Who doesn’t have a smartphone nowadays? I might even win if I make a bet that you’re reading this article on your phone.
We see a lot of mobile app ads, and some of them have successfully replaced individual gadgets. Certainly, smartphones have become indispensable in the twenty-first century.
Speech-to-Text features aren’t something new. However, technological advances have greatly improved speech recognition, and lately more smartphone users are appreciating and taking advantage of speech-to-text mobile apps as well as computer software. Nobody hates convenience, do we?
Why spend your precious time typing and hurting your fingers if you can push fewer buttons? Here are some tips to boosts your blog posts success when using dictation apps:
Always prepare an outline in advance
This helps you stutter less and come up with complete sentences.
Having an idea of what you are going to talk about will result in smoother and more natural sentences.
Don’t have time? You can dictate your outline ahead of time.
Provide identifying information
Try to always include dates, addresses, and spellings. The details that you give will help your readers understand your ideas or description better.
Get ready to push the pause button
If you think a long pause in your dictation is coming, hit that pause button.
Get the time you need to collect your thoughts and proceed.
Get the Right gear
A good mic is a good investment. Choose your preferred device among the three types: wireless, wired, or built-in mic.
Your choice of mic can also increase or decrease the word accuracy.
Get to know your recording device
Familiarize yourself with the features such as pause, insert, and delete.
Easily controlling your device will let you focus on other things such as your sentence patterns and coherence.
Always test your mic before every recording
Be sure that it can capture your voice clearly by trying a few words before you proceed dictating.
Check your pronunciation and test out your voice
Making sure your voice is clear means less editing time. You may need to exercise your vocal tract, jaw, and tongue by vocalizing before recording.
Mind your tone and pace
You might want to enunciate clearly while speaking at the same speed when you are having a conversation with someone.
Some people, when anxious, excited, or emotional, badly articulate or unintentionally muffle their voice.
Consider using placeholder words
Sometimes there are some words like proper names that a dictation app refuses to recognize.
It might insist on mangling it, so it’s a good idea to use a word for the meantime instead.
When you edit, simply search for the word you want to replace.
Spell out difficult words
When you use easily confused or unfamiliar terms, you should consider spelling it out.
Ditch abbreviations
Most abbreviations have multiple meanings, so they can rise to confusion.
Short sentences will do
As long as your sentences are complete, you’ll be understood by your readers.
Anyway, comprehending longer sentences takes more time. And long sentences scare readers.
Choose a place with minimal noise when dictating blog posts
Your best choice is a quiet room because louder background noise would compromise your word recognition accuracy.
Punctuate for clarity
Say the words “dollar sign”, “comma”, “period”, “percent sign”.
Remember: Paragraphs matter
Start a new line by saying “new line.”
Your blog would not be appealing if you have blocks. Divide them into a smaller 3-sentence paragraph to look friendlier.
Don’t forget to use apostrophes where needed
Contractions of the verb “is” and the use of “s” after a noun to show possessive property should be emphasized.
Have a cup of water on standby beside you while dictate
A dry mouth or throat affects the quality of your voice. Your dictation app may even have difficulty recognizing your words.
Always remember that your dictation is intended for other people
Consider them and try to make it easier to understand and more colorful or vivid to imagine.
Improve your dictation app’s speech recognition accuracy
Train the app constantly by familiarizing it with the way you pronounce.
With all of the languages and accents, not everyone pronounces words in the same way.
Mark where your entry ends
Say something like, “end of dictation.”
This comes handy when you have to edit.
What is the best voice dictation app?
You can go ahead and read reviews, but I already did that. So the name Dragon Professional Individual is a highly recommended dictation app. It’s no wonder that it gets mentioned or recommended with all of the features that come with it. It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac.
How do you talk text?
Tap Messages App Icon on your iPhone and then choose which friend you want to send a message to. Or you can make a new message by tapping the blue button in the top-right corner of Messages menu.
Give the text field a tap to open the keyboard.
Push the Dictation icon which looks like a microphone.
You will be asked to enable dictation on a pop-up menu.
Say your message aloud while holding your phone in front of you or just speak normally as you do when using Air Pods or ear pods.
Unfortunately, you cannot command the app to send your message, so you’ll have to push the send button on the screen.
How to use a phone in dictation system?
Download a dictation app from Play Store or App Store if you don’t have them yet.
Typing without using your hands is even faster boosting your productivity and creativity.
How do I dictate punctuation on android?
Just speak out the name of punctuation that you want to insert.
For instance, Hi! What are you up to these days? That’s: hi exclamation mark what are you up to these days question mark.
How do you put punctuation in voice text?
Punctuations are added by naming them.
Say period to add a period.
How to turn on speech to text on android?
Bring up your device’s keyboard and look for the mic icon which is located on the left side of the space bar.
With that, you can now start dictating.
FREE DICTATION APPS
Transcribe App
Voice memos and videos into text files? Do it best with Transcribe!
