Legal Research

"Another Review of MacSpeech Dictate for Attorneys"

Posted by J. Benjamin Stevens: "A few weeks ago, I reposted a review of MacSpeech Dictate by Finis Price.  David Sparks, has also reviewed this software, and I have reposted his review below.  While I do not use speech recognition software myself, I realize that many attorneys do.  I highly respect the opinions of my two good friends, and I hope that you have found their reviews helpful.  Here's what David thinks about MacSpeech Dictate:

It wasn't too long ago that I reviewed MacSpeech Dictate version 1. At the time I concluded it was the best dictation application on the Mac but is still wanting against the DragonDictate on the PC.

Because MacSpeech Dictate uses the Dragon speech recognition engine, I've always felt it is only a question of time before MacSpeech catches up with the feature list on the more mature PC application. Recently, MacSpeech Dictate came out with version 1.5 that takes several important steps on that path.

Since the original release of MacSpeech Dictate, the Dragon engine has been updated to version 10 on the PC. MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 brings that Dragon version 10 engine over to the Mac. It is both faster and more accurate than the Dragon 9 engine in the prior version. The developer states the accuracy improved "up to 20%." Even using the prior version, my accuracy was very good. Having used speech recognition software (off and on) for over 10 years, I simply cannot understate the accuracy of the Dragon engine if you spend a little time and are careful with your diction. Frankly, my biggest accuracy problems are not the software but my occasional sloppy dictation habits. While difficult to quantify, the improved accuracy and speed with the new version is noticeable. Indeed, the engine upgrade is, in my opinion, the most important reason to move to version 1.5...

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Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).