Today’s comes from Katilea:

On Windows you can defragment to sort out drive and speed it up, clean up programs you dont use, etc. What is the equivalent on Mac?

When you’re using OS X you will never, under normal circumstances, need to defragment your hard drive. The way Mac drives are formatted means that fragmentation isn’t a problem, so that’s one chore you don’t have to worry about. There are, however, some routine things that can help your Mac run as well as possible.

The first is to run OS X’s own maintenance scripts regularly. OS X has scripts which run in the middle of the night to keep things running smoothly; there’s one which runs daily, one which runs weekly, and one which runs monthly. This should happen automatically even if your computer is asleep or turned off at the time, but due to some problems these scripts often don’t get run on some people’s systems. When I checked mine, none of them had been run for the past 5 months!

An easy way to fix this is to install Pseudoanacron. Despite the complicated name it’s very simple to run - all you do is start the program, and if any of OS X’s routine maintenance scripts haven’t been run at the proper time then Pseudoanacron will run them for you. Then the program will quit. I have set this up so it runs every time I log into my computer, just to make sure things keep running smoothly.

If you’re doing this and your Mac is chugging along fine then there’s nothing else you need to do! But if your Mac seems to be getting a bit slower that it used to be, you’ll need to move to the next step.

For this, you’ll need a program called Maintenance. There are versions for Tiger as well as Leopard - make sure you download the one you need from their downloads page.

Once you’ve downloaded it you’ll need to double-click on the package to run the installer. When that’s finished, you’ll find the program in your Applications directory where all the other programs are. Open the Maintenance program and the first thing it does is some very basic checking of your drive - it should only take a minute so just be patient. Then you’ll see this dialog box:

It’s very much recommended that you do what the dialog box is asking - quit all the programs you can quit then let it proceed. It may take quite a long time to check your hard drive - it took about 7 minutes for mine and sometimes the screen stopped updating altogether - so the best idea is to go and get yourself a drink or have a bathroom break while it’s running.

Once that’s done, you’ll see a window with a confusing list of possible tasks. I suggest that you select all the ones in the “Maintenance” and “Cleaning” sections, but none of the ones in the “Rebuild” section. Here’s a screen shot of the selections:

Now some of this cleaning will make your applications start up more slowly the very next time they’re run. They can’t tell between cleaning out caches that speed up your programs and cleaning out old ones which aren’t needed any more. So the first time you start up your programs again they’ll take a little while longer while they rebuild their caches again. But after that they should be snappier than before.

Once you have your selections made, click on the “Execute” button and you’ll see another warning about quitting all your programs. You can let the program do it for you, or you can quit them yourself before you continue. I quit them myself in case there’s open documents or things I haven’t saved yet - I’m always forgetting. And be aware: once you’ve started it it really does quit everything - even accessibility programs like KeyStrokes or SwitchXS will be quit.

Once you’ve set it running I suggest you go and make lunch or have a shower - this one takes aaaaages. On my Mac Pro it took 28 minutes, for example! And after it’s done, it will ask to reboot your computer which I also recommend you do.

Once your computer is going again it will initially take a touch longer than before - remember about the caches having to rebuild themselves the first time you run things. But your system should be in tip top condition!

Another thing which can make your computer slow down is if the hard drive is nearly full. I think that Apple recommends that at least 10% of your hard drive should be empty, so OS X has room to shuffle around files without too much trouble. The first tactic here is to empty your trash! Right click on the Trash icon on your dock and select Empty Trash, then click “OK” that you understand it’s permanent. If you haven’t done this for a while there could be a lot of stuff in there - it’s never emptied unless you do it yourself.

If your hard drive is still too full you’ll need to delete some things, or buy an external hard drive and move some of your files to the hard drive - things like your iTunes and iPhoto libraries are good candidates for being moved to an external drive.

