Dragon Dictate For Mac Review

What makes Dragon Dictate for Mac great voice recognition software to use in 2018?

After a fairly straight forward installation process, the software will direct you to a series of text which will help the software realign itself to your voice. You can ignore this but the accuracy level and general efficiency of the software will take a hit. The calibration texts are fairly interesting to read anyway so nothing to be bored about. Be sure to read out the texts in your normal conversational voice. The file size for the installation of this software is 1.8GB.

Like other software covered in our reviews of best voice recognition software in 2018, you can use a headset to communicate with the software and you can speak into the built in microphone of you Mac. You can activate the in-built microphone by clicking on a floating icon that can be readily found in the menu bar of the software. In a noisier work environment however a headset will surely do a better job.

As you dictate, you need to speak as clearly as you can without forgetting to emphasize all the important punctuations. As one of the best speech recognition software, it does a very good job in handling accents and region specific commands as well. As you make use of the software, you will notice that the difficulties you will face have to do with your trying to shed the old habit of conveying your thoughts to the computer by striking keys. If you are able to get through this fairly quickly, you will deeply enjoy using this software and see if for what it is, the best transcription software around.   Your adjustment period will also be affected by issues like the software’s confusion when you say “4”, “four” “for” but all of these will be solved by the time you properly understand the software’s expansive options. 

The software manufacturer boasts of 99% accuracy while using this software and this is not far from the truth. You will rarely hit those figures over a long text dictated into an in-built microphone but the figure is pretty close. You will have very little to edit at the end of the dictation process in comparison to some other software.

As one of the best speech to text software, it offers voice-controlled editing and this feature functions reasonably well. However, the actual process may take more time than editing with the keyboard especially when you are not yet very conversant with the right commands to use at each point.

You can dictate on Apples Pages and Microsoft Word if you don’t want to dictate into the software’s built in text pad. You can also dictate emails and texts in web browsers like Safari, Firefox, etc.

Apart from the simple dictation, the software features other useful bits that are notable. For instance, you open your mail or browser by simply using the command. Apart from the initial launch, you can get the software to help you open new mails or open new tabs as well.   Integration with third party apps is still not at the level it should be but this is more of the app developers fault than Dragon Dictate manufacturers.

For easier proofreading, you can order the software to read back what you have entered. This saves you time as you can do other things while listening to the text being read.  The software comes with a transcription feature which does a great job at converting recorded audio into text. You only need to direct the software to the file you are looking at transcribing and it will effortlessly complete the transcription.  Another interesting feature is the iOS app which allows you to use your iPhone or iPad’s microphone as a Wi-Fi connected microphone.   The software makes it easy to talk into you bundled iPhone headset without any lags.

Customer support is very good as per what is obtainable for all Nuance communication products.

Why choose Dragon Dictate for Mac as your voice recognition software?

• Straightforward
• Impeccable accuracy
• In-app commands
• Handsfree proof reading and editing
• Very good transcription abilities

System Requirements

• OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
• 4GB free hard disk space
• 2GB RAM