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After searching around the Internet, I have found relatively few reviews of Exhibitview. My guess is that most people doing reviews of trial presentation software are trial consultants and a program like Exhibitview which seeks to make presenting exhibits at trial as easy as possible is in direct conflict with their business models. Since TechnoEsq Presentations, while being trial consultants, seeks to make technology in the courtroom affordable, we have no such conflict of interests. So I have decided to write an in-depth review of Exhibitview which must begin with certain basic questions: What makes a trial presentation software package good? What should a litigating attorney look for in deciding on one?

GOALS
When looking at any trial presentation software you first have to determine what your goal is with the program. Do you want to present slides one after another or do you want to be able to call up a document on the fly via Bates Stamp or other naming convention? Since the answer to this question determines the software used you must have a clear understanding of what end tasks you want accomplished prior to beginning.

Linear Presentations
Linear presentations are the most common and well-known type of presentations. PowerPoint and Keynote are the most well-known types of linear presentations. Linear refers to the order in which documents or slides are presented on the screen. With these presentations, for the most part, slides are created which flow into one another with the ability to jump between slides but all annotations must be made in advance (with some exceptions). This type of presentation is perfect for opening statements, hearings or, depending on the attorney’s style, closing arguments.

Non-Linear Presentations

When attorneys want a trial presentation program which can call up any document at will they need a non-linear presentation. A non-linear presentation is one which calls up exhibits or videos by either a pre-determined naming convention for each exhibit or by Bates Stamp numbering. This flexibility makes non-linear presentations perfect for cross-examinations, direct examinations and for some attorneys closing arguments. Additionally, these programs allow for annotations “on-the-fly”, allowing the operator of the computer to highlight areas, draw annotations and zoom in on sections of an exhibit at will. Samples of these types of programs are Sanction, Verdical, Trial Director and now ExhibitView.

EXHIBITVIEW

I have found the vast majority of lawyers want an application to highlight areas on an exhibit, draw lines and zoom in on certain areas (a ‘callout’) show clips from videos and present pages from depositions. Exhibitview seeks to outperform their competition with the simplicity which they accomplish these tasks. Programs such as Sanction and Verdical often leave attorneys scratching their heads with the complications in moving a case, importing videos and most times simply finding the tool the lawyer wants to use at any given time. This leads to frustration by the attorney and either a paralegal being sent for the expensive training these companies offer or hands thrown up in despair and going to the fall-back of printing exhibits on foam boards. The problem? Most juries expect technology in the courtroom given their exposure to CSI-type courtrooms on television and if sending the paralegal for training was the option, what happens when that staff member leaves the firm, taking all of their knowledge of the program with them?

Enter Exhibitview. Marketed as learnable in 30 minutes without individualized training, Exhibitview enters the market which has been dominated by the same companies for over a decade. Yet the fact that their program has not been around for over ten years turns out to be beneficial. The interface lacks the clutter and confusion as a result of years of additions and half-updates which plagues the other trial presentations we have been using. What Exhibitview does, play deposition clips, annotate exhibits, callout and play synchronized video it does well. The only complaint I’ve heard from attorneys is the lack of all of the bells and whistles the other programs offer- yet those same litigators are mysteriously silent when I asked them how often they actually USE those features.

Here is how it works:

Presenting Exhibits:
Much like every other app in this category, ExhibitView is first and foremost created to present exhibits. Exhibits are sorted into categories on the right side of the presenter’s screen. As you can see below, these categories range from media (videos), documents, images, and even webpages. You can simply scroll through the listing of exhibits or use the find feature, which has an auto-fill feature, to locate exhibits. To display the exhibit you either drag it to the hot zone in the middle of the presenter’s screen or if using the search feature hit enter twice.

