Q&A #2 - Finding Technology for Speech-to-Text
The question, from an Unschooler, is:
What is the best app or program that records and prints what you say? (guess I'm wishing for a secretary to take clear dictation!)
....and can this app work well on cell phones and I pads....smaller devices, and with other background noise?
I imagine, being able to just reach over...'click' then record my thoughts....and see it after in print. Then the great work of revising and editing begins.
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I was going to have the remaining Q&A posts be paid-readers-only… BUT I honestly don’t have a solid answer to this question! I’d love input, based on your experiences. Ryan Frawley left a message to this on the earlier post, so I’m including his words, which are so useful.
Please share additional information, and I’d like to gift anyone who does with a month of free access to all in the Unschool—whether you’re a “free” reader or “paid” (in which case, a free month will be added to your subscription).
My only “ask”: please read through others’ responses so you’re not duplicating info. Here we go —
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From Ryan Frawley:
For the annual Q&A, for speech to text writing, it has to be Dragon Naturally speaking. It’s expensive - $350 USD for a one-time purchase - but it’s leagues ahead of anything else, and I’ve tried them all. In some ways, I owe my writing career to it, because I couldn’t write nearly as much as I do without it.
They have an internet-connected cellphone version, but it’s garbage. Get the real one for a proper computer, and it will change your writing life.
Note from Alison: do check out Ryan’s work—his amazing essay collection or novel. He regularly posts thought-provoking and beautiful essays on Medium.
No, he didn’t post a comment here to have me promo his work! I just enjoy his work. Along with writing strength, he has a generous spirit, something I value in a writer.
So when he reviews and shares a product, I’m going to listen!
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But perhaps this is out of price range or—as noted in the question—you really want this for smaller devices.
Here is one link I discovered and read. As well as app/software suggestions, there are some notes on how to go about it—enunciation, verbalizing punctuation, and more.
https://zapier.com/blog/best-text-dictation-software/
I regret that I’m not more knowledgeable on this topic. I suspect such a thing might change my writing life, and am curious to try Ryan’s suggestion.
Thoughts?
For over a year, my writing partner and I have been using Otter.ai to transcribe conversations for a substack we're about to launch. It began when I was baffled to realize that writing and publishing a memoir has proved to be psychologically transformative and turned to a writer-friend, who is also a neuropsychiatrist, for help figuring out how the process of writing could have had this impact. We came up with the idea of searching for answers by talking through the many issues involved and of recording our talk.
We started with Free which offers 300 min a month and 30mins per conversation. Eventually, we signed up for Pro ($9/month, less if you prepay for a year), which gives you 1200 mins a month and 90 min conversations. I was never able to do the audio through my computer microphone, so I call my partner and just put my cell phone on speaker. The transcriptions are quite accurate. After each, I read through and correct from what I remember or replay the audio, which scrolls along below the text. Real conversations don't translate into well shaped dialogue, but we have the record of our exchanges to work from. It's been terrific.
Our situation is probably unusual, but Otter would be just as good for interviewing or capturing zoom conversations.
I compared a few applications for my day job and only for computer interfaced-situations (no mobile or tablet) and either free or already paid for. Here are three:
- Microsoft Word with 365subscription, connected to the internet, has a "Dictate" plug-in, and it is the best in terms of accuracy and ease of giving commands (eg. "next line"), in my experience
- getting a free account on Otter.ai is not bad, but not as accurate in my experience as Word, and then you have to copy and paste back into your doc. But it does have a mobile app.
- opening a Google Doc with Chrome allows you to use the "Voice Typing" command under "Tools". It used to be my first choice, but Word has replaced it.