If you don’t already have Software Update running automatically this would also be a good time to do that - open the Apple menu in the extreme top left of your screen and select “Software Update”. Install anything it recommends, bandwidth permitting. Once it’s done, run it over again as it sometimes has new suggestions once you’ve installed the existing things. This makes sure you’ve got the most current versions of the operating system and any iLife and iWork programs you have installed.

I hope this helps, Katilea! Let us know how your computer goes after your bit of “spring cleaning”.

- Ricky Buchanan

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Reader Mailbag: Maintain Your Mac

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Accessibility features for the iPhone 3GS include:

• VoiceOver screen reader localised in 21 different languages.
• Voice Control offering spoken commands, also in 21 different languages.
• Zoom on iPhone lets you magnify the entire screen up to 5 times normal size, and move around to view any portion of the screen close up. All the usual gestures such as pinch, flick, etc. will still work when the screen is zoomed.
• White On Black offers a high contrast reverse video screen display.
• Mono Audio will route both audio channels into both earbuds, for those with hearing problems.
• Speak Auto-text voices the iPhone’s automatic correction and completion options so you don’t have to look away from the keyboard to use them. This can be used with or without VoiceOver and Zoom.
• Assignable Ringtones let you use ringtones as an audible form of Caller ID for selected contacts.

There’s also an Accessible HTML User Guide available but it’s limited so you can only view it using the iPhone - any other web browser is automatically re-routed to the download location for the PDF user guide. I can’t see any reason that Apple would make the HTML guide unusable for the rest of us, but it’s a pity.

So the iPhone 3GS has now been in people’s possession for a little while - what are the reactions?

• Mozilla guru Marco Zehe wrote My first experience using an accessible touch screen device. He was only trying out the iPhone at his local Apple store so he didn’t have a huge amount of time, but I get the impression he was sad to have to leave it there!
• Mike Calvo of Serotek wrote Why is it that Apple always seems to get to the future first? which is more philosophical, but also about his new iPhone.
• Josh de Lioncourt has a great article, The Accessible iPhone 3GS, which includes lots of suggestions and tips for other users.
• The Mac-cessibility Podcast team have produced a special edition podcast: More Than Meets the iPhone
• Shane Jackson of Blind World Blog and Podcast has written three blog posts with accompanying podcasts about his iPhone excitement and adventures:
  • iPhone Podcast 1: Count-Down to iPhone!
  • iPhone Podcast 2: Trip to the AT&T store!
  • iPhone Podcast 3: The iPhone!!!

I can’t find much written on the net yet by people using the Zoom, Voice Control, or other iPhone accessibility functions but what I did find seems realistically positive.

Resources for iPhone VoiceOver users are already appearing at a great rate. Holly Anderson has produced a list of VoiceOver Compatible iPhone Applications, and there’s a Google Group/Mailing list for iPhone VoiceOver users which is very active.

Still wondering if the iPhone is for you? CNet’s iPhone Review includes all the features, even touching on accessibility. They awarded it 4 out of a possible 5 stars, with the comment “Excellent”.

Now I’ve written all that I’m coveting an iPhone 3GS of my own, even though I have my perfectly functional iPod Touch and don’t need a mobile phone. It’s tough writing blog posts, I tell you!

- Ricky Buchanan

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The Accessible iPhone 3GS

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Here are all the speech commands I’ve seen people list for the iPhone 3GS. The asterisks after some commands link to the place on the internet I saw the command reported.

Remember, this will only work with a wired headset. Voice control won’t function with a bluetooth headset.

Starting Voice Control

Hold down the phone’s home button or the middle button on your headset until the voice control feature comes up on screen and you hear a double beep in the headphones. This should take about 2 seconds.

Phone Commands

Call a contact

“Call” or “dial” plus the person’s name or nickname as entered into your address book. Optionally add the phone number type at the end, such as “home”, “work”, “mobile”. For example, “Dial John Smith Work” or “Call Mum”.

