I got along quite happily through the Macintel era's first three
years sticking with a 1.33 GHz 17" PowerBook G4,
which continued to offer pretty satisfactory performance for my
purposes throughout - and the BigAl 'Book is still in daily service as
my wife's computer. Indeed, hanging in with PowerPC in what had become
Intel space, I still didn't (and don't - I still log about one-third of
my computer time on my two old Pismo PowerBooks) perceive
myself to be missing a whole lot by sticking with PowerPC 'Books,
except for one particular software application -
MacSpeech Dictate.
I have been a dictation software user, somewhat dependent on it, for
more than a decade. I have used several voice recognition software
applications on my PowerPC machines over that time, but principally
MacSpeech iListen, which I was reasonably satisfied with - at least
until early 2007, when MacSpeech released a completely new dictation
program called Dictate, based on the superb and theretofore
Windows-only Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech engine, to an enthusiastic
reception.
However, Dictate only supports Intel-based Macs.
By all
accounts (at least all I encountered), Dictate had ratcheted up the Mac
speech recognition game by more than a few notches, and when I finally
did take the platform plunge to an Intel-based Mac 15 months ago, one
of the things I most eagerly looked forward to was giving Dictate a
whirl.
I wasn't disappointed.
iListen was pretty good dictation software, and it served me well,
but Dictate is amazing dictation software. Teaming up the powerful,
accurate, and fast NaturallySpeaking speech engine with Intel Core 2
Duo power is a software/hardware marriage made in heaven. Dictate
running on my modestly powered (by today's standards) 2.0 GHz unibody MacBook with
4 GB of RAM isn't just convenient and helpful in a utilitarian
sense - it's genuinely fun to use, and for anyone with a need or desire
for a compact, powerful, portable dictation platform, I could hardly
recommend the combination of Dictate and MacBook or MacBook Pro too
highly.
While I expect you could get reasonably satisfactory performance
from Dictate on a MacBook
Air, I haven't tried it, and the MacBook - either the Pro aluminum model or
the entry-level white
plastic-bodied model - offers the advantages of a faster Core 2 Duo
processor, two USB ports to the Air's lonely one, and room to upgrade
your RAM to as much as 8 GB from the standard 2 GB or
4 GB - expansion latitude the Air doesn't support, although I'll
note that I did get along quite well with Dictate on my MacBook with 2
GB of memory before I installed the 4 GB upgrade from Other World Computing, but it's slicker with
4 GB.
The second USB port is relevant
because Dictate ships with a Plantronics USB headset microphone, which
I've found excellent both for performance and comfort.
A Wide Audience
While my own interest in dictation software, at least originally,
stemmed from my chronic health issues, dictation programs actually
address a variety of users along a spectrum from "need" to "want". The
most intense sort of "need" is for people with major disabilities who
simply cannot type. Then there are folks like me, for whom typing is
possible, but less than comfortable for long-form text entry tasks, and
for whom speech recognition makes computing and composing prose much
more enjoyable and less painful. As the MacSpeech folks observe, given
enough hours of straight typing, just about anyone can fit in that
second category.
Then there are dictation software users who are motivated by the
technology's potential for enhancing productivity - writers who find
oral composition flows naturally, and just about anyone who discovers
that entering words into electronic documents by voice can be
substantially faster than even a very proficient typist working on a
keyboard. It's definitely faster than the 50 words-per-minute or so I,
as a non-touch typist, can manage.
MacSpeech Dictate is designed to accommodate users in all those
categories.
Complex Technology Made Easy
Speech recognition software used for dictation is more complex than
most kinds of consumer software, with arguably more "moving parts" than
in just about any other kind of application.
When dictating to your computer, it's necessary to speak
punctuation, which I've never found terribly difficult to get into,
although on occasion I've absentmindedly - particularly when reading
aloud - started pronouncing punctuation when addressing fellow human
beings.
Dictate's Notepad application, according to MacSpeech, will
always provide the most optimized results, particularly when executing
advanced features, complicated navigation, and massive amounts of
editing with your voice. However, I've found performance quite
satisfactory in my favorite composition and editing application,
Tex-Edit Plus, which has the advantage
of heavy AppleScript customization that I use extensively.
MacSpeech vigorously discourages using a hybrid mode of part
dictation and part keyboarding and/or mousing, maintaining that
alternation between speech recognition and keyboard/mouse is "a
fantastic way to confuse the software". I've attempted to break myself
of the habit, but still find I tend to get impatient and resort to
keyboard and mouse for most editing and correction.
Using Dictate
Dictate has four modes: Dictation Mode, Command Mode, Spelling Mode,
and Sleep Mode. Dictation Mode is self-explanatory, but while you're in
it you can also issue commands, while in Command Mode (which could be
considered "command only" mode) the program recognizes and executes
only commands.
Spelling Mode is new and perhaps not quite as sophisticatedly
developed as some of the program's other features - a completely new
Spelling Mode made its debut with MacSpeech Dictate 1.2 (the current
version is 1.5.9), allowing users to spell words, names, or acronyms by
using either natural language or the International Radio Alphabet.
Sleep Mode simply lets you toggle the microphone and application on
and off.
