DragonDictate, Dragon Dictate, or Dragon for Mac is proprietary speech recognition software. The older program, DragonDictate, was originally developed by Dragon Systems for Microsoft Windows. It has now been replaced by Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows, and has since been acquired by Nuance Communications. Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0 (originally named MacSpeech Dictate^[1]) is supported only on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Nuance's other products for Mac include MacSpeech Scribe.

Original DragonDictate[edit]

DragonDictate for Windows was the original speech recognition application from Dragon Systems and used discrete speech where the user must pause between speaking each word. The first version, 1.0 was available only through a few distribution and support partners. It included a Shurecardioid microphone headset. Later it was replaced by Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which allows continuous speech recognition and correction and training of words via the keyboard. NaturallySpeaking remains a Windows-only program, and since 2016 distributes in Version 15. DragonDictate for Windows is still available but has not been updated since Windows 98 was the current operating system.

Dragon Dictate for Mac[edit]

LSay 'Switch to Dictation mode,' 'Switch to Command mode,' 'Switch to Spelling mode' or 'Switch to Numbers mode.' LClick the Recognition mode icon in the Status Window and select a mode from the menu. LPress the keyboard shortcut (by default, ⌘F10) for cycling between recognition modes. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Premium. Dictate or modify documents spreadsheets and presentations, send email, search the Web, and more. Even capture notes on the go using a digital recorder and Dragon will transcribe the audio files and back at your PC. Control your computer by voice with speed and accuracy. Dragon speech recognition software is better than ever. Talk and your words appear on the screen. Say commands and your computer obeys. Dragon is 3x faster than typing and it's 99% accurate. Master Dragon right out of the box, and start experiencing big productivity gains immediately. Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 adds support for wideband Bluetooth wireless headset microphones, and you can get up and running quickly. When it detects that the USB dongle of a certified microphone is plugged into the Mac, Dragon Dictate offers “Enhanced Bluetooth” as an audio source type and does not require a script reading to get started.

Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0, an upgrade for MacSpeech Dictate, was announced on September 20, 2010 by Nuance Communications, the developer of MacSpeech products. The upgrade incorporates some of the features of NaturallySpeaking into the MacSpeech software. Dragon Dictate for Mac lacks other NaturallySpeaking features, such as training mis-recognized words by simply re-typing them using the keyboard. An early review by David Pogue notes,

I’m thrilled about the power, the control, the speed and the accuracy of Dragon Dictate. It does, however, have some room for improvement.

For example, in the dictation software world, teaching the software to know its location in your text document is a huge challenge. If you never touch the mouse, the program always knows where it is in the text — because it has deposited all that text itself.

But if you click to edit somewhere, it’s blind. It no longer knows where it is in the document.

In Windows, Nuance has used some clever tricks to overcome this problem in the most important programs, like Word and Outlook. On the Mac, however, the program has no idea what you’ve done manually, by clicking. So you can say something like “select fishmonger,” and the program correctly selects that word. But if you then say “italicize that” or “capitalize that,” the program operates on the wrong words, italicizing or capping something a mile away from the selection. Bizarre.

(This problem doesn’t happen in TextEdit or Dictate’s own included word processor.)^[2]

In October 2018 Nuance announced that it was dropping Macintosh support for its products.^[3]

See also[edit]

Dragon Dictate For Mac 4.0

Notable users[edit]

Peter David - American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games. David began using DragonDictate following his stroke in December 2012.^[4][5]

References[edit]

1. ^Nuance - Dragon for Mac
2. ^Finally, Professional Dictation Software for the Mac David Pogue, September 23, 2010
3. ^Mac users burned after Nuance drops Dragon speech to text softwareOctober 30, 2018
4. ^David, Kathleen (January 15, 2013). 'Your Semi Daily Peter David Report for Jan 15 2012'. peterdavid.net.
5. ^'Peter David, Post-Stroke, Returns Home'. startrek.com. February 11, 2013.

External links[edit]

• Official website for Nuance Communications

Dragon Dictation Software For Mac