If like me you struggle with blogging and creative writing in general I have a little secret to share with you. I have been blogging on various websites for the last three years and have recently discovered a blog writing technique which I would like to share with you.
I have tried traditional blogging and creative writing processes such as brainstorming before you write, searching for inspiration from other bloggers and even video blog production. All of which are very time consuming when done correctly.
I have recently discovered a great little app in the Apple app store for the iPad two, Dragon dictation.
Dragon Dictation Review
With Dragon dictation you simply speak into the microphone of your iPad and the software will recognise your words and produce a written document for you. This is fantastic! The time it saves while blogging is immense, I can literally produce two or three blog posts in the time it would take to produce one with the traditional methods i.e. writing and typing. I would advise you still do some degree of research before speaking as preparation is key to success with many things online including blogging.
The makers of the application nuance communications claim that the process of dictating into the microphone is five times faster than typing on the iPad keypad, I tend to agree with them as well. I just wish I had discovered this technique earlier as it would have saved me many nights toiling away with pad and pen planning and researching my blog posts.
Social Media Integration
You can even update your social media statuses via Dragon dictation, update your Facebook profile and even dictate your 140 characters to your Twitter account.
It would be amazing if you could dictate directly to a WordPress blog or other blogging platform.
Three Slight Problems I Have Found So Far.
Firstly if you do not speak slowly and clearly the application will struggle to understand what you have said, this is very similar to the problems found with Siri on the? iPhone 4S.
Secondly when you are at the bottom of the screen and have ran out of paper it is very difficult to add additional lines to your document without accidentally bringing up the keyboard, also when you try to manually edit the text using the keyboard if you are already at the bottom of the page the keyboard will cover the last few lines of your document so you have to then scroll with your finger and double tap where you want to edit the page.
To get around this problem I would advise that when you start a new dictation hit return for five times on the keyboard to add some empty line breaks at the bottom of your document this seems to help.
Finally every so often there is a banner advert which appears at the bottom of the screen this is downright annoying, but as this app is free I can live with it.
Available for?
Dragon Dictation is available for PC, MAC, iPhone & iPad.
http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm
To Sum Up
Okay my final thoughts on this technique using dragon dictate for blogging are:
1) there is no doubt that it saves time in the producing blog posts.
2) it is extremely easy to use and you can begin producing documents within minutes.
3) voice recognition is very good if you speak clearly and calmly
4) there are a few books to iron out with the version I am using but I am hopeful future versions will address the issues I have found.
5) this is a fantastic free app, I would highly recommend this to anybody who struggles with blog writing.
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