Macspeech Dictate Review

Written on March 7, 2008 by Finis Price in Productivity, Software, myspace

UPDATE- We now have a review of the new 1.5 update to MacSpeech Dictate available here. This update is a major advancement upon Dictate and we would dare say a requirement if you intend using Dictate at all in a law firm or any other setting for lawyers.

Here is a candid review by attorney Victor Medina of Macspeech’s new software Dictate. I finally had the chance to meet and speak with Victor at length in Dallas for the Macs at Trial seminar, which was fantastic. Victor is quite honest of his opinion of the program, even going so far as to point out a couple of problems with the software. Overall, he is quite impressed with Dictate and may have convinced us to purchase the software which seems to work well in a legal and medical setting.

Here is Victor’s review (of course we suggest you actually visit Victor’s blog as he has many other great articles for attorneys):

No pithy title. No lazy link love to another review. Just a straight up review of the software that most likely saved my career.

I have had a problem with my hands for quite some time. As a lawyer, I do a fair amount of typing, whether that’s for e-mail responses or in drafting letters and agreements. At the same time, I spent a number of years playing the piano recreationally. All of this has resulted in me having a dull pain in my hands whenever I type too much after a long day.

Before I switched to Macs, I ran a speech recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking. It was pretty good, but the law firm that I worked for got me the “legal” edition of the software, which I think was a few versions behind the really good software. After I switched to Macs, the only piece of software that was out there for speech recognition was iListen by MacSpeech. To be frank, it wasn’t very good. In fact, with all due respect to MacSpeech, it was terrible. So, for the last two years, I have been writing things out longhand, typing everything, and generally living with the dull pain that resulted.

As many people who are interested in speech recognition software know, MacSpeech announced that they were launching a new speech recognition software called Dictate. This was really important news because rather than relying on the old Phillips engine that powered iListen, MacSpeech had been able to license the engine that powered Dragon from Nuance, and that was what was going to be running the new Dictate software. They made this announcement at MacWorld, even winning a Best of Show award for Dictate. I was very excited and placed my order right away.

Then, I spent the next month and a half checking the status of my order two or three times a day. Finally, last night, I learned that my copy of Dictate was shipping out and would arrive today. I installed it right away and have been playing with it for the last three hours. As you might have guessed, I’ve been drafting this entire review using Dictate.

What can I say? It’s fabulous. I mean, I only did the basic training, and I’d be surprised if the software got one word wrong for every thousand that I’ve spoken. I’ve used it so much that my keyboard, which is attached via Bluetooth, has power down and lost connection with my Macbook. If it does miss a word, it is most likely because I’ve gotten lazy with my dictation not because it has misinterpreted the context or word I’ve spoken.

It takes contractions with ease, and laughs at my challenge to interpret capitalized words like iListen, iPhone, iPod, Dictate, Mac ad nauseam. It even does an excellent job of controlling my computer, such as opening and quitting applications, inserting text before and after other text, and switching between applications.

If I’m being fair with this review, and I’d like to think that I am, I should point out that the software has a couple of bugs. These have less to do with the speech recognition part of the software, and more to do with some of the internal functionality of the commands that you can use to make your speech recognition smoother. Specifically, it has a quirky little bug that copies text after an insertion point somewhere higher in the document and places it at the end of wherever you resume dictating. Not being a programmer, I have no idea why this happens. Also, as many other people have pointed out in their preview of Dictate, the program does not allow you to correct a word by selecting it and choosing from a number of options. Though the company has been very clear that it intends on adding that particular feature in a subsequent version.

Why is this important for you? Well, I’m not sure that it is. But, this is ridiculously important for me because it means I can now rest my hands for the better part of the working day. And, I honestly believe that this software has extended my career by at least a few years. Unfortunately, it also means that I have no excuse for being more productive during the day.

Of course, if you use the program long enough, you will be speaking your punctuation in everyday life. And, that’s going to get annoying for your family very very quickly.

Tags: attorney, law, lawyer, Technology

Tom Fuldner

I so agree with all your findings regarding MacSpeech. I have been a devout PC and Dragon User for as long as the platform and the software have been available. Then early this year I awakened to the world of Apple and have been smitten. I had kept the PC available only for Dragon. Yesterday, I installed Dictate on my Macbook with the hope that I might not need to return to the PC at all. With Dictate, I may have my wish.

With Dictate, I too experience that “quirky little bug” that copies text after the insertion point. Sometimes the only way to eliminate it is to save, close and then reopen the document. That’s a time killer. Also, Dictate’s inability to allow the user to make corrections makes me already impatient for the upgrade. Finally, in Dictate I miss the Dragon feature that lets the user train the program on the use of individual words or phrases.