Call a number

“Call” or “Dial” plus the number, just as you would recite it usually. For example, “Dial 555 9592″.

Make a correction

Say “not that one”, “wrong”, “nope”, “no”, or “not that”.

Music Commands

Start music

Say “play” or “play music”.

Play from a specific playlist

Say “play playlist” and the name of the playlist. For example, “Play playlist gym songs”.

Play from a specific album

Say “play album” plus the name of the album. For example “Play album Dark Side Of The Moon”.

Play from a specific artist

Say “play artist” plus the name of the artist. For example, “Play artist Pink Floyd”. The alternate “Play songs by” plus the name of the artist has also been reported to work*.

Pause music

Say “pause” or “pause music”.

Skip to next song

Say “next song”. The shorter “next” has also been reported to work.*.

Go back to previous song

Say “previous song”.

Shuffle the current playlist

Just say “shuffle”.

Turn on Genius feature

Say “Genius”, “play more like this”, or “play more songs like this”.

Get information about the current track

Say “what’s playing”, or for more specific information say “what song is this”, “who sings this song”, or “who is this song by”.

Misc Commands

Cancel voice control

Simply say “cancel”.

Get help

Say “help”.

Other Languages

Thanks to autrefois on the MacRumors forum I’ve found instructions for locating the iPhone User Guide in your language. These have the voice commands listed in chapter two. Here are the instructions:

Go to the version of Apple’s website for your country/language. If you don’t know it, go to http://www.apple.com/ and choose it at the bottom of the page.

Click on the “Support” tab (or whatever it’s called in your language), on the top of the page by the search bar.

Finally, under iPhone, click on the link for the User’s guide; it should be the first link, at least as I post this. If not, you should be able to track down that language’s user guide from there.

If others are interested in providing me with the appropriate text for other languages I’d be happy to post it here - just contact me.

Do you know of more commands I’ve missed? How are the speech commands working for you? Leave a comment and let me know.

- Ricky Buchanan

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iPhone Voice Commands

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For the most part this application does exactly what you’d expect - stores and catalogs recipes. You can manually type in your own recipes or import ones you find on the Internet. You can even add photos to the recipes. But the most convenient way to get a recipe is from the SousChef cloud. As far as I can tell any registered user of the application can upload recipes to the cloud. You can access the cloud from right within the application itself and use filters and a Google-like search box to quickly find what you need. You might not always find exactly what you’re looking for in a cloud but there’s a pretty decent selection. And did you find what you want it is of course already formatted for SousChef, so no need to manually type anything in or go through the importing process.

But the most useful thing about this application, and what makes it most worthwhile for me, is the ability to generate grocery lists. It will automatically generate a grocery list from any selected recipes or you can create your own grocery list from scratch. Before generating a grocery list you can adjust the serving size of any recipe and it will automatically adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly. While I use this application to generate grocery lists for recipes on occasion I’ve made most use of it by generating my own custom grocery list. I basically entered everything I typically buy on a weekly basis. As the week progresses and I start to get low on things I uncheck the checkboxes next to the appropriate items on my grocery list.

Then when it’s time to go to the grocery store I hit the e-mail button on the bottom of the window and an e-mail is automatically generated from all the items on my grocery list whose checkboxes are unchecked. The items include amounts as well. I then send the e-mail to my helper’s Blackberry and she’s good to go! You can also print out a list if that works better for you. When we return from the grocery store I fill all the checkboxes again to indicate that I’m fully stocked up. As time has passed I’ve added things to my grocery list that I might get on occasion. There’s no limit to how long your grocery list can be. You can also re-order your grocery list in any way you desire.

Before I had this application my grocery list consisted of a piece of paper stuck on my refrigerator that other people had to write on (because I am unable to write). Now with SousChef I’m the one that maintains my grocery list, which is as it should be. And all the recipe-related features, and numerous others that I didn’t mention, are a bonus!

