I have an idea of writing a book of fiction and possibly a play.  When I write any fiction, my typing can not keep up with my mind and I loose the flow of what I wish to convey due to the writing delay.  It occurred to me to get a voice to text computer software and try that out as a solution.  The only software that came up with good reviews was Dragon.

I purchased Dragon Dictate for Mac version 3, September 2013.  The box came with a USB microphone.  Software license process was a bit involved.  Following the start up directions I hit a snag right away.  I could not get the Dragon microphone to work into the program.  I went into Dragon’s Profiles and made sure I selected Dragon Remote Microphone as the Dragon Profile and also for the Audio Source.  I went into the Apple System Preferences and then Sound and chose one at a time Output and Input selecting “USB Ear-Microphone”.  When I chose Sound Input, and spoke into the microphone I could see the microphone worked perfectly on the volume meter desktop display.  But, when I then went into the Dragon Vocabulary Training a window was displayed with large letters notifying me that the microphone was not connected.   I went to the Dragon Internet support pages but could not find a solution.  I had to call technical support.  I was told to create a new profile.  I was then to mouse click on the + plus sign.  I was then instructed to NOT choose the Dragon Remote Microphone but instead choose USB Ear-Microphone that now shows up as an option.  That trick made the Dragon microphone work perfectly.  I then plowed through the vocabulary training.  I was quite impressed with the very large command features beyond inserting punctuation.

Right after getting the microphone connected I upgraded my Mac system software to 10.9.  When I opened Dragon again, I got a warning message that the Dragon software had problems and was unstable.  I found that Dragon worked for a short while but then lock up.

The Dragon web site claims that Dragon Dictate 3 will be supported in the future with the Mac operating system 10.9.

Before I got Dragon to work I was annoyed at the product verification process.  It seemed that I had to wade through way too many steps, verification and setup, to get this product running.   I was seriously thinking of returning it and getting my money back.   I think I have buyers remorse especially now that the software is not ready for Mac OS 10.9.