Yet despite all my criticisms, I find Dictate a remarkable program. It is indeed astonishingly accurate right out of the box. It has shown an uncanny ability to acronyms far, far better than Dragon for the PC. Dictate is now my program of choice.

Tom
CF

I received Macspeech Dictate four days ago. I have been unable to successfully install the software. I receive a message saying to install the English data disk, but the original install disk does not eject without quitting the program. As I have quit the program, when I installed English data disk, I receive a message saying no application found. So I’m in a loop. I am impatient with Macspeech help desk to get back to me, and I have let them know so today.

I used Dragon 9.0, with a Mac in detail do 02.2 GHz processor, with 4 MB of RAM. With the electronic medical record program MediNotes, I had the exact same court that you are describing with Mac speech dictate. (I’m using this three parallels in a Windows environment on my Mac) if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this in MediNotes, please post back and let me know. This is very irritating.
stephen

Does anyone know if you can say, “select dog,” have the program select the word dog, then say, “cat,” and have the program replace dog with cat? I use templates in writing and have tables of numbers that need to be changed for each report. So, with DNS, I could say, “select 32, (pause) 31,” and DNS selects 32 in the document, then changes it to 31.

Also, iListen needed to know where the cursor was at all times so corrections/editing could only be done when you’d finished dictating, This made the program unusable to me. In DNS, I jump around w/ voice and the mouse. After I finish one part of a template, I jump down to another part, insert the cursor, and start dictating/editing again. Can this be done in the new Dictate?
http://victormedina.typepad.com Victor Medina

CF – I think that part of your problem is that you are running the program from the disc and haven’t copied it over to your hard drive. Try dragging the application from the disc image to your “Applications” folder and begin installing it from there. Then your disc drive should be free for the English Data Disc when it comes time for that in the installation. Leave a comment on my review if you still have a problem. Maybe we can screen share and walk through it together.

Kind regards – Victor
http://inetsynch.podbean.com Sam Caldwell

I to tried to use iListen only to discover that it was virtually useless and in my opinion should’ve been removed from the market years ago. Normally, I use NaturallySpeaking or the native Vista speech engine.

It was very discouraging not to have a native Mac voice to text option that worked at least as well as the earlier versions of Dragon by Nuance. Today, I received version 1.0 of MacSpeech Dictate and I’m impressed with the accuracy, however, I also have found that many of the iListen bugs and quirks such as previously deleted text popping up when punctuation or a new paragraph is added or the cursor getting lost are still evident in the new release.

I have my fingers crossed that MacSpeech will promptly squash the existing bugs and offer up a usable correction option.

I find it interesting that the good doctor chose to punish himself using his Macintosh keyboard rather than reverting back to the tried and true DragonDictate on his Windows computer. Unfortunately many with disabilities simply are unable because of bias to consider using Windows even though there may be better options available to them in that operating system.

Hopefully, the availability of an Apple port of the Nuance speech engine will eliminate one of the major reasons I don’t use my Mac as much as I do my Vista machine.
http://inetsynch.podbean.com Sam Caldwell

Sorry … mixed professions. Should have been attorney rather than doctor.

Sam
Anonymous

I read his review and I concur with everything said. I’ve never experienced a dictation that is this high quality in my life. In fact, I’m using the built-in microphone on my laptop in a fairly noisy environment. I don’t have be careful with pronunciation of words. I did do the total 15 minutes of training reading ESOP stables, and the Time machine story. You can see there are obviously problems with some of the sentences I have here. I’m going to leave an uncorrected for you to get an idea of the accuracy of this software package.

I too experience the “quirky little bug”. It only happens if I attempt to use the built in dictation commands. If I avoid using the built-in commands, there are no problems whatsoever.

This is a revolutionary combination, Mac OS X and an incredible speech recognition software package.
http://www.technoesq.com Finis Price

I’m glad to hear Victor’s experience has been replicated. He is quite happy with the program, so much so that he has convinced me to purchase it as well. I am looking forward to my copy next week.
John

What is the differnece between running Dragon on an IMac using parallels and using Dictate. I have a copy of Dragon and I have just switched to an Imac. Should I buy Dictate.

