Can A Blog Post Be Dictated?

I decided to give Dragon Dictate a try. I really like the idea of talking naturally, and have the dictation just occur. It’s not a process that I’m used to doing. But given some chance to practice it might prove to be a useful way to get ideas out of my head and onto electronic paper. Also I like the portability factor. The Dragon Dictate app for the iPhone and the iPad work amazingly well. And being able to make some quick notes while in the car or at work or wherever, without having to stop, open up a text document, type some notes…blah, blah, blah…really could improve productivity.

I was listening to the recent Merlin Mann episode on the Mac power users podcast and I got a real kick out of his reluctance to try dictation software again. I can understand the reluctance. In the old days dictation software was absolutely dreadful. The chances of actually getting something useful out and onto paper, was very very low.

Anyway, Merlin Mann recognized that his process of capturing information as it comes in, putting it down into text files, and then moving on to the next thing, works for him. And if he can add dictation to that process then he would have a very effective way of getting words on paper.

I’m very much looking forward to giving this a try especially with my new writing project. I have a lot of ideas for this writing project. I’m still working on the outline, but once actually get to the writing portion I think there are certain parts of the project that this type of content gathering or writing will really suit.

So as a first trial this blog post was dictated using Dragon dictate software on my MacBook Pro. I just installed it a few minutes ago, just went through the tutorial, and everything seems to be working fine.

I’m taking advantage of a wireless headset that I purchased years ago. It’s a Plantronics headset I purchased for voice over IP and work. However that really didn’t work out for various reasons. But as an input device for Dragon Dictate it’s perfect. It’s wireless, has relatively good sound, long battery life, looks halfway decent on the desk, and it’s comfortable and I can walk around while I’m dictating.

It does take some getting used to doing the whole dictation thing. You have to state your punctuation, you have to let the software know what it is you’re trying to get out. Sometimes in a way that’s not natural. It is going to take some getting used to. But it is definitely an easy way to get a lot of words down on paper very quickly.

Those are my initial thoughts. As I get a chance to use the software some more I will follow-up another post probably dictating it, and talk about how things are working as I use the new technology on my writing project.

Enjoy!