There's a built-in one on the Mac - here's how to turn it on. (Might be different depending on what version of the OS you have?) Word also has a built-in dictation mode; it's under "Edit -> Start Dictation). I haven't tried either of these, but they both look pretty simple to use - especially with Word, all you have to do is just turn it on and try it; there's a similar dictation toggle in Pages, from what I understand. So you could see if either of those meets your needs.
I've used the built-in version and it's fine if dictating prose is all you want to do. If you want command and control, you need Dragon on Windows, and if you want programmability, ditto. But for just writing plain English the built-in one is okay.
I will second (third?) that MacOS native dictation is pretty good now -- it's better than Dragon ever was for me because Dragon wouldn't let me dictate obscenities, which really put a damper on my creative writing when I couldn't type. Depending on the OS and model that you have, regular text dictation can be activated by using either a dedicated function key (it's F5 on my M1 Air) or earlier versions will have a different command -- on my old Mac, it was hitting Fn twice.
If you need system voice control in addition to text dictation, you can turn that on in System Preferences > Accessibility > Motor > Voice Control. It works pretty well these days although as far as I can tell they took away the ability for you to set a wake word for it (e.g., "Computer, scroll down"), which was a thing I liked about previous versions.
I went to turn on the native version to test whether it deals with non-USAn accents any better than it used to, and remembered why I haven't turned it on before: everything you dictate gets sent to Apple to be converted to text, along with a bunch of other information about you like the names of your contacts etc. Aside from privacy issues, this implies that it requires a constant internet connection. Sigh. I miss the days when you could just pay money to buy software that would do what you wanted.
Is there any way to teach it words? I'm trying to dictate a book review and I can't figure out how to get it to learn that I'm saying Biggles, not bagels.
In the unlikely event that a Windows 7 laptop that doesn't hold a charge but works fine when plugged in would be a possible solution to your issues, I think I have one available.
I haven’t used the Mac one in years, but a friend of mine who is an author would just make up consistent words and then do search and replace when she was done. So, like, she would just say “bagels“ and then do a big search and replace.
I mean that was years ago so I would like to think they have fixed it by now? But I’m not sure.
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This has a few other options listed but the first one is “use a virtual windows environment to use Dragon”.
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I've used the built-in version and it's fine if dictating prose is all you want to do. If you want command and control, you need Dragon on Windows, and if you want programmability, ditto. But for just writing plain English the built-in one is okay.
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If you need system voice control in addition to text dictation, you can turn that on in System Preferences > Accessibility > Motor > Voice Control. It works pretty well these days although as far as I can tell they took away the ability for you to set a wake word for it (e.g., "Computer, scroll down"), which was a thing I liked about previous versions.
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I haven’t used the Mac one in years, but a friend of mine who is an author would just make up consistent words and then do search and replace when she was done. So, like, she would just say “bagels“ and then do a big search and replace.
I mean that was years ago so I would like to think they have fixed it by now? But I’m not sure.