Website: SousChef

- Paul Natsch

Note:  Acacia Tree Software, makers of SousChef, are also developing an iPhone version.

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Maintain Grocery Lists and Recipes with SousChef

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MacSpeech have released a major paid upgrade for Dictate users to MacSpeech Dictate 1.5, as well as a new product Dictate Medical which has an extensive specialised vocabulary for those using MacSpeech Dictate in medical and health-related fields.

What’s new in MacSpeech Dictate 1.5? Lots of things, including:

• Faster and more accurate speech recognition - this version of Dictate is based on the same recognition engine used in Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10, where previous versions used the engine from NaturallySpeaking version 9. The difference is most obvious on slower machines but even on my Mac Pro the difference is noticeable.
• More dialects of English are supported which also increases accuracy for many people. The full list of supported dialects is now:
  • US Spelling
    • American
    • American - Inland Northern
    • American - Southern
    • American - Teens
    • Australian
    • British
    • Indian
    • Latino
    • Southeast Asian
  • UK Spelling
    • Australian
    • British
    • Indian
    • Southeast Asian

  I’m hoping that the spelling and accent type will be unlinked in future versions - your accent is generally formed by where you’re brought up, whereas spelling depends on where you currently live. There are plenty of Americans living in England, for example, and they aren’t currently supported by the spelling options.

• A vocabulary editor has finally been added. This means that you can add, delete, and train words for a profile’s vocabulary, as well as customise a word’s behaviour such as setting capitalisation for words, word spacing, and pronunciation.
• There’s a “Save Profile” menu option so users have the ability to save the current profile before quitting Dictate. For those who have problems with Dictate quitting unexpectedly on occasion, this is very helpful. I have been periodically saving my profile even though I don’t have problems with Dictate crashing - it’s reassuring to know my corrections won’t be lost if something happens!
• Available Commands Window has been reorganised. The commands are now grouped into smaller logical groups to make finding a command easier. As this window is essentially one’s “on-the-go help”, seeing the available commands with less scrolling is a great assistance. Some command names have also been changed to make them more logical, although not all of the inconsistencies have been ironed out yet.

There are other smaller changes too, and there’s been a maintenance upgrade to version 1.5.1 to fix some bugs in the meantime. There’s a full set of release notes available for those who are interested in the changes.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical runs from the same code but has a much wider vocabulary suitable for dictation in medical disciplines. Here’s a list of the wide range of disciplines covered:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Anesthesiology
• Cardiology
• Dentistry
• Dermatology
• Emergency Medicine
• Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
• ENT
• Epidemiology
• Family Medicine
• Fetal Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• General Medical
• Geriatric Medicine
• Hematology
• Infectious Disease
• Internal Medicine
• Medical Education & Writing
• Midwifery
• Neonatal & Perinatal Medicine
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Nursing
• Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Oncology
• Ophthalmology
• Osteopathy
• Pain Medicine
• Pathology
• Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Dentistry, Pediatric Gastroenterology
• Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (US Only)
• Podiatry
• Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Pulmonary Disease
• Radiology, Radiation Therapy, Vascular & Interventional Radiology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Lab
• Speech & Language Pathology (US Only)
• Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Colon and Rectal Surgery, Hand Surgery, Neurosurgery, Oral & Facial Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery
• Urology

MacSpeech Dictate Medical also supports standard profiles for dictation of general work not related to medicine.

MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 retails for US$199 including a high quality noise-concelling microphone. Upgrades from MacSpeech Dictate 1.3 and below are US$54.95.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical currently retails for US$595 including a high quality noise-cancelling microphone. MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 customers can crossgrade for US$345, and customers with previous MacSpeech Dictate for US$395.

Website: MacSpeech Dictate

- Ricky Buchanan

If you are going to buy or upgrade MacSpeech Dictate or Dictate Medical online, please consider using the links in this article. If you do, I'll get a commission - a small percentage of the sale price. It won't cost you anything and it will help to support me and ATMac.

