Dictamus is a professional dictation application for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. This manual describes setup and operation of Dictamus.

Table of Content

1. Setup and Settings
   1. General
   2. Workflow
   3. Recording
   4. Sharing Destinations and E-Mail
      1. E-Mail
      2. FTP
      3. WebDAV
      4. iDisk/MobileMe
      5. box.net and Dropbox
      6. Transcription Services
2. Dictating
3. The Dictation List
4. Dictation Details
5. Sharing Dictations
   1. Multiple Sharing
   2. E-mail
   3. Download
   4. Export

1. Setup and Settings

   Before you start dictating, please perform an personal setup. To start this, tap the gear symbol button in the bottom left of the dictation list (iPhone) or in the top toolbar (iPad).

   1. General

      Enter your initials in order to identify files by name if you work in a multiuser environment. The initials will be included in the name of all recorded files.
      
      "Dictation List" allows you to set the sorting order of dictations for all dictation lists. Dictations are sorted by saving date, either ascending (older first) or (newer first).
      
      You can also set the appearance of the dictation control buttons to one of three styles: color, glass or metal. Furthermore, you can change the background to one of the included background images, or take a photo with the iPhone's camera for the background, or choose one from your photo library.

   2. Workflow

      Change Dictamus' behavior to speed up your personal workflow. You can determine to where Dictamus navigates automatically after finishing a dictation and after (multiple) sharing.

   3. Recording

      If the Voice Activation option is enabled, Dictamus will pause a recording automatically on silence, and resume automatically when you start speaking again. You can also activate Bluetooth in order to enable dictation with Bluetooth headsets.

   4. Sharing Destinations and E-Mail

      You can send dictations by e-mail, transfer them over a USB cable through iTunes, download them on a WiFi network and upload them to iDisk, box.net, dropbox and some transcription services.

      1. E-Mail

         Dictamus supports sending e-mails through iOS Mail. This doesn't require any kind of setup in Dictamus. There is a file size limit, though, for files sent from Dictamus through iOS Mail, and only compressed files will be sent. The size limit is 5 MB for older devices such as iPhone 3G and earlier, and 15 MB for later models such as iPhone 3GS and iPad.
         
         If you need to send larger files or uncompressed files, you'll have to set up an outgoing e-mail account in Dictamus. You need your SMTP server details for that, please contact your e-mail provider if you don't know them. Enter your SMTP server (e.g. “smtp.me.com”) and your credentials (account name and password) for this server. If the server supports SSL encryption, then Dictamus will use it automatically.
         
         Please note that dictation files can be rather large for longer dictations. Most e-mail providers limit the size of file attachments in outgoing e-mails. Contact your e-mail provider to find out the limit for your account. Please note that an e-mail usually passes through several SMTP servers on its way, and each of them imposes their own size limits.
         
         If you receive an incoming call while you're sending an e-mail, the transmission will be interrupted if you accept the call. Dictamus will be restarted after the call has finished, you'll have to start the e-mail transmission again.

      2. FTP

         Dictamus can upload dictations to an FTP server. Please enter the server's details and your login credentials. If your server supports SSL encryption, Dictamus will use it automatically.

      3. WebDAV

         In order to upload dictations to a WebDAV server, please enter the server's details and your login credentials. If you have a URL instead of the settings required in Dictamus (SSL, server, port, path), you can extract these settings as follows. If your URL is, as an example,
         https://dav.server.com/webdav/username
         then enter “dav.server.com” as the server, “webdav/username” as the path, and activate SSL. If the URL starts with “http” instead of “https”, deactivate SSL. The path must contain all characters after the first slash (/) after the server name.
         
         If you notice that the uploaded file is too short when you upload files longer than 1MB, deacticate "Partial PUT" in the Advanced section of your WebDAV sharing destination settings. If your transmissions fail with an error that's similar to “40x Content-Range not allowed”, deactivate "Partiual PUT" as well.

      4. iDisk/MobileMe

         MobileMe is a service offered by Apple for an annual fee. One of the features offered by MobileMe is Internet storage. This service is called iDisk, it provides a public area. A MobileMe user can upload files to his public iDisk area to share them with other users, such as a transcriptionist or colleague.
         
         Dictamus can upload dictations into this public iDisk area. Prior to your first upload, make sure that you set a public password for your iDisk. If you don't have a public password, any internet user can download your dictations. You can set a public iDisk password on your computer in System Preferences (Mac OS X) or in the System Control Panel (Windows), respectively. More information about the MobileMe public password is available here.

