Monday, June 8, 2020

macOS vs. Dragon Dictation

David Sparks:

Apple is a year in with its voice to text system. I’ve been using it since release, but also continue to use Dragon for Mac which, while no longer supported, continues to work. This video demonstrates the differences and where Apple still has some catching up to do.

See also: Mac Dictation 101.

Previously:

5 Comments RSS · Twitter

Jeffrey Reynolds

Since Dragon for Mac stopped being supported, I switched to their IOS app, Dragon Anywhere. It actually seems to work a bit better than the old Mac program. You need to copy the text over to the Mac, but that seems fairly straightforward. It is pricey, but it is a solution while we wait for Apple to get their act together.

Apple removed the Mute when dictating in Catalina, which is super annoying now every time Dictation is used it has the Beep sound.

The Voice Control Dictation sucks. Which is what I believe was used in those comparison. It is slow, and barely works for English, let along many other languages.

I dont understand why anyone would want to use Dragon Dictation when Siri is working perfectly, apart from the fact for privacy reason.

Like others, I have found that Dragon 6.0.8 works satisfactorily with Mac OS Catalina, despite support having been withdrawn by Nuance. Dragon remains my dictation tool of choice on the Mac.

In the last month, I have installed the Mac OS 11 'Big Sur' public beta and I find Dragon still works.

There were a few problems selecting the microphone to dictate with, but that is just a change to Big Sur's bluetooth selection.

I am dictating using my AirPods rather than a headset. I am usually in a quiet environment.

MacDictate is a very poor substitute for Dragon.
There is no training for my voice
Correction of errors is nearly impossible
Corrected errors are repeated as though error had never been corrected
Capital Letters are Randomly inserted In the text like This
Surely Apple can arrange for voice training and a personal vocabulary.

this is no being dictated through the neck System.

Note the errors!

There is still no alternative to dragon 6 on the mac when it comes to the quality of recognition. I still have problems fixing the microphone under big sur. If you install the plantronics interface, the bt300 interface is selectable unter the dragon config, connects to the headset - at least it says so - but there is no data being transferred. Without the plantronics usb interface, the bluetooth way of using the headset mike is funcional all over the mac, but not recognized under the dragon config. so I have to use the internal microphone for dictation, which is still better in recognition than all the other programs including siri with the headset.

Leave a Comment