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MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 and Dictate Medical Available

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After coming home last Monday, I’m needing to sleep about 13 hours a day which is frustrating me hugely. It’s especially frustrating to me that a lot of the “awake” time I can only manage to listen to audio books or do other very passive and low-energy things. There is a small amount of time every day when I can be as active as I usually am (remember I’m bedridden to start with) keeps being swallowed up with the business of living - paying bills and keeping timesheets for my carers and other necessary tasks.

I have managed to work a little on the designs for my other websites - Not Done Living, No Pity City, Bedbound/Unlimited, and Not Just Work. These take a lot less mental energy than writing ATMac articles, luckily for me!

Hopefully in another week or perhaps two I’ll be up to writing articles again. In the mean time I’d be happy to run any guest posts anybody has to offer - just email me. See you soon.

- Ricky Buchanan

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Back Home, Still Sick

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Sorry for the inconvenience - I’ve been battling with influenza and two secondary infections so I had not realised the planned hospital visit was so close!

Stay tuned for more articles as soon as I can manage it … you may want to subscribe so you don’t miss them!

- Ricky Buchanan

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We’ll Be Back Shortly …

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The most important thing that’s happened is a lot of people have got a lot of great information from ATMac. It’s hard for our web statistics software to tell exactly how many visitors, but it’s over 150,000! This year there have been 500-1000 visitors each day, with an average of about 700.

ATMac now has 318 posts, containing a total of 105,526 words. To give you a comparison, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” was around 107,000 words - and that’s a very hefty book!

As well as me, posts have been written by my trusty companions Joe Barnick and Paul Nasch. Paul wrote the article, “iPhone/iPod Touch: The Ultimate E-book Reader” which is currently the most popular article on the entire site.

We’ve also had guest posts from Kati Lea, David Niemeijer, Colin Oberin, Kerry Mackenzie, Esther, and Josh de Lioncourt.

There have been 660 comments left by around 195 different people. All together, you wonderful readers have left 37,519 words of text in those comments - that’s more than twice as many words as are contained in that timeless classic, “The Little Prince“!

Our posts are divided into 53 categories and labeled with 586 different tags to try to make it as easy as possible to find what you’re looking for. There’s also a lot more things listed on the resources page.

We’ve done a lot in two years. I’ve done a lot in two years. You’ve all helped me, by reading and subscribing and commenting and writing. Thank you!

Here’s to lots more years!!

- Ricky Buchanan
Photograph of wonderful birthday cake is by Ansik.

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Happy 2nd Birthday ATMac!

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Developed jointly by AssistiveWare and Sennott Consulting, the program is full featured but together with an iPod Touch/iPhone the costs are only a fraction of what is charged for similar palmtop-based programs.

David Niemeijer, AsisstiveWare’s CEO said, “When we set out to design Proloquo2Go we knew we wanted to provide the kind of power typically only found in desktop applications. The iPhone has allowed us to do just that, develop a full-featured, fully customizable communication solution that fits right in your pocket.”

I really think that the low price and fantastic features, plus the “cool factor” of the iPhone/iPod Touch will mean this app has the potential change the lives of some AAC users - especially young people for whom the “cool factor” may mean that they’re more willing to use their device in public. If you or somebody you’re close to becomes a Proloquo2Go user, please let ATMac know how you go - we’ll be listening closely!

Proloquo2Go is available on the App Store for an introductory price of US$149.99/€109.99/£84.99. After a few weeks the price will be US$199.99/€149.99/£114.99. Prices in other countries will be comparable - go to Proloquo2Go at the iTunes App Store to see the price for your location. Bundles with speakers and cases are available in some countries - details are available on the Proloquo2Go Bundle Details page.

Website: Proloquo2Go

- Ricky Buchanan

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Proloquo2Go Is A Go!

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Guest Post by Colin Oberin.

