Dragon Anywhere is the only mobile dictation app that enables continuous dictation of documents, with no length or time limits. This means, you can dictate documents of any length, edit, format, and share them directly from your mobile device—whether visiting clients, a job site or at your local coffee shop. May 29, 2014  Dragon Dictate for Mac version 4 Company: Nuance Price: $199.99 MSRP. Times have finally changed for Mac users when it comes to dictation on the Mac. It seems that the Mac has always been the Johnny-come-lately to the party as far as dictation was involved. Apr 30, 2015  Only differing slightly from its other Apple-based iteration, Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac v4, this edition of Dragon is packed full of useful, effective functionality. Not only is Dragon Dictate for Mac (DD4M) a top-rate, professional speech recognition application, but it also works well with popular online communication tools. When it comes to dictating to your Mac, you have two great alternatives: The Dictation tools built into OS X Mountain Lion and Nuance's Dragon Dictate. Kirk McElhearn explains which tool is right. Dragon speech recognition Nuance Dragon Dictate for Mac, v4 Feature Matrix Feature Description Dragon Dictate 4 Dragon Dictate 3 Apple Dictation OS X Mavericks 10.9 Apple Dictation OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 Multiple Sources per Profile Ability to create multiple dictation sources (more than one type of audio input device) within the same profile.

• Dragon Speak Dictation Software
• Dictation Software Nuance Dragon Dictate For Mac V4
• Dragon Software Dictation
• Nuance Dragon Dictate For Mac
• Nuance Dragon Medical Dictation Software

Whether you prefer to dictate documents or you require voice recognition software due to a disability, there are several choices on your computer that are available, each with varying levels of accuracy and ease of use.

Likely the most recognizable and preferred voice recognition and dictation program is Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which comes in a variety of versions with different features for various applications. The basic version, with the bare minimum features, costs $49.99. The professional and enterprise versions go up to $500.

There are free alternatives to Dragon, provided by Microsoft and Google. Recently released is Microsoft Garage's Dictate add-on to Microsoft Office. Dictate uses the artificial intelligence application Cortana’s speech recognition network. Windows' Speech Recognition application can be used for dictation on most programs, and Google Docs has a voice typing feature as well. We tested each of these programs to see if they offer a viable alternative to the well-known Dragon.

How We Tested

Accuracy is critical with speech recognition software. In testing each of the four programs, we dictated a test paragraph, which was exactly 300 words. (Each of the applications was installed on the same test computer, and we used the same microphone with each program). We dictated the same test paragraph multiple times. In evaluating the results, we looked for misspellings, missed words, use of correct words and punctuation errors.

Ease of use is just as important as accuracy, since these programs are meant to be used hands-free. Knowing how to work each program and how to navigate the features with your voice and minimal use of the mouse and keyboard is vital. In evaluating ease of use, we assessed how navigable the program or tool was using only our voice and how well the apps understood our commands, such as starting and stopping dictation and correcting mistakes. We evaluated the tutorials each program offered and the learning curve of each tool.

1. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 15

Dragon is not the only paid voice recognition/dictation software on the market, but it is among the most popular. There are some 22 million registered users.

The latest version of Nuance's long-running software lives up to its reputation as a superior voice recognition program. Dragon features an intuitive interface aided by an interactive tutorial, which can be replayed at any time. It uses a toolbar on the top of your screen you use with your mouse or by issuing simple voice commands, such as starting and stopping the dictation. The program easily distinguished commands from dictation. When dictating, Dragon clearly understood the difference between words and punctuation.

Dragon Speak Dictation Software

Dragon was the most accurate of the speech recognition programs we tested, missing just an average of two words during our tests. There was some missing punctuation, like a few commas, but for the most part, it transcribed our punctuation commands correctly.

Its low error rate is likely helped by an extensive accuracy tuner that runs when you start the program for the first time. The tuner allows the program to become acquainted with your voice. You can run this tuner whenever you want to improve the program's performance.

The major advantage Dragon has over the other programs we evaluated is the abundance of features aside from dictation, including controlling your computer, managing a custom vocabulary and transcribing audio files.

There are two drawbacks to Dragon. The first is the high price point; the second is that different languages require that you purchase various versions.

2. Windows Speech Recognition

Windows' built-in speech recognition tool offered fairly accurate transcription and helpful access features that, with some additional instruction, are easy to learn.

Speech Recognition's primary function is for navigating Windows using voice commands, but you can also use it to dictate speech to text for just about any application that has text input. We experienced intermittent trouble activating the program, which is initiated by saying, 'Start listening.' To stop dictation, you say, 'Stop listening.'