Thank You
http://www.technoesq.com Finis Price

Victor has found, and I can confirm, that Dictate seems snappier and able to differentiate words better than running Dragon through Parallels. I’ve run them side by side and MacSpeech seems to run better though they are based on the same speech recognition engine.
Pingback: Digitally Productive » Blog Archive » MacSpeech’s Dictate: Early Reviews Are Positive
http://www.sidebysideproductions.com Storm Jenkins

I inadvertently left Dictate running, while making a cup of coffee. I had the television set on and my headset about 8 inches from the TV. When I came back I saw a virtually flawless transcript of the TV show I had been watching. I’ve been a Mac user since 1984.

Just as the publisher of this blog, I have been having difficulty with physical limitations affecting my ability to type. The bulk of my work involves writing and communications.

I’ve tested all of the commercially published voice recognition programs for the Macintosh. I found the concept fascinating, but was never satisfied with the implementation of any of them. That’s not because I am overly critical, but simply because they didn’t work.

The nerve damage in my right arm left me very eager to find some sort of solution. I bought three different one-handed keyboards; used boot camp to install a Windows partition for Naturally Speaking; and even tried to get handwriting recognition to work with inkwell. None of these options provided me a reliable solution.

I received my copy of Dictate about a week ago. My hopes were high. My expectations were not. 15 minutes after receiving the package, I was dictating letters.

Words like “flabbergasted,” “awestruck,” “dazzled” and “dumbstruck” would just barely begin to describe my reaction to the experience of using Dictate.

What I lost the full use of my right arm, it affected my career, my business and my morale. I have run across a lot of software programs that entertained me, assisted me in my work, maybe more efficient and creative. Restoring my ability to type puts dictate in a whole different category.

Certainly there are some features I would like to see an upcoming releases and detailed documentation of all the features would be very helpful. But even if they never improve dictate, it would remain one of the four or five most valuable pieces of software I have ever used.

People can be very critical of the minutia in an application, but by any reasonable yardstick, dictate is totally reliable, extremely productive and I can’t imagine anybody wanting to return it or stop using it.

Every once in awhile and invention comes along and within a year or two you look back and wonder how you ever got along without it. Dictate fits right into that category.

As you may expect I have written this entire entry using Dictate and only had to manually correct one word where I coughed. while speaking.

The only warning I would give is don’t leave the application running if you want to keep a confidential conversation confidential. Otherwise, you’ll be surprised to find a complete transcript of everything you said on your computer’s screen.

Whoever is responsible for the underlying technology that makes Dictate work as it does has made a tremendous contribution to my life and I expect that within a very short period of time, as word of this products reliability spreads, a lot of people will find their productivity increase and just as important will find a relief farm repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. In case you were wondering, Dictate did correctly spell “carpal tunnel.”

If you want voice recognition software that works you need look no further. This is it!

I even checked to see if their stock was publicly traded.

Storm Jenkins
http://www.technoesq.com Finis Price

Storm,

Thank you so much for the informative and personal review you’ve left. I would love to make your comment a part of a new post concerning Dictate if you wouldn’t mind.
CF

I am sorry for the delay in updating my problems with installation. My mistake again that I was trying to drag the icon on the desktop into the applications folder, rather than the icon in the Windows and open installation disk. Once I figured out installation was quick and easy. I am using MacSpeech as well as driving. As a physician I use a lot of technical terms, and the error correction and training using voice commands is still significantly easier in Dragon dynamic speech, at least for me. I am very eager to see the update of MacSpeech with voice-activated corrections. Certainly the overall accuracy of MacSpeech, and its speed is impressive. My thanks to Victor for his offers to be of assistance.
Frangelica

My copy of MacSpeech Dictate arrived yesterday. I’m one of those people who has been trying to support MacSpeech since it was in version 1. But like most other people really never got it to work. So I’ve been waiting eagerly for this product to come out.

The MacSpeech disks arrived by mail here in Canada. The discs worked perfectly although I understand a few discs were not working and people had to return them. There is a press release on the MacSpeech website about this.

I installed the discs on a Mac book 1.83 MHz. The discs come only with a small glossy brochure and there seems to be no help menu of any significance. So if people who want to try MacSpeech Dictate had had no previous experience with iListen they would probably be very confused.

On the upside the amount of training required to get right into dictation was about 10 minutes or less. In iListen one had to read pages and pages of dialogue in the hope that the computer would learn your voice. Somehow it never did that very reliably.

Having never used Dragon speak I’m not sure how MacSpeech Dictate compares, but the speech recognition of MacSpeech Dictate is quite amazing.

On the second day of having this program I’m dictating this message with only a few errors which are easily erased and then dictated again with the command “scratch that”.

