- Chuck is using Dragon Naturally Speaking on the Mac, but he just found out that Dragon is discontinuing support for Mac. What are his alternatives? Leo says that Windows and Mac both have voice recognition and dictation now, so it may be that they discontinued it.
- Speechnotes claims to be a free alternative to Dragon Naturally Speaking and although the accuracy can’t really compare with Dragons products, it’s pretty good. Unlike Dragon Dictate, Speechnotes also can’t be used to voice control your Mac either.
- While NaturallySpeaking provides you unsurpassed speech recognition, it is the KnowBrainer Command Software that allows you to fully interact with your PC through voice - launch programs, edit document, navigate your desktop. KnowBrainer puts 11,000 new voice commands at your disposal.
- Dragon Naturally Speaking 13 comparison (PDF). Learn tips and tricks for using Dragon speech recognition on the PC or Mac to quickly compose emails, draft and edit.
Installing Dragon Naturally Speaking on an Intel based Macintosh
This software is Dragon Naturally Speaking. If you use Dragon Naturally Speaking several years ago, you're probably very frustrated with the way it worked. You needed to practice for about half an hour train the system then it would get most of the stuff wrong.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the recognized leader in continuous speech recognition technology. Until recently, owners of Apple computers have been unable to use this software and have been limited to the use of iListen and IBM ViaVoice. Now, with Intel based Apple Macintosh computers and the presense of Parallels, Apple users have the option of installing and using Dragon on a 'virtual operating system' on their systems. The process is described here.
Prerequisites for this include the following:
- An intel based Macintosh
- Parallels Software
- Windows XP or Vista installation Disk
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking
- All necessary microphone hardware (we recommend using a good quality microphone and a USB adapter
We have found the following method, adapted from the method presented by 'Webair' on the Parallels Forum, to be an effective method of running Dragon NaturallySpeaking on an Intel based Macintosh.
Preliminaries:Before using this method it is important that you accomplish the following:
- Install Parallels Desktop on your Intel Mac
- Set up a virtual operating system using Windows XP using Parallels
- Install Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the Windows XP virtual machine using the standard methods of Dragon installation
- Before actually setting up a microphone and configuring a new user in Dragon, follow the steps listed below.
Configuration: With the preliminaries accomplished, your system should be configured as follows:
- In the Mac OS please go to the 'System Preferences' - 'Sound' - 'Input' - highlight your device in the list (this will make it the default audio input device for Mac).
- Set the input volume in the Preference pane so that the microphone input level peaks near the middle of the bar range (editors note: alternatively set the level in the mid to upper range)
- With your virtual machine stopped, Start Parallels Desktop, choose your virtual machine (VM). In Configuration Editor in the USB Controller section turn'Autoconnect USB devices' to OFF (or un-check the 'Enabled' button).
- In Configuration Editor, in the Audio tab, choose the Default Audio as the input device.
- Run the virtual machine.
- Voice settings for Playback and Recording in the Windows XP Control Panel should be left at “Intel[r] Integrated Audio”.
- Start and run NaturallySpeaking in the normal fashion. With no other audio input available, it will default to the 'intel integrated audio' during audio set-up.
Notes:
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In our experience, the above method allows use of NaturallySpeaking on the Windows 'Virtual Machine' and dictation into all text input windows on the Windows side, but will not provide input into documents on the Mac side, even in the 'coherence' mode.
Another peculiarity of this method is that with when a USB microphone is disconnected, the link between the Macintosh and Windows side is lost and does reconnect unless the virtual machine is closed and re-opened (a 5 second process). It is not, however, necessary to actually restart the Windows operating system to reconnect - you need only open and close the virtual machine. For some 'road warriors' this may have implications. Likewise for the user that has the need to connect and reconnect the USB microphone or device throughout the day, this poses a minor annoyance.
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Comments on these recommendations? Have you discovered a better method of setting up Dragon NaturallySpeaking on an Intel-based Mac? Please share your findings with us and we'd be delighted to post them. Contact: jon@speechrecsolutions.com
Microsoft Office 365 offers two versions – Online Version and Offline Version.
Online versions of the Microsoft Office applications (such as Word, Outlook and Excel) through a web browser,Offline versions enables you to download desktop versions of the Office applications.
Offline version is suitable for all functions of Dragon Naturally Speaking.
The following Nuance Desktop products support dictation only when running Office 365 Online (Online Version):
Dragon Professional Individual
Dragon Legal Individual
Dragon Professional Group
Dragon Legal Group
Note: Full Text Control and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are not supported when running Office 365 Online.
The following Nuance Desktop products are not supported when running Office 365 Online:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 13 and earlier
PDF Converter Professional
OmniPage
PaperPort
Dragon Naturally Speaking Mac Os
Note: Nuance Desktop products may have application add-ins (such as toolbar buttons) that are typically enabled in Microsoft Office desktop applications to improve the experience. When running Microsoft Office Online, these application add-ins will not be enabled. Additionally, using Dragon to dictate into Office Online applications may require the use of the Dragon Dictation Box.
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To take advantage of all the features of Nuance Desktop products, we recommend using a local installation of Microsoft Office. Certain subscription plans to Microsoft Office 365 include the local desktop version of Microsoft Office