[MV] Re: ViaVoice vs. iListen

[JSenecal at aol.com]

>I have purchased both and both coexist nicely on a OS 10.2.3 machine.
>
>Robert
>
>
>on 6/17/03 4:16 AM, Phil Tanny at support at easy-hits.com wrote:
>
>> Is anyone aware of any obstacles to installing and using
>> both programs on one machine?

I also have both on both of my machines and have never had problems with 
them coexisting. I had been using ViaVoice for programming by voice, I've 
now switched to iListen 1.6 although it will take a long time before I 
have all my voice macros recreated for the different platform. But which 
program is better is still a personal choice, if you can afford to get 
both, you can try both and then use whichever one works better for you. 
Or use both, each for different types of dictation.

Both programs have quirks and glitches that you'll need to work around. 
Both have strong points. Here's my comparison of the two programs. Keep 
in mind that I use dictation for strange things, your experience may be 
very different.


Dictation:
Both programs can dictate into almost any application.

ViaVoice can only handle correction within it's SpeakPad. Dictating into 
the SpeakPad works very well. Correction is easy and elegant. You can 
navigate by voice (including selecting text by voice). Mixing pasted in 
text with dictated text doesn't confuse the program, nor does jumping 
around the document editing it.

iListen can handle correction in any document. In order to implement this 
the program needs to use a more complex correction mechanism. If not used 
correctly, it's easy to scramble your text (this hasn't been a problem 
for me). You have limited navigate by voice capabilities, but it includes 
selecting text by voice, though only from text dictated since the last 
time changes were committed. Pasted in text or exiting is invisible to 
iListen. Using the mouse to move the cursor can confuse iListen (it 
doesn't know the cursor has moved).


Voice Macros:
ViaVoice supports adding words to the vocabulary as well as removing 
added words. Text macros allow control of spacing before or after the 
macro and control of capitalization (incl. upper or lower case) of the 
next word. Commands are limited to AppleScripts that are not program 
specific, or single keystrokes (like cmd-Q) that can be program specific. 
ViaVoice includes a separate program to create keystroke commands. It 
doesn't provide anyway to create AppleScripts (OS X does) Commands are 
allowed during dictation. New commands require a quit and relaunch to be 
recognized.

iListen supports adding words to the vocabulary (during correction), but 
these words can't be seen or removed afterwards. Both Text macros and and 
commands can be either universal or program specific. Commands are always 
AppleScripts, but iListen provides scriptable functions to type 
characters, strings, and select menu items. This gives iListen much more 
capability for scripting. With the provided helper application, making 
AppleScripts that do a series of keystrokes is just cut and paste. 
iListen has both dictation and command modes. Some commands are 
recognized in either mode. New commands are recognized immediately in 
command mode, dictation mode commands require a quit and relaunch.


Reliability:
ViaVoice occasionally acts up, refusing to do copy and paste and 
sometimes even refusing to dictate. A quit and relaunch fixes this 
problem. Sometimes the problem is more severe, requiring me to switch 
between voice profiles.

iListen occasionally crashes. When this happens, just relaunch it and 
continue. MacSpeech is working hard at eliminating crashes, they just 
haven't got all of them yet. Although it sounds bad, for me this has been 
a much less frequent problem than ViaVoice acting up.


Why did I use ViaVoice:
My primary use of dictation is for programming, something neither program 
is designed for. I used ViaVoice because I could easily add words, I 
could precisely control spacing (with some exceptions), and because it 
learned my strange word patters very quickly (again with some 
exceptions). Whenever ViaVoice would make a persistent dictation error, I 
would launch SpeakPad and do some additional training for that word.


Why did I switch to iListen:
The latest version of iListen also gives me the ability to add words 
easily, and to precisely control spacing (with no exceptions). In 
addition the correction mode had gotten more predictable, so that with 
care I could avoid text scrambling. It doesn't have all the features I 
could want, but what it does have is sufficient for the job. With the 
very big plus that I can correct without have to switch to another 
program for training. Training now occurs as part of my working.


Joseph Senecal

P.S. I also still use PowerSecretary. It works very well for data entry 
(like Quicken).