I’m considering speech-to-text software to make typing a little easier. I have no experience with this sort of thing so I’m looking for opinions.
Here is what I’m looking for:
[ul]
[li]Accuracy. I don’t want to spend more time editing than I would typing.[/li][li]Price. I’m not interested in dropping hundreds of dollars into a program. It should be affordable.[/li][li]Functionality. It should be able to handle relatively complex (grad-school level) text, although I don’t mind adding technical terms to a dictionary. I also need the ability to work with Word, even if it means cutting and pasting.[/li][li]Ease of use. I can handle a learning curve and can deal with learning formatting commands, but the fewer steps it takes to do that, the better.[/li][li]If it will interface with a recorder, that’s good.[/li][/ul]
I only have experience with Dragon Naturally Speaking. My company bought it for a manager who had MS and had problems with his hands.
After it was installed and “trained” he was able to answer emails, navigate the web, and work with Excel spreadsheets. Not as fast as using a mouse, but much more comfortable for him. The initial training consisted of reading some text that the program popped up on the screen.
It’s been several years, but I seem to remember that there were several versions available. Possible some are within your desired price range.
I use Dragon at work because of arthritis issues (and boy, does typing that make feel old…) I don’t find it that helpful for doing anything that requires detailed formatting, like a legal brief, but it’s great for cruising through e-mails and short dictation. I’ve had some accuracy issues, but a friend who uses it has suggested that if I get a USB mike, things will improve.
Dragon Systems NaturallySpeaking is the big, possibly only, dog in the field. IBM used to compete with them with ViaVoice, but they sold it to ScanSoft, which became Nuance…who owns Dragon Systems. The whole speech recognition market contracted a number of years ago when one company tried to corner the entire market, then went bankrupt.
Microsoft has their own speech recognition system that they package with Office, but most users appear to be unaware it exists.
NaturallySpeaking works reasonably well out of the box and nearly perfectly once trained. I used it to transcribe a bunch of radio interviews. I would play the original interview audio through the headphones, and repeat what I heard into the microphone. I wish the software had the ability to directly recognize the original audio file, but each voice has to “train” the program and the audio file featured both the interviewer and the subject, so the user profile would have to change for each question and answer. But learning to “echo” what you are hearing is less difficult than you imagine.
From your list, it looks like you need NaturallySpeaking Preferred. It works with recorders and Bluetooth microphones.