[Ed: Colin Oberin has very kindly agreed to write about knowledge of the art of dictation. His dictation was - and is - to a secretary taking shorthand or to a tape recorder for later transcription, but I believe many of the principles are the same as when dictating for a speech to text program such as MacSpeech Dictate or Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I have added notes where appropriate to explain how these ideas can be used specifically by MacSpeech Dictate users. - Ricky (pictured below with her Teddy)]

I have lost count of the many thousands of letters, memos etc. which I dictated in a career of nearly 50 years (and counting). However, I clearly remember the first one. Exactly 2 months after my sixteenth birthday I started work and during the very first week I was asked to write a letter to one of our customers. I remember sitting at my desk jotting a few words on a pad and then crossing them out again as I tried to work out how to write a professional sounding letter. At that moment the Sales Manager walked by and asked how I was getting on in my first week. He then asked what the sales staff had me doing. I naively said I had been asked to write this letter.

Without hesitation the Sales Manager said he would teach me how to write a letter. I was instantly relieved – but then I found out what he had in mind. After sitting me down in his office the Sales Manager called in his secretary. In those days letters were typed on manual typewriters using carbon paper between the pages to generate a copy for the file. That was a specialist job and mistakes were hard to correct so it was important to get it right first time.

Most letters were dictated to a secretary (always female in those sexist days) who took down the letter in shorthand and then typed it up later. Letters could also be hand written and handed to the secretary to be typed up but I later discovered that this was frowned upon. The secretary was friendly and polite but old enough to be my mother and as she sat there with her pencil poised and shorthand pad balanced on her knee I was petrified. The Sales Manager asked me what I wanted to say in my letter. Not surprisingly I was dumbstruck. He then said: “This is how to do it” and promptly dictated the letter for me with no notes and no apparent preparation. He then told me that in future I was to dictate all my letters to one of the secretaries and that although he was happy for me to write my letters out by hand while I was still learning what to say, I should screw up the handwritten draft before I started dictating.

It was a tough initiation but a lesson which stood me in good stead for the rest of my career. I followed the advice and slowly improved to the point where, after a few months, I didn’t need to write out my letters in full any more. I just jotted down a few points to guide my thinking and was then ready to start dictating. After a year or two I was able to dictate even complex letters without any written notes and only a rough outline in my head.

The aim of dictation is, of course, to clearly and concisely convey verbally, the wording you want converted to written form. While I was learning the art of dictating to a secretary, the secretary would give me tips on how to dictate in a way which made it easier for her to understand what I wanted typed. If I was mumbling or not speaking clearly enough, or not explaining what punctuation I wanted, the secretary would remind me. In that way mistakes were minimised and accuracy improved. Today the dictation program on your computer won’t give you that type of personalised guidance (or ask about your weekend) and it will not be effective in transcribing your dictation if you aren’t dictating in a way the program can interpret accurately. Therefore you need to work out for yourself the technique which gets the best results from your program.

Whether dictating for human or automatic transcription, the same principles apply and, based on my experience, attention to the following points should improve your dictation skills and hence the accuracy of the transcribed result:

