Review by Kristi Swede

Installing Dragon Dictate on my older MacBook (2010 4GB RAM) running Mountain Lion, went without a hitch.

I had no idea that there was an app that would connect my iPhone directly with my computer (it isn’t using Bluetooth, so I assume it is using my wifi network), but it was suggested during the installation process. Genius! I was able to start my dictation training immediately, using my iPhone as the microphone, which comes so naturally! The package includes a perfectly usable USB headset with boom microphone. With either, I quickly achieved near perfect dictation.

As I have learned over the past year using Siri, the hardest part of learning to do true text dictation, is true text dictation - period - You must think about every punctuation mark you use - comma - and remember to speak it aloud in your sentence - period. I’m told by experienced Dragon users (a colleague of mine has numerous scholarly articles and chapters to his name, as well as a second professional degree; he gives much of the credit to night shifts, and Dragon) that the pacing and punctuation begin to come naturally, especially as you watch your errors on screen.

As others have said, it is important to complete the training that Dragon provides. It is specific to this version, and has changed since Dragon Dictate 2.5. Personally, I hate instructions, but I’m having a great time learning this new technology. As I said, Siri and I have learned to get along over the past year, and I think that she has been a daily training ground for voice technology.

Some of us can’t touch-type due to disability or other issues. Dragon isn’t just a whiz-bang technology, it is an enabling technology that allows us to practice our professions, write and tell hilarious jokes (see above review), control our computers, email our families, or send quirky tweets. I’ve waited a long time for this to come to the Mac, and my expectations have been met.