Certified Microphone.  A noise-canceling headset microphone is included with each full copy of NaturallySpeaking but may desire different style/connectivity microphones or extra microphones for use with additional PCs.  An UPGRADE does not include a microphone, because it is assumed the dictator is using the microphone from their original purchase.  Other/additional microphone options are available.

Attaching a recorder (purchased separately) will require a port (USB, serial, etc. depending on the model.)

Operating System:  Microsoft® Windows^® XP (SP1 or higher) Home and Professional, 2000 (SP4 or higher)
NOTE for purchasers of NaturallySpeaking Medical, Legal or Professional:
PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO A PRINTING ERROR, SOME BOXES OF THESE DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING 8 INDICATED SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS MILLENNIUM. DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING PRO/MED/LEGAL ONLY SUPPORTS WINDOWS XP (SP1 or higher) Home and Professional, 2000 (SP4 or higher)
Note for purchasers of NaturallySpeaking Preferred/Standard ONLY:
NaturallySpeaking 8 Preferred/Standard ONLY supports Windows Millennium in addition to Windows XP and 2000 as listed above.

Processor:   Recommended 1GHz Intel® Pentium® processor or better.  (Absolute minimum is Intel  Pentium^® III / 500 MHz processor (or equivalent AMD^® processor))

Memory:  Recommended 512MB or 1GB+ RAM depending on your applications.  (Absolute minimum is 256MB.)  We recommend you examine your work to determine the memory requirements of all programs you need to run simultaneously.

Hard Disk Space:  500 MB free disk space (includes space for your voice file(s))

Audio System:  Creative^® Sound Blaster^® 16 or equivalent sound card capable of 16-bit recording (to plug microphone into) or USB microphone (purchased separately)

Microsoft Internet Explorer v5 or higher for viewing help files (free download available at www.microsoft.com)

CD-ROM  drive (required for installation)

Speakers to hear tutorial, dictation playback, etc.

A Web connection is required for activation (New requirement in V8)

Certified Microphone.  A noise-canceling headset microphone is included with each full copy of NaturallySpeaking.  An UPGRADE does not include a microphone, because it is assumed the dictator is using the microphone from their original purchase.  Other/additional microphone options are available.

Attaching a recorder (purchased separately) will require a port (USB, serial, etc. depending on the model.)

Most Accurate Ever – Significant improvements to the Dragon NaturallySpeaking recognition system has yielded an unprecedented accuracy improvement of up to 15% over the previous release, resulting in speech recognition accuracy levels as high as 99 percent. 

Fastest Ever – More than 50 percent improvement in the initialization time of Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 enables “10 seconds to dictation” on baseline systems.  Users can train the software on their voice patterns in just five minutes.

Mainstream Dictation Through Natural Punctuation – While professionals are accustomed to speaking punctuations, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 brings speech recognition to mainstream users by eliminating the need to say “period” or “comma” when creating e-mail messages, sending instant message text or completing Web-based forms by voice.

Mobile Dictation with Pocket PC Devices – Users can now “talk-and-dock” using standard Pocket PC devices, in addition to handheld digital recorders, to record mobile dictation for automatic transcription when they synch to their PCs.

New Vocabulary Optimizer – Users can instruct Dragon NaturallySpeaking to instantly analyze sentence structure and word use frequency in previously created documents.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking then automatically adjusts the recognition engine to match the user’s unique writing patterns, thereby further increasing accuracy.

Most Accessible Ever – Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 is the first desktop speech recognition solution to be certified as compliant with U.S. Section 508, which is focused on enabling the use of PC applications by persons with disabilities.  The product supports Section 508 screen readers, and also adds voice control capabilities to Microsoft Windows XP/NT/2000 and all standard PC applications.

Improved Proofing – The time and effort needed to proofread a document created by voice has been significantly reduced with ScanSoft RealSpeak Proofing, which reads email and document text aloud in a human-sounding synthesized voice.

New Performance Assistant – Dragon NaturallySpeaking now optimizes itself for each user’s application usage patterns.

