| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Dear DNS users. Please share your experience with us all! Thread poster: Mats Wiman
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Giulia TAPPI 
France
Local time: 05:49
French to Italian
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| A different point of view | Mar 8, 2007 |
I did find interesting what Jackie said, but I do not agree.
Maybe because I also work as an interpreter, so I am used to think very quickly.
I translate mostly contracts or judgements, and Italian contracts may have sentences which are, let's say, 200 words without a fullstop. So I would not say it is "simple stuff". Moreover, in contracts, every word is important and must be translated very accurately.
When I typed, I splitted up my sentence in small parts, whereas with DNS I... See more I did find interesting what Jackie said, but I do not agree.
Maybe because I also work as an interpreter, so I am used to think very quickly.
I translate mostly contracts or judgements, and Italian contracts may have sentences which are, let's say, 200 words without a fullstop. So I would not say it is "simple stuff". Moreover, in contracts, every word is important and must be translated very accurately.
When I typed, I splitted up my sentence in small parts, whereas with DNS I can have an overview of the whole paragraph much more easily.
Moreover, if you want to correct your text, the "select and say" function enables you to change entire sentences very quickly.
But of course I understand that DNS may noy suit everybody, so I do not want in any way encourage people to buy it!
Giulia ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 05:49
Member (2000)
German to Swedish
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Interesting comment! | Mar 8, 2007 |
Thanks Giulia,
Interesting info. Good that you allow for different views on this not so simple subject.
More views please!
| | | | Ramon Soto
United States
Local time: 23:49
English to Spanish
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| Spanish-language versions | Mar 9, 2007 |
1. Which version do you use?
I started with ViaVoice in 1998.
2. Languages included?
Spanish.
3. Which language(s) do you use?
Spanish.
4. How long did it take to be in operation?
A couple of hours after installation and training.
5. Where did you buy and at what price?
I bought one version in 98 and a later version a couple of years later. I had to order them over the phone from Canada both times. They were about ... See more 1. Which version do you use?
I started with ViaVoice in 1998.
2. Languages included?
Spanish.
3. Which language(s) do you use?
Spanish.
4. How long did it take to be in operation?
A couple of hours after installation and training.
5. Where did you buy and at what price?
I bought one version in 98 and a later version a couple of years later. I had to order them over the phone from Canada both times. They were about US$200.00 each.
My experience with it:
-ViaVoice was perfect for dictating relatively-straight prose, without much formatting, capitalization, and so on. Unfortunately, most of my work since 2002 has been just the opposite of that, so I stopped using voice recognition altogether.
-Using ViaVoice was a welcome alternative to the drudgery of typing. Furthermore, I found that my university training on sight translation was just the right skill to take advantange of this technology.
-I got the impression that a language like Spanish, with its straightforward phonetics and long words, was the perfect fit for voice recognition.
-ViaVoice had no problem adapting to my Latin American Spanish. And it improved by leaps and bounds the more I used it.
I am now considering buying DNS in Spanish. I've heard pretty good reviews from fellow translators. I can only imagine how much the technology may have improved since I stopped using it four or five years ago. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Heike Reagan
United States
Local time: 23:49
German to English
in English and I'm fairly happy with it, I might upgrade in the next few months.
I do mostly contracts and user manuals and it seems like it works much better with a 'normal', flowing, text, rather than the legalese and 'push Eject to eject tape' etc.
I do have problems with the formatting and it also cuts sentences into little parts. I'm not sure if I put enough time into "training", also it might improve if yo... See more in English and I'm fairly happy with it, I might upgrade in the next few months.
I do mostly contracts and user manuals and it seems like it works much better with a 'normal', flowing, text, rather than the legalese and 'push Eject to eject tape' etc.
I do have problems with the formatting and it also cuts sentences into little parts. I'm not sure if I put enough time into "training", also it might improve if you speak 'full' sentences rather than sentences components, which can be very hard in my specialties.
Botom line: If I have a 'flowing' text or a very long text, I use it, works good with WordFast too, after some initial trials. I usually have to do a very thorough proof of my own work prior to delivery, though, more thorough than if I'd typed the whole text. If I have very complicated text, it's faster to type.
But worth the money and fun to do! ▲ Collapse
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1. I use Dragon 9.0, Preferred Version.
2. It only speaks English. It is the version produced for the UK, and I believe it can also do US English.
3. I translate only from German into English, which is why I only need Dragon in English. As a matter of fact, I bought it online from somewhere in the South of England, but established later that I should have bought the German version here instead, because the German version does English as well. I did not know that prior ... See more 1. I use Dragon 9.0, Preferred Version.
2. It only speaks English. It is the version produced for the UK, and I believe it can also do US English.
3. I translate only from German into English, which is why I only need Dragon in English. As a matter of fact, I bought it online from somewhere in the South of England, but established later that I should have bought the German version here instead, because the German version does English as well. I did not know that prior to purchasing it. The German could have come in handy for German letters and e-mails. Anyhow, too late now!
4. I could not put it into operation at first, because the computer was not powerful enough. Among other things, it only had 512 MB RAM, and Dragon does not work well with less than 1 GB. My computer consultant came over to see why it didn't work (took an hour to make it type a single word), and then he put in some more RAM to make it up to 1 GB. That is still hardly enough, because it only works well if used immediately after switching on or rebooting the computer and before opening too many other programs, especially Multiterm.
