MacSpeech Dictate is fast and accurate, pouring correctly transcribed text into any program where you ordinarily type, as fast as you can speak. When I read a 1,000-word book excerpt, the program transcribed only nine words incorrectly — 99.1 percent accuracy.
Dictate can also operate your computer. You can say “Open iMovie” or “Open Calculator,” for example. You can also speak menu commands and button names, and you can select text that you’ve already dictated earlier (“Select ‘five score and six years ago’ ”). At that point, you can delete it, format it or replace the highlighted phrase. You can also run AppleScript programs or open Web sites by voice.
All you see of the program when you’re using it are two small translucent floating windows (both of which you can hide, if you like). One contains the microphone on/off button. The other, called Available Commands, shows you what commands are available at the moment. Here’s where you discover, for example, the helpful “scratch that” command that deletes your last utterance and the “cap” command that capitalizes the next word you speak.
The program also lets you create voice macros, where you say one thing (“buzz off”) and it types out something different (“I respect your opinion, but I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one”). That’s a huge time-saver for anyone whose work entails repetitive answers or clauses.
So Dictate 1.0 is attractive, simple and Mac-like.
Dictate can also operate your computer. You can say “Open iMovie” or “Open Calculator,” for example. You can also speak menu commands and button names, and you can select text that you’ve already dictated earlier (“Select ‘five score and six years ago’ ”). At that point, you can delete it, format it or replace the highlighted phrase. You can also run AppleScript programs or open Web sites by voice.
All you see of the program when you’re using it are two small translucent floating windows (both of which you can hide, if you like). One contains the microphone on/off button. The other, called Available Commands, shows you what commands are available at the moment. Here’s where you discover, for example, the helpful “scratch that” command that deletes your last utterance and the “cap” command that capitalizes the next word you speak.
The program also lets you create voice macros, where you say one thing (“buzz off”) and it types out something different (“I respect your opinion, but I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one”). That’s a huge time-saver for anyone whose work entails repetitive answers or clauses.
So Dictate 1.0 is attractive, simple and Mac-like.
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