What is missing currently, and it’s a big omission, is a way of editing while you dictate. The best you can do for now is to save your text in a text editing program and then go back and edit it by hand.

Although MacSpeech Dictate does an amazing job with recording dates such as March 26, 2008 (I just spoke this date and it was recorded), and numerals such as 12345, this program does not have a spelling mode like the old iListen which allowed you to spell words that it didn’t recognize.

While it is easy for an able-bodied person to go back and edit the text by hand, a person with a disability may not have the option of including a name that the computer doesn’t recognize. For instance that person might be writing to a friend named Ilia and the name might come out in some of the following ways — India, Italy a — some of the outcomes can be quite amusing.

One of the authors on this or another site has posted some video which is available on “U2″ — well I can’t tell you what the site is because MacSpeech Dictate won’t let me so I hope you’ll be able to guess. The video says there’s a surprise if you watch the clip and indeed there is a surprise.

With some Mac computers there is no need for a headset or microphone. That’s the surprise.Although I have one of the recommended headsets I am dictating this just directly to my computer and it picks up my speech even when there are some noises in the background. I’m using a Mac book.

My conclusion is that MacSpeech is an exciting new development that I’ve been waiting around for since 2001 when I bought the first iListen.

What I’m surprised about is that there isn’t more discussion on the Internet about this product. Is it that not enough copies have been shipped yet? I admit that I pestered MacSpeech quite a bit about getting my cross grade copy. I’m wondering if full new copies are not out in the marketplace yet. I am hoping that iListen’s reputation hasn’t killed the marketplace for them.

I am also concerned but the lack of help menus and list of all dictation commands will deter people from trying this program. If MacSpeech doesn’t get busy and provide tutorials or instructions, I guess it will be up to discussion groups like this to pass on the knowledge we gained from iListen. Quite a few of the commands from iListen seem to work but aren’t even listed.

I’m looking forward to hearing from other people when they get their copy.

Frangelica (I can’t dictate my own name, I had to edit it by hand)
Keith

I use Linux. I am planning on getting either a Mac laptop or a laptop with Windows. The primary reason is so that I can use this software (DNS/MacDictate).

It sounds like the voice recognition engine is pretty much equivalent. However, it sounds like the Windows application is more mature.

I program for a living, so I’m going to be feeding in weird punctuation. I need to be able to hop around documents. I need to be able to create commands.

I also hope to use synergy (which allows for one keyboard/mouse to be used between networked machines with different OS flavors) to pipe speech text to various nodes in a network. I also hope to use my programming skills to extend the use of the voice recognition software. I see they offer a developer’s kit for applications with Windows. Don’t know if anything exists for the Mac.

My reason for needing this software is arm pain. It has almost become debilitating. I’m hopeful.
richard morrill

I am about to buy naturally speaking to run on my imac in fusion or in boot camp but the comments of the early users are making me wonder if I should go with macspeech dictate instead.

I have a question for you all. I have to use my dictation software with a digital voice recorder. Does anyone know if a recorder will work with macspeech dictate and if so, what brands are being used?

Thanks in advance, Richard.
James Cole

I recently had surgery on my right hand and it is difficult for me to type and typing is required in my profession. Being in a hurry I ordered the program with over night shipping. When I got the program it wouldn’t boot and the help line support person seemed really unconcerned. He suggested that it might be a bad disk. There have been some bad disks but they were not concerned about my paying $20 extra to get the program fast that is simply worthless to me at this time.
Frangelica

For Richard Morrill,

Your question about the recorder is an excellent one. I don’t have the answer for you yet but it is on my list of things to try. After all, iListen recommended Olympus recorders and sold transcription pacs (which I never purchased or understood.)

I have an Olympus DS-4000 which is still supposed to be the top of the line for dictation recorders. Even though I am a Mac junkie, I still find the recorder not user friendly and it doesn’t play well with the Mac. Initially I couldn’t find a way to play audio files on my Mac even though that recorder will play files directly on a Win. There is a way to do it but it requires making an intermediate file.

I suspect that some sort of software intermediary is needed between the file from the recorder and Dictate to make that work and I doubt that MacSpeech, given their “will they be there tomorrow?” appearance, is considering this top priority.

As someone who has been patiently waiting for Macs to move into text-to-speech in a useable way, I am very excited to have what I have so far, a disk that works and amazing voice recognition (for my voice although my husband who has a disability and is the one who could really benefit from it can’t make it work).

