As I am very bad at typing I have always been looking for ways to avoid typing as much as possible. That is why I use Fine Reader for OCR and also why I’m trying to find decent dictation software which somehow doesn’t seem to be available for the Mac.
Internet linked dictation is a no go as the files I’m working on are of a medical and confidential nature.
I tried using dictation on my iMac and MacBook Pro in the Pages app. Usually everything goes well for about half a page and then it stops working. When I double tap the Fn key the microphone no longer appears but instead I get three dots. WiFi is on.
Questions are:
What is happening when I use dictation?
Are there software alternatives that are not internet linked and preferably not on a subscription basis?
Thanks for the advice in advance.
Greetings. There are so many uses but many dictation systems have trouble with Medical Latin and Spanish etc. I use ‘Just Press Record’ by Open Planet Software esp on my iPhone to capture thoughts and such. It transcribes and does well. Then syncs to the cloud of your choosing, I believe. Can’t remember cost? As far as medical terminology, not sure if it ‘learns’ or not. Best, Patrick
I am a little glad to hear I’m not the only one dictation no longer works for! I was using it when I had to type lengthy handwritten documents and it worked well, but for about a year I’ve had the same issue as you with it not starting.
Is Dragon dictation still around? I know people that have used it in the past and they said it worked very well.
Diane
The Mac version is supposedly still around, but if you clink on the link to find out more about it, you get a page of gibberish:
https://shop.nuance.com/store/nuanceus/Custom/pbpage.resp-dragon-home-bf-2013-digital-ca/
It looks like the link to buy it on the might work, but I don’t trust gibberish. It’s also listed on Amazon, but the Mac versions say “currently unavailable.”
It sounds very risky to me.
Dragon Dictate for Mac was only available in English (my language is Dutch).
There used to be a Dutch Windows version that shipped with some Dictaphone hardware (Philips) and I briefly used it on my work pc.
The latter was stolen and when I wanted to reinstall the software on another pc, the software was nowhere to be found.
Dragon Dictate now apparently only ships on subscription basis and is online based.
That means definitely “no” for me.
I’m not transferring confidential files unprotected over the internet.
Johan,
I haven’t any problems with dictation for Pages. In my version (version 12.1 (7034.0.86)), the Start Dictation keypress is fn-D.
I’ve just written a workaround and UL’d it here just a little while ago.(Just above your post) I dunno if it would give you any insights or strategies that might help.
Sometimes when things go sideways (song breaking up on iPhone) or movies going ragged, it can be a buffer overload. So I pause and wait and things will correct themselves for a while. If that would be the case, one has to find the culprit.