      5. box.net and Dropbox

         box.net (www.box.net) are Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) are cloud storage services where you can upload dictations and share them with other users such as a colleague or transcriptionist. You'll need to register for an account directly at these services, then setup a sharing destination in Dictamus, using your account credentials.

      6. Transcription services

         Dictamus offers custom sharing destinations for some transcription services. Please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if your transcription service isn't listed, and we'll try to establish a cooperation.

2. Dictating

   You can start a new dictation in the dictation list by tapping the "New Dictation" button (bottom center, iPhone), or the "+" button in the top toolbar (iPad) or by tapping the last table entry, "Create new dictation". The view will change to the dictation control panel. You'll see eight color-coded recording control buttons, a position slider with a time indicator and an indicator of the remaining time for this dictation.
   
   On iPhone and iPad, you can record a dictation through the built-in microphone at the bottom of the device or through a headset. If you record through the built-in microphone, hold your iPhone upside down (with the dock connector pointing upward) and speak into the microphone grill besides the dock connector. The screen will rotate automatically to keep the correct orientation. On iPod Touch, you can only record through a headset with a microphone. You can also use a Bluetooth headset if your device supports Bluetooth headsets (some iPod Touch models don't). You'll need to enable Bluetooth recording in the Recording section of Dictamus' settings.
   
   Tap the red recording button to start recording. Dictamus uses voice activation, i.e. sound will only be recorded if you are actually speaking. You can pause speaking as long as you like, e.g. to review information. Recording will be interrupted automatically and resumes, also automatically, when you continue speaking. To stop the recording manually, tap the red recording button again, or tap the gray pause button.
   
   The blue buttons wind the dictation forwards and backwards at two speeds. As soon as you release the button, the dictation will play from the reached position automatically. Stop playing by tapping the gray pause button or switch to recording on-the-fly by tapping the red recording button. You can resume recording at any position within the dictation. The newly recorded speech will overwrite the existing recording from the point where you started the new recording.
   
   The green play button starts playing the dictation from the current position. To stop it, tap the green play button again or tap the gray pause button.
   
   If you want to insert a section at the current position in a dictation, tap the yellow insert button, then tap the red record button. Tap Pause or Record to stop inserting. Every single insert operation is limited to 5 minutes, but you can execute as many insert operations as you want subsequently.
   
   In the dictation view, you can access the essential recording settings by tapping the gear symbol button in the lower left corner. You can enable and disable voice activation, adjust the microphone sensitivity in five steps from 50% to 200%, set the output volume and the audio device. To set the audio device, tap the Bluetooth symbol at the right end of the output volume setting area. You can choose between all coupled Bluetooth headsets, the built-in speaker and the handset receiver.
   
   When you have finished your dictation, go back to the Details view by tapping the "Back" button in the upper left corner. Enter a description to identify your dictation in the dictation list.

3. The Dictation List

   Your recorded dictations are managed in the dictation list. You'll see the description you entered when you saved the dictation along with the save date and time, the dictation's length, used disk space and a marker that indicates if you shared the dictation at least once successfully. Tap a dictation in order to view and edit its details and to share it.

4. Dictation Details

   In the detail view of a dictation, you can edit a dictation's description, play, edit, duplicate, share or delete it. To edit a dictation, tap the Play/Edit button, then the Unlock button in the bottom right corner. Note that you're always editing the original, you cannot choose to save the result as a new copy afterwards. If you want to keep the original version, use the Duplicate function first, and edit the duplicate instead.

5. Sharing dictations

   In the dictation list, tap the action button in the top right corner (iPhone) or in the left quarter of the top toolbar (iPad) to start a multiple sharing/multiple delete operation, or tap the "Share dictation" button in a dictation's detail view (iPhone). You'll see all sharing destinations you set up, along with Download, iOS Mail and Export (if available).

   1. Multiple sharing

      Tap the dictations that you want to share. Selected dictations will be marked with a red dot. The three buttons in the lower left corner perform multiple selection, from left to right: "Select all", "Select shared only", "Select unshared only", "Clear selection". Next, tap the three arrows button at the bottom of the list to start a multishare operation, or the trash icon to delete the selected dictations.

   2. E-mail

      Enter the destination e-mail address or choose it from your contacts. Tap the blue arrow to open the favorites list and to access your contacts.

   3. Download

      Downloading dictations is only possible within a WiFi network. You can download dictations to any computer in the same WiFi network as your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad using a web browser.

   4. Export

      When you export dictations, they will be stored in a special area on your iPhone/iPad. Connect your device to a computer running iTunes by USB cable to access them. You'll find the exported dictations in your device's Apps tab in iTunes, below the list of apps to sync. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4094 for more information.