For someone with a disability that renders even small amounts of
typing difficult, the Command and Spelling modes would be a priceless
help.
Phrase Training
Another new feature introduced with MacSpeech Dictate 1.2 was phrase
training, which helps you increase accuracy by letting you train your
voice profile as you proceed. MacSpeech notes that most of the speech
recognition industry refers to this feature as "correction", which is
accurate in the sense that it can indeed be used to correct text in
your documents, but the company contends that this descriptor somewhat
misses the point, because ongoing training also helps refine MacSpeech
Dictate's ability to recognize what you intended to say.
With phrase training, you're not stuck with the level of
accuracy from your initial voice training until you take the time to
read more training stories, and you don't have to specifically train
the recognition engine from a document or selection. Instead, you can
train a phrase immediately when you see that it was misrecognized. Then
the next time you dictate that phrase or a word in the phrase,
MacSpeech Dictate is more likely to recognize it accurately.
The way you proceed with this is when you notice that the program's
transcription has misinterpreted a word - such as substituting the word
"cause" when you intended to say "pause". While in Dictation Mode, say
"select the word cause." Confirm that the word has been correctly
selected, then say "pause" and check to ensure that the word actually
has been changed to "pause". That's all there is to it.
Spelling Mode and Phrase Training work much the same way. You pause
between navigation or spelling/correction instructions and general
dictation in order to allow the program to distinguish between the
two.
With Phrase Training, you speak the phrase you want to train, then
open the recognition window, which will display several possibilities
from among which you can select the correct phrase using its respective
button, or say "edit one" "spelling mode" [ pause ] and spell out your
words.
MacSpeech notes that sometimes it can take two or more attempts
before Dictate learns to properly recognize a particular phrase.
Dictate's "New Move Command" facilitates more sophisticated
navigation within a document than was supported by the initial Dictate
versions and iListen before them.
Installation
Installation is reasonably straightforward, although it does involve
inserting two installation discs in sequence, and the data files disc
takes quite a while to export its contents to your hard drive. You're
also obliged to register the software within four days of installation,
which requires an active Internet connection.
Once the installation process is complete, it will be necessary to
train the program to recognize your voice efficiently. This step is not
nearly as time-consuming or onerous as it once was. I'm getting just
amazing accuracy after only reading the five-minute initial training
story, a treatise on speech recognition. Transcription speed is close
to real time - much better than the previous high water mark of
ViaVoice X
in its day.
Effortless
Installed, initially trained, and down to business, the most apt
descriptive for Dictate that springs to mind is "effortless".
With iListen, even at its best in version 1.8 on my G4 laptops, one
always felt like there was hard work and effort involved using it. You
had to remain conscious of sloppy pronunciation and so forth, which can
be a challenge late at night when you're already propping your eyelids
open with the proverbial toothpicks trying to stay lucid to meet a
deadline.
Impressive Accuracy
With Dictate, I find I can just babble away, and still get
impressive accuracy. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech engine is
quite obviously superior to the Philips FreeSpeech 2000 Speech
Recognition engine MacSpeech uses in iListen.
Dictate's voice transcription capability is a dream come true, and
it's so accurate that not a whole lot of correction is necessary
anyway, although at the level of training I've gotten around to giving
it, it does usually require a bit.* I also find it useful for instant
messaging or composing short emails or whatever if the program is
already up and running. It's seductively slick.
That
said, Dictate is not perfect. I wish there was a way to hide the
floater control palette (which is a lot prettier than the old one in
iListen) when it's not in use other than closing the program. Working
on a 13.3" MacBook screen, one cherishes every square millimeter of
desktop real estate.
The program still takes a relatively long time to start up, which I
suppose is somewhat inevitable when it has to load a voice profile and
dictionaries before you can get underway, a process limited by hard
drive speed. A 7200 rpm hard drive would probably speed things up
noticeably.
Since version 1.3, Dictate will work with any document, including
ones that were not created with Dictate, and its "Cache Document"
command allows MacSpeech Dictate to read a document's contents in order
to navigate the document, and to enter and edit text.
With Dictate 1.3 also came an extensive new Help Book system, two
new visual microphone status indicators, and new commands for "Cache
Selection", "Press the Key", "Press the Key Combo", and "Cancel
Training".
The microphone status indicators provide a quick visual cue of
whether the microphone is "on" or "off" by quickly looking at either
the new Menu Bar status menulet or the new microphone status badge on
the MacSpeech Dictate Dock icon. To augment the User Manual and other
helpful resources, Dictate's new searchable, indexed Help Book for
MacSpeech Dictate is now available from the Help menu.
MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 has the following system requirements:
- An Intel-based Macintosh computer
- Mac OS X 10.5.6 (Leopard) through 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
- 512 MB of RAM (1 GB or more for better performance)
- 2.0 GB of available hard drive space
- MacSpeech-certified noise-cancelling microphone recommended
(included with new purchase).
MacSpeech Dictate isn't cheap, selling for $199 (including the
Plantronics headset), but if you need dictation software, it's well
worth the cost. Even if you can type all day without discomfort,
productivity gains provided by Dictate could pay for the software
quickly.
Dictate is available from the MacSpeech
store.
