Cheap IBM VIAVOICE Advanced 10.0 (Software) (Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 98) Price

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Customer Reviews of IBM VIAVOICE Advanced 10.0

Dragon Preferred is better than ViaVoice 10
I am a physician and dictate multiple letters every day. I was spending thousands of dollars (literally) a year for a transcriptionist to type my letters for me in the early 1990's. Not only that, there was about a one week turnaround time from when I dictated the letters into my tape recorder until the time they were typed and ready to be signed. When IBM first came out with speech recognition, I called IBM and actually spoke to the person who was the head of their R&D for speech recognition. From what he told me, I felt this new technology might save me a lot of time and money. I have used IBM for speech recognition since 1995 when they had Voice Dictation which was run off their own IBM OS2-Warp operating system. That required that you speak each word distinctly and separately. You needed a computer with a dual operating system (OS2 Warp and Windows 3.1). After dictating a letter into the OS2-Warp platform, you copied it, opened Windows and pasted it onto a Works letterhead. Lots of futzing around, but hey, it worked. When ViaVoice came out (in 1998, I think) I got their Executive 98 edition and have used it until recently. It worked fine, but my eight year-old computer finally died, and when I got a new Dell I figured I'd try the new ViaVoice 10. Big mistake!!! Initially it worked, but it was always kind of quirky. Made me wish I still had my old Executive 98 version. Anyway, one day, after spending a weekend programing in a bunch of macros, it totally died. I called IBM ViaVoice support and they had me do this thing and that to the computer, all to no avail. Finally, the technician asked what operating system I was using. I told him Windows XP service pack 2. He said that ViaVoice 10 is not compatible with service pack 2 - something about a "hostile environment". I asked him what I should do and he said return ViaVoice to Amazon (which they took back for a full credit even though the package had obviously been opened) and to get Dragon. That's right - the IBM technician said Dragon is a better product. Well, I ordered Dragon Preferred from Amazon and set-up was a breeze compared to ViaVoice. About 5 minutes of reading to the computer to adjust to my voice vs. 35 minutes for ViaVoice. Installing macros (addresses, common phrases, etc. where you say a couple of words and the whole address or paragraph comes up) was easy. One annoyance with the macros is that you always have to reset the font and size for each macro. I use Times New Roman 12-point and had to set it every time. The default font is something weird and the default size is 8-point. If you don't reset it, the macros show up in your letter in the 8-point size. Training new words is very simple and quick. Dragon says it is 99% accurate - I think that's a bit of a stretch, but I find that Dragon will make maybe 2-3 mistakes in a typical 3-4 paragraph letter that I dictate, including all the medical jargon. I can live with that - it is comparable to what I was used to with my old ViaVoice program. Correction is easy - either say Select _ and then choose the correct spelling from the dropdown list, or highlight the misspelled word and push the minus (-) sign on the numeric keypad. Dragon is very good when you have to correct a single word; not as hot if you have to correct a phrase or macro. It takes maybe 15-30 seconds to make corrections to the letter once I have finished dictating. Another annoyance is that Dragon doesn't seem to learn from it's mistakes. If, for example, I say Andersen, it will type Anderson no matter how many times I run the correction window, spelling the word ending with -sen not -son. ViaVoice, at least my old version, would usually spell the word correctly after I had corrected it once or twice. Another annoyance is that when I am dictating, often Dragon seems to hold back on typing, then suddenly an entire sentence will appear. It does show what you are dictating in a little box at the top of the screen though. ViaVoice shows every word as soon as you dictate it. I have had no problems with the microphone that came with Dragon - it's not the most comfortable, but it doesn't seem to be adversely affecting the dictation quality. Unless you have money to burn, there's probably no reason to buy a more expensive microphone. Overall, I am pretty happy with Dragon Preferred. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, and it does what I need it to do. It is a definite improvement over my old IBM ViaVoice Executive 98 version. I am not sure I can accurately rate ViaVoice 10 because of my computer's "hostile environment". However, even the IBM technician said Dragon is a better product. If you have Windows XP service pack 2, don't even think of getting ViaVoice.

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You should find something else.
I just bought this product and tried to install it. It did not install right. Naturally I called customer service at Nuance. Then there comes the surprise. They give you free tech support only for first time on installation problem. From second time, you have to pay about $19 for support. I did not remember if it was one time fee or each time. Another surprise took place when I finally could talk to tech rep after about 10 min. wait. First thing he told me was that there are compatibility issues with Windows XP SP2. Tech Rep also told me that because of this, there is a really good chance you will have to call tech support more than twice which means you will have to pay and best thing I can do is to return this product and get refund. <
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>as for installation problem, I did not even try to fix it knowing that this will have another problem. <
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>If you are thinking to buy this item anyway you really have to make sure you are not using XP SP2 or they have already fixed this problem

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Might change my fiance's life!!!!!
My girlfriend has Multiple Sclerosis and has become limited in her ability to type. She was using an on-screen keyboard with a mouse, when I met her. One day I watched her type a short note to her mother she spent hours on two paragraphs. I told her that there had to be a better way and after a short search found ViaVoice. It was affordable and we decided to give it a try. We installed it the day it came and right away she was able to use its built in word processor to write letters to friends and family. We've only been working with it for 2 weeks, now, but it is a vast improvement over the onscreen keyboard. She can dictate a letter and make corrections in a fraction of the time possible before. <
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>I hate that it seems tied to Microsoft but it seems to be adaptable to other software systems. We are learning togather, it's fun.