At this point, I find good voice recognition by dictating right to my MacBook without a headset. It is easy to turn to my computer, dictate, do something else, come back to the dictation, etc. but it is a good idea to remember to turn off the microphone in between, because the computer picks up the speech, although the less focused the voice, the more garbage there is.

If you send me an offline message (frangelicafrangelica@gmail.com) I will let you know what I discover, if anything, about the interaction between the Olympus files and MacSpeech.
Frangelica

I am astounded by what appears to be a lack of interest in MacSpeech or voice-to-text in general. Never mind the rest of the general population, if even a few software programmers are complaining about pain related to their occupation, one would think that this whole thing would be on a lot of software programmers minds and that someone would develop the software.

I guess young software developers think of themselves as invincible and don’t spend a lot of time wondering how their bodies will fare after a few years. Although in the long run I predict that they will suffer as much as physical laborers, software developers have the power to change their world.

MacSpeech for all its foibles has been trying to do that. Hope they get more support.

Frangelica
Laurie Boris

THis is great info. I, too, have been extremely frustrated with iListen and my copy of MacDictate is on the way. Now I feel better about the decision. I’ll let you know my take (since I reviewed iListen for a web site last fall). As some of you are, I’m also disappointed with MacSpeech’s customer service. I’ve had to repeat the same problem several times in consecutive emails until they get it right.
http://www.macspeech.com Chuck Rogers

All:

I’d like to clarify the use of digital recorders with MacSpeech Dictate. The “TranscriptionPak,” which Frangelica didn’t understand, enabled iListen to take an audio file that was saved in a specific format iListen could understand (.AIF or .WAV) and would take the speech in that audio file and convert it to text. This was exclusively for use by someone who had a trained profile. You could not, for instance, record an interview and transcribe everyone who was speaking on the recording.

In other words, transcription had all the same limitations as live dictation: the user must have a trained profile, there can only be one voice on the recording, and the speaker must speak his or her punctuation. The advantage of transcription from a recording device is that you can record your dictation when you are away from your computer and then have it transcribed later.

MacSpeech Dictate does not currently have the ability to transcribe text from an audio file. Like iListen, that capability will most likely be offered in the form of an optional plug-in at some point down the road. (The limitation that we supported only certain recorders, btw, was due to the fact that only certain recorders on the market made recordings that were useable by iListen.)

What you *can* do right now, however, is hook your recording device up to the USB adapter that came with your microphone and transcribe the file that way. I would still recommend using profile you create especially for transcription. It isn’t as convenient as just selecting a file, but we have at least one beta tester who has already used the software that way.

Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
MacSpeech, Inc.
Frangelica

Thanks, Chuck, for the explanation. I will now go and try y Olympus DS-4000.

Frangelica
Texas_Photo

I need Dictate to do a project, but I am most concerned about the negative reviews on Amazon and the lack of adequate instructions for the novice user AND especially apple.com not listing Dictate on their website.

I am most happy to have found this review and will watch it daily for updayed information.

David
William McClatchey

I have been a Dragon user for many years, and use it for about 9 hours a day professionally. It works great in a medical environment, and like most others in this thread, I am a also a confirmed Mac user. I purchased IListen several years ago, and would try again with every upgrade, only to put it away as klugey. The only time I use the Windows operating system now is to access Dragon, so I was really excited to read of Dictate when it was introduced. I thought someone was addressing the large medical Mac market with a good VR product.

After installing and using it for a week on my MacBook Pro, I too am impressed with the accuracy and ease of use of Dictate, but have come upon two issues the will render it less than useful.

1. There are no professional vocabulary packages, and I would have thought that the professional markets would be core targets for the product (legal and medical). This is a major shortcoming for professional use, and coupled with the absence of the training mode available in Dragon, makes it much less useful than it might be. Hopefully this will be addressed over time.

2. The real show stopper for me is the license structure. I don’t believe that anyone has addressed this issue in the thread. Unlike many other software packages, and indeed unlike Dragon in Windows, the license is to the hardware and not to the user. ie you can only install and activate it on one machine at a time. And this is enforced, not allowing more than one hardware activation. In Dragon, multiple machines are allowed, but only one user per license. This is a really big deal in the medical world where most providers have several locations, and multiple machines. This will render the software unusable in the medical professional environment. A real shame since this is one of the highest penetrations of Mac hardware in the US market, and a market that should have been a slam dunk for Dictate. I don’t understand the logic of a single hardware install license, but I guess it is not the first time that a company has shot itself in the foot over this issue. Much more common since an individual purchases, uses, and licenses the software, is to restrict the use to one individual on any machine.

