Table #1: Comparison of main Features

 

DNS Preferred

Versions 7-10

Microsoft SR

(Office 2003)

Windows Speech Recognition (WSR)

ViaVoice

Version 10.5

(Updated by Quentin Crivon, July 4, 2006)

Operating systems

All Windows versions

Windows XP

Windows Vista,

Windows 7

Windows 98, 2000, XP

Direct dictation

Fully supports various applications, such as MS Word and WordPerfect

Fully supports only MS applications (MS Word, WordPad, Outlook)

Works in various applications, not just Office. However, it won't work fully in applications that do not support Text Services Framework (TSF), for example Open Office, Microsoft Visual Studio.

Fully supports various applications, such as MS Word 97 to 2003, other MS Office 97 to 2003 programs and Lotus programs, Outlook Express 5 and 6

Navigation by Voice

Supported in various applications, such as Explorer, in addition to MS

Only in Microsoft applications

Supported in various applications, such as Explorer, in addition to MS

Supported in various applications, such as Explorer, in addition to MS.

Macro creation

Restricted to text macros
(the Professional version offers a full macro language)

Restricted to one line text macros, insertable via the Add/Remove words list

The new macro tool add-on offers a full macro language that can be combined with scripts.

Both text and navigation macros (but macro language less versatile than DNS Professional)

Transcription

Fully supported; high quality

Not supported but possible; medium quality

Not supported. Can be implemented at a basic level by Markoe’s Toolkit.

Fully supported; medium+ quality (other users report good quality)

 

Speech Data (the audio linked with generated speech)

Playback possible as long as file is not saved. Full speech data provided by the “Professional” version.

Speech data saved, though sometimes large files collapse and lose the data.

Not supported; playback possible only for small segments selected for correction.

Speech data fully supported, but not across versions.

Multilingualism

Versions 7, 9, 9.5 and 10 support all available languages.

 

Version 8 does NOT support all languages, only those included in a package.

Not applicable

Various languages are supported under the national versions or modules, but there is no smooth mechanism for language switching. Basically, different users must be created for each language for multilingualism to work acceptably.

Supports all available languages