Much like Dragon, Speech Recognition has a tutorial that acts a voice calibrator. You dictate the program's instructions, and the program fine-tunes itself to your voice, which we found clever. If you're a frequent user of this feature, you can set it so the application launches when you turn on your computer.

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There are two dictation modes: the first one types text directly into text fields; the second mode consists of a dictation scratchpad that allows you to edit and approve dictated text before it's inserted into the text field. We found the dictation's accuracy lacking at first, but over subsequent tests, it improved. Out of our 300-word paragraph, Speech Recognition missed an average of 4.6 words and punctuation was mostly accurate, with a few missed commas and periods.

Windows' application is a good alternative if you're looking for a basic, free transcription app, but it was not as accurate as Dragon. Our main complaints with the program involved difficulties launching the program using the proper voice command and some commands being mistaken as part of the transcription, or in some cases, not capturing the text at all.

3. Google Docs

If you frequently use Google's suite of free office applications, you may already know that there is a voice typing feature that can be activated from the toolbar or by hitting Ctrl+Shft+S. This is a bare- bones dictation tool that doesn't require any setup or calibration, and that could account for its less-than-stellar accuracy.

On one hand, the austerity of the app makes it one of the simplest to use, but any further instruction needs to be found in a help menu that is sparse on proper guides. It has a reference list of commands to help you type and issue commands, but no other instructions are provided.

Accuracy was subpar, compared to other programs, with an average of 6.3 missed words in our testing (out of a total of 300 words). Punctuation was mostly accurate, but some punctuation isn't recognized by the program. For instance, in one sentence, rather than inserting a semicolon, it transcribed the word 'semicolon.' It featured other quirks that made our copy look sloppy, such as capitalizing certain words for no apparent reason and inserting unnecessary spaces. There's no way to calibrate or tune the program to your voice to improve accuracy.

We did like that Google Docs' dictation feature can be set to accommodate more than 50 languages and dozens of regional dialects for Arabic, English, Spanish and a few others. Overall, we found the simplicity to be a double-edged blade with the quick activation convenient, but no other options available to customize the experience. The ease of use could be improved with the addition of guided instruction.

4. Microsoft Dictate

Recently released under Microsoft's experimental software label Microsoft Garage, Dictate is a free add-on to Microsoft Office. It is currently only compatible with Word, Outlook and PowerPoint. Dictate uses Cortana's speech recognition software to transcribe. Since it needs to tap into this network, your computer needs to be connected to the internet for it to work.

We found the accuracy of Dictate to be the worst of the four apps we tested. Although installation was simple, there was no voice calibration nor a tutorial on how to use the program.

Out of 300 words, it missed an average of 14.6 words. The software misunderstood several words. Plus it was the only program we tested that typed out nonsensical words and sentences. There is a manual punctuation feature that you can toggle, but even with this off, punctuation was often missed or even spelled out in the copy such as 'period'” and 'comma.' Overall, we found Dictate's transcription ability unsatisfactory and would not recommend it in its current state.

Understandably, since this is an experimental, early-release feature, it's likely the program may be updated and its accuracy will improve. The add-on has a translation feature that allows you to type out your dictation in another language, but we did not test the accuracy of this feature.

Summary

While some of the free dictation tools we reviewed could be reasonably used as an alternative to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, they fail to surpass Dragon's accuracy and ease of use. Dragon has the variety of features, accuracy and ease of use we expected from dictation software. There were few mistakes, and when they occurred, it was a simple matter of correcting them just using our voice.

For simple dictation of notes and other unimportant copy, consider Speech Recognition, Google's dictation tool or Microsoft's Dictate. When accuracy is imperative and you must rely on speech recognition software to cleanly and efficiently create a word processing document for professional purposes, such as business or legal, we recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

I’ve been playing around with Dragon Dictate version 4 for a few weeks now so it’s probably time I did a review.  This review is for people who had never used Dragon Dictate before.

Click here for a Review of the newer ‘Dragon for Mac’Â (released September 2015.)

If you are thinking about whether it is worth upgrading from version 3  check out this article. If you want to see how it compares with the built-in speech recognition in OS X Mavericks , check out this article. Finally, for an interesting history of my use of Speech Recognition since the late 1990’s leading up to the Macintosh version of Dragon, click here!

