Launch, quit, or hide applications, search the web, open a file or folder, or create a new reminder using only your voice. It also has a powerful built-in command editor that lets you setup your own voice commands for just about anything you can think of. Dragon Dictate comes with a number of built-in commands that allow you to control functions across apps like Finder, Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari, as well as commands for composing email or sharing status updates to Facebook and Twitter. setting since there is no Canadian accent preference), but there are also region settings for the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada and India, as well as accent preferences for American, American- Inland Northern, American- Southern, American- Teens, Australian, British, Indian, Latino, and Southeast Asian.įor me, the real standout feature of Dragon Dictate 4.0 is the ability to control applications on your Mac using only your voice. Dragon Dictate has long been a popular product among those with medical conditions like arthritis that limit the ability to type comfortably or at all.Īdmittedly your mileage with accuracy might vary depending on your accent (I was using the U.S. While for me it won’t be replacing my keyboard on a daily basis for writing, that doesn’t mean with a little practice dictation in Dragon Dictate 4.0 can’t be a powerful alternative if necessary. Of course, that process becomes much easier as you memorize and become more comfortable with the commands. I personally found the software much more useful for composing short snippets of text that typically don’t require much formatting or a deep train of thought that might be interrupted by formatting commands, like emails, Tweets, reminders, lists, and brainstorming sessions. Basic commands seem easy enough to remember while dictating- Caps on, close quote, comma, ‘apostrophe ess’, insert, correct, new line- but in practice having to speak commands to properly format a sentence as you dictate takes away from the freedom of being able to capture your thoughts as you speak freely.

Dragon Dictate won’t let you plow through a 5000 word piece nearly as quick as you’d type it, mainly because learning the commands necessary for formatting and corrections is like learning a new language. So will I be writing my articles for 9to5Mac by simply speaking and having Dragon dictate from now on? Nope. There’s no need to speak slowly and carefully to make sure every word is recognized, and there’s no waiting around for the software to catch up to what you’re saying. If you haven’t tried full-blown dictation software like Dragon in recent years like myself, you’ll truly be amazed at how precise the program is at dictating error-free text as you speak naturally. After reading a bit of text and walking through a brief tutorial (about 10 minutes total), the app is remarkably accurate at understanding your voice and dictating speech consistently. When people think Nuance and Dragon Dictate they typically think speech to text dictation features. While half decent dictation features come with every Mac (and are powered by Nuance’s technology), the voice recognition features you get with latest version of Nuance’s Dragon Dictate for Mac go well beyond simply dictating speech to text. They simply aren’t accurate and consistent enough to replace our tried and trusted mouse and keyboard or touchscreen. There’s good reason too: the voice recognition features built into our devices have always had the reputation of being half-baked.

For many of us, using voice recognition technology wasn’t even a consideration until features like dictation and Siri arrived on our iPhones and iPads. Using our voice to control computers has never really taken off.

Dragon dictate mac review