For example, you can say “File Quit” to quit any program and “Return key,” to hit the return key, but you can’t say “Command D” to access Word’s keyboard shortcut for font options. The program includes only a few scripted commands. Unfortunately, however, iListen reveals some of its roughest edges when you try to control your Mac by voice.

Part of speech recognition’s promise is that it can give you the ability to stay off of your keyboard as much as you may need to.

(The PDF manual offers some workarounds for this problem but doesn’t provide a solution.) Command and Control If so, the program will begin typing in the wrong place. For instance, if you stop to delete an extra space or revise an earlier passage while dictating, iListen may lose track of where you are. Notably, you can’t make a selection from the list by voice.Īnd you’ll often spend time correcting the changes implemented during the correction process. Say “Correct that” right after a phrase has been incorrectly recognized, and a correction window opens with a list of fixes. iListen can correct mistakes–and, most important, learn from them–no matter what application you’re in. After all, English has numerous homonyms (such as flee and flea), and some things just sound alike (for example, workmanlike craft and work them like crap). Recognition mistakes are inevitable–and often amusing. Using an 800MHz iMac G4 with 512MB of RAM, we saw good performance from the program–there was only a slight delay between speaking the words and seeing them appear on screen. IListen requires either OS 9 or OS X, and once you’re finished setting up the program, you can begin dictating into any application, such as Microsoft Word X or 2001.

Mac speech recognition software