Introduction

Dragon Dictate is the Macintosh version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, the famous PC voice recognition software.  It allows you to speak into your computer,  and it will convert that speech into text.  It’s quite hard to get your head around exactly what this feels like unless you give it a go.  I’ve been using speech recognition for over 10 years now and I could not do without it.  It is probably the number one timesaving piece of software I have on my computer. I write lots of talks so Dragon also helps me to do that well.

The thinking process for speaking is different to the thinking process for writing.  I find it a lot easier to ‘speak’ something that will be given as an oral talk rather than write it down.  That said, I use Dragon Dictate for writing tasks as well. For example I am dictating this article. I also dictate email replies.  I generally launch Dragon Dictate for any piece of typing that will take me more than about 30 seconds.

First Impressions – a winner.

As a piece of software, Dragon dictate is fantastic.  The user interface looks the best it ever has.  It’s relatively easy to use given the complexity of what it’s trying to achieve. And best of all, look at how  well it performs – perfectly! Here is a video of me using Dragon Dictate 4.  This is the first time I have used  this version and I have done no training beyond the compulsory six minutes of training.

Accuracy

For the last 10 years speech recognition has been all about accuracy. Accuracy crept up from 80% to 90% to 95% to 97% and so on. What this means is that even though you would talk perfectly, the computer would still make mistakes. Generally the more training you did and the better the software got and the fewer mistakes the computer would make.  Sometimes training could take half an hour or an hour.

Dragon Dictate has now reached the point where I find an accuracy rating is meaningless.  In my opinion the software is basically 100% accurate. What I mean by that is that if I am speaking clearly, and I am not using obscure words, I am confident that it will make no mistakes.  If it does make a ‘ mistake’  when I go and replay what I have said it is usually me who made the mistake, not the computer.  There are of course some very obscure names or words that it would be nearly impossible for speech recognition software to work out without reading your mind.  This is how communication works. Recognition is not even 100% accurate when a human is listening to another human being because the English language can be ambiguous.

I think the next needed step forward in Dictation technology is not improvements in accuracy but the ability to add punctuation automatically. When I have tried Dragon Dictate  on people who have never used it before,  the hardest thing to get used to is saying ‘Full-Stop’ at the end of each sentence, and ‘Comma’  when you need a comma, and all the other commands.  (See below under ‘Learning Curve’).

New Users

Up until now Dragon Dictate has been a bit hit and miss when I’ve tried it out on other people. Some have loved it, for others it produced gobbledygook.  I tried Dragon Dictate version 4 on my wife and my son for this review, and they were both very impressed.  So between version 1, which was the last time I tried it on a friend, and version 4, it has improved dramatically.

Here is a video of my wife using Dragon  Dictate for the very first time.  Note there are some pauses where I  am telling her to say things like “new line”.

Here is a video of my 15 year old son using Dragon Dictate for the very first time. We have left the mistakes in so you can see how it goes. Â Again there are some pauses when I am coaching him!

Learning curve

Dragon Dictate does have a learning curve. There is a pretty good tutorial that comes with it, but you do need to re-train yourself  on how you speak.  The main thing to learn is to say “full-stop”  at the end of each sentence and “comma”  where you want a comma.

The other commands that I find very handy are “Begin quote” and “End quote”  to put quotation marks into a sentence.

“Correct that” Â is what you say when you want to correct something, “new line” Â is the equivalent of hitting the return key.

“Scratch that” Â will delete the last thing that you said. “Go to end” will go the the end of the document most of the time, although sometimes it gets a little confused.

Those few commands will get you up and dictating reasonably quickly. Â Dragon have a’ quick reference sheet’ of commands, but it has so many commands that you won’t get your head around them all very quickly.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that Dragon Dictate will learn from you.  It can be tempting  to just leave all the mistakes and then go back and correct them later with your mouse. The problem with this is that Dragon Dictate will not learn from that. If however you say ‘correct that’  and go back and correct your mistakes using Dragon, it will learn from its mistakes and be more likely to recognise that word correctly in the future.

Microphones

The download version does not come with a microphone. This might not sound so bad, but if you were someone like my wife, (not very computer savvy) and you didn’t have a spare microphone lying around, the software would arrive and you would not be able to use it.  Of course the simple way around this is to buy the boxed version. There doesn’t seem to be much of an indication of this on the website when you order. There is an iPhone app called “Dragon Remote Microphone” that allows you to use your iPhone as a microphone.  I gave it a try and it works reasonably well.

Do not be tempted to use it with a bad microphone, e.g. your laptop built-in microphone. Here is a video of me simulating a bad microphone by holding my microphone about 1 foot from my mouth.  You will need to turn the volume of your computer up quite loud to be able to hear what I am saying.

