People want to use voice recognition software on their Mac. Doctors love the clinical lines and smooth texture of a Macbook. The brand certainly carries status and if you’re not locked into any particular PC medical practice software, why not go with Apple? The problem is that Mac is so committed to being exclusive and a cut above that they don’t make it easy for other devices or software to simply plug-and-play. There are exceptions, but many systems are built with PC in mind.
This is true of Dragon, a product that has been more PC-ready over its existence. Apple products have come a long way thanks to the likes of Steve Jobs but they still remain detached. There have been strides to bridge the gap from Nuance, who released Dragon for Mac but the shortcomings have made the software problematic. It’s easy to see the appeal of using speech recognition software on a Macbook but the experience can be trying for anyone who’s used it on a PC. Dragon for Mac ran into trouble with buggy versions that made basic usage okay but limited. Trying to specialise and streamline, it lacks some of the versatility and feature-rich operational value of Dragon for PC.
While there are many Dragon for Mac users who have managed to make a workable solution out of the product, it’s struggled to build a case based on one iffy release after another. Just read the reviews. While we tried to promote Dragon for Mac and integrate the system, it seems like a waste of everyone’s time if we know there’s a much better option waiting around the corner. We’ve had several clients drop their Macbook to return to PC mostly for Dragon’s sake! If we meet someone who’s interested in incorporating Dragon into their work flow system, we recommend a PC every single time.
There are ways to make Dragon for Mac user-friendly but it does seem like fitting a square wheel when a round one is available. If you’re brand committed to Apple – no problem. Our workaround solution to give you the best of both worlds is to suggest clients partition their drive and have Parallels running simultaneously. Installing Dragon into the Windows environment works surprisingly well – if you’ve allocate enough memory. While it does mean you may have to spend on the subscription to Parallels and possibly buy another Microsoft Office license – it’s doable.
So, the bottom line is that if you’ve already got a Macbook, there are ways to get speech recognition working for you. However, if you’re starting from scratch or looking to replace your existing hardware – we’d strongly recommend you opt for PC. Right now, it’s light years ahead of Mac’s offering when it comes to Dragon, which has actually been discontinued. Dragon for Windows is onto its 15th iteration while Dragon for Mac never made it past version 6. Obviously there should be some cross-pollination when it comes to adopting new technology but this series has really proven to be a failure to launch. Get in touch if you’d like to harness the power of Dragon on your Macbook.