Transcription and dictation for writers

[@ketovore2997]

Finally, I've found a video on the subject that's worth a damn! Thank you.

[@WilliamGallagher]

Thanks: that’s made me beam.

[@StormOracle]

Can't wait to try these, thank you!

[@WilliamGallagher]

My huge pleasure. They are revolutionary, each of them, in their own ways.

[@umacs-media]

Love your work William 😎

[@WilliamGallagher]

Thank you, that's very good of you to say.

[@stevejoneswildwriter]

Greetings from Ventnor (south coast of the Isle of Wight). Love your videos. Very helpful. Last Tuesday I opened Scivener on my new iPhone Mini 13 and activated the microphone on the keyboard and just started to talk rather than type. I’m writing non-fiction, natural history books, so no dialogue - fairly straightforward writing structure. Dictation worked a dream! Speaking clearly, annunciating words clearly, being careful that my voice didn’t fade in at the start or fade out at the end of the sentence - those precautions were enough for the free software and phone’s in built mic to understand. It struggled with a few words of course - some place and animal names etc - but it can spell better than me! I had my best day word count - just over 5,000 words in about four hours. My throat felt soar and I was knackered by the end of it! But wow, dictation even with the free thingy that comes with the operating system is a revelation!

[@WilliamGallagher]

That's remarkable. I love Drafts but was disappointed when I came to try dictation on it, the number of errors compared to Otter.ai was startling. But clearly I should just learn to talk to talk properly. And clearly you should drink more water while you work. Although now I'm wondering what Drafts would make of you gargling.

[@stevejoneswildwriter]

@@WilliamGallagher yeah - drink more water….I’m usually onto my third coffee by 10am! I’ll have to record a little demo video clip of how dictation on the iPhone is working out. Have had another productive day today….

[@christophergoode7905]

I was the 58th to like this video. Thank you! Blessed =)

[@WilliamGallagher]

Ha! That made me beam.

[@peterc2248]

I must admit I use the built in service to transcribe interviews I do with old people for local oral history projects. Much depends on the clarity of voice of the particular interviewee of course but it does the bulk of the work. Great to see other options...thanks

[@WilliamGallagher]

Built-in service? Do you mean Siri? That's not been reliable enough for me, plus it's too stop/start. How do you get around that? And forget Siri, tell me everything about the oral history projects.

[@GrommieWolf]

Great info here!!!

[@GrommieWolf]

I did get ‘Just press record’. This is a game changer! I wear my watch all the time.

[@WilliamGallagher]

Brilliant. I relish that app, I'm so pleased it's good for you too.

[@1monki]

Very helpful, thanks.

[@WilliamGallagher]

Thanks, that's good of you to say.

[@willhelliwell]

Transcription is amazing at the moment. I’m using MeetGeek for transcribing meetings. Otter is a good one too. I’m using Deepgram for transcribing phone calls (I build phone services for a living). And Descript for transcribing podcasts or videos I’m recording. The one thing I’m missing is a good transcription app on the phone to take notes and then export to Obsidian.

[@WilliamGallagher]

Oooh, I haven't heard of MeetGeek, thank you. And you're the second person to enthuse about Descript: I must check that out too.

[@theXaint]

Ho Will! One year later, have you found a transcription to Obsidian workflow?

[@johnnyragadoo2414]

How far the world has come from the first days of speech recognition - and it's not that long since Dick Tracy fired imagination with his wrist radio. It's also amazing how tolerant the world has become - you said M****soft!

[@WilliamGallagher]

It's okay, Microsoft Word gets the odd snarky comment in next week's Three Biscuit Guide to Apple Pages. Also known as Apple Pages: The Movie.

[@tripley66]

But...did you ever find 'bit' in the translation of your last 58 Keys?

[@WilliamGallagher]

I didn't - no, wait, phew: I've just found your last question about this. That was driving me a bit spare: knowing you'd asked but not being able to track it down through KZbin. I have tracked it down now, and answered, or tried to. A bit.

[@visionaryventures12]

Any dictation feature I like. Who’s Iris? I only know about Siri.

[@WilliamGallagher]

Ooooh, any chance you're familiar with Dragon Dictate? I reviewed it once a huge number of years ago but I remember the company dropping its Mac version. Only, I gather there may be an online one that Mac users can work with.

[@visionaryventures12]

@@WilliamGallagher I am familiar with it, but haven’t used it more than perhaps once.

[@briandavies8351]

I have two naunce programs firs one I bought the dictation system never understood my Welsh accent, so they said oh it’s been upgraded in the new version , so like a dumb ass bought it… only to find out I might have spoken fluent Klingon and it would have understood me, if you have a thick regional accent they don’t work no matter how much you try,.

[@WilliamGallagher]

These are the Dragon Dictate apps? I reviewed them a couple of times over the years and they were fine enough but could never cope with two voices - so transcribing interviews was a bust. That was my only interest them, too. Plus I thought I'd heard they pulled out of the Mac market some time ago. I know people who are hanging on to their old Macs and not updating the OS just so they can keep using Dragon.