (formerly called Terminal Services Client), users can use Dragon from a local
Windows computer on which Dragon itself is not installed.
ADVANCED SECURITY FEATURES
Dragon Professional enables administrators to restrict access to specific features on a
user-by-user basis. Dragon Professional also offers configuration options that provide
administrators with even better control of Dragon in the enterprise, including access to
VBA-style custom commands. For example, Dragon Professional offers a command-line
utility to let Value Added Resellers and IT departments encrypt custom commands
before distributing them. If security is important, Dragon Professional is the best way to
go.
SECTION 508 CERTIFICATION
In 1998, the US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require US Federal
agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with
disabilities. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to
make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage
development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all
Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and
information technology. Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and
members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available
to others.
Organizations planning to offer speech recognition technology to employees as an
assistive technology require a tool that meets the rigorous standards defined by the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Only Dragon Professional is Section 508 certified.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
There are a number of resources available to help users maximize the power of Dragon.
Tools on the Nuance website include a getting started guide, demo videos, illustrated
workbook, data sheets and white papers, evaluation guide, administrators manual, user
guide, the Hardware Compatibility list, the KnowledgeBase with helpful TechNote
articles, and the Forum where a wide range of users exchange tips and discuss feature
requests.
Product
Information
www.nuance.com/for-business/by-product/dragon/productresources
User
Documentation
http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-product/dragon/productresources/user-documentation/index.htm
Forum
www.nuance.com/support/dragon-naturallyspeaking
We also recommend the book Scripting for Dragon NaturallySpeaking® 11:
A Guide to Advanced Scripting for Dragon NaturallySpeaking® 11 by noted speech
recognition and Dragon expert Larry Allen of Softnet (www.pcspeak.com). This book is
an essential guide for anyone creating custom commands, and also applies to users of
Dragon 12.