The drop-zone is that area which will be displayed to the jury on the projector when it is on. You will notice that Exhibitview has the feature to turn the projector off while enabling the user to call up documents, annotate or zoom in on them, and then seamlessly turn the projector back on for viewing of the exhibit. This is accomplished either by dragging and dropping into the drop-zone. The drop-zone is divided into sections. When an exhibit is dragged into it, the entire drop-zone will light up, meaning the exhibit will be displayed in the center of the display. If the exhibit is dragged to either the right or left side of the drop-zone, only that half of the drop-zone becomes highlighted, indicating which half of the screen the exhibit will be displayed on. Using this, two images can quickly be compared side by side without clicking on any buttons or setup icons. The sizes of the left and right side can be changed via the icons directly above thedrop-zone, allowing for 2/3 and 1/3 splits between left and right or top and bottom. This drag and drop applies to all exhibits including: video, slides, images, pdf’s or anything else brought into the drop-zone.

Anything brought into the drop-zone is displayed on the screen unless the projector is turned off.  One difference between Exhibitview and other trial presentation programs is that the cursor is never brought “out” onto the projector to annotate or perform anything in the program.  All highlighting or zooming in to certain areas of an exhibit is done within the drop-one with the effects not being seen until the annotations are complete.  Additionally, ExhibitView has an undo and redo feature for annotations in the toolbar which makes it easy to create annotations and quickly remove and replace them with the click of a button.

Depositions

ExhibitView isn’t made to just present documents and images however. Synchronized depositions, where the text of a deposition is displayed as the video of the deposition plays is a staple of any good trial presentation software and is also included within ExhibitView. What is superior about ExhibitView’s presentation of synchronized text and video is the manner in which it is displayed. Other trial presentation programs display the sync’d text in a box below the video, with a yellow bar highlighting the current line but also allowing the jury to “read ahead” by showing the coming lines of transcript. Exhibitview presents sync’d depositions the way jury’s are used to seeing it, as a closed-caption. This makes it much easier for the jury to watch the deponent and read the text at the same time and also keeps them from reading ahead, potentially taking away the shock factor. Below is an example of how synchronized text is displayed:

As you can see from the example below, the process of selecting a portion of a deposition for playback is incredibly simple and straightforward. I have always been amazed at how complicated other programs can make such an often used task. In ExhibitView it is as easy as highlighting the text of the deposition you want played and dragging it to the presentation window. Exhibitview then begins playing the video/text of that clip instantly.

This is a much cleaner and more elegant solution than Verdical or Sanction’s method of viewing sync’d depositions. In addition to this, Exhibitview does not require the importing of depositions if you want to just play certain portions or the entire depo. It allows you to insert a DVD of a depo and create bookmarks within the depo for viewing later. When you want to play the deposition or bookmarks, you can just put that DVD into the computer and either play the deposition in full or jump straight to your bookmarks. Of course, you can import a digital version of your depo in most standard video formats and create bookmarks or play the deposition from there, but in today’s age of smaller and smaller notebooks, hard drive space can become a problem and so having the option of playing a deposition or bookmarks directly from the DVD can help alleviate hard drive storage issues.

Much like other presentation solutions, Exhibitview will allow you to create SlideMaker slides, basically like PowerPoint slides, from within the program or import pre-created PowerPoint slideshows. One caveat is that it does not support moving text or videos from imported PowerPoint slides. This isn’t that much of a problem however since you can play a video and display a slide side-by-side in ExhibitView’s presenter screen. One plus side to using ExhibitView’s SlideMaker is that the slides are croppable and resizable, even allowing the user to change to different slides.

Perhaps the most welcome feature of Exhibitview is the automatic detection of projectors. As long as the second monitor or projector is set up as an extended monitor, ExhibitView’s projector wizard will find and setup display to your projector. I cannot tell you how welcome this feature is given the problems often associated with other solutions trying to connect to projectors. Everything an application like this does automatically is one less thing an attorney has to worry about while in trial.