I am amazed that Dragon Dictate can recognise anything at this poor quality. It does a good job given the circumstances.  Nonetheless, if this was your experience of speech recognition it would be frustrating. I can’t stress this enough,  get a good microphone.Â

Don’t be tempted to try and use the built-in microphone on your computer.  At best you will get poor results, at worst  you will get so frustrated that you will be turned off speech recognition for ever. The most important thing with speech recognition is to speak clearly and to get the speech into the computer clearly. So you want to have a good microphone.  Nuance have a list of approved microphones for Dragon Dictate on their website here.  I’d recommend heading on over to knowbrainer.com They have a better list of microphones. If you do want to get a good microphone, make sure you get one with a USB or bluetooth connection so you can plug it into your Macintosh.

Dictation Software Nuance Dragon Dictate For Mac V4

Commands

As well as dictating text into an application,  you can use Dragon Dictate to control your computer.  I’m not one to read a user manual,  but after trying a few commands and none of them working I decided I’d better read the help file.  I tried a few of the suggested shortcuts. “Search Mac for …”  was meant to open up spotlight and do a computer search but it opened Quicksilver.  Then when I tried to search for something else it closed Quicksilver and got confused. “Search Google for ….” worked really well.  But if I say “Google search for…” it will not search.

In other words it is  looking for very specific commands.  Maybe that’s because if the vocabulary was too big  it would think you were trying to give a command when you were dictating.  The problem is  that I’m not very good at remembering the specific commands.  If you want to use Dragon Dictate to control your computer  it looks like it could be very powerful but  it would take discipline  and an investment of your time. You would have to sit down and learn the commands.

Transcribe

Dragon Dictate 4 boasts a transcribe function.   I tested it and found it to be both fantastic and a complete dud. Firstly I grabbed a Tim Keller talk. Tim Keller is from New York.  The recording was made with him speaking into a microphone so it was very clear.  It looked promising. It trained itself on the first part of the recording, prompting me to go and edit any mistakes, then it transcribed the entire talk.  What it produced was complete gobbledygook.  There is not even enough content there to work out what it is trying to say.

Dragon Dictate’s attempt to transcribe a talk from the internet.

Secondly, I used the iPhone Dragon  Dictate transcribe app.  I spoke into my iPhone directly as if I was speaking into Dragon Dictate. I did this in a relatively noisy environment.  When I got home and transcribed the my speaking it did it almost perfectly.

Since then,  I have used the Dragon iPhone app to record my thoughts when I’m out and about, and it does a great job of recognising them when I get home.  It’s actually pretty handy  and a nice addition to Dragon Dictate.

Trial version

Some pieces of software give you a trial version. Sadly, there is no trial version of Dragon Dictate.  This is a shame because I think some people whose  speech is not be clear may be ‘incompatible’ with speech recognition software.

Thankfully though, the Nuance online store  offers a 30 day money back guarantee.  So if it doesn’t work you are not stuck with it. The closest thing to ‘ trying before you buy’  would be to  try the OS X Mavericks  built in speech recognition as I describe in  a separate article,  but make sure you try it with a proper microphone.

Pro’s

Great software.

Great recognition.

Dictates into any application.

You can mix up dictating and typing.

It learns from its mistakes and improves with time.

30 day money back guarantee.

Con’s

No trial version.

The upgrades are $149.

Buying Advice

If you are a first-time user I would encourage you to purchase Dragon Dictate directly from Nuance  so that you can get their 30 day money back guarantee.  First time users are better off buying the boxed set so you get the microphone with it.

Dragon Software Dictation

If you are after the full version with the Microphone for $199 click here to go to the official Nuance Site.

If you click here you can get the Download only version with 10% off.  If you are a new user I would not recommend this.  You are better off getting the boxed version with the microphone.

If you want to upgrade your microphone from the standard one,  go to knowbrainer.com.  They also have a 30 day money back guarantee on all their products but don’t buy Dragon from them as they exclude Dragon Dictate from their 30 day guarantee.

If you are a student in Australia www.voicerecognition.com.au  offer a student-teacher edition for $99.

If you don’t need the 30 day money back guarantee I’ve seen versions of Dragon Dictate cheaper in Australia, for example here for as low as AU$169.

Nuance Dragon Dictate For Mac

STOP PRESS: Â I found a very cheap download only version here. Â Not sure how long this will be available.

Nuance Dragon Medical Dictation Software

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