Comes With Everything You Need, Including Headphones
Rating: - review
the software was for my sister in a hursing home.
she can't type very well, nor speak very well.
the software really helps her.
MacSpeech Dictate
Rating: - works beyond my expectations!
I purchased this product to get me through a temporary disability due to a severely broken left hand. I went with it based on the strength of recommendations by users in reviews like this. They sounded a little too good to be true, but I figured I would give it a try because I was truly desperate for help.
Now I cannot stop telling everybody that they should have one, regardless of whether or not they have a physical impairment that hinders their typing. MacSpeech Dictate is remarkably accurate in rendering one's speech into text that rapidly appears upon the computer screen. I am astonished at this, considering how quickly the training is to get the program to recognize one's voice -- a mere few minutes. A key virtue is that it works with any software application. Yes, you have to keep an eye on it for errors, but it is far easier to correct a few errors than to type the whole thing out by oneself. The effectiveness of this product forbodes a day when computers will no longer require keyboards!
My colleagues all ask me if the software can transcribe interviews -- I gave it a try, but without the ability to train the software with the interviewee's voice, the results are less than adequate. However, one can listen to the interview phrase by phrase, and then repeat them aloud using MacSpeech Dictate, and speedily transcribe it into the computer. And you can set up a voice profile for a research assistant who could do this step for you!
Rating: - Nowhere Near As Good As Dragon
Don't buy this product. I am a dedicated Mac user, and was using Dragon Naturally Speaking on Parallels. This software is completely inferior to Naturally Speaking, which is pretty awesome. Consider: there is no way to teach the computer directly to recognize new words that you speak, you can only upload them into the software by "showing" the program your documents. The baseline voice recognition is OK, but the lack of "tunability" to your voice is a key problem. Also there are other petty distractions, like you can't dictate and type within the same document easily--if you do this the program gets confused. Hard to believe Nuance would license their voice recognition engine to these jokers...it has really degraded the product as compared to the windows version (Naturally Speaking). Sadly, we must wait a few more years for the ideal Mac dictation software.
Rating: - I've been waiting for something like this!
I've been waiting for something like this --because I am an extremely slow typist -- and can't get my thoughts down on paper before I start self editing and constantly correcting my mistakes, which makes things go even slower. As a matter of fact I am speaking this review currently. I can see how this product would have real application for people who are not able to type for any particular reason such as arthritis or paralysis -- MacSpeech Dictate will even operate all the functions of your computer -- which Leopard will also do, but why not have the dictation capability also?
I have a lot of stories I want to tell from my childhood, but for me to sit down and type them out I feel would be impossible -- and this way I can just speak them as I remember them, and if I have to -- edit later. I bought this program in spite of some bad reviews I saw online because I figured that I'm not getting any better as a typist and this program can only get better and better -- which is not to say it's not pretty darn good already! As you can see, no mistakes!
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