For the money, at $794 including software support, Exhibitview beats all known competition hands down as the best PC trial presentation solution available. The outstanding easy to use interface and features make Exhibitview a no-brainer for those litigating lawyers tired of fighting with their presentation programs in trial or constantly wasting money training and re-training employees in how to use their program of choice. Lastly, Exhibitview works perfectly fine on a Mac running virtualized Windows.

I have worked out a special offer on Exhibitview for TechnoEsq readers. If you enter the coupon code “technoesq” at checkout you receive 20% off the retail price of the software and support bundle. That’s a savings of almost $160! Trust me, it’s money well spent.

Sliced Images

What sets BodyViz apart is that this process is as simple as inserting your client’s CD with the MRI or CT study and the application dynamically creating a 3D model of the data on the fly.  The user is then able to fly through and around the 3D model using a familiar interface with an XBox controller connected via Microsoft’s wireless PC adapter for the laptop.  This allows virtually anyone familiar with any of the modern shoot ‘em up XBox 360 games to immediately pick up the controller and begin manipulating the 3D model of their client’s MRI/CT Scan. This allows for amazing videos to be created with the software on the fly in a video deposition or pre-created for use in trial.

Soft Tissues Revealed

However BodyViz is not only creating a 3D model of the data from the CD inserted. Using the data provided with the scan, BodyViz is able to peel away layers from the model, such as muscle and skin. Thus enabling the viewer to present an organ, such as the heart, with the surrounding soft tissues visible at first for identification of the area by a lay person and then remove the extraneous soft tissues to reveal the target area. From there, BodyViz allows the user to rotate around a fixed point, zoom in and out and place virtual trocars. This is particularly useful when trying to visualize surgeries involving improper placement of medical tools when a 2D film does not adequately present the 3-dimensional aspects of a procedure.

Also available is the ability to take the 3D model and begin slicing pieces of the  scan away to reveal the internal structures of areas.This is quite helpful when placing virtual trocars to visualize the external and internal images of the area. Coupling this feature with the removal of soft tissues allows for an attorney to present the client’s MRI/CT Scan study in a way that allows the viewer, jury or otherwise, to immediately understand what is being displayed and allows for the complex data stored in the study to truly “come to life”.

Soft Tissues Removed

Besides offering an interactive experience, BodyViz also offers the ability to create surgical “paths” which are used to have the viewer fly through a preset path. Obviously, this technology is a boon for medical schools and surgeons preparing for procedures, but BodyViz’s abilities are as equally beneficial to attorneys seeking to create a more interactive and visual display of their client’s injuries.  The true power of BodyViz was shown to me when I was presented with a frontal view of a patient’s CT SCan which showed what appeared to be a normal pelvis. Once I was given the controller and allowed to rotate around the skeletal system of the patient I was shocked to see a massive fracture of the pelvis which, due to the 2D view normally seen, was simply not seen or properly appreciated by untrained eyes.

Due to the obvious graphics processing requirements of BodyViz, this is not the kind of software you can run on just any computer. BodyViz recommends 1GB of video RAM along with some other system requirements.  Due to this, BodyViz offers a complete package which includes a laptop, software installed and an upgrade plan.  With prices below $10,000.00, BodyViz certainly brings technology which was previously relegated to physician schools within the budget of most law firms.

TechnoEsq Presentations is currently in the process of purchasing the equipment and so have first-hand experience with the staff of BodyViz.  All of our questions concerning the software and hardware were answered promptly and the process of purchasing the hardware and installing BodyViz is a seamless one with BodyViz purchasing the hardware and customizing it prior to shipping out. We are really excited to be using BodyViz as it will allow us to create stunning 3-dimensional models of attorney’s client’s MRI and CT studies, placing them into our trial and mediation presentations at an affordable cost.

This episode… we talk about the new iPhone, the iPad and our guest Randy Juip’s conversion of his law firm to Mac

In this episode “iPad, New iPhone and Randy Juip” your hosts Ben Stevens, Finis Price, and our guest, Randy Juip, not only discuss Randy’s conversion of his office to Mac’s, but the upcoming iPhone as well as the iPad.

