Dragon or ViaVoice

[Chef]

I'm thinking about ordering a new computer in a few months and was really looking into getting a new Mac. Since I need to do a lot of Photoshop and other type work, I figured this would be better than a new PC. However, I hear that ViaVoice is not as strong a program as Dragon for voice recognition software. I looked at past threads about the pros and cons of each and was just wondering if ViaVoice has come out with a new version recently that is more comparable to Dragon 9? Also, I use a head mouse concurrently with Dragon and have macros created to work the two together (for examples I have a "grab" "drop" command which I use to move or resize windows and other objects) and want to know if it is easy enough to create similar macros on ViaVoice? Thanks.

[PN]

ViaVoice includes macro capabilities but you should keep in mind that the product hasn't seen any development work in about 3 or 4 year. I don't think there are any future plans to develop ViaVoice and has probably been abandoned by the manufacturer. Therefore, you are looking at DNS 9.5 Pro for Windows or iListen for the Mac.

[Chef]

From past posts, ilisten does not sound like it is as good a program as Dragon. Do you believe otherwise?

[Chuckers]

I have been utilizing Dragon NaturallySpeaking since its initial release, and have found that it is the superior product on the market. I have actually been utilizing a Dragon product since it was DragonDictate. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 9.5 is usable out-of-the-box from what I understand.

I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking at work and at home. I am presently to using it to write this message. I utilize Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Edition Version 8. I have tried ViaVoice and find the Dragon products to be superior. As Dragon NaturallySpeaking can be a bit of a memory cruncher, I would recommend that you get a PC with at least 2 GB of RAM memory, to ensure that you have optimum performance from the software.

[PN]

From past posts, ilisten does not sound like it is as good a program as Dragon. Do you believe otherwise?
Dragon is probably two or three years ahead of iListen.

[BillMiller823]

Anyone concerned with macro capabilities and voice-software, checkout KnowBrainer.com. KnowBrainer is an add-on command package to Dragon NaturallySpeaking (for Preferred and higher versions). It also is supposed to have "a number of bug fixes for DNS 9.5."

Personally, I've been using DragonDictate Classic Edition for about 9 years; it was essentially abandoned in 1997 so I've been nursing it along by writing at least 6,000 macros to adapt it to newer programs. I love DragonDictate, but I'm currently on a Windows 98 machine that I've pushed to the limits. Tomorrow I move to a new machine with both KnowBrainer & NaturallySpeaking (Pro Ver. 9). Many of the commands I wrote for DragonDictate, KnowBrainer has them (or similar commands). The creator of KnowBrainer (Lunis Orcutt) started on DragonDictate Classic probably 10+ years ago, and he & I have exchanged macro ideas over the years. Now I'm finally switching, and wondering just how many macros I'll have to recreate...