Customer Reviews
A MUST HAVE PRODUCT!! 
2008-06-13
I got this software for my dad who is a psychologist and has lots of reports he needs typed. He has tried dictating with other software in the past, but they never worked well enough. My dad knows nothing about computer and he was able to use this device and has been very successful with it. He no longer has to hire a person to type his reports, be is able to dictate and have them typed up all in one step. He has called me many times and talked about how much he loves this product. This is the best product for dictation and if you have a mac, you need this!
Works best interactively 
2008-05-24
MacSpeech voice recognition is pretty good. But it's not going to get everything. Sometimes we just use phrases the software is not going to get all the time. For example, in the title of this review, I used the word "interactively." MacSpeech Dictate tried "enter actively" and a few others, until I just typed in "interactively." In the body of this review, MacSpeech got "interactively" right every time.
If you don't expect perfection, but work with the software, i.e. making corrections by hand as you dictate, you can get good results. (Good results being defined as lots of written output, not 100% perfection from your dictation software.)
Another difficulty with dictation, is that you're using a different part of the brain to write. Written language and spoken language are not the same, nor does written language and spoken language follow the same path through the brain to the real world. It may be that some of the difficulties you have with writing with dictation software, is difficulty transitioning to dictation from typing. (This can also make it more difficult to proofread dictated text because you used the part of the brain to speak and not the part to write, therefore when you read what has been dictated its not as easy to read it as if you had typed it.) With practice, as YOUR dictation improves, your dictation software's accuracy will also improve.
Another difficulty you may find with dictation, is that it is physically much more work to talk for an hour than it is to type for an hour.
When you first train MacSpeech Dictate, you will be excited with your new software, you will read the training text with enthusiasm and great projection of voice. But as you use the software, you will tire. Your voice will flag. Then -- lo! -- accuracy has fallen. Do not wonder why. Take a break, relax your voice, and save some time to do additional training after dictating for 20 or 30 minutes, when you have a more representative manner of speaking than you did when you were excited about getting the software.
BUGS:
1. MacSpeech is not entirely punctuation aware, so you will have to clean up spacing and capitalization. it's no big deal for a few months when the software is new, but I expect this to be fixed in future updates.
2. MacSpeech does not seem to be multi-processor aware. hopefully in the future it will be and will thus be faster and more accurate.
Nuance has versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking tailored to different industries. I'd like to see MacSpeech do the same.
To all the reviewers of MacSpeech software here at Amazon, I'd like results from an experiment to be added to your reviews. Time yourself typing a full page of text for work or for school, and time yourself dictating a full page of text--Including corrections--for work or for school, and post the times. I wonder if dictating is actually faster than typing for a majority of users.
This review was typed by MacSpeech Dictate, with some help from me. I had to correct almost all of the capitalization, and spacing, at the beginning of sentences. And I also had to correct what I was writing, as in content, not because MacSpeech Dictate made any mistakes, but because writing is like that. Revise. Revise. Revise. It may be easier for you to mix and match typing and dictating than only one of the other. Be flexible. You don't have to write OR dictate. You can do both.
Hardware:
MacBook Pro / Core 2 Duo / 2GB RAM
MacSpeech included microphone
I also suggest that people interested in speeding up their writing try TypeIt4Me, which is very cheap, and very awesome, and never makes mistakes. When I worked as a medical transcriber, I used TypeIt4Me extensively. There is no way I could have gotten work done anywhere near as fast with dictation software.
Good luck and good writing.
What a Disappointment 
2008-05-24
After a month of trying to get MacSpeech Dictate to work properly, I've pretty much given up. It's probably the worst software I've ever bought. Certainly the most expensive piece of bad software I've ever bought. It has worked two or three times, but usually it hangs or won't even respond. Installation was okay. I don't have the bad data disk reported by other users.
I've called customer service several times. After a long wait each time, a different solution has been suggested -- create a new user profile, turn off the computer, unplug and plug the microphone, turn the program itself off and on, turn off all the other programs except for the one program I want to dictate into. Sometimes these things have worked temporarily. Mostly they haven't. The bottom line seems to be that MacSpeech Dictate so buggy and unreliable that the support guys at the company don't know how to get it running.
On the few times that the application has worked, it has been truly amazing. I was really looking forward to using speech recognition to reduce the amount of pain caused by typing these days. The program is so bad, though, that it's been a big waste of money.
Mediocre. 
2008-05-15
I spent a fair amount of time getting this trained and working to get this to work. I could not get to the point that it will be useful to me. I dictate every day with a transciption service, and this is not even close to being able to replace it. It was fun to play around with, though. It doesn't seem like it will be anymore than a toy, though. I found that I had to talk so slowly and deliberately - and it still made mistakes - that it wasn't worth the time.
Not QUITE Ready For prime Time 2008-05-12
No problems with installation or set up. After brief initial training I was pleased to find accuracy that is notably better than I get with Dragon in Windows. However, MacSpeech is missing one of Dragon's most essential functions. It has no commands similar to "Correct That" or "Spell That" in Dragon. There is no way to correct recognition errors except to say the word again or type it in manually. You cannot train the program to correct common recognition errors. There is no way to teach it new words like proper names, technical terms, acronyms, abbreviations etc. This makes MacSpeech far less useful.