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This episode… Apple iPad Special – Part 2

Hosted by: Victor Medina, Finis Price, and Ben Stevens. We discuss the iPad right after orders were allowed.

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How can reQall and Evernote save your life? By making your life and your practice more efficient. One of the biggest problems attorneys face is organization and the capture of information. Just like every other person in this digital age, we are constantly bombarded with information. However, we are also constantly attempting to track this information and not lose those brilliant ideas we come up with while in the car driving to a deposition or that amazing article or article we read on the Internet. reQall and Evernote are both applications which seek to step in and capture the information you have in your head or in front of you and archive that information into a searchable digital format. reQall organizes, analyzes and gives you the reminders of the information and Evernote helps you capture it. To better understand how these applications interconnect it is necessary to explain each app individually.

Evernote

Evernote is an application for your iPhone, computer (Mac or PC), Blackberry and web browser. Once you have downloaded the application to your computer and/or phone you are set to begin capturing information. This is accomplished on your computer through either your web browser, which should now have an Evernote icon in the dock, or by opening the Evernote application directly.

Evernote allows you to capture information from any source on your computer. You can highlight important text, grab a whole web page or just type in text directly into a note in Evernote. Once you’ve gotten the data in Evernote, you can tag and mark the data for easy retrieval and archiving. What makes Evernote so great however is that all of this data is synchronized with their web servers. So you can access this information anywhere you have net access or even from the Evernote program on your phone. This is particularly useful for archiving legal research as the tagging features allows you to quickly find data by topic.

Another great feature of Evernote is the ability to perform OCR on photographs. For example, if you take a photo of a whiteboard at the end of a meeting using Evernote, the photo is uploaded to their servers and the text written in the picture is converted to searchable text and added to your Evernote archive. Then you can search for anything written on the whiteboard and the photo, along with the text highlighted within the photo, will appear in your search results. I can’t tell you how many times I have used this to find what was decided in a meeting and none of it would have been possible had I not taken a quick snapshot of the whiteboard afterwards with Evernote.

reQall

What sets reQall apart from other memory apps, other than the speech recognition, is the ability to help ‘jog’ your memory. For example, reQall continuously monitors your location, the time and date and if you are at a location you set for a particular meeting or are approaching the time and date of a reminder you set, reQall will prompt you to make sure you don’t forget that meeting. It is basically a virtual assistant with you constantly to help remind you of the important things you’ve placed into reQall.

reQall and Evernote Together

Together, reQall and Evernote create the ultimate in data collection and organization/reminding. By linking your reQall account to your Evernote account, reQall will automatically collect the data you have in your Evernote account and associate this with your calendar, to-do list and reminders.

So when you are at your project meeting, use Evernote for iPhone to take a picture of the whiteboard, Evernote will recognize what you wrote (e.g., project name, agreed-upon tasks, etc.) and reQall will then link the whiteboard picture in your Evernote account to future project meetings on your Google calendar by looking for matching keywords. Or when you’re planning your next business trip, add reminders in reQall for your travel dates and the things you want to see. Then, use Evernote to research your trip, capturing web pages and pictures about historic sites, walking tours and restaurants or more importantly, souvenirs for your wife. When you’re on the trip, reQall will automatically remind you of your plans and associate them with the items you researched in Evernote. For example, you may have an item in reQall that is “Visit vineyards in Napa Valley.” From there, one tap in reQall and you can see all of your Evernotes related to Napa Valley vineyards and all of those souvenirs you had better purchase while on this “business trip”. Or even more helpful to attorneys, perform research for the Dillon Mediation you have scheduled next week and place it into Evernote with the title or tag it “Dillon Mediation”. If you’ve placed the Dillon Mediation in your calendar, on the day of the Dillon Mediation, reQall for iPhone’s Here and Now screen will automatically show the research you performed while you are in your mediation.

