Voice Dictation On Your Laptop

For many years now, I have been a big fan of the dictation capabilities of Android and Apple smartphones and tablets. These devices, and I think Android is slightly better than Apple at this, do an excellent job converting my speech to text. This is in contrast to the dictation software built into Windows or even third party programs such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The Windows speech software is just terrible and messes up far too many words. Dragon does a better job but is cumbersome, can slow up the computer, and does not integrate well with many programs.

Now, Google has made dictation available on my laptop when I am using Google Docs. I have tested the dictation features on my laptop using the microphone built into my laptop. In fact, I am using it right now to dictate this blog post. It has made very few mistakes.  I can review my work in real time as I go along.  It works with the same quality I have grown to enjoy on my Android phone and tablet.

One big limitation on using this service is that you must be connected to the Internet in order for it to work properly. keep in mind that you can work on your  smartphone using your 4G connection so that you don't need to be tied to WiFi.  Laptops are WiFi only.

For those of you who like to dictate I strongly encourage you to give it a try. All you need to do is start a new document in Google Docs. Click on the Tools button and select Voice Typing. A microphone will appear on the left side of your screen which you can turn on or off with a click of your mouse.

This can be very helpful for dictation of any document. You may find it preferable to using a voice recorder which then needs to be sent away for transcription. With Google dictation, you get instant results and have your document as soon as you say the words. You can edit as you go along. If something does go wrong. just start using the keyboard to make whatever changes you like then click on the microphone again to continue dictating.  Combine the ease of use with the fact that you are saving the firm transcription costs and this technology can be a win - win.

Because Google Docs is interactive with your computer, phone, or tablet, you can begin a document on any one of those devices and then continue later with whichever device happens to be handy at the moment.

In addition to simple dictation, Google Docs also handles a variety of voice commands that allow you to do some simple formatting and editing without ever touching your keyboard. If you are interested in learning more about the voice commands you may take a look at the options at this link.

Despite its convenience and ease of use, I have not recommended using Google Docs for the creation of many legal documents because the ability to format a page can be difficult.   Certain advanced formatting options are just not available in Google Docs. Drafting legal documents including letters briefs, or anything else that requires more than minimal formatting is probably still best done using Microsoft Word or Word Perfect.

Of course, you may want to dictate the bulk of your document using Google Docs then save your work as a Microsoft Word document, or cut and paste the text you dictated into a Word Perfect document.  From there, you or your secretary can format the document as needed.

For those of you who find typing difficult, or simply think dictation is faster and easier than typing, and simply don't want to wait for transcription services, this may be a great alternative for you.