I Am A Dictater!

I recently was given a dictation program for my Mac as a gift. I had eluded to wanting software of this kind because I tend to type a little slower than I would like and end up losing quality thoughts in the process. Rather than learn to type faster I decided to see if I could accomplish more by speaking and allowing my computer to interpret. The result is that yes indeed I can get more jotted down if I let a machine do it and the software is surprisingly accurate for it's speed. My train of thought runs smoother and I have less editing time because I get down what I wanted to say literally when I said it. Oddly the largest hurdle to get over was the ability to speak out loud while alone and not feel nuts. Funny to think but I actually had initial feelings that I might say the wrong thing and that could cause a problem. I was filtering what I said a machine. Like any learning process, however, I managed to overcome the problem and can stand alone in a room speaking to myself very comfortably now.

The lone downfall of the software itself is the sensitivity of the microphone. No the microphone does not have deep rooted understanding and desires not to hurt my feelings. Almost any noise at all will trigger the program to try and interpret the sound and form a word from it. The sensitivity is so high that a television on in another room produced words and phrases that were yelled out by characters of the show. This can be a little annoying, although really funny when my dog barks and 'wow' appears on the screen. It also makes it impossible to use in free wi-fi areas unless you are willing to edit out "Venti mocha latte please" four hundred times.