After it started to work, it took about an hour's training. However, training seems to be continuous, as it starts to improve a lot when used regularly and after opening up the words menu and training individual words every time that it seems to be poor at recognising a word. The advantage with training words is that you can train abbreviations too.
5. I bought it online, by going to the UK Dragon web site, from Nuance. They charged me a total of EUR 191.86, being EUR 169.36 + EUR 22.50 shipping costs. It arrived quite quickly, within a few days.
I am using the headset that came with it, and it works very well.
I use Dragon in conjunction with Trados 7 and a German computer, configured in German. Using Dragon with Trados creates some problems of its own. For example, if just dictating to Word, Dragon would automatically start each new sentence with a capital letter. With Trados, since each TU only contains one sentence, that benefit is lost and you have to start each sentence by saying "cap".
According to the manual that came with it, you are supposed to be able to say "question mark" at the end of a sentence and it should type a question mark. Mine doesn't do that. Instead, it always goes to the question mark along the top of the Word menu and points the cursor at it!
Astrid ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nora Diaz
Mexico
Local time: 20:49
Member (2002)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| DNS 9.5 Preferred | May 27, 2007 |
Hello, everybody,
Please find my answers below:
1. Which version do you use?
I've just upgraded to a Vista computer, and therefore upgraded to DNS 9.5 Preferred, a free downloadable upgrade from DNS 9, by the way.
2. Languages included?
English and Spanish
3. Which language(s) do you use?
English and Spanish
4. How long did it take to be in operation?
30 minutes
That's how long it took including instal... See more Hello, everybody,
Please find my answers below:
1. Which version do you use?
I've just upgraded to a Vista computer, and therefore upgraded to DNS 9.5 Preferred, a free downloadable upgrade from DNS 9, by the way.
2. Languages included?
English and Spanish
3. Which language(s) do you use?
English and Spanish
4. How long did it take to be in operation?
30 minutes
That's how long it took including installation and training.
5. Where did you buy and at what price?
I ordered the latest version online, and I can't remember the exact price but it was between 200 and 300 USD.
My overall take on DNS:
I like it, it's fun to work with. Having said that, I don't use it all the time. The main reasons are that sometimes I don't feel like dictating, and that there are some documents that are just not worth the hassle of training all the difficult words.
However, I'm convinced that the more you use the software, and the more you fine-tune recognition, the more appealing it is to use it.
I have made the commitment to run through all the training texts within the next month, something I've never done before, and to extract vocabulary from my documents to further fine-tune the training of the software. I understand that if I want this tool to work for me, I have to be willing to put some time into it.
Interestingly enough, I get more recognition errors when dictating in Spanish (my native language) than when dictating in English. I find that I have to invest some time in going over the dictated text to identify errors in recognition and correct them. Most of the time it's something simple, such as recognizing "al" as "el", and if I can get past that, I will definitely use this tool more and more.
I have just started to explore the possibility of transcribing translations dictated into a digital voice recorder. I also work as an interpreter, and this morning I recorded a two-hour lecture into my Olympus recorder to experiment a little with transcription. That would be another plus: being able to dictate a document into my voice recorder when I'm away from my computer and then simply plugging it in and having Dragon do all recognition.
I have found that what works best for me, since I use Dragon in conjunction with Word and Trados, is a combination of voice recognition and keyboard strokes. I don't dictate any commands, only text. I still use my keyboard for all Trados commands, and I have found that that works great for me.
Another key thing that I would share with anyone considering this software, is that having a high-quality microphone is absolutely essential. My DNS 9 came with a headset microphone, but I haven't even opened the bag. I purchased a great USB microphone that has made a world of difference in recognition accuracy.
I will experiment a little with the voice recorder and will let you know how that works out.
By the way, I dictated this post with Dragon.
Best,
Nora
[Edited at 2007-05-27 00:11] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ana P. Gutierrez
United States
Local time: 22:49
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| DNS 9.5 Preferred | Jul 16, 2007 |
Nora Diaz wrote:
In my case my software is the Spanish version of Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 9.5 (just upgraded from 9.0) and I can dictate either in English or in Spanish.
Hi Nora, I found this link to a website that offers this software in its Spanish version. Is this the one you got? I do not yet plan to invest on this program, but thinking about doing it in the future.
http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_Main.Entry17C?SID=45928&SP=10023&CID=119346&PID=851510&PN=1&V1=851510&CUR=978&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=119346
Nora Diaz wrote:
I have just started to explore the possibility of transcribing translations dictated into a digital voice recorder. I also work as an interpreter, and this morning I recorded a two-hour lecture into my Olympus recorder to experiment a little with transcription. That would be another plus: being able to dictate a document into my voice recorder when I'm away from my computer and then simply plugging it in and having Dragon do all recognition.
I will experiment a little with the voice recorder and will let you know how that works out.
Were you able to try this to see if it worked?
Nora Diaz wrote:
Another key thing that I would share with anyone considering this software, is that having a high-quality microphone is absolutely essential. My DNS 9 came with a headset microphone, but I haven't even opened the bag. I purchased a great USB microphone that has made a world of difference in recognition accuracy.
Which brand USB microphone did you find worked best?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge Nora!
(:
Ana
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