The amount of time and saved information the combination of reQall and Evernote can save is truly astonishing. It is equivalent to having a personal assistant with you 24 hours a day, remembering information, linking that information and recalling it when you need it, whispering it into your ear as you need it. Well, only reQall and Evernote are a lot cheaper.

They offer a tiered pricing scale of an annual membership of $96, a 6-month membership for $72 or a monthly membership of $16.  Obviously, purchasing the annual membership affords you the best rate at $8/month. They offer a free trial for 30 days and is available here.

However, the feature list of Headway is not its main selling point, but instead it is the ease of use in building and customizing your blog. As I said, we had completely re-built TechnoEsq’s website after installing WordPress in under 2 hours. The only thing which was exported from the old site was the post content and images. Under normal conditions, it would take a considerably more time in re-creating a website to keep the look of the prior one. As we mentioned, there are built-in options for custom sidebars and image rotation boxes which are called leaves (as in the leaf of a table). These leaves are boxes inserted into the layout of your blog just like leaves in a table and are customizable to include text, video or any other code you would like to insert.

For those technically inclined, resizing containers and leaves is as easy as clicking and dragging from within the layout editor. Colors can be chose for backgrounds, links, text and any other editable object using a color wheel.

Headway is truly an amazing product and anyone even considering a blog should seriously consider Headway. You can save a considerable amount of money creating a blog using WordPress and Headway instead of hiring a firm and you retain complete control over your site.

SaaS Case Management for the Small Firm

Case Management software is to lawyers as a point of sale system is to a retailer: it is the most integral part of their business. Since it is perhaps the most important piece of software used to manage a law practice, surprisingly I’ve often seen that once an attorney decides which software to use, he or she hardly ever re-evaluates the decision and looks at a replacement or upgrade. Attorneys rely on practice management software so completely — and it represents the very essence of their practice — that they cannot even fathom anything different.

ADVERSE TO CHANGE

One reason many are reluctant to change is because of the immense investment of time and resources already spent in installing the current software and the large amount of information entered into the current system. An attorney’s case management software is his or her lifeline; every case, every client and every transaction is stored in the current program. That being said, it is perplexing that such little effort is spent keeping up with advances in technology. All of these factors result in the usage of out-dated software, often times woefully inadequate to the firm’s needs, but nonetheless a required part of daily operations. Unfortunately new programs, such as Rocket Matter, are not seen as viable replacements when the real reason for not upgrading is the fear of something “new,” and the idea of transitioning data instills a fear of missing information and years of work lost.

SILVER LINING

What attorneys are missing is a brand new class of case management programs which, while they seek to replace older programs, also seek to solve many of the concerns law firms face when dealing with digital client data: security, mobile access and backup. As one of the newcomers to this market, Rocket Matter has embraced the new software-as-a-service model of delivering software from the Internet.

What this means is the application itself is not stored on an office computer (called client-side applications), but instead on servers hosted by Rocket Matter. This offloads the responsibility of having to maintain and upgrade a server, because the software is accessed on Rocket Matter’s servers from any computer with an Internet connection. All data between a user’s computer and Rocket Matter is encrypted with 128-bit secure SSL, the same encryption used by many major banks and financial institutions for online transactions. Another advantage of SaaS is that any upgrades to the software are handled by the software provider directly on its servers, thus negating the necessity for users to perform software updates and installations on each of the firm’s computers or servers.

As a SaaS application, Rocket Matter handles another major issue for law firms which store confidential and sensitive client data: security. Rocket Matter stores confidential client data not only at their physically and electronically secure offices, but in multiple offsite, secure and geographically diverse locations. As a result, Rocket Matter solves one of the inherent problems with client side case management programs: client data is only as secure as the law firm has made its office. Rocket Matter is also beginning to work with independent security specialist firms to conduct periodic audits of its system, something most law firms are incapable of doing on their own internal systems.

