# Speech-to-Text Software

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 4, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661 "2014-11-04T19:46:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661/1 "2014-11-04T19:46:04Z")

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Recommendations please, for good Speech-to-Text software?

My friend does a lot of writing, has poor typing skills, wants software to serve as a virtual stenographer.

She uses Windows 8, whichever version came with her HP laptop. I know she probably already has Windows Voice Recognition (she hasn’t tried it yet) but I don’t know how well it works, especially given that she tends to mumble.

Thanks for any tips.

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**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661/2 "2014-11-05T17:50:25Z")

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Several of the attorneys at my office use the Dragon software and are satisfied with it. There is apparently some relatively painless “training” involved wherein it learns the quirks of your personal pronunciation and most-frequent word choice patterns and the like, and let me tell you that it does not eliminate the need for _thorough and complete proofreading_, but it’s a pretty functional tool.

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**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661/3 "2014-11-05T19:02:47Z")

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Thanks. I’ll have her look into it.

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**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-to-text-software/703661/4 "2014-11-05T19:50:35Z")

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As mentioned above, [Dragon Naturally Speaking](http://shop.nuance.com/store/nuanceus/Custom/pbPage.resp-dragon-naturallyspeaking-home-13) is the standard.

I’m familiar with it, a bit. I set it up for a relative who doesn’t have the use of his hands. It works quite well.

I’ve heard that the Mac version is weaker.