Best dictaphone/transcription workflow?

Question

I've decided that the best way for me to get my ideas on paper is to dictate them, because I find that typing/writing 'gets in the way' and prevents me from properly expressing my ideas as they arise.

I've been looking at digital dictaphones, and there are many of them, but I wonder if anyone has any recommendations for getting the recordings transcribed. In an ideal world I'd love it if I could just record something and it would be converted to text immediately, but I realise there would probably need to be a bit more work than that. I really don't want to have to type the recordings though, if I can avoid it - I don't mind tidying them up manually, as long as the 'meat' of the text is there.

I've come across NaturallySpeaking from Dragon but I don't know if it is any good or whether it has specific requirements in terms of recordings.

Does anyone else use dictation as a means of getting their thoughts down?

Answer 1

I've tried using Naturally Speaking, but abandoned it. Not because of technical issues, though - it was really quite good! I had to go back and read things over and catch little errors, but I'd say it was... I don't know, maybe 98% accurate?

The problem was that I couldn't read over what I'd just said, and I'd lose track of my thoughts and get all turned around. I'd thought it would be really efficient, but it ended up being a quick way to produce total crap.

Still, that was just me, so I would certainly recommend giving it a try. And I think Naturally Speaking is pretty much the industry standard, although my phone has a dictation function that's almost as good, and that was totally free! (check your phone!)

Answer 2

Well, I guess the best to deal with this is to record your own thoughts in an audio recorder, and then later pen them down yourself while the playback. This way, there are two main advantages required in writing that can be accomplished.

One, you can get spell out your thoughts with out any setback for the need of writing. Two, When in the playback and you write, you may rectify minute errors, be it grammatical or thoughtful insights.

Thanks.