People don’t like to write. They can’t find the time or the enthusiasm.  Or they feel that what they produce is stilted, formal and doesn’t capture their authentic voice. It’s no wonder, then, that people are using speech to text tools to make blogging easier.

There are definite advantages to dictating your thoughts and having the words magically appear on screen but these tools aren’t always perfect.

I’m not talking about software such as Dragon Dictate, which is used by professionals in all industries and is highly recommended.

It takes some time to train it to recognise your accent and speech patterns and you still need to check the text for errors, but it’s effective.

However, Dragon only recognises the voice of the main user, so it’s no good for transcribing podcasts or interviews with multiple speakers. A speech to text tool which could capture more than one person would be an ideal solution, if it works.

Online Speech to Text Converters

Some months ago, I was introduced to one such tool, still in its early phase – an online programme where users upload audio files and have them transcribed almost in real time, and can be played back and edited directly in the software.

It seemed like the perfect answer – reasonably priced, quick and easy to use. Unfortunately, while the speech to text conversion was swift, the editing process was incredibly time-consuming and frustrating.

I edit transcripts every so often that clients have had done by online providers and had to correct errors such as poor grammar, incorrect tenses and misheard words but this software took that to a whole new level.

The Issues with This Tool

It took me three times as long to edit within the programme than in my own document. And play-back was fiddly.

Words were highlighted as it said them, and I had to click onto them each time.

When I took words out, they still played on the original audio, so following along was confusing.

And although it had captured both speakers, it struggled to pick up unfamiliar, unclear words or pronunciations.

Even worse, sentences would change user halfway through, so the device had incorrectly marked a change of voice. And then I still had to do the usual edits after that!

I understand that many people will prefer to use something like this instead of having a professional, native English speaker.

But I would urge you to test it thoroughly. And be aware that the editing process may cost you more in your own man hours.