Who's selling the best, most accurate, most reliable speech-to-text
software for Macs? As I understand it, you can't talk directly into a
program like Word, so how easy is it to transfer what you've spoken
into an application like that?

Hello mccook-ga:

There are two voice dictation programs for the Macintosh:
- iListen 1.6 (http://www.macspeech.com/products/iListen.html)
- IBM ViaVoice (http://www-306.ibm.com/software/voice/viavoice/)

And you can dictate directly into programs like Word -- read on!

iListen:
According to a half-year old Macworld review
(http://www.macworld.com/2003/10/reviews/ilisten16/), iListen is of
fair quality; it has its merits but also its flaws. Macworld notes
that the program is able to achieve 89% accuracy after the first
training session, which is reasonably good. Flaws include limited
command-and-control, and incomplete documentation.

iListen supports the Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.2.2 (though not all
features work with OS 9), and with it, you can dictate into (almost)
any program. Macworld cites iListen's capability to dictate and edit
in any problem as a strong strength. The program needs a G3/G4 Power
Mac or higher.

I recommend you read the Macworld review and visit the iListen page
(http://www.macspeech.com/products/iListen.html). This product sells
for USD$99 without a headset, and USD$149 with a headset. You can
purchase it directly from MacSpeech, the developer of iListen.

IBM ViaVoice for Mac:
IBM ViaVoice is the other product
(http://www.scansoft.com/viavoice/osx/). A very old Macworld review
may be found here: http://www.macworld.com/2002/04/reviews/viavoicex/
A very old PC Magazine review here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,12993,00.asp

IBM ViaVoice functions nicely as a dictation program; PC Magazine and
Macworld slammed it, however, for limited computer command-and-control
capabilities, and inability to correct text in Word.

PC Magazine notes that after training the program, accuracy is at
about 95%. Macworld notes an accuracy of 88% to 95%. Therefore, this
program appears to be superior in terms of accuracy; however, iListen
may achieve such accuracy rates with sufficient training.

Macworld notes that ViaVoice can dictate into Microsoft Word, but is
slower. It suggests the alternative of dictating into the program
SpeakPad (included with ViaVoice), and then transferring text into
Word. According to Macworld, "this [process] works surprisingly well".
This appears to be a weakness of ViaVoice when compared to iListen,
which can dictate anywhere. As well, iListen was updated not a month
ago, while ViaVoice appears to be an older program.

ViaVoice costs $124.99 from ScanSoft
(http://www.scansoft.com/viavoice/osx/), requires a G3/G4 Power Mac
with Mac OS X, and includes a USB microphone. Both programs recommend
256 MB of RAM.

I hope this answers your question. Please let me know if you require
clarification of this answer!

For more information, refer to reader reports about ViaVoice:
http://www.macintouch.com/viavoice.html

About iListen:
http://lists.intermag.com/pipermail/macspeech-support/20020128/000058.html

Thanks,

- supermacman-ga


Search strategy
IBM ViaVoice
iListen

Swift and fantastic, supermacman. Thanks very much for saving me a lot of work.

Glad to be of help. It's in my name - superMacman-ga! ;-)