PRACTICAL USAGE

My legal practice focuses on personal injury and workers’ compensation claims. Handling approximately 50 cases, mine is a small plaintiff’s firm that has been using Rocket Matter exclusively since December 2008. Prior to this, we used Daylite for our case management needs. The transition between Daylite and Rocket Matter was a fairly painless one. We simply exported our Daylite data into a comma-separated file, and Rocket Matter had our data imported within 24 hours of the initiation of our service. Just as data can be imported into Rocket Matter, all of a firm’s data can easily be exported to an Excel Spreadsheet anytime, thus providing those with a desire to have a physical copy of their data at all times with a means of “holding” their information on their own systems.

The graphical interface of Rocket Matter is very reminiscent of the majority of modern Macintosh programs. It is readily apparent that a great deal of time was spent deciding which information will be on the “Dashboard,” the first screen one sees when logging into Rocket Matter. Only information most likely to be used is displayed on any given screen within Rocket Matter. This reduces the information overload that plagues many case management software programs. As my friend, colleague and fellow Rocket Matter user says: “One of the best things about RM is that it is so easy to learn and easy to use. There is virtually no learning curve, because it works the way you do. My staff was up to speed on RM almost immediately.”

Just like other modern client-side programs, search boxes are auto completing, a feature which is normally only provided in client-side applications. Part of the beauty of using Rocket Matter is that despite being dependent upon the Internet for access, the amount of actual broadband use is quite small. Even those users with a slow cable or data connection are capable of utilizing all of Rocket Matter’s features just as easily as those with high-speed DSL or T1 connections. As a result, accessing Rocket Matter from a mobile computer connected via cellular 3G access is still quite acceptable.

CLIENT MATTERS

In Rocket Matter, cases are referred to as “matters.” As with most case management programs, Rocket Matter allows each matter to be relationally connected to other attorneys working on the matter, as well as opposing counsel and user customized relationships. In a typical personal-injury case, we will have a matter that has relationships with a liability insurance adjuster, a medical insurance adjuster, opposing counsel, the judge presiding over the case, and any other attorneys or paralegals assigned to work on the matter. The calendaring system in Rocket Matter allows attorneys to delegate tasks to any of the staff working on a particular matter, as well as verify whether a particular staff member is available for an event during scheduling.

Though the feature is not used by my firm, Rocket Matter includes an extensive billing and expense tracking suite, with the usual compliments such as time capture for matters and profit reporting.

One of the most intriguing additions for Rocket Matter is document management. Released in the past few months, Rocket Matter now allows users to upload documents to a matter and add “tags” to each document for indexing purposes. These tags work much the same way Facebook tags work for pictures — users simply input a tag they want for a particular document and the document is then searchable by that tag.

MOBILE ACCESS

Perhaps the most helpful aspect of having a Web-based contact management program is the ability to access data from any computer, phone or device with Internet access. Unlike most client-side applications which require VPN setup, Web site setup and/or limited access to calendaring and/or contact information, Rocket Matter provides full access to the entire program no matter from where a user logs in with no further customization.

Due to its 128-bit SSL encryption, there is no worry about the security of the transmission of a firm’s data. Rocket Matter also offers a mobile portal to access only contact information if a user is on a particularly slow connection or he or she just needs contact information.

My entire firm has iPhones and we’ve never had a problem accessing Rocket Matter from out of the office, even at AT&T’s slower EDGE speeds when 3G was not available. Additionally, when our firm’s attorneys are traveling, they use Macbook Pro’s with AT&T Express Cards to access the Internet through AT&T’s 3G network and there is no perceptible difference when accessing Rocket Matter between the 3G network than when we are back in our offices accessing the Internet.

PRICING

Rocket Matter costs $59.99 per month for the first user, $49.99 for the second through sixth, and $39.99 for the seventh through 20th. A fully functioning case management and billing solution is available for a small firm of six attorneys and paralegals for a little over $300 per month, or $4,000 per year. While this may seem like a large sum, to properly compare Rocket Matter’s cost to comparable client-side software, one must factor in the cost of software updates (included in Rocket Matter’s price), server and desktop setup, configuration of Web-based access to servers, IT maintenance and training. Factoring in all of these hidden costs of standard client-side software results in Rocket Matter fitting much more nicely in today’s budget conscious balance sheet for law firms.