I hope the company addresses these two issues, The software has the potential to serve as the foundation of a much needed and superior product for the Mac, but it is not ready for prime time in a professional medical environment yet.

So for the present, I will still have to keep my multiple Windows XP machines using Dragon as the only remaining software in use on this antiquated and clumsy OS.

Bill
http://www.pwmi.com John Sacher

I’m with you, Bill. I just saw where M/Soft is “extending” support for “some” XP users. Lucky me. That was enough to make me search for Mac voice recognition software and be done the last remaining app I use with XP.
Bruce Jacobs

I am a lawyer that used to use tape dictation. I got Macspeech Dictate and an Olympus DS-4000 hoping for a smooth transition. Frankly, I am lost. I can’t figure out how to connect the DS-4000 to the USB adaptor that Chuck mentioned. I can’t figure out how to use the program for email, daylite, or to do’s. I can’t find any support. HELP!!!!!
Texas_Photo

When asked for one, I received a Dictate instruction manual from MacSpeech. It is very informative. I plan on making a purchase within a few days.
Tom

I have been using Dictate for about 2 weeks (no I am not using it to type this message). Here are a few experiences of mine I have not seen in this thread and a comment to Bill a few messages above mine:

1. Bill, one thing I would suggest is to buy multiple copies of the software so you can support each workstation. To not spend $200 or so dollars to outfit you business with an integral software package that will save far more than that in labor seems petty and penny-wise/pund foolish. I am not in your shoes. But, those are my thoughts.
2. I have not have any major issues with the software that have not been addressed here and that will likely be addressed in future updates except this one: Almost daily, the software ceases to translate my dictation. All systems are go…the sound system preference recognizes my microphone (Plantronics ?? not sure what model but it is an approved model) and the Speech system preference gives me the thumbs up when I calibrate. I think it has something to do with the Dictate profile. When I switch from the offending one to another one and then back again, it fixes the problem. But, that is very annoying. Hopefully this will be fixed in future updates.

Other than that, Dictate works extraordinarily well for me…a casual user.

Tom
Jay Newell

I’ve been using MacSpeech Dictate for a week now. Load up was quick, and the training session was actually a bit of fun. Compared to “NaturallySpeaking,” MacSpeech runs quicker on the Mac side of my Macbook Pro than DNS runs on the boot camp side of the machine.

Overall, I am pleased with the product, although the lack of a correction mode means that I need to dictate the entire document, then make a correction pass. The online users guide makes it clear that MacSpeech is working on a correction mode. I’ll be happy when it releases.

For a version 1 release of anything, this is pretty slick stuff. Count me as a satisfied customer, who will become more satisfied as the program is more fully realized.
John

I bought MacDictate about 2 weeks ago, and I am still dead in the water. The program shipped with a damaged Data disk, which I then received a few days ago. I reinstalled the program after several tries and now I have microphone input problems. To date, I have not been able to even do the training session! Very, very frustrating, having spent 185.00 or so.

I would walk with caution in purchasing this software. Take your time; read as many reviews as you can, and then make up your own mind. I will let you know what I really think of the program once (if ever) I can get this software working.

Caveat emptor.
Bruce Jacobs

When I bought Dictate, I saw their recommended the DS-4000 digital voice recorder ($400) which I purchased. I can’t get any support and I think the DS-4000 just doesn’t work with Dictate. I would really like some help in getting started with Dictate. I am $600 in the hole and not using Dictate at all.
John McAlpine

I’m a regular user of naturally speaking and I was wondering if dictate for the Mac had any of the mouse functionality such as mousegrid or even just simple mouse use by voice. For a severely disabled person such as myself this is a crucial feature.
Shannon

I’ve used DragonDictate for PC, and overall the speed and accuracy of MacSpeech is fairly good, and I’m looking forward to software updates. Having said that, I do not intend to really start using it until MacSpeech puts out a software update to fix bugs. I’m getting the bug that others get, i.e. the one that pastes extraneous text taken from elsewhere in the paragraph. I feel it’s overall a good promising product, but, like Vista, it was shipped too early to allow early adopters like me to beta test it, and we pay $200 for the privilege.
http://inetsynch.com Sam

I believe if you poke around a bit in Mac blogs and forums you will fine that Chuck Rodgers, the long time proselytizing ‘Chief Evangelist’, at MacSpeech has parted ways with the congregation.

To the best of my knowledge MacSpeech has not replaced Chuck and I see see a growing frequency of complaints re.MacSpeech support or the lack thereof.

