Dictation software isn’t just something that can save you time by typing out your speech and performing commands. Talking instead of typing can and will help you prevent lasting damage to your hands. You might think that sounds silly, and so did I. I’m 23 – way too young to be worried about my joints or work-related injuries (my work isn’t exactly manual labor). Then my hands seized up. Repetitive strain injury.

They were painful to the point that I was worried I’d have to quit my job and completely change my lifestyle (no more gaming, playing guitar or piano, drawing, etc), so I took a week off work to see if basic rest would do anything. It didn’t work – if anything they were worse by the end of it. It took months of doctors appointments and physiotherapy to get to a manageable level again, and I’ve been told that the pain will never fully leave.

Macbook

Even now I’m bathing, stretching, and exercising my hands and wrists almost every hour to make sure they don’t flare up again. During all this time I still had to work, and so I had to find a way to write without typing.

Read reviews and buy the best dictation software from top companies, including. If you want a solid dictation software for Mac OS, look no further than Dragon. Mar 16, 2018 - The Dictation feature converts your spoken words into text. When your Mac is listening, it displays a microphone to the left or right of the page. Administrator refer to the list of network ports used by Apple software products.

Dictate

How to format ntfs for mac. After long hours of searching, testing, and learning the quirks of various apps, I’ve been able to find a system using dictation software which works for me. I can still write as much as I want, but without putting the strain on my hands that caused the pain in the first place. Whether you’re looking to save time in your menial tasks, prefer speaking to writing, or you want to save yourself some future problems from typing too much, dictation software can be the answer to your problems. Keep reading to see the various tools you can use on desktop, mobile, and in your browser, with a full rundown of the pros and cons of each. I’ll also highlight the best equipment you can use to go with it, some techniques you can use to maximize your dictation efforts, and a few more useful tidbits to help you avoid the same traps I fell into. However, before we get stuck into the tools, here’s some pros and cons of the practice in general and the test I used to measure their accuracy. In my experience, Dragon appears to be compatible with most programs that you could want to type in, but be aware that some programs will respond to your voice commands differently to others.

For example, I’m currently dictating straight into (my of choice), which I tend to use for my first drafts. While Dragon handles dictation into Quip incredibly well, Quip itself reacts badly to the command “new line” and will not save the spacing. There’s an easy way to get around this, Dragon reacts very well to voice commands relating to specific keys on your keyboard.

In my Quip example, I’m now instead using the command “press enter” to start a new line or paragraph. Equally, these keyboard commands can be extremely useful if you’re not yet familiar with every command you can give.

For example, Dragon does not seem to register my attempts to create a speech mark, and so instead I have been using the command “press shift two”. While I’m still far from experienced with the software, the only real issue I’ve run into so far has been attempting to dictate straight into WordPress. For some reason, when dictating into WordPress my screen scrolls to the bottom of the page, making it extremely difficult to see what I’ve written and whether or not I’ve made a mistake. It’s a minor issue, but definitely one you want to be aware of.