frustrations with Dragon

[julesjones]

I wonder how many obscene words are in the built-in vocabulary? Because it will probably have learned a few new ones by the end of the week. So far using it to navigate around the desktop has been less than successful, ranging from general flakiness to closing the entire Mozilla when all I wanted it to do was switch to the next tab. Oh, and the microphone randomly switches off in software.

But for the absolute pinnacle of bloody annoyingness, we must go to its refusal to be open at the same time as its PDF manual. I have no idea what the problem is other than that this is the 2008 version of Dragon, and I'm running the latest version of Adobe Reader, so it's possible that something new in Reader isn't compatible.

In spite of all which, I am so glad that I have Dragon, and I am already used to using it, even if I haven't used it for a while and can't remember most of the commands. This entry has taken about 10 minutes to dictate, and a lot of muttering while the microphone was off, but it might well have taken me 10 minutes to type it, given the current state of my hands.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

Sorry to hear of your rsi problems (been reading LJ only intermittently). You'll get used to using Dragon fluently again, I'm sure. (Can you navigate using the mouse without hurting your wrists? When I had flare ups, I used to manage by pushing the mouse around with my fingertips without holding it, then poking the button with one finger or a pen. Alternatively, I've found a touchpad much easier on the wrists. There again, my rsi was probably always less severe than what you're experiencing.)

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Hopefully except for the frustration bit it hurts less too.

[julesjones]

Much less painful, although one of the frustrating things about the lack of desktop navigation is that mouse use is more painful than keyboard use.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I hope that it all gets easier the more you use it. My use of Dragon has been minimal, but I know it can be extremely frustrating. And I never attempted to use it to do anything other than enter text.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. If it's a problem for you, it must be a problem for other people. There must be lots of better ways to control a mouse. Eye-tracking. Foot petals. Maybe a grid based voice controlled system (think nine numbered squares on the screen, with the ability to turn any square into nine more numbered squares, and so on).