Regardless of whether your firm embraces it or not, Internet-based SaaS applications such as Rocket Matter are likely to replace standard client-side applications. Both Google and Microsoft are focusing the majority of their research and development monies to SaaS, and Microsoft has been experimenting with actually having Windows run in this manner in future versions. Rocket Matter is simply one of the first of these applications to make it into the legal software market, although it most certainly does not feel like a 1.0 version. If you have a small to medium-sized firm and are looking for reliable, secure, mobile and easily implemented case management software, you cannot do better than Rocket Matter. You can purchase Rocket Matter or get a free personal tour by Rocket Matter staff at www.RocketMatter.com.

Finis R. Price III is a practicing trial attorney in Louisville, KY, and Co-Founder of TechnoEsq Presentations, where he works with other attorneys in creating trial and other litigation presentations. He is a member of the Kentucky Justice Association’s Board of Governor’s and is a faculty member with Solo Practice University, a virtual university assisting attorneys in their practice.

As most of you know, TechnoEsq posted a review by Victor Medina of the early version of MacSpeech back in March 2008. That review has now become the most read post on TechnoEsq, probably due to the overwhelming demand by attorneys and law firms for dictation software. Earlier this year, MacSpeech released the latest version of MacSpeech Dictate version 1.0. As most of you know, MacSpeech’s Dictate program is powered by the same dictation engine as the windows application Dragon NaturallySpeaking produced by Nuance. Unfortunately, MacSpeech Dictate uses the Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation engine number 9.0 instead of the latest 10.0 Dragon NaturallySpeaking users are raving about. As a result of this, it can be said that MacSpeech Dictate in some respects lags behind the Windows version of the dictation software. However within the past month and a half, MacSpeech has released version 1.5 which is a major update to Dictate. This update, costing upgrade users $55 and $199 for new users, is perhaps the greatest update in an application without moving to the 2.0 version of software ever seen. As a result of this, I highly recommend paying for this nominal upgrade fee.

What makes this new upgrade worth $55 is the update of MacSpeech Dictate’s speech recognition engine to the 10.0 engine. This engine is the same one utilized by our Windows brethren running Dragon NaturallySpeaking. As a result of this upgrade, MacSpeech claims an improved speech recognition of 20%, however I feel this is probably an understatement as I have seen an almost 50% increase in speech recognition. As well as improved accuracy, many of the insufferable bugs which were previously present in version 1.0 of Dictate have completely disappeared. These include random letters being generated at the end of sentences, problems in going back through dictation for editing as well as an improved speed difference which is very welcome.

As a practicing attorney, I do utilize a legal transcriptionist for dictation. When using Dictate 1.0 I was growing increasingly irritated with the bugs mentioned above and found myself going back to my transcriptionist because it was just too hard to deal with these issues. However after the upgrade to dictate 1.5 I have gone back dictating to my transcription less and less. This is directly correlated to the improvements with the new speech recognition engine and the bug fixes.

This is not to say that using a program such as MacSpeech Dictate does not have its faults. Obviously, it is very difficult to when there is any sort of background noise, especially other speakers. While a human being may have no problems in isolating the intended user’s speech, MacSpeech Dictate and any program used for dictation have a difficult time in determining which speaker is to be listened to and whose words are to be transcribed. On this note, I’ve spoken with a number of other attorneys who have attempted to use MacSpeech Dictate as well as other dictation programs who have had limited success in having their speech recognized effectively. More often than not, this is a result of using subpar microphones and headsets in the dictation process. MacSpeech has consistently stated that in order to achieve the best transcription percentages, it is imperative to use either the included headset with MacSpeech Dictate or one of the recommended microphones on MacSpeech’s website.

