With Dragon premium (formerly called preferred) speech is
recorded as the user speaks but this is lost when the document is closed. The
speech can be saved for later use but ONLY in the Professional version of
Dragon, not in the premium / preferred versions.
If people are having difficulty transferring speech profiles
from one version of Dragon to the next version it is likely to do with the
windows operating and specifically whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit.
The majority of the newer machines are coming though as
64-bit Windows. Older machines were often 32-bit. Profiles created on 32-bit machines
cannot be used / transferred onto 64-bit machines and vice –versa. I think this
is likely to be the issue some people may be experiencing, i.e. why Michele
could transfer profiles and why Nick couldn’t.
It is relatively straightforward to check what commands or ‘dictation
shortcuts’ people have added within the command browser of Dragon (and easy to
remove them) and in my opinion this issue should not be a reason for disallowing
people from using Dragon for exams if this is a strategy / tool they need to
use.
Also as Peter Hill wisely suggests the whole exam can be
audio recorded if a check were needed.
Can I also say that Nuance who makes Dragon recommends a minimum of 4GB of RAM for Dragon 11 on 64-bit Windows 7. Sorry if this sounds technical but I have found from training many students that unless the computer is appropriately specified then Dragon is very sluggish and it can put people off using it. RAM is relatively cheap nowadays and worth the investment.
best wishes,
Alex
Alex Larg
07931 561 877
Freelance trainer
Former Disability Officer