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What to do about Dragon for Mac being discontinued, and not being supported on Mojave?

What to do about Dragon for Mac being discontinued, and not being supported on Mohave?


How am will I be able to use Macs in the future, now that Nuance Dragon for Mac has been discontinued, and that there is now no longer any full-fledged Mac voice dictation software available for disabled users like me to use, and upgrading to Mojave has trashed the app?


This past week has been a sobering fiasco for me personally, as I rely on voice dictation entirely, due to severe nerve damage in my hands.


I rashly upgraded to Mojave on my laptop last week, only to discover that it completely trashed my being able to use Dragon dictation for Mac. This essentially rendered my laptop useless for my purposes, as I can no longer use the voice dictation.


Thank God I still have it on my iMac, but this does mean that I will no longer be able to upgrade any of Apple's operating systems in the future, as Nuance announced that it is discontinuing Dragon for Mac. After being devoted to Apple products for years, it has been a shock to realize that I might have to entirely abandon buying/using Mac computers from this day forward.


I am aware that I could spend a considerable amount of money purchasing Dragon Naturally Speaking, and then parallels or such like in order to run it on a Mac, and then Microsoft office, only then to have to move all of it over to the Mac side of my computer? This is sickeningly expensive, needlessly baroque, ridiculous and beyond belief galling. How is it possible that there is no other decent voice dictation software in existence for Mac users?


For those who do not rely on voice dictation due to a disability, I can assure you that there is no comparison between what Apple provides as dictation, and a full-fledged voice dictation software App. This has essentially upended my being able to use Mac computers, and I'm feeling quite panicked.


Nuance has been notorious for its disregard of its Mac customers, through its significantly less proficient Mac dictation program, its appalling customer service and high prices. However, people with disabilities who like Macs were stuck with Dragon for Mac, and now it is gone.


There was no advanced notice for registered Mac Dragon users that it was going to be discontinued, and that it would not be compatible with OS Mojave. Long-suffering Dragon Dictate for Mac users kept hoping future versions of the software would improve. Hopes dashed.



Nuance has been the only game in town for voice dictation software, and its products for Microsoft have been light-years of quality over and above the substantially substandard version for Mac, and I often wondered why they had no competition. I'm completely blindsided that Mac users who depend on voice dictation are being essentially shut out in the cold. After years of tearing out my hair over major issues with this supremely annoying, but alas all too necessary software, I can remember wishing that Apple would step up to the plate and create their own software for their own users, but no such luck. I can't believe this is an issue in this day and age.


How can Mac users needs be completely ignored and dismissed in such a way? This is been a real game changer for me. I have been pretty much devoted to Apple products for ages and ages, and it is quite a shock to realize that in one week, the unholy meeting of losing Dragon for Mac and the old Dragon not being supported by Apple's new OS Mojave, signals a complete parting of the ways, and a reorganization of all of my tech life.


If I have any hope of reviving my laptop from the dead, I will have to go to the hassle of reverting to high Sierra, in the hope of being able to continue to use the old Dragon, otherwise that laptop is essentially dead for my purposes, as I can't use my hands to type.


Voice dictation is not a luxury, or a fun “see your words appear on the screen” novelty for those of us with physical limitations. I have loved my Macs, and it has been a true shock to realize that I may be forced never to buy another, as I cannot use my hands to type, and no one has come up with decent full-fledged voice dictation software for Mac for the future. Frankly, devastated, as I rely on computers daily. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.

[Re-Titled by Host]

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), iwork update

Posted on Nov 1, 2018 12:36 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 24, 2018 5:42 PM

alvca,


Sorry to hear of your disability. I will share a couple of possible solutions.

Solution 1: If you have enough space on your SSD, use Apple's disk utility to partition your drive into two parts.

The first partition will be for the current Mac OS and the second rename for your High Sierra / Dragon drive.

To reinstall the original OS, can use Apple's startup recovery procedure.. Mac startup key combinations -https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 Direct it to your new partition and reinstall the fresh OS. After that it is back to Dragon and other necessary software. (I have assumed that there is no back copy of your laptop)

Once done the two drives will show up on your desktop as normal.

You will have to use the System Preferences > Startup Disk to boot between any new system and High Sierra.

This will give you the best of both worlds for sometime. I personally do this.


That being said, I highly recommend a backup drive or Apple's Time Capsule to have backups that can easily be restored when things go awry. A fast and inexpensive solution is purchase a Samsung T5 SSD and use it for Time Machine backup - it is less convenient than the Time Capsule, but just as effective

.

