Dragon Dictate
Friday, 24 June 2011
You may have a disability, or you may have developed RSI or carpal tunnel syndrome – or you may just be a terrible one-finger typist and/or find typing really unintuitive and difficult But with Dragon Dictate, which is software you can install that partially uses Apple's assistive technology to give you on-computer dictation, you can input words directly into your Mac with the built-in microphone or better, with the headset Dragon ships in the box.Dragon Dictate’ is powered by the latest version of the Dragon speech recognition engine. This is the same technology used by Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for the PC, in a Mac version.
The one-earpiece headset is pretty good. While eventually your ear gets sick of being under a headphone, that would be the same for anything. It has an adjustable microphone stalk so you can put it in the right place for dictation (you're guided on how to set everything up, including adjusting the mic for best sound pickup when you first start using the programme).
It's also handy as you can kind of push the mic away from your mouth if you need to talk to someone.There's also a pause button in the top menu bar thingy and a hovery pause-play button – (right).
Dragon Dictate is extremely useful for taking notes, writing e-mails, and using social media or networking sites.
Three main modes
It had three main modes: dictation, spelling, and commands. The first turns your speech into text, the second allows you to spell out words, and the third allows you to command programs which include iCal, iChat, Mail, Safari, TextEdit, Global, Dragon Dictate itself, and the Finder.
It effectively identifies where you are trying to insert text and responds immediately to clicking between text boxes. While speaking out your thoughts takes some getting used to, eventually, working in this way may help for clear sentence construction, since you need to think more specifically about what exactly it is you are trying to express while writing.
However, sometimes it is difficult to ensure the software formulates your sentence in a grammatically correct manner. For example, it is difficult to ensure that the software enters 'your' or 'you're' where appropriate, so you may end up modifying your speech to say 'you are' instead of 'you're'. You punctuate by saying 'full stop', 'comma', 'colon', 'open bracket', 'open quote', 'close quote' etc. It picks up punctuation really well, actually.
you do have to kind of change your mindset around how you phrase sentences aloud.
Screenshot shows the commands for operating the programmes using dictation.
Switch the programme into Command mode and then say "Show dictate help"
to open help mode.
But Dragon Dictate learns your foibles – the more time you spend training the software and tinkering with it by adding words, the more accurate it becomes, so the learning curve flattens out fairly quickly.
You can even create multiple profiles to train it to respond to different people. It does have editing techniques to help with creating or drafting work, but these features take a bit longer to get used to using. To click the mouse, you simply speak a command such as 'Mouse Click', 'Mouse Double/Triple Click', 'Press/Hold Mouse' or 'Release Mouse'. Optional "modifiers" designate one or more keys such as Command, Option, Shift or Caps Lock.
You may find yourself reverting to the mouse and keyboard for corrections often, but this is most likely a matter of habit rather than the software – you certainly don't need to.
Conclusion — this is definitely a working solution to not being able or willing to type. It's remarkably quick to learn and become effective.
What's great — it really works! You talk, and type appears.
What's not — your human typing assistant might make you a coffee if you ask nicely. Dragon Dictate refuses. But maybe that will be in the next version ...
Needs — Anyone who can't, or doesn't want to, type.
4.5/5
What — Dragon Dictate: RRP$349 with standard headset (academic price $309); with VXI headset $549 (ac $499); with Callisto Bluetooth (wireless) headset $489 (ac $449). Upgrade prices from previous models are also available.
System — Intel-based Mac with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Internet connection required for product registration. Nuance-approved USB microphone for Mac (included with new purchase).
Available from — Apple resellers
