[MV] Where are we now?

[Valerie Maples]

Dear Bert;

I am a person who tried iListen about a year ago and was totally frustrated,
but when my main computer again became a Macintosh, I decided to give
another trite. After listening to extensive feedback on the list and
rethinking my strategy toward using the product, I can away with several
things that I do not feel are emphasized nearly strongly enough, one of
which will be enormously beneficial to someone like yourself dictating
reports that probably share common vocabulary for your usage. Namely, the
importance of having the software learn your writing style through reviewing
your documents will be critical to adding common words for you that may not
be common to its vocabulary. Second, taking the time to do all of the
training passages, one at the time, will improve your dictation accuracy as
well.

My personal experience with all voice recognition products (and I have used
every product on both the Macintosh and the PC at many different levels with
many different operating systems) is the profound difference that a
particular combination of sound card and microphone can make. My best
results to date are not with a headset, but rather a Sennheiser hand-held
microphone mounted with a boom. It worked well with dragon naturally
speaking professional and works exceptionally well with iListen as well. I
use it with an Andrea USB pod and have been very pleased with my investment.
Another issue that cannot be downplayed is the value of having sufficient
RAM. Although my machines are probably overkill for this purpose, I find it
is one of the most beneficial improvements dollar for dollar.

The product may still not the were you need for it to be, but as chat said,
if we ever want to see speech recognition improved and continue to be
developed, it is important for them to have as many users as possible give
feedback to improve the product. I do believe they are trying to meet than
need and expand within the ability of their company. It must be an
exceptionally difficult task, given the advances of the operating systems
software over the past few years, especially in such rapid succession. The
product continues to improve and will hopefully gain a wider acceptance as
improvements continue to be made.

Taking into account the things I have mentioned, I have found better
recognition now with iListen than previously with via voice. Hopefully you
will find the same. As with so many things in life, it's often a matter of
what you put into it that will determine the quality of your outcome.

Good luck, and don't forget to keep us posted on how you are doing and seek
feedback where we can be helpful...

Valerie Maples