The Writer's Guide to Training Your Dragon: Using Speech Recognition Software to Dictate Your Book and Supercharge Your Writing Workflow (Dictation Mastery for PC and Mac) Kindle Edition

A useful guide which helped me decide which version to purchase and to set up Parallels on my desktop to be able to run the non-Mac version. I have not been able to train my dragon anywhere to the levels the author has but at least I got the dictation software to work in a passible solution which I probably would not have managed without this book. NOTE: many authors claim they write much faster using dictation. I do not agree. Thne actual dictation is much faster but the correction time I need (even now that I have used it for 4 movels) ends up making the total time close to the amount it would have taken to type every word. But at least I spend less time tapping the keyboard which was the idea, and I spend a few hours walking while dictating rather than sitting around.

I have been playing around with Dragon Naturally Speaking for about 20 years. Yes, "playing around" is a fairly accurate description of the relationship that I have had with the Dragon. It's been a frustrating "on again - off again" experience. Up until recent years, affordable hardware was just not good enough to support Dragon's needs. Well, that is what I thought.This book presented a paradigm shift in what to expect from Dragon. The author provided two key points that I had never really considered regarding how to use Dragon. First, his advice to writers is to focus on getting the draft written. It's about word count and not formatting. Second, unless you have physical limitations that require you to use Dragon to control your computer keep the use of commands to the absolute minimum. Again, this is about writers and the need to focus on getting their drafts written.The author recommends not even using the DragonPad for dictation. He explains that using a basic text editor like the Windows Notepad works better for dictating a draft as it does not allow formatting. Thus, Dragon will focus on creating words from the dictation and not get confused with formatting commands. This is a great approach.The author provides tips on how to work-around Dragon's problems regarding special or hard to pronounce words. For example: use a simple word to describe a difficult name or phrase and then use search and replace to fix things up during the editing period of the draft.Regarding editing of the draft, the author recommends not using Dragon at all. Instead, he recommends using the standard keyboard and mouse approach to clean up the draft.The author, also, provides some nice insight into how to expand the time that you can dictate by using either your smartphone or dictaphone. Again, this is where technology is finally capable of enough to support transcription by Dragon. I haven't tried this yet, but I am definitely looking forward to giving this a try.All in all, while the book is short, it does provide some great information to get started on the right foot with Dragon or help you develop a reasonable expectation about Dragon's capabilities. BTW, he covers both the Windows and Mac versions about what works and doesn't and any differences in how to use on the two platforms.I found this book quite helpful and highly recommend it to those who want to get their words captured into text without having to type them.

Not as good as the other books on dragon but a good beginner guide

This book gives some good advice for using the Dragon dictation software. It assumes that you are going to use it to dictate a book, but it also works well for data entry. This book recommends against the home version of Dragon because it lacks the ability to transcribe a recording. However, I have no desire to make a recording for later transcription, so the home version works fine for me. The dictation feature built into Windows 10 has a major bug in that it about 7 times out of 8 interprets the words new line as the literal words "new line" rather than going to the next line. Dragon does not have this problem. This book states that microphone volume should be set to 80% for good microphones, but the Snowball Blue Ice microphone recommended by the book has very low volume when making a recording with Audacity or Windows Voice Recorder unless you set the volume to 100% and place your mouth 4 finger widths away from the Microphone. A headset that I have does have to have the microphone volume set to 80% to avoid clipping.

Short. To the point. And a total gift. That’s what this book is. I recognized the value in dictation, but had no idea how to make dragon work. Tried it once, like the author did in the 90s, and just as he said, ended up putting it in a drawer and never using it again, thinking it a total waste of money.As I was considering which version to purchase, I found myself being swayed and even alarmed by some of the one star reviews of dragon. All those problems the one star reviewers had are explained and provided answers in this book.I am so glad I found and read this entire book, which is really short anyway, before making my choice. Definitely going to purchase dragon 15 professional and set up exactly as he describes in this book—including all the hardware you need, and all the settings. Plus, very excited about the transcription feature and so grateful that I have never been a Mac lover now. But if you are, he’s got answers for you, too.Thank you Mr. Baker!!! This review was dictated! Lol.

Dictation is not natural. It's dang difficult to master. The book is helpful for getting beyond that.I liked the emphasis on the absolute necessity of a high quality cardiod mic. The author is a book dictating author and has years of experience in his bag of tricks. The mic's discussed are in the >$100's. It's a matter of GIGO fidelity.Dictation process repeatability is the major focus. The importance of specific mic position, speech cadence and voice pattern AI learning begins to make sense. It all helps from the beginning.On the other hand, the book has not been specifically updated for new releases other than a word here and there that is not operationally helpful. It's generic Dragon dictation.The books construct reveals an original book designed to be author easy edited and re-issued to now Dragon 15. A deep dive into the nuances of the revisions is mention only.The value of the book is in helping the user develop dictation methodology. To uncover current revision nuances, look elsewhere.Very quick read. Helpful.

Not really what I was hoping for. What I really need is a "dummies guide to Dragon", or similar, to help me use the Command part of it more than I do now, and to be able to make the most of the formatting tools of MS Word without having to forever reach for my mouse.If you are looking for a book that will go into the minutiae of using Dragon with every command aspect of Windows, MS Office and more, this is not the book for you.If you are looking at getting the optimum performance out of Dragon for "writing" large volumes of text, then this book may help you achieve that.

I've been toying with switching to dictation for some time now. Lots of my writing friends are almost evangelical about how making the switch has revolutionised their productivity, but then I'm a fast typist and I've developed my way of working over years, so why should I change? This book by Scott Baker could be the thing that finally convinces me. It sets out the issues clearly, explains the pros and cons, and clearly comes down on the positive side: dictation might not be the only way, but it's a very helpful approach - particularly when things aren't flowing - and is a useful tool for the writer. It could even become the main tool I use, as I become more used to it. Most usefully of all, this book gives very clear guidance and advice on making the switch to speech recognition - if you've ever considered trying it then this is the perfect guide. If this book had been around a year or two ago it would have saved me a lot of prevarication!

This is the first review I've ever written on Amazon but even at £8, I felt ripped off when this small slim book arrived. The author provides very basic technical information which I already knew from surfing a few articles on the Internet (tip: join FB Dragon Riders - Authors Dictating and you can pick up plenty of free tips there). Little practical information/tips are provided on the process of transitioning from typing to dictating (main tip given: practice and get used to it) which was partly what I was looking for. I was also looking for more information on using commands. Like another reviewer said (and thanks for the tip) it's better to go to the Help menu and print out the notes that list the commands one should use when using the Dragon program. Save your money - don't buy this book. Very disappointing.

I have used dictation in the past but need to develop an ongoing habit of doing so. This book covers the use of Nuance’s Dictation software on Windows and Apple machine in great detail. It is pragmatic guide to using dictation to encourage mainly authors to increase their output dramatically. There are other Dictation softwares out there but the do not compare favorably with Nuance’s offering. The emphasis is on the adoption and use of the tool ...almost error free dictation to drive the creators word count and thereby improve their productivity. Well worth reading.

Excellent book. Having read the invaluable contents and purchased a decent microphone I could almost write a new edition Purchase of this book gives access to instructional video which reiterates book contents. The advice about mic's was really useful. Dragon Mic worked but a decent mic makes such a difference. The method to transcribe items also excellent. The auto upload and quick transcribe when back in the office or home a real boom.