Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers speech recognition software for lawyers that works with nearly any microphone such as the one on your smartphone (see article below), a cloud word processor with new spreadsheet functionality, an iOS scanning app with OCR, and an online payroll processing service. Don't miss the next issue.
BENEVOLENT DICTATION
A meme exists to the effect that no one makes telephone calls anymore. Except that many people still make many telephone calls, including lawyers. Furthermore, voice recognition has become an area of intense research. Every smartphone now includes it. In short, your voice is still a thing. Maybe you should learn to use it more productively.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Legal … in One Sentence
Launched earlier this month, Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Legal is speech recognition software designed for legal work.
The Killer Feature
In Dragon's early days, the difference between success and failure depended on your diligence and your microphone. It required reading training materials and an optimized microphone. Nuance realizes that training software is like watching paint dry and thus a deal killer.
The microphones built into computers have become so good that Dragon 13 Legal works with most of them. Automatic microphone detection lists all available microphones, enabling you to switch among them. If you prefer dictating on your feet or perhaps while holding a yoga pose, you can use your Android smartphone or iPhone as a wireless microphone. Alternatively, you can dictate into the free Dragon Recorder app for the iPhone and then import the files into Dragon 13 Legal.
Nuance has also eliminated the need to train the software (though it remains an option for optimal accuracy). You can expect 99% accuracy out of the box with this percentage improving as the software adapts to your voice. A language model tuned for legal terms and a legal dictionary means that Dragon 13 Legal understands legalese. The software also knows how to format citations.
Other Notable Features
The Dragon 13 Legal Macro Recorder enables you to integrate with any other product you use. For example, you can create a voice macro to run a conflicts search in your practice management system. Meanwhile, Smart Format Rules enable you to teach Dragon 13 Legal how to handle abbreviations, paragraph numbers, etc. to obviate having to make the same corrections repeatedly.
Another automation feature of sorts enables you to proofread your documents by listening to them. You can play your original dictation, but you'll likely find the text-to-speech playback more helpful.
What Else Should You Know?
Dragon 13 Legal enables you to control the toolbar and other commands by voice in popular applications such as Microsoft Word 2010 and later, WordPerfect X6 and later, Gmail, and the major web browsers. Dragon 13 Legal requires Windows 7 or later. It costs $799. If you don't need the legal features, Dragon 13 Premium costs $199 and Dragon 13 Professional costs $599. Learn more about Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Legal.
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