Comments on: MacSpeech Dictate

By: Making Sense and Dictation Software : Productivity501

Making Sense and Dictation Software : Productivity501 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:35:07 +0000

[...] other day my assistant told me, “When I proof your writing I can tell if you used Dictate. Usually you make sense.” Every once in a while she will run into a sentence that she [...]

By: Bahamabob

Bahamabob — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:54:27 +0000

This is the most balanced article on MacSpeech I have read to date. I found this on a search. I have MS and work on WordPress. The first time I used it in WP, hoping it would work, I had technical problems. I found later that it was “an historical accident.” The problem was not MacSpeech. WP requires plain text only. This seems to give it well.

I do not type well. I have had both the Mac and the NatSpeaking since 1998. This is the time to get them. Back then, you had to be really bad at typing or incapable. I was a champ at that! Now it is faster than most people can type.

I is also coincidendtal that my writing has increased after beginning blogging. I am today for the first time, speaking old diary entries into WordPress. Thanks for confirming this. I needed a little word.

I did read two other solutions online for taking audio and transcribing on MS. One solution was to train your voice on the recorder as a second user. Someone got that to work for them. Someone else reported direct usage. I am not sure if it was tweeked. However, the quality of the microphone and the acutal port matters.

I was told that the USB port on my MAC closest to the user is the best one for MacSpeech. The others go through the internal sound card and it takes something out of it. Also, the mic I use, the VXI made for it (expensive) is designed with onboard power so it can use the analog sensitivity of this technology in a USB port.

That headset is great and looks like the reviews said-flimsy and cheap. That makes it light and preferrable to the old Plantronics I used which was superquality but hot and heavy. Your model is better.

It has to approximate your voice, not digitize it, I think. Techies can argue that and I will accept.

Thanks again for the useful, complete, and fair review of this helpful technology for me. And thanks for mentioning WordPress use. It is important.

Bob

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:26:19 +0000

@Sarah – You might be able to train dictate by using small parts of someone else talking and then correcting it. If the person who will be talking is willing to go through the training process, you may be able to have them go through the 10 minutes of training to speed things up.

By: Sarah Bickley

Sarah Bickley — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:29:33 +0000

Thank you for this useful article on Mac Dictate, which I got for Xmas 2008 and have STILL not opened. Maybe this will help me break it out. Do you know any program that will take tapes or CDs of other people talking (not yourself) and turn those into typed speech? That’s a big need I have. Thanks.