Accurate Voice Control of the PC – Dragon NaturallySpeaking has improved voice command and control capabilities, which allows users to use their voice to interact with the PC operating system and control application menus.  Most applications gain voice control capabilities by simply installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking onto the PC.

Expanded Custom Voice Shortcuts – The ability to create custom voice shortcuts, where a word or phrase will trigger the insertion of standardized text, has been expanded to support inserting text blocks and graphics.  Users can now create a custom voice shortcut for standard letter closings –including a graphic of their signature – and have it automatically added to their email or Microsoft Word correspondence by simply saying the shortcut command (i.e. “Add signature”.)

Operating System:  Microsoft® Windows® XP/Millennium/2000/98 or Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0 (with SP-6a or greater)

Processor:   700 MHz Intel® Pentium® processor or better.  (Absolute minimum is Intel 500 MHz or equivalent)

Memory:  512MB or 256 MB RAM depending on your applications.   We recommend you examine your work to determine the memory requirements of all programs you need to run simultaneously.

Hard Disk Space:  300 MB free disk space (includes space for your voice file(s))

Audio System:  Sound card (to plug microphone into) or USB microphone (purchase separately)

Microsoft Internet Explorer v5 or higher for viewing help files (free download available at www.microsoft.com)

CD-ROM for installation

Speakers to hear tutorial, dictation playback, etc.

Certified Microphone.  A noise-canceling headset microphone is included with each copy of NaturallySpeaking.  Other microphone options are available.

Attaching the NaturallyMobile Recorder requires an available serial port

Nothing But Speech (NBS)™ - NBS is a tool that filters out fillers and sounds between dictation—such as "uhms" and "ahs"—to avoid insertion of unwanted words.

New modes for spelling, numbers, commands only, and dictation only - These modes increase accuracy when doing specific tasks by voice.

The Accuracy Center - Your recognition accuracy rate can increase even more when you use the enhanced accuracy tools now available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking® version 6 speech recognition software. All accuracy features are now conveniently located in the Accuracy Center, which contains an Accuracy Assistant to help users select the right tool to increase accuracy. Version 6 contains several new accuracy aids, including:

Say links by voice in HTML help - You can navigate by voice in Microsoft® Internet Explorer, as well as in any Microsoft® Internet Explorer-based window, such as the Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Help file or Command Browser. 

Make correction by voice more easily

Proofread and correct your work with the improved Correction Menu, which is now available wherever you can select text by voice.

More ways to learn from your corrections. You can now select and correct a misrecognized word using voice, mouse, or keyboard-without going into a correction window-and Dragon NaturallySpeaking® 6 software can still learn from your correction.

The new correction workflow allows experienced users who prefer dictating an entire document before proofreading to quickly move through the document phrase by phrase and make corrections as needed. This feature is also helpful for transcriptionists.

Find commands more easily.  - A Sample Commands window is now available to display voice commands for the most popular applications alongside your work.    The new Command Browser lets you search for commands by application and keyword, making it easy to find what you need. It also allows you to train commands. (Solution Series users can even modify custom commands.)

Create your own commands quickly and easily  - A variety of command creation tools are now available to help you increase your productivity.  Command types include:  Text and Graphics for text blocks-including bitmaps, Macro Recorder for recording your mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes and assigning a verbal command (Solution Series only),  Step-by-Step for automating complicated tasks by easily scripting voice commands one step at a time, even if you are not a programmer (Solution Series only), and Advanced Scripting for Microsoft® VBA-compatible scripting tool lets you build complicated macros and even voice-enable applications that you may want to use. Dragon NaturallySpeaking® scripting language commands from previous versions of the software are also supported. (Solution Series only)

Export and import your user files with the click of a button - Store your user files in any network directory or on removable media, such as a USB memory device, CD/RW disk, or Zip disk. Users can easily back up user files for safekeeping or to transfer them to another computer without copying files manually. This feature is especially helpful for users who wish to dictate at multiple workstations.

Empty dictation vocabulary - Users who wish to create a limited, special-purpose vocabulary can now build a custom dictation vocabulary from scratch, adding only the words that they need for their work.