Similarly, there is no utility like Dragon's "Add Word" or "Train Word." You can give MacSpeech a list of your documents to analyze for vocabulary and phrasing but you cannot add a new word at a time.
The user manual I downloaded says that these features will come in a future version. Of course, no idea when. For now, MacSpeech is better than my terrible typing on my MacBook but will not be fully useful until these features arrive. With them, I will probably give the product four or five stars.
Primitive, but MUCH better than nothing for those of us who use Mac 
2008-07-13
I have been using voice recognition products since Dragon version 1, Kurzweil, and ViaVoice. Earlier today, this program did not seem to recognize any words properly -- and without the ability to learn from spoken corrections, cannot improve its functioning even though I have performed all of the trainings. Other days, the accuracy seems to be remarkable -- as good as Dragon Windows. As I am dictating this now, the accuracy seems excellent. The authors state that corrections will be coming with a future version, none too soon. For those who require a dictation program and use Mac this seems to be the program to use. I very much look forward to future editions which will have correction capability. Despite its limitations, for those who require speech recognition software this version does function satisfactorily, although it is not nearly as user friendly as the current Dragon for Windows. My rating reflects the limitation of functionality, specifically -- correction capability, and what the program put me through this morning when it could not seem to recognize any words I would say.
Mac Speech 2008-06-29
I was using "Dragon Naturally Speaking" on my Windows programs and loved it. After a short training period I was dictating with at least 95% accuracy.
I recently switched to a Mac computer and choose Mac Speech because it was by "Nuance" which I thought was the same company that produced "Dragon". I have found out that this is not the same company and the program does not work nearly as well as Dragon. I have spent lots of time with training it and still get loads of errors. I would prefer Dragon over Mac Speech
Pay No Attention to the Negative Reviews 2008-06-23
Pay no attention to the negative reviews that have been posted regarding MacSpeech. While no voice recognition software will function perfectly, MacSpeech is the closest I have seen to voice recognition perfection in over ten years -- beginning with IBM's pioneering VIA Voice in the mid 90's. Regarding MacSpeech's customer support shortcomings, again, pay no attention to the negative comments regarding it. My call was answered immediately, and a solution to my problem (dragging the wrong icon during the initial installation process) was immediately solved. Being a horrendous typist, MacSpeech is a godsend, and a peak into the future of human-computer interaction, when we will all communicate with our computers by voice, just like Dave did with HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Until then, go with MacSpeech. It's the best software I've come across in years.
Bad install disk problems persist 2008-06-22
I read the caveats about bad install disks for this allegedly excellent rendition of Dragon Dictate Naturally Speaking. Because of the elapsed time since initial introduction in January, I assumed that the bad disks had been replaced or pulled.
Not so. The program would not work with the speech disk. All the website resources failed to help. I spent 30 minutes on hold before I finally spoke to a tech support human, who offered me the "tech version" of the on-line repair program. It proved to be the same on-line repair program and did nothing.
I did extract a promise that he would send me a new speech disk (via USPS), which has yet to arrive one month later. I loved Naturally Speaking on the PC but am afraid this production mess may well have sunk this program's chances on the Mac. I am very disappointed - and out $189 for 2 worthless disks.
Berkeley Powell
MacSpeech Dictate
The Best Mac Voice Recognition Yet 2008-06-18
MacSpeech Dictate, while not perfect, is by far the best Mac voice recognition software that has ever been available. It is far superior to IBM's ViaVoice and MacSpeech's earlier software, iListen.
After a comparatively brief training session, and a review of the manual, MacSpeech Dictate gives me 99.9% accuracy speaking at a normal rate, without any requirements of exaggerated pronunciation, and without having to pause to wait for the software to catch up. It supports a wide variety of punctuation symbols, cursor navigation and capitalization variations. There is a substantial group of available commands as well. You talk; the words appear on screen with impressive speed and accuracy. It's that simple.
What this version doesn't have is a "learning mode" or a "spelling mode." Technically, you can spell using the phonetic alphabet, but as often as not "whiskey" comes out as "whiskey" instead of "w." Those two features are promised as free upgrades to a later version.
MacSpeech Dictate works nicely with macro programs, including Rainmaker Software's Spellcatcher, allowing you to develop shortcuts and workarounds. There is some support for AppleScript, although the library appears to be somewhat limited and extensive AppleScript options seem to bog the program down, at least on my comparatively old iMac.
Still, MacSpeech Dictate is faster and more accurate than my typing. There are features I would like and the product really needs, but as shipped, and with a little patience, this is the first voice recognition software for Macintosh computer reliable enough for professional use.
I think some of the early reviews are really criticism of MacSpeech's technical support, and possibly some early problems with the reliability of CDs on which the product shipped. Those problems have been resolved; reviews focused on the problem should not be the basis for decision whether to buy this product. In particular, there is a very helpful frequently asked questions section at MacSpeech's website.
Very highly recommended.
