OS X Dictation vs Dragon NaturallySpeaking

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Level 1

66 points

OS X Dictation vs Dragon NaturallySpeaking

I just switched my office computer from a PC to an iMac retina and am loving it. My only regret is that the dictation feature of OS X is so bad in comparison to Dragon NaturallySpeaking that it is almost unusable. The command feature of dictation fails to work 99% of the time. I tried dragon dictate for Mac, but it is just as bad as OS X dictation. Siri does an excellent job of voice recognition on iOS, So I don't understand how OS X dictation can be so bad!? I am not aware of any other options. Does anyone know how we can encourage Apple to quickly step up to the plate and produce a dictation program that is worthy of OS X?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Oct 20, 2015 10:05 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

Oct 21, 2015 4:30 PM in response to ctc123

Nuance took over Dragon Naturally Speaking for the Mac. You'll need to find out from them their compatibility with your current operating system.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ is a general drop box for ideas for Apple.

If you want to become a developer, you can report bugs by subscribing to the first link and posting to the second for free:

http://developer.apple.com/

http://bugreporter.apple.com/

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Answer 2

ctc123 Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 21, 2015 4:29 PM in response to a brody

Thanks a brody.

Apple support help me improve the functionality of dictation today by deleting the file com.apple.assistant.support.plist from the Library, restarting the Mac, and then turn the dictation feature off and then back on. Both dictation and commands seem to work much better now.

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2015 5:18 PM in response to ctc123

I use Dragon Medical and find it is excellent though not quite as dependable as the windows version. The mac version selects the wrong text in some software, but works fine in Word, Excel, stickies, etc. I have not used the personal version, on the expensive medical one, Dragon Dictate Medical version 4.0.6. It is snappy on my old 17" laptop as well as xeon 8 processor server.

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Answer 4

ctc123 Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 28, 2015 6:55 PM in response to ctc123

I'm using a speechWare USB 3 in 1 TableMike. It was fantastic with Dragon naturally speaking. So I looked at it's manual and found that they recommend that the mic be plugged directly into a native USB port on the computer. Because the iMac only has four USB ports, I was using a Belkin four port hub and had the microphone plugged directly into it. Once I plugged the mic directly into the USB port on the computer, recognition accuracy increased dramatically, And the commands begin to work for the first time. It will take some time to get used to commands, but it seems to be working just fine.

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