TM-Town Expert Translator Q&A

Hi Saul,

I am currently using Dragon Professional Individual 14 (the latest version, which came out recently) on Windows 10. Dragon supplies the voice recognition functionality, but I also use a number of other tools (most of them open source), to add extremely powerful macro/command functionality to Dragon:

(1) Vocola (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7BDTNNLQnk + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgjWuHhD7zA + http://vocola.net/),
(2) Unimacro (see: http://qh.antenna.nl/unimacro/), and
(3) KnowBrainer 2015 (see e.g.: http://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/categories.cfm?catid=3&entercat=y + http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=92).

I am also currently using Mark Lillibridge's amazing trick ("_select_and_say_test.py") to get Basic Text Control working in any Windows program/text field. For info on this, see our current discussion in the VoceCoders Yahoo list: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VoiceCoder/conversations/topics/8434

Hmm, as far as I remember, it was a gradual thing, where initially I only used SR for writing emails and posts in mailing lists, etc., and maybe the occasional small translation job in my CAT tool, until, over time, I suddenly found that working on a computer without Dragon installed is quite distressing.

Hi Samuel,

I'm afraid that I don't know of any training courses aimed at helping translators get up to speed with speech recognition. If I had more free time, I might consider setting something up myself.

Currently, there are several very good places for information, and I highly recommend all three of these:

(1) Speech recognition for translators Yahoo Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SR_for_translators/conversations/messages
(2) Speech recognition forum on Proz.com: http://www.proz.com/forum/speech_recognition-238.html
(3) The KnowBrainer forums: http://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/index.cfm
(4) VoiceCoder Yahoo Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VoiceCoder/conversations/messages (for the more technical among us)

Also note that the guys behind KnowBrainer have very graciously created a special subform (called "Third-Party Command Utilities - Vocola, Unimacro, VoicePower, Python... "), dedicated to open source SR software, etc.

Regarding having to learn to write and write scriptlets/macros, etc., one good thing about KnowBrainer 2015, for example, is that you don't have to write any scripts to get started, as the program actually ships with hundreds of them already. See: http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=92

Regarding your concerns about paying for something that you might not end up using, this is how I solved it (please don't tell anyone). I initially started using a cracked version of Dragon, which allowed me to use a fully functional professional version for as long as I felt was necessary to decide whether I wanted to buy it or not. Since I am a busy person, a 30-day trial simply won't cut it. I need to be able to use a program for several months, sometimes even up to a year (usually for many small periods, here and there, whenever I have some free time), before I really know whether it's for me or not. In the end, I purchased a licence for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, and have recently (happily) upgraded to Dragon Professional Individual 14.

Hi Samuel,

I'm afraid I have no experience with using Dragon in SDL Studio, although I have heard from various colleagues that Studio is supposed to be one of the less good programs for using with Dragon (as it doesn't allow Basic/Full Text Control). The best, currently, are apparently memoQ and Dejà-Vu. And, of course, Microsoft Word.

However, as I have mentioned elsewhere already, Mark Lillibridge (who is one of the main people working on Vocola 2 and NatLink.) (see: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VoiceCoder/conversations/topics/8434) recently developed a workaround, allowing Basic Text Control in any text area on your computer, which would make working with Dragon in Studio a lot better (as this would allow you to not only dictate words in your target pane, but also select and/or correct them). If I have a moment, I will make a short screencast (and stick it on YouTube), testing Dragon with Studio 2014!

Well, the headset vs. stand alone mic issue is a hotly debated topic, and in my experience there are a few people who would rather die than use a desktop mic, swearing that headsets are way & way better than any desktop mic could ever be (Jim Wardell, I'm looking at you)(see the recent Proz.com panel: "Leveraging voice recognition technology for greater efficiency panel" @ http://www.proz.com/virtual-conferences/668/program/10534 where we talked about this a bit). However, as you might already have guessed: I am a big desktop mic fan. I have never used a headset mic, and never will. I think that having to have one of those things strapped to your head would take away quite a lot of the magic of using SR, and make me feel like some kind of cyborg.

