There are also a few web-based voice recognition software that Mac users can use but they require a permanent internet connection in order to work. We have therefore also covered the best online voice-to-text recognition apps that Mac users can use in this article too. The reason Dragon Professional Individual is our number one pick is the amazing accuracy and sophistication it offers compared to any other solution.
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The difference between Dragon Professional and most voice recognition software is that it can actually learn to recognize your voice. As it becomes more familiar with your accent and speaking style, it interprets your voice remarkably accurately. It also has Smart Format Rules which understand how you want phone numbers, dates, abbreviations and other data to appear. Another nice touch is that you can import audio clips from a device such as your iPhone and Dragon Professional will transcribe it into text.
This is especially useful for journalists who have to record and transcribe long interviews. The downside is that, as mentioned earlier, Dragon decided in late to discontinue the Mac version. There are various ways to run Windows in macOS but the easiest and most reliable by far is by using Parallels.
Parallels allows you to run macOS and Windows at the same time so that you can switch between the two with ease. You then simply install the Windows version of Dragon Professional within your Windows environment and you can use it anytime on your Mac.
Nuance Discontinues Dragon Professional Individual for Mac
This is actually a better solution than using the Mac version anyway because the Windows version gives you slightly more control when tweaking and refining texts compared to on Mac. Note that you can choose between installing the Home Edition and Professional Edition but we strongly recommend going with Dragon Professional Edition , not least because it allows you to dictate in Microsoft Office and other apps. What we like about Dictation on macOS is that when you activate Enhanced Dictation , you can dictate offline without being connected to the internet. Be aware though that this requires MB of disk space to download some additional tools before it can work on your Mac.
You then simply configure a language and hotkey to start dictation or you can even activate it with a keyword.
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You can use this to start dictation in any application. Dictation works with any app including Office applications although not Google Docs which has its own voice recognition feature — see below. What we like is that the voice controlled formatting commands are quite extensive and you can even create your own customized commands.
Not many people are aware that Google Docs has a surprisingly powerful voice recognition engine which not only transcribes speech to text but also allows you to change the formatting of documents with voice commands. Google Docs Voice Typing is pretty accurate for a free online text-to-speech tool. Arguably the most impressive thing though is the an extensive list of commands for formatting text.
Note however that formatting commands are only available in English but the voice engine recognizes 43 languages.
Speechnotes is a cheap and cheerful online speech-to-text service which works in Google Chrome and on Android devices. One other option which may be of interest to Mac users is Rev. Rev is an iPhone dictation app which uses real humans to transcribe recordings. Rev is only available as an iPhone or Android app though.
Another option is Braina. Braina is both a Siri style personal assistant and dictation app although it only works on Windows, iOS and Android. However, if you install Windows on your Mac, you could run the Windows version on it. However, you can ask Siri to turn on Apple Dictation for you.
Siri is designed as a personal assistant to launch apps, answer questions and generally speed-up your workflow on a Mac rather than dictation. The Anker 2. Although it requires batteries to run, two AAAs are a small price to pay for the comfort and versatility this gives you.
Nuance Discontinues Dragon Professional Individual for Mac
The Logitech Wireless Trackball M is more like a regular mouse, but provides the trackball for your thumb to rest on. This lets you move your cursor without moving your hand, which itself can cause damage to wrist. It has four buttons and runs on a AA battery. Finally, the J-Tech Digital Scroll Endurance mouse is a wired vertical mouse with five buttons and a removable palm rest.
If you do go with the J-Tech mouse, check out this review. There are apparently one or two issues with the mouse which can be easily fixed with a little tinkering.
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The Belkin WaveRest Gel Pad is a bar of gel which you can place below your keyboard to rest your wrists on when typing. I know that this post is dedicated to dictation and reducing the amount of typing you do, but supporting your wrists when they are at rest is just as important. This is a small foam cradle for your wrist while you use the mouse. The Allsop is especially useful because the bottom of the rest allows it to move with your wrist and give it constant support. The AmazonBasics Laptop Stand is another cheap by which can really help your general health when using a computer all day.
Free vs. Paid Dictation Software for Small Business
By raising your laptop screen you naturally encourage better posture and arm position, which is good for pretty much everything involved with typing. Having said that, it is still pretty expensive, so this is more for those with a bit of cash to spare. To expand on these points a little, a level posture essentially means keeping a straight back, looking straight ahead at your laptop screen, and keeping your elbows at a 90 degree angle. Here are a few to get you started:. Do you have any suggestions for uses of dictation software?
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Thanks Ben for an extremely useful long-form article on dictation options in I look forward to implementing one of these options. No incredible pressing need for dictation exists for me now. I do occasionally get pain in my right mouse hand. At that point, I switch to using my left hand for the mouse. Nothing like what you have gone through! I do want to get better at dictation as an alternative to typing at the keyboard.
I will say that dictation is pretty fun as an alternative to writing all day though, especially if you do a lot of it. More than giving your hands a break it makes the same work feel like a different task altogether, which is great for helping to avoid burnout. This is an extremely useful article! Perfect reviews for dictation software! Going to try some of those! Great article! Thank you. I was in the same boat with knowing about it, but not really looking into it. Hi Thanks a lot for this article, I am a new content writer from reading this my production has just gone from 5 words a minute to 80 words a minute, I am stoked.
Many thanks for your comments useful as moving from Windows P. In passed have used Dragon are there great differences between the Dragon, have been used to and the Dragon Mac version? Great question! First, you could get the Mac version and then mainly dictate into TextEdit. This seems to be the most stable form of dictation and supposedly barely ever crashes.
Alternatively, you could run the Windows version of Dragon in virtualisation software such as Parallels or VMware Fusion. These essentially run a version of Windows on your Mac which can be used to run Dragon and other programs. The trouble with doing that is that you need a pretty recent Mac device roughly within the last 3 years , 8Gb of RAM, and a Windows license which can cost a pretty penny in of themselves. I used Dragon on Windows for over 10 years and it is an extremely good product with extensive abilities with custom commands.
However when I moved over to Mac OS Macbook Pro at the start of this year and started using Dragon for Mac, I discovered it is a totally different product and very inferior to the Windows version. It does Support creating custom commands, but with much less functionality than the Windows version. For example it does not support parameterized commands. The speech recognition accuracy is quite good if you can get the product to work without crashing. If you have any further questions feel free to reach out. Many thanks in actual fact I have been very impressed with the Mac dictation tool, which very nearly has as good a results as I used to get from Dragon even on the Windows version of Dragon!
Ben: A thorough, useful survey of dictation options.