Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers speech recognition software for Windows PCs with hands-free editing and formatting (see article below), speech recognition software for iOS and Android, speech recognition software for Macs, and an iPad app for remotely accessing and controlling Macs and PCs. Don't miss the next issue.
HANDS-FREE WRITING, EDITING, AND FORMATTING
The allure of speech recognition software lies in its ability to cut out the middle man — your keyboard and mouse or a transcriptionist. This means the software must go beyond text entry into the realm of editing and formatting.
Dragon Professional Individual 14 … in One Sentence
Announced this week and launching soon, Nuance's Dragon Professional Individual 14 (Windows) is speech recognition software with automation tools.
The Killer Feature
Dragon Professional Individual enables you to exercise a lot of control over your documents. However, consulting a user guide or even a cheat sheet takes you away from your work. The new version addresses this by enabling you to access all possible voice commands by saying "What Can I Say."
This displays a menu of options that you use your voice to choose — select navigation commands, correction commands, formatting commands, punctuation commands, or the help system. When you make a choice, you drill down to a submenu with the commands written in such as way that you can insert the proper word when you speak (e.g., for the "Go Up N Lines" command, you would insert a number in place of N).
Other Notable Features
Dragon Professional Individual enables you to create custom commands for your workflow. These can include multiple steps. For example, you can email a document to a group of colleagues and also print a copy for yourself with one voice command. Also on the customization front, you can create custom word lists for legal terms, party names, etc. so that Dragon Professional Individual will understand you and use the correct spelling and capitalization. You can import and export custom commands and custom words.
Also new, you can feed audio recordings of other people such as a speech, podcast, or broadcast to Dragon Professional Individual to generate a written transcript. The software needs only a 90-second sample of the speaker's voice, and will not confuse that person's voice with yours.
Dragon Professional Individual integrates with Dragon Anywhere, Nuance's new mobile app. This means your documents sync so that you can start dictating on your PC and continue with your iPhone or Android smartphone. Your custom commands, shortcuts, and vocabularies exist in both products without having to set them up twice.
What Else Should You Know?
Dragon Professional Individual works on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. It costs $300. Users of Dragon Professional and Dragon Premium can upgrade for $150 and $200 respectively. Learn more about Dragon Professional Individual 14.
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