If you’re a content creator, you know the importance of blogging – and blogging often. But sometimes sitting down to that blank computer screen, with that big, white, empty document staring you down can be daunting. This can obviously slow down your content creation schedule as you sit in front of that blank screen with that great idea in your head that you just can’t put into written words.
For some people, speaking is more intuitive than writing; it allows for a more natural flow of thoughts and ideas. Instead of getting bogged down in the act of writing, why not try dictating your ideas for you new piece of content? This is where dictation-to-text apps come in handy.
Here are three apps that we’ve found to be particularly handy in boosting content creation.
Dragon Dictation
Dragon Dictation is a simple dictation app with a great, easy-to-use user interface. Simply open it up, follow the simple “Tap and dictate” message and you can begin your dictation. Once you’ve finished, tap the “DONE” button and your note will then be processed and the text will appear on your screen. From there you can do additional editing using the keyboard as well as perform additional recording. You can send it via email, post it to Facebook or Twitter, text it, or copy it to the clipboard to be pasted into other apps like Google Drive or Pages for more advanced editing. The only drawback to Dragon Dictation is that you can’t save or archive notes; it’s a one shot deal. So if you use it, keep that in mind.
Price: Free
Download it here.
Voice Dictation
Much like Dragon Dictation, Voice Dictation is also beautifully designed and very intuitive, except Voice Dictation comes with a $.99 price tag. When you open the app, you’re presented with a simple screen. Tap the microphone graphic and start dictating. When you’re finished, you’ll be presented with a wide variety of options for how to capture the text. You can email it, copy it to your clipboard and share it via Facebook or Twitter. Another handy feature is ‘Open In…’ that lets you attach the dictation as a text file to be sent via Mail. Out of all three of these apps, I noticed that Voice Dictation was the most accurate in transcribing my dictations, which may account for it being a paid app, and not free.
Price: $.99
Download it here.
Notes
By default the iPhone comes with an app called Notes that you can use in conjunction with Siri. Not surprisingly this is a fairly good option for creating text from dictations. One major pro of using Notes is that you can save an archive of your dictations which is currently not available with Dragon Dictation and Voice Dictation. The one con is that there are fewer sharing options; with notes you can only email, message, print and copy the text. But if you all need to do is dictate a quick, stream-of-consciousness outline for a blog post and email it to yourself or a team member for editing, then Notes plus Siri maybe all you need.
Price: Free
So, when you’re getting ready to write your next blog post and you find yourself getting stumped with writer’s block, try a different approach with dictation-to-text apps. Do you have any favorite dictation-to-text apps? Share them below in the comments section.