I’ve also noticed a conspicuous absence of MacSpeech on the Apple store website. Not only is Dictate not listed but all references to MacSpeech iListen seem to have been removed. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of time before they show up or perhaps something else limits their ability to get shelf space.

Fingers crossed they can pull it together and not lose their golden opportunity to exploit the Nuance speech to text technologies.
http://inetsynch.com Sam

Sorry, should have been “find” rather than fine and only one ‘see’. The above was dictated using Dictate and as you can see translation is not perfect. I am reticent to edit Dictate text for fear of the dread buffer dump error.

Sam
Windows2Apples
Denis Barnes

Having just received my copy Dictate,
I find myself feeling excited about the prospect of working with this new software, it is so superior to anything else that I’ve used in the past, there are a few quirks with it, which is to be expected with a new release, but on the whole I am very happy with it, I suffer from a speech impediment, which to my surprise does not affect me dictating into this program this will make my life a lot easier now in my correspondence to my clients.

Peace be with you all
Denis
Solphivyae R. Thunderword-Cohen

I’ve just purchased the software program two days ago. And I’m finding I have about 70% accuracy. But I’m going to give it a chance and see what happens. I don’t know if it’s because of I have a slight speech impediment or slight accent, given the low performance levels. But I will work with the program for about another week.

Besides that I’m very impressed with the overall performance of the program, to be honest I truly am. And I think it’s a boon for me because I have problems with my hands and I do a lot writing. I am a student writer. So I think the program in the long run is a boon to anyone who has problems with their hands.

This reply was done using Dictate, and is approved by someone who is a new user dictate. So those of you who are thinking about buying this program, I suggest that you do. Because I who is very hesitate about trying out new things, but this program software program has won me over. So to you doubting Thomas is out there, go and purchase the program.

Solphivyae’
Solphivyae R. Thunderword-Cohen

This post has been edited for language

Its been nearly a week and I have not improved my accuracy with macspeech. I am sending it back or chucking it out of the window I don’t care where as long as this problem is off of my computer. I rather just dictate into a recorder and hire an outside firm to type things up for me.

THIS MESSAGE WAS TYPED BY HAND AND NOT WITH MACSPEECH, WHAT A JOKE, DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. THIS PROGRAM IS NOT DESIGNED FOR NON-WHITES. WHY, ITS BECAUSE ALL OF THESE PROGRAMS ARE TRIED BY ENGINEERS…AND MANY OF THEM ARE EITHER WHITE OR EAST INDIAN. I KNOW BECAUSE I LIVE RIGHT IN THE HEART OF SILICON VALLEY, LITERALLY.

I AM SICILIAN – BLACK SO I HAVE AN ACCENT, WHICH MACSPEECH CAN’T SEEM TO GET A HANDLE ON. SO IF YOU ARE NOT WHITE OR EAST INDIAN DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY! PURCHASE A RECORDER OR HIRE AN OUTSIDE SERVICE TO HANDLE THE DICTATION!
Eric B

About to undergo surgery rendering my right arm useless for a few months, I’m finding this discussion quite useful. One option is to run DNS 9 under VMWare’s Fusion (which works very well) and migrate my iCal/Mail/Address Book environment to (aaargh!) Outlook.

The reason for this is that I’ll need to use voice commands as well as dictate to compose and send emails, surf the web, write, etc. Another option is to buy Dictate and stay completely Mac-based. While I certainly prefer that, the reviews on Dictate (compared to DNS 9) make it seem very “dicey”. If it works as well as DNS 9 I’d buy it in a second; however, since MacSpeech obstinately refuses to provide a time-limited trial download, I’ll probably just switch back to Windows. I’m a business exec, and, frankly, there is no reason MacSpeech can’t offer a trial. Or if there is they need to hire a good management consultant.

Still, I’m open to suggestions. Thanks to all of you for the considered discussion!

Eric
Tricia Mennell

Help! I can not seem to load this onto my Mac! I drag the icon from the window that pops up into my applications folder. Then I am prompted to put in the data disc but there’s only one drive on my macbook and my imac. So I finally get the first disc out, insert the data disc and get a message that ‘there’s nothing to see here. Insert this disc when prompted.’
From what I’ve ready, calling the customer service would be a waste of time so here I am begging someone to please walk me through this step by step.
Thanks,
Trish
http://www.technoesq.com Finis Price

This is a known issue and actually CAN be resolved by calling customer service. There was an issue with a certain batch of the installation CD’s.
Dennis Crowley

I am a business user of DNS9, and a former user of iListen. Frankly after spending the money on iListen, I found it so useless that I deleted it off the machine entirely. However, I am a dedicated Mac evangelist, so I vowed to give MacSpeech Dictate a try.

