Express Scribe vs. Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Express Scribe
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Express Scribe Professional is a foot pedal controlled audio player software specifically designed for typists and transcription work. Featuring foot pedal control, variable speed, speech to text engine integration and support for a wide variety of audio formats including .dss, .dct, .wav, .mp3, and .wma. Audio recordings can be loaded automatically from CD, email, LAN, FTP, local hard drive and Express Delegate. Traditional hand held dictation recorders can also be docked and the audio…
$39.95
per user
Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Office 2016 is the familiar suite of Office products including applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for use on a single PC or Mac. The 2016 is no longer available for sale from Microsoft, and support is at an end since 2020.N/A
Pricing
Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Basic
$39.95
per user
Professional
$49.99
per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsLifetime license
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
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Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
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User Ratings
Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(1 ratings)
7.5
(64 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(45 ratings)
User Testimonials
Express ScribeMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
NCH Software
It has a free trial, which is very nice if someone just needs temporary access to use, and it's not an expensive program overall. It may not be the most robust program available, but it gets the job done at a good price point. It might not be the best if you need something that allows transcriptionists to collaborate (i.e., working on the same file at the same time).
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Discontinued Products
I'd recommend [Microsoft] Office2016 for any business that has more than a couple of users, as the software is very scalable from just a small business to a large enterprise corporation. I don't know of any case where it might not be appropriate, as even home users and students use the software suite as well.
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Pros
NCH Software
  • Cost efficient - This is a fairly low-cost transcription software that can be downloaded quickly via web
  • Easy to use - New users can get the hang of this software pretty quickly
  • Customizable - Foot pedal controls and other preferences can be set based on what feels intuitive to the user
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Discontinued Products
  • Data manipulation. Excel takes the raw data we receive and allows us to digest it in ways that are useful to our business processes.
  • Communication. Outlook serves as our primary means of communication and setting up appointments.
  • Documentation. Word is the default standard when it comes to using a word processor and we are no different in this regard. Nearly every user has to use the application on a regular basis in order to accomplish their work.
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Cons
NCH Software
  • Interface - The look and feel of the software is quite dated and could use a refresh
  • Enhancing audio - When we need to manipulate an audio file to try to enhance it (amplifying, for example), we have to use another program to do so
  • Hotkeys - Setting up hotkeys may not be as intuitive for new users as would be ideal
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Discontinued Products
  • Office 2016 professional edition can be priced for a single user license, it would be nice to see a drop in the pricing.
  • Office 2016 home edition is a better price but does not include outlook 2016, so it is not a good fit for the workplace environments.
  • Office 2016 can run slowly on older systems, so you need to make sure you have a machine that is 4 years old or less for it to run smoothly.
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Likelihood to Renew
NCH Software
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
We believe that office 2016 offers the best value when it comes to features included out of the box. The software is used in its entirety by our organization and is easily supported by our staff of IT technicians. Users find this software to be easy to learn and easy to use with minimal learning curve.
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Usability
NCH Software
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
It's fairly easy to use, but the automatic formatting or capturing of formatting when pasting is wonky - especially when there are outlines or other bullets/numbered lists. Fixing and sizing up tables can be annoying, and there are sometimes formatting issues that we just absolutely cannot fix for some reason
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Support Rating
NCH Software
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
I am an MS feedback hub participant and they certainly don't pay enough attention to several bugs several people raise it in the portal. For the enterprise, it seems to me based on my prior experience that yes, they have a dedicated team to support operations. For mid to small companies or single users, it has been a struggle. So, you are pretty much with MS Blogs and others.
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Alternatives Considered
NCH Software
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
We use Microsoft Office 2016 because at the time it was the best tool for us, but now with full attention to cloud products, we may be thinking of migrating our solution to a cloud service.
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Return on Investment
NCH Software
  • Very few 'inaudibles' (spots where we're unable to decipher what was said)
  • Transcribing allows analysts to read scripts rather than listen to audio files, which saves time and money
  • Low cost of software
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Discontinued Products
  • Microsoft Office 2016 saves me a lot of time daily. I have functions and macros set up that calculate and show me a lot of things just from a couple of my inputs. This would take full days sometimes if not for that.
  • Apart from time, it saves me money, I manage data in Excel, I don't have to buy software specifically for that.
  • Sooner or later my company will have to switch to new edition, which will hurt revenues because of a subscription model.
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ScreenShots

Express Scribe Screenshots

Screenshot of Load DictationsScreenshot of Playback OptionsScreenshot of Optional Foot Pedal or HotKey ControlScreenshot of Express Scribe Mini Control