Pros:
Import and export files
Supports more than 80 languages
Cons:
Only available on App Store
In-app purchases to unlock most features
Speechnotes
Add greetings, signatures, and other texts you use frequently with Speechnotes custom keys. Simply tap on the app icon and the mic icon next and you are all set.
Pros:
In-app purchase
No account needed
Google Gboard – The Google Keyboard
Download Google Keyboard for free from Play Store. This app is said to support more than 60 languages.
Pros:
Compatible with Google Translate
Basic speech-to-text tool
Cons:
Absence of shortcut commands
PAID DICTATION APPS
Dragon Professional
The best bet for those looking into buying a business-grade speech-to-text app is Dragon Professional.
Just say the word and you’ll be making a spreadsheet or editing a document with all the convenience.
The more time you spend using it, the more it adapts to your voice and choice of words.
Pros:
Very high accuracy rate
Approximate typing speed equivalent per minute: 160 words
Cons:
Aimed at professionals (who have a budget)
Pricey @$300
Otter
Highly recommended for smartphone and laptop users, Otter allows you to give real-time commands.
Organizing, editing, or searching during meetings, lectures, and interviews will never be the same.
Pros:
Premium plan: space for 6,000 minutes of dictation to text
Available in a team plan
Free tier
Cons:
Needs speaker ID assignments for multiple speakers
Verbit
This dictation app is marketed to offer ease and convenience to students and entrepreneurs.
By using both algorithms and neural networks, it can differentiate speakers even when the accent is changed.
It does more by incorporating information from the news into your recordings.
Pros:
Offers services from human editors
Cons:
Isn’t always live
GOOGLE VOICE TYPING COMMANDS
As seen on https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226?hl=en.
Select text by saying:
• Select last [number] words
• Select last word
• Select next [number] words
• Select next word
• Select word
• Select last [number] lines
• Select last line
• Select next [number] lines
• Select next line
• Select line
• Select last [number] characters
• Select last character
• Select next [number] characters
• Select next character
• Select last [number] paragraphs
• Select last paragraph
• Select next [number] paragraphs
• Select next paragraph
• Select paragraph
• Select all matching text
• Select [word or phrase]
• Select all
• Select list items at current level
• Select list item
• Select none
• Unselect
• Deselect
Format documents by saying:
Text formatting
• Apply title
• Apply subtitle
• Apply heading [1–6]
• Apply normal text
• Capitalize [word or phrase]
• All caps [word or phrase]
• Strikethrough
• Superscript
• Subscript
• Underline
• Italicize
• Bold
• Italics
Text color and highlighting
• Highlight
• Background color [color]
• Remove background color
• Highlight [color]
• Remove highlight
• Text color [color]
Font size
• Font size [6-400]
• Increase font size
• Make bigger
• Decrease font size
• Make smaller
Paragraph formatting
• Line spacing [1-100]
• Line spacing single
• Line spacing double
• Increase indent
• Decrease indent
Alignment
• Align justified
• Align center
• Center align
• Right align
• Left align
• Align left
• Align right
Columns
• Column options
• Apply 3 columns
• Apply 2 columns
• Apply 1 column
• Insert column break
Lists
• Insert bullet
• Create bulleted list
• Insert number
• Create numbered list
Remove formatting
• Remove strikethrough
• Remove underline
• Remove italics
• Remove bold
• Remove formatting
• Clear formatting
Edit documents by saying:
• Insert horizontal line
• Insert bookmark
• Insert comment [then say your comment]
• Insert header
• Insert footer
• Insert equation
• Insert footnote
• Insert page break
• Insert link [then say the URL you want to use]
• Insert table of contents
• Update table of contents
• Delete table of contents
• Copy link
• Delete
• Delete link
• Delete [word or phrase]
• Delete last word
• Paste
• Cut
• Copy
Add or edit tables by saying:
• Exit table
• Insert table
• Remove table
• Insert row
• Insert new row
• Insert new row below
• Insert new row above
• Delete row
• Remove row
• Insert column
• Insert new column
• Insert new column on the left
• Delete column
• Remove column
• Insert table [1-20] rows by [1-20] columns
• Delete table
Scroll
• Scroll up
• Scroll down
Stop voice typing
say “Stop listening.”
Resume voice typing
To move the cursor to the end of the paragraph and start voice typing again, say “Resume.”
To move the cursor to the end of a particular word or phrase, say “Resume with [word or phrase].”
Here are all the commands you can say to resume voice typing:
• Go to [word]
• Go to the end of the line
• Go to the end of the paragraph
• Move to the end of the line
• Move to the end of the paragraph
• Resume with [word or phrase]
• Resume
Commands to open help
• See all voice commands
• Voice commands list
• Voice typing help
Using the tips and resources above, you’ll now be well on your way to dictating 20,000+ words per day
Blogging is fun as it is when you love what you’re doing. But if you have the options to make it more convenient for you, why not grab it? Try recording your voice and get it on with dictation apps or services. You might get surprised how this can transform your blogging experience.
I’ve been dictation blogging for over 9 years now and it’s truly changed my life. I teach fellow bloggers the ins and outs of voice blogging so they can take their productivity to a whole new level.