As a test of the microphone’s effect on dictation, I have attempted to use my Blue Snowball, a microphone far superior to the headset included with MacSpeech Dictate, for dictation. Using this other microphone, I noticed an immediate decline in accuracy. This is likely due to the location of the microphone in relation to my mouth and Dictate’s profiles in what type of microphone it is used to receiving audio from. Thus, don’t assume using a superior microphone or headset to the one included with Dictate will work better.

Setting up Dictate is extraordinarily easy. After running the installation program and loading the data CD which comes with the program, you are led through approximately 3 to 5 minute reading lesson in which Dictate learns the nuances of your speech. After this training, Dictate is literally ready to go. You can open up any application such as Microsoft Word, any basic text editor or the built in word processing program within Dictate and begin dictating immediately.

Transparent “help” windows are available to the right of the application you are dictating into which provide the most common available commands for that program. There is a slight learning curve in learning the miscellaneous text editing and movement commands, however these helper windows are essential as you begin dictating. I typically recommend individuals use these windows in the beginning and then as they get used to the commands close them to save on screen real estate.

If you follow the instructions in terms of speaking clearly as well as in complete sentences you’ll notice a marked improvement in the accuracy of the programs transcription. Most users have difficulty when they pause and stop either waiting for the program to catch up with their speech or when they are speaking very slowly for the transcription program. This speaking in fits and starts causes serious problems for dictation programs as they use percentages and likelihood of words appearing next to each other in order to determine what words you used and in what context you used them. Navigation is as easy as stating “Train the Word”, “Insert before” or “Insert After” and the word which you are offering two. Dictate will then go back through the cache of words that it has transcribed and locate the word you are looking for and begin the command which you have instructed it to perform. At that point you can simply state “Go to end” and proceed with the dictation.

A welcome new feature in version 1.5 is the ability for Dictate to go through any document files which you give to it and go through them for words it is unfamiliar with to add to its dictionary. This is particularly useful for lawyers as Dictate does not have a specific lawyer application. Thus much of the legal jargon and medical terms attorneys use can be easily and quickly added and immediately available for Dictate to understand.

As mentioned previously, Dictate is able to transcribe your speech into any program which you have open on your computer, including social media sites such as twitter and Facebook, as well as mail and any other program which accepts text input. You can also use Dictate for complete control of your computer going even as far as opening and closing programs and control of the cursor. One reader of TechnoEsq.com has commented that due to certain disabilities he is forced to use Dictate for complete control of his computer which he is able to do quite effortlessly.

Probably my only complaint with Dictate is its inability to import a dictation file from a digital recorder or other audio file. This feature was available in the previous MacSpeech dictation program iListen, which has its origins with MacSpeech however this ability was not included in any of the versions of Dictate for unknown reasons. My suspicion is that the microphone quality of portable dictation recorders is not up to par with the type of microphone used with Dictate and that this causes an unacceptable number of recognition errors.

If you need any assistance, MacSpeech has even put up videos covering such topics as installing the software, phrase training, text macros and editing documents. These are great for those users who want to see what Dictate can do prior to purchasing the software.

Overall the upgrade to version 1.5 is most welcome and is well worth the $55 upgrade for previous users of Dictate and $199 for new users. The speed increase and amazing accuracy this upgrade provides is second to none. If you’re willing to speak clearly and think prior to actually speaking, MacSpeech Dictate can work wonders at replacing or at least augmenting your transcriptionist in your practice. As you suspected, I dictated this entire review using MacSpeech Dictate version 1.5 and only used the keyboard for inputting those commands within the quotation marks which were not able to be dictated.

We welcome any comments from current users of version 1.5 or any users of version 1.0 have who have recently upgraded. I will make the disclaimer that MacSpeech did provide a review copy of version 1.0 and version 1.5 of Dictate to TechnoEsq.com however as with all product reviews this played no part in our opinion concerning the application.