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Level 1

14 points

Enhanced dictation becoming clumsy.

I can't speak for plain old dictation (like that in Mountain Lion) but the enhanced dictation available in Mavericks has forgotten things that dictation in Mountain lion knew well.

For example, Mountain Lion knew that the spoken phrase, "iCloud" meant Apple's suite of cloud-based Apps and storage locations.

Next, Mavericks Dictation sometimes won't correctly execute the "New paragraph" command. It's clearly trying, two spaces appear after the last dictated text but it fails inconsistently and it does not appear to be app specific.

Mavericks Dictation likes to place Capital letters on words in the middle of sentences ( in the case of the capital C on the previous instance of the word, "capital", dictation correctly interpreted an unintentional command to capitalize the word "Capital") But, oftentimes, Dictation will simply throw a capital if you've paused speaking for a short period of time or, if you move the cursor to a point, earlier in the paragraph to make a correction, and then move it back.

Parentheses are not provided the requisite space before or sometimes after. Also, there are no advanced features like "scratch that", a tool that lets other dictation software allow you to strike the previously dictated word, sentence or entire paragraph. This would be a handy addition to Apple's "Enhanced" Dictation.

Below are these same four paragraphs. They were dictated using a high-quality microphone in an exceptionally quiet environment with the microphone volume adjusted properly in sound preferences on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro 2.7 i7 with 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. I have coloured Dictation's mistakes, misinterpretations and omissions in red.

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I can't speak for plain old dictation(Like that in mountain lion) but the past dictation available in Mavericks has forgotten things that dictation in

mountain lion new well.

For example, Mountain lion new that the spoken phrase I cloud meant apples sweet of cloud-based Apps and storage locations.__Next, Mavericks dictation sometimes won't correctly exectute the "New paragraph" command. It's clearly trying, two spaces appear after the last dictated text but it sometimes fails and it's not app specific.

Mavericks Dictation

likes to place Capital letters on words in the middle of sentences(in the case of the C on the previous instance of the word,"Capital", dictation correctly Took the command to capitalize the word capital)but, oftentimes dictation will simply throw a capital if you've paused speaking for a short period of time or, if you move the cursor to a point, earlier in the paragraph to make a correction, and Then move it back.

Parentheses do not require the work was it space before or some time after. Also, There are no advanced features like "scratch that", the tool let unnamed dictation software allow you to strike the previously dictated word, sentence or entire paragraph. This would be a handy addition to apple's "enhanced" dictation.. ( Now Dictation refuses to dictate any further. But, after typing that sentence, Dictation resumed normal operation.)

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Posted on Jan 23, 2014 11:25 AM

24 replies

daxelrad

Level 1

15 points

Nov 19, 2014 11:31 AM in response to Regnad Kcin

That's a rather snarky response. What I meant was, that you can still use dictation, just don't use the enhanced feature (in other words uncheck the box) and everything else works the way it always has.

Nov 19, 2014 11:35 AM in response to daxelrad

It certainly is. Enhanced dictation is an additional program that gets downloaded when you choose it. This is a thread complaining about problems with that program. Obviously, all of us complaining about these problems like using enhanced dictation for its additional features. You were like the doctor in the old joke:

"Dr., it hurts when I walk."

"Well, don't walk!"

daxelrad

Level 1

15 points

Nov 19, 2014 11:46 AM in response to Regnad Kcin

No. I was simply pointing out to people who commented that they are frustrated and are giving up on using dictation in OS X that there is another alternative, like this poster who wrote: Unfortunately, Dictation in Mavericks is so buggy that I'm back to translating with Siri on my iPhone! Do you seriously have nothing better to do then to criticize others or are you just this way naturally?

Nov 19, 2014 12:51 PM in response to daxelrad

That's funny: *I* was wondering, "Does daxelrad have nothing better to do than point out to people that if they don't use a program, the bugs in it won't affect them?"

daxelrad

Level 1

15 points

Nov 19, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Regnad Kcin

Before you go on any further, I suggest you read through what the other people posted and then review the kind of attitude you've taken here. I’m not interested in your petty criticism, I was helping those who asked for the kind of help I gave. If you didn’t think it was worth anything why not keep your opinions to yourself.

Sep 9, 2016 4:09 AM in response to rick268

I'm on El Capitan and it's still horrendous, from this point of view

Sep 9, 2016 4:11 AM in response to daxelrad

Getting personal. Always a bad idea.....

Dec 14, 2016 3:41 PM in response to holy idiot

I'm on Sierra and switched off capitalization. Words are being capitalized mid sentence randomly while dictating in Pages. There is such a thing as context and grammar dear speech recognition PhDs.

burepe2

Level 1

4 points

Apr 19, 2017 8:16 PM in response to daxelrad

Thanks! Worked for me!

Enhanced dictation becoming clumsy.