I know that Siri brings up a lot of mixed emotions for people. Some people really love using her. Others feel jilted by her, because she never seems to be around when they need her.
I have actually had a pretty good experience using Siri. Maybe that's why something I found buried in the settings of my MacBook made me so excited.
I have experimented with dictation software before, but I never really found anything that suited me. Either the software was slow, or it couldn't sort out what I was saying very well. I kept having to back up and edit what I was dictating, which completely defeated the purpose of using dictation software.
Enter Apple "enhanced dictation."
I'm not sure if you ever found it before, but there was a dictation feature in previous editions of Mac OS X. From what I remember though, it was nothing like the features found in Mavericks.
Here's the difference: Siri makes you wait until it uploads your recorded voice to Apple servers, converts your spoken words into text, then sends it back to your phone. From what I remember, the dictation feature available previously in Mac OS X did essentially the same thing. But the new "enhanced dictation" that Apple has added to its dictation feature makes waiting for text to appear on your screen a thing of the past. You can even use it without being connected to the Internet.
With this setting enabled, text appears on my screen at the cursor almost as fast as I can speak it. I can also jump in and manually type anything that I need to without the dictation feature deactivating and me having to reactivate it. That's pretty cool!
How to Set It Up
If you go to "System Preferences > Dictation & Speech" and enable dictation, you can use these advanced features. Just be sure to check the box titled "Use Enhanced Dictation."
The software will make you wait until it downloads A few hundred megabytes of information, but after that you're set to use the feature! I have mine set to activate the instant I double press the "fn" key on my keyboard.
It's that simple!
Questions and Concerns
* How fast can I talk using dictation?* I have found that as I've been using the dictation software, and it has learned more of the eccentricities of my voice, I can almost speak at a normal talking speed. The biggest problem I have is simply trying to figure out what to say next!
What about typing in scripture references? This was one of my main concerns when it came to dictating my writing. I have discovered that this isn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. In fact, there's a formula for speaking scripture references that works nearly every time.
For instance, if I want to add John 3:16 as a reference, I will speak the following: "John three colon 16."
If it is a reference like 2 Thessalonians 3:1 then I just say: "Numeral two Thessalonians three colon one."
Of course you can always simply pause and type it out the old-fashioned way.
What about the crazy difficult Bible names that are not only hard to say but hard to type? What I have found is that I can very easily pause and type a difficult name in, like Naaman. Other names like Nebuchadnezzar seem to have been learned by the dictation software after I corrected them immediately following speaking. Based on what I've read, the software will slowly learn and adapt to your dialect as well as vocabulary.
Conclusion
It's not always perfect, but it's a lot closer than anything else I've ever used to actually being usable on a regular basis.
In fact, I used it to dictate the entirety of this blog post. Occasionally I had to back up and correct something, but the dictation feature actually made fewer mistakes than I normally do typing!
One other quick tip to throw in: I have found that using my earbud microphone for my iPhone actually helps a lot. I seem to get more accurate dictation by using it then I do trying to use the computer's built-in microphone.
The only thing that will really take some learning and getting used to is remembering all of the voice commands to be able to use voice dictation effectively. There is a support page on Apple's website that lists all of the voice commands available.
As I said before, I'm really excited about this feature and look forward to using it to enhance my workflow this week! I will be sure to let you know how things go.
– Daniel
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