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MacSpeech Dictate

Newbie to the dictation art

Written by RM from Cambridge

Oct 24, 2009

I bought the product at the Apple store and had to make sure that I was buying the 1.5 release - that's the one that runs with Snow Leopard. It was not clear on the box, so we had to call the company.

The product installed quickly, asked to install the latest update, and trained within five minutes. It came with a one-ear piece Plantronics microphone. I have used the product with two other less expensive earphone-mic's.

In general, it captures speech very well. Editing seems to be more of a problem - there are a large number of rather complex editing commands to be mastered.

I bought this product to write student evaluations and will be using it heavily in the next few weeks. I feel the product is appropriate, though not as flexible as I would like or as easy to use.

I'm writing this with MacSpeech Dictate. It made a few errors in discriminating between words such as, "year" and "ear", it did capitalize Plantronics, but not Snow Leopard.

16 of 16 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

This app is amazing right out of the box

Written by EB from edison

Sep 23, 2009

I cannot explain this any other way is just amazing it just works I'm running snow leopard and is running great I'm actually doing this review with it I've tried others this is the best

28 of 39 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

Completely worthless if you use snow leopard

Written by KB from Newfield

Sep 18, 2009

This was a reasonable program on earlier Mac operating systems. Now that I've upgraded to Snow Leopard it does not work. Macspeech appears not to be in any hurry to upgrade the program for compatibility. Not a cheap program, so now I wish I didn't waste my money.

54 of 58 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

DOES NOT WORK WITH SNOW LEOPARD!!

Written by CF from Allentown

Sep 6, 2009

It was a so so program that I paid a bunch of money for. But I ended up saying "scratch that" so much it was annoying. And now it doesn't work with snow leopard. FML

69 of 79 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

amazing

Written by SM from mumbai

Sep 4, 2009

picks up every word i say

13 of 20 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

HAS A LONG WAY TO GO! 6 REASONS WHY...

Written by JS

Jul 5, 2009

HAS A LONG WAY TO GO! 6 REASONS WHY...

I have been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking since version 3, and bought a Mac and began to use the latest version of MacSpeech. (I use a VXI Talk Pro microphone and repeatedly train my voice) Here's my analysis:

1.WHEN DICTATING CONTINUOUSLY: it is good, but still not up to the level of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. (However, when first starting to dictate, it usually takes 3-5 verbal entries for MacSpeech to start up.)

2.WHEN CORRECTING WORDS: MacSpeech corrections system is in the dark ages. Absolutely terrible! MacSpeech also makes a lot of capitalization errors (when I had a word in the middle of a sentence, it is capitalized, or beginning a sentence that is not capitalized, something that Dragon NaturallySpeaking does not do).

3.WHEN ADDING ONE'S OWN VOCABULARY: another terrible rating! This function is so easy to use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

4.WHEN ADDING PERSONAL GLOBAL COMMANDS: for example, training "my address" and the computer prints my entire name and address... another terrible rating.

5: OVERALL EASE-OF-USE: A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE RATING! I have two computers: one with MacSpeech, and another with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. There is an unbelievable difference in my comfort level when using Dragon NaturallySpeaking compared to MacSpeech. With MacSpeech I am always making corrections, or adjusting to its inability to "flow smoothly" as I dictate.

6: MACSPEECH COMPANY PUBLIC RELATIONS: given the needed problems and upgrades necessary to make this dictation software work correctly, MacSpeech folks created a lot of bad press when they charged $55 for an upgrade that is ATTEMPTING to correct needed problems. This is an indication of their closemindedness regarding their commitment to improve an inferior product. With all of the problems they need to correct, they are now launching a legal and a medical version. It appears this company is out to make money rather than develop a superior product.

OVERALL ADVICE: keep the pressure on this company to improve their product, or get out of to business of voice dictation. And don't believe the positive "professional ratings" that you'll read regarding this product! It is the ratings of end users that have used both Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech that really count. If you have a choice, use Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

192 of 212 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

The jury is still out. Stay tuned.

Written by MB from CALDWELL

Jul 3, 2009

Well, I have been playing with the MacSpeech for about an hour now. Over the next few weeks, my work will require me to produce about a 300 page document. I have been asked to put down on paper numerous sales presentations that up until now have only been in my head. The problem with typing out all of those presentations, is that as you type something you're used to saying so extemporaneously, there's a good chance you'll end up changing the presentation itself. In an effort to try to have all of my presentation's be recorded as accurately as possible I thought I would try this program. My sister is a court reporter. Originally what I thought was I could have her translate some audio tapes of me giving these presentations. But, she's too expensive, and wasn't going to give me a break.

Well, I just got through saying all this into the computer without looking at the screen, and from what I could see it appears it has worked out okay. Years ago I tried IBM's ViaVoice. I didn't like it. It sure didn't work like this. I think this is going to be just fine. I give it 4.2 stars.

P. S. This thing spells better than I do.

60 of 67 people found this useful

MacSpeech Dictate

Getting better but not there yet and now has a worrisome security issue

Written by SC from Shreveport

Jun 23, 2009

MacSpeech Dictate is certainly significantly better than its predecessor iListen but not equal to the Nuance NaturallySpeaking for Windows. I am now dictating this comment using version 1.3 and the accuracy is close to that I get when using Vista Speech Recognition software on my PC computer.

I believe if potential customers peruse reviews and forums including they MacSpeech forums you will see a great deal of frustration with with MacSpeech customer support and more recently their insistence that those of us who purchased MacSpeech Dictate shell out $60 plus shipping to upgrade to the latest version 1.5. MacSpeech ended up closing comments on the upgrade approximately 2 weeks into the overwhelming negative responses posted on their forum.

MacSpeech Dictate continues to have issues with mixed keyboard and voice editing. It is extremely disturbing to see your text scrambled or simply disappear after a few simple keyboard edits have been made. Additionally, I have experienced more crashes using Dictate and any other software for my Mac. One very unsettling observation has been that when MacSpeech dictate 1.3 crashes it launches my e-mail client and attempts to send detailed information detailing all that I have been doing prior to the crash including the document I am working on.

The first time this happened, I instinctively hit the send button forwarding this data to MacSpeech. Fortunately, I was not working on a sensitive document for my accountant, attorney or client. This option could prove devastating to professionals such as physicians and needs to be eliminated particularly given that MacSpeech is now making a version specifically for medical professionals.

95 of 96 people found this useful