I am currently using a rather expensive ($279.00) desktop mic, the Speechware USB 3-in-1 TableMike (which I bought through KnowBrainer; http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=402), but have gotten equally good results using a cheap Logitech desktop mic! However, not all desktop mics perform the same, so it is very well possible that yours will perform abysmally. There is only one way to find out. I actually did quite extensive testing, between my expensive TableMike and my very inexpensive Logitech desktop mic, and could hardly tell the difference, if at all. This is the Logitech one I tested: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00009EHJV/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

Oh yeah, my TableMike also has an excellent noise cancelling system and I can dictate while listening to background music.

My wife is currently using the Logitech one with Dragon Dictate for Mac, and getting great results.

The speech recognition software you are using will also make a difference here. For example, newer versions of Dragon Professional have something called a "Far Field" acoustic model, which is designed especially for microphones that are farther away, i.e. built-in laptop mics and desktop mics. Older versions of Dragon don't have this, so will perform less well with desktop mics. Sadly, however, the Far Field model is only available for a few languages (e.g., for some reason, it is available for US English, but not UK English), but I expect Nuance will change this in the future.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking13 includes support for end-users that use Dragon with a
laptop that has a built-in microphone. This type of microphone is considered to be
‘far’ from the user’s mouth when they are performing dictation.

The user may use the Far Field BestMatch IV acoustic model or the Far Field
BestMatch V acoustic model when they create a User Profile. Both of these models
are available in the Speech acoustic model drop-down list on the Choose
speech recognition options screen.

(Dragon info pdf @ http://goo.gl/Gicwv7)

Hi Thomas,

That sounds like a very good idea! In fact, my wife has done exactly this on several occasions, and I know that there are quite a few people out there who also use SR for data entry work, where they might, e.g., receive a pile of papers and dictate them into electronic form.

In fact, I even know someone who uses Dragon to help them transcribe hard to understand audio material. What they do is listen to the difficult to understand speaker (e.g. a YouTube video with c conference speaker) through headphones, while dictating what they hear into a Word document using Dragon. Sounds far-fetched perhaps, but it actually works!

How about some Java syntax highlighting Markdown:

Hmm, I know very little about juggling multiple languages, and am one of the lucky ones, as all I need is English.

I suppose that if I did want to dictate into, e.g., German, using the German version of Dragon, all my Vocola/KnowBrainer commands would still be in English (since I defined/created them myself), so I wouldn't face the same problem as you.

Is there no way on the Mac to, say, dictate in Dutch, but keep your OS in English, and all your Dictation commands in English?

PS: Markdown = cool!

Sounds like a good idea to meet Kevin!

One downside of using speech recognition (SR) is that it can sometimes be harder to move words or phrases around or correct things by voice than with your keyboard or mouse. Having said that, this usually isn't such a problem as I like to combine speech recognition with keyboard/mouse use, rather than just try to do everything by voice alone, or keyboard/mouse alone. If you ask me, this is where the real benefits of SR start to appear: once you learn how to juggle the various input methods smoothly and enter flow.

For example, I am writing this reply using a combination of Dragon and my keyboard and mouse. For example, I might start dictating a sentence and then edit it using my keyboard and mouse. or I might just dictate the entire sentence and do any editing by voice alone. It will really depend on the specific thing that I am trying to do at any given moment. The better you get at using Dragon's various correction and editing features, the faster you will get at using voice alone. However, some things remain faster using a combination method.

Another potential downside involves lack of support for a particular program on your computer. Although this is an entire topic in itself, I will quickly try to explain what I mean. In Dragon (I know that there are other SR solutions out there, but 90% of people reading this will probably be using Nuance's Dragon, in one form or another), there are various levels of so-called "text control" (Dragon dictation support in a text field) that may be available in a particular program, the highest level being "Full Text Control" (Dragon allows you to select words you just dictated, and then edit them using various commands such as "correct that" and "spell that"), which is followed by "Basic Text Control". Sadly, Dragon only provides Full Text Control, or even Basic Text Control, in a very limited number of Windows and Mac programs, primarily limited to very standard ones such as MS Word, Notepad, and a few others. Recently, however, someone in the open source community managed to devise an ingenious workaround (involving Python and the NatLink project), but this is a topic in its own right and I won't go into it here.

Another downside, which isn't really a downside, is that when starting with SR, you might have to rethink how you go about translating or doing things. Some people find the change quite difficult to deal with, and end up giving up. However, if you are like me, you will soon enough discover that it is more than worth it, and that these changes to your workflows are all positive. I have noticed, for example, that dictating my translations has greatly improved their flow and readability, which is yet another topic I would like to expand on elsewhere.