• Engage your brain before you mouth – knowing what you want to say before you start to speak is important. Correcting/changing the spoken word is easy in conversation but extremely difficult during dictation – better to get it right first time
• Have a plan – if you are not experienced at dictating, learn the art. Start by writing out what you want to say and then reading it aloud to the dictation program. Then try dictating from memory what you have written rather than actually reading aloud and see if that works better. As your technique improves so will the accuracy of transcription by the program. With practice you should progress from writing out what you want to dictate to just jotting down an outline and ultimately to just making a written (or in time mental) note of points you want to cover before you start dictating [Ed: For those of us using MacSpeech dictate because of disabilities writing out a draft won't be practical in most cases, but I find it still helps to think about what I'm going to dictate before starting. Figure out what comes first, what points I need to make, what comes last. I don't know if this is less effective than writing things out as I've never been able to try writing things out, but it works for me.]
• Practice makes perfect – in dictation as in other things. If you’re inexperienced try dictating into a recorder and then playing it back. Listen critically as if you had to write down what is said and see if you can improve clarity next time. [Ed: This is easily done when you already have a computer with a microphone. You can use a stand-alone program like Voice Candy, or simply use the "Press play" command in MacSpeech dictate to have it play the audio of the most recently dictated phrase.]
• Don’t gabble – speaking slowly and clearly yields better results
• Don’t become a metronome – speaking in phrases, just as you would if giving a speech, is much more effective than s p e a k i n g s l o w l y a n d c l e a r l y b u t w i t h o u t a n y i n t o n a t i o n or p h r a s i n g.
• Don’t speak too softly – if the machine can’t hear you it won’t ask you to speak up
• The program will record what you say – not what you meant to say, so try to speak clearly and only say what you want written
• Avoid fillers – you know when we are not sure what to say, you know, we fill the space with, umm, fillers. Avoid them or, you know, the program will, err, type them.
• Use the pause function – if you are not sure what to say next then simply hit pause while you think before starting again. That sure beats having to go back and edit out all the “you know” type filler words later. [Ed: Using MacSpeech Dictate you could use "Go to sleep" to turn the microphone off temporarily while you think, then "Wake up" to turn the microphone back on for dictating again.]
• If writer’s block strikes dictate an instruction to yourself - such as “finish this paragraph later” - and proceed with the parts you can get done rather than sitting worrying about what to say next. You can always fix the order with judicious cutting and pasting during editing
• Don’t use truncated speech – written language differs from common speech and if “ya wanna look OK written” dictate that “you want your wording to look appropriate when written”
• Remember to punctuate as you dictate – when you want a comma or a full stop inserted or a new paragraph started, include the instruction in your dictation. Various programs may handle this in different ways so take the time to learn what your program does and where possible change the settings to the version of punctuation (US English, Australian English etc.) you prefer [Ed: I believe that MacSpeech Dictate will adjust its expectations of punctuation names - such as "period" or "full stop" - according to the region set in the System Preferences "International" pane, Formats tab.]
• Learn how to make a correction – either just say “Correct ….” then proceed by saying what you should have dictated and correct it later when editing or learn the options available in your program such as how to back space and over-record if your program allows this [Ed: With MacSpeech Dictate it's best if you make corrections by voice as you go, as the program will learn from your corrections. Use the "Show recognition window" command so you can see MacSpeech's other guesses for your phrases - then you can easily use the "Pick 1/2/3/etc." command to select an alternative, editing it if necessary. Watch the How to Use Phrase Training video if you aren't sure how this works.]

Once the dictation is finished the job is not done. Proof reading the written word to correct mistakes (whether your mistake or the program’s mistake doesn’t matter) is vital. If, like most people, you tend to read what you meant to say rather than what is actually written down when you proof read, try reading the written word aloud. That way is easier to notice problems with the written word. Another trick is to read what is written to see if it conveys the right message – not to look for mistakes. [Ed: With OS X it is simple to have the computer read the text back to you, this function is built into the operating system. You can simply set up a shortcut key to speak the selected text or if you would like fancier functions such as word/sentence highlighting and the ability to pause speech I recommend the GhostReader application.]

Dictation is an art but once learned it will save time and allow you to order your thoughts so as to create a coherent narrative requiring minimal editing. For most people, dictation results in better structured and more creative writing of letters, essays etc. than either handwriting or typing out your own thoughts. Somehow the mechanics of recording your thoughts onto paper or a screen gets in the way of interesting and creative writing for most people.

- Colin Oberin

[Ed:

If you are going to buy or upgrade MacSpeech Dictate or Dictate Medical online, please consider using the links in this article. If you do, I'll get a commission - a small percentage of the sale price. It won't cost you anything and it will help to support me and ATMac.

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Dictating Well: Principles From A Master

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