I never had any trouble instructing Dragon NaturallySpeaking to switch between applications, enter Web addresses, and tab from field to field when doing things such as entering e-mail addresses and subjects.

Dictate, however, seems to be limited to doing exactly that. It’s recognition accuracy is excellent when dictating text into a plain block. However it seems to me that naturally speaking as a lot more functionality and editing capability that Dictate does not have. You’ve probably noticed that “NaturallySpeaking” is not capitalized in the previous sentence-Dictate does not appear to offer the ability to select that text by saying “select NaturallySpeaking”, then simply saying “Cap that”.

I did try looking this up in the help menu-no love there. Included manual? No dice there either. while some online users have been very helpful, their suggestions seem limited to “check this forum or that forum for other people who have splashed around with this software and found a solution.” For $200, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect it to work as well as my existing applications right out of the box. Dragon worked almost 100% the minute I plugged it in, allows me the option of teaching in new words, and allows me to select specific blocks of text that I have typed and edit them on the fly-MacSpeech Dictate does not appear to do any of these.

This is hypercritical to me, as I lost my right arm in an accident and am running all my machines one-handed.
Eric

Dennis- thanks for the information. I finally broke down and bought Dictate, and almost immediately regretted it. Unfortunately it truly pales in comparison to DNS9 Standard for the reasons you point out. In fact I’d have to give it one star out of five- I find it nearly unusable in a business environment.

Buying DNS9 Standard for $70 and Windows XP OEM for $100 is about the same as buying Dictate for $160. And for only $40 more you can buy Fusion or Parallels (amazon.com prices).

This is the route I took. Incidentally, I ran a comparison of DNS9/XP under Fusion and Parallels and found Fusion in dual-processor mode slightly quicker. In both cases DNS9 ran just as fast as it does on my wife’s PC– hardly any delay. I’m running a 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro.
martin miller

Has anyone had any success with hooking a digital recorder to the USB adaptor and using dictate to input the audio file to a trained profile, as Chuck Rogers indicated in his April 1 post?

If so, using what microphone and what digital recorder?

Martin Miller
Hugh Kendall

I am an experienced DNS user since v7.0. i’ve used it in my medical practice for four or five years, and dictate about 100 letters per week. One issue that is crucial for me is the formatting of the text macros. In DNS9,(and previous, for that matter) you can create a text macro that has multiple font formats; for instance the first line in TImes New Roman11, the next line in Times New Roman 11 bold, and can format blank spaces that follow lines (where you will insert the unique words INTO your template) so that they appear either bold, italic, different size or font. Does anyone know whether Dictate has this capability? I am impressed that the program seems to have macros that execute commands, that with one word can save, name and file documents. This type of macro is only available in DNS professional, which is several hundred dollars more expensive. So, what about the macros? Anyone know?
Eric Spain

I got Dictate three weeks ago and have installed and re-installed about 20 times. It get as far as set up mic. and freezes.
Also, the notice that there is an update freezes – so I disconnected the internet.
I note your advice to CF that he was installing the wrong thing but I am not doing that!!
I have a new iMac with the latest OS. Am I the ONLY one that it doesn’t work for? Must be the ghost of iListen haunting me after what I said about it!!!.
Any ideas? So far, no solution from the suppliers.
Eeic
John

Thanks for all the comments. I was thinking of buying Mac Dictate but now have some concerns about its application since I will be using medical and legal terms quite extensively. For those who also have used Dragon Naturally Speaking (I have not), when the next generation was released, were you able to download the latest bells and whistles to update your version (and pay a lesser fee) or did you have to buy the whole new software package? I am still considering buying Dictate because it looks like it will help with generic language processing but would be more inclined if it looks like I might be able to update online for a nominal fee without shelling an additional $200.00 (or more) for a brand new version.
Any insight is greatly appreciated.

John
carl

The responses/reviews have been very helpful. I’ve gone from “likely buy” to “buy Dragon and run it via VMware Fusion.” my conclusion is this: for $200, MacSpeech shouldn’t lack the auto-correction feature that others have mentioned; license-to-hardware means $400 if you want it on two computers;. no trial period; no return if you feel the program is not accurate enough (see the return policy); and the bugs described.

Again, were the product offered at a different price (and I have problem affording the current price) these limitations would be less problematic.
liesl

Hi Does anyone know how to use macdictate with a dictaphone?
Thank you
Liesl