Solution 2: You also can purchase a usb drive on amazon to reinstall Mac OS 10.11 or 10.12 (simple method)


If you prefer just one drive, then just use either method and reinstall the OS of your choice on the whole drive.


To EVERYONE listening, Please contact Apple and suggest they take over the development of the Dragon for Mac software. Apple needs to take the lead and make it a viable product for Business, Professionals and the handicapped which they have so long touted as one of their hallmarks.


I hope this helps.

Best Wishes

22 replies

Jan 7, 2019 4:19 AM in response to alvca

I've had precisely the same problem. Updated to Mojave and now vital commands such as 'Scratch that' and 'Choose' from a list of alternative spellings no longer work.

Contacted Nuance who told me I shouldn't have update. It would have been nice if they'd emailed their customer base to warn them.

As to no longer supporting Mac - well when you click on the Mac icon on the UK site they offer Dragon Professional individual. Only when reading the detail do you discover this is aimed at PC users. So why show it in the Mac section we must ask?

I notice there are a number of replies here referring to disc-splitting etc. The problem is that is great for the technically inclined and the brave but not for the likes of me I'm afraid.




Jan 7, 2019 4:29 AM in response to anorak319

I totally agree with you anorak319

Being a long-term faithful customer of both Nuance and Apple I'm really disappointed that nothing is being done, so far as we are aware.

You would think that Apple would, as most of their hardware and software is so good, update there inbuilt dictation. Why do they offer something of poor quality?

Also Nuance have a responsibility and not just leaving people in the lurch.

Poor customer service for both Apple and Nuance.

Jan 7, 2019 10:33 AM in response to dj_book

I agree with "To EVERYONE listening, Please contact Apple and suggest they take over the development of the Dragon for Mac software. Apple needs to take the lead and make it a viable product for Business, Professionals and the handicapped which they have so long touted as one of their hallmarks."


Based on what I know only as a consumer and through media about Apple, they really tend to not listen to lay consumers when it comes to product development. This, as I understand, is a hallmark of Steve Jobs. He simply had a hunch about what consumers would like and he created products based off his hunches. I suspect his personality in this regard is enshrined as Apple culture. Additionally, Apple is starting to hurt in product and software development now that Steve's legacy is becoming more historical each passing year.


My pessimism said, I am all for requesting Apple to acquire Dragon for Mac from Nuance. I think if Apple allows its engineers to take over the app, it will rock. HOWEVER, again, more pessimism here since Dragon for Mac competes with Siri and cloud-based voice recognition systems. In short. While I support and if somebody tells me to whom I should write, I doubt we will see Dragon become an Apple product. We Dragon fans will have to find a different benevolent benefactor wanting to go through the hoops and hurdles to acquire the license and codes from Nuance and sustain our beloved voice-to-text and voice-navigation app.


Jan 7, 2019 11:01 AM in response to RezGuy

You make some very good points Rezguy but I suspect the chances of Apple getting involved are around zero.


Many people have been urging them to make an Apple specific ergonomic keyboard for years. Yet there’s never been a whisper of that happening.


I had a shoulder operation a few years ago and since then have used the Microsoft ergonomic keyboard. Would love to have an Apple one but I can’t ever see it happening.

Jan 26, 2019 10:10 AM in response to alvca

On the previous iterations of the Mac operating system Dragon only performed in part. I could dictate but not amend or edit using voice commands. I was resigned to the fact that when I upgraded to Mohave I would lose the dictation software utility or at best might be able to dictate but not edit. Miraculously, this has not been the case. I now have almost full functionality. So I can give voice commands to edit from the correction window et cetera.


Now I am dictating with Dragon into this window. When I go into a new application the computer asks for permission and I have to enter my logon password. To explain this all I can say is that I'm using a Plantronic's Bluetooth microphone with one of their dongles. Previously, to get this to work I have taken off most of the profiles and using the new operating system created a new profile with exactly the same microphone. I didn't have to do this this time. I don't know why yours is not working but if you haven't tried already and I know it's a bit late in the day, you might like to put on a new profile using the same microphone. All I cab say is the functionality seems to be a lot better but I might just be very lucky! I'm hesitating to say too much about this because it may all go pear-shaped. But I thought it was only fair to mention my experience in the hope that it helps someone else!

What to do about Dragon for Mac being discontinued, and not being supported on Mojave?

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