What types of "Voice Recognition" software programs for MS Word would be good to use? I am finishing a 400-page book and I am not sure if such a program can handle that many words. Thanks.
Voice Recognition
- Thread starter Pookiestoop
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Pookie:
What about Word itself? Just click on "tools" and then "speech."
I use this feature all the time to read back text that I've written. If you have a good microphone and take the time to configure it, it does a fine job.
As for the page limit, you can dictate until you become hoarse and it can read back to you for at least an hour at a time.
What about Word itself? Just click on "tools" and then "speech."
I use this feature all the time to read back text that I've written. If you have a good microphone and take the time to configure it, it does a fine job.
As for the page limit, you can dictate until you become hoarse and it can read back to you for at least an hour at a time.
"Voice recognition" means that you're speaking and a program is putting the words into Word for you.
The answer just given is about having word read your work back to you. a.k.a. not the same thing.
Voice recognition programs tend to process a few words at a time and once they're in Word, they're Word's problem. Word can obvious handle a 400-age manuscript, I'd just save it every few minutes.
I tried Dragon NaturallySpeaking a few years back, and it would make at least one typo in every sentence. I hear it (and other programs) are better now. The problem for me is that my morning voice ("zombie voice") is different from my afternoon voice ("normal voice"), and sometimes I get "scratchy voice" ... I just don't have any confidence that the programs can really sort it out.
The answer just given is about having word read your work back to you. a.k.a. not the same thing.
Voice recognition programs tend to process a few words at a time and once they're in Word, they're Word's problem. Word can obvious handle a 400-age manuscript, I'd just save it every few minutes.
I tried Dragon NaturallySpeaking a few years back, and it would make at least one typo in every sentence. I hear it (and other programs) are better now. The problem for me is that my morning voice ("zombie voice") is different from my afternoon voice ("normal voice"), and sometimes I get "scratchy voice" ... I just don't have any confidence that the programs can really sort it out.
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Scott:
Sorry my first answer wasn't clear enough.
The answer I attempted was about both speech converted to text and text converted to speech. Word's own speech recognition works fine when I use it, although I too, get a few typos.
Dragon Naturally Speaking has had an upgrade or two in the past 4 years and microphones and sound cards have improved too.
Four years is a long time in the computer world, things can really change.
Sorry my first answer wasn't clear enough.
The answer I attempted was about both speech converted to text and text converted to speech. Word's own speech recognition works fine when I use it, although I too, get a few typos.
Dragon Naturally Speaking has had an upgrade or two in the past 4 years and microphones and sound cards have improved too.
Four years is a long time in the computer world, things can really change.
I don't really have an answer to your question, hope you don't mind if I ask a related one:
I have often wondered. . . when I drive long distances I would love a program that would type what I dictate. . . that way I could "write" when I have all of that spare time driving through Kansas. Is there something that I could hook up with a microphone and the lap top and let it sit shotgun?
Its not like I am not talking to myself while I drive anyway, might as well make it productive. I also get great ideas while driving but can't write them down, then the full flavor of the idea is lost.
I have often wondered. . . when I drive long distances I would love a program that would type what I dictate. . . that way I could "write" when I have all of that spare time driving through Kansas. Is there something that I could hook up with a microphone and the lap top and let it sit shotgun?
Its not like I am not talking to myself while I drive anyway, might as well make it productive. I also get great ideas while driving but can't write them down, then the full flavor of the idea is lost.
I sometimes use Dragon Speak. It has to be trained, otherwise you'll spend more time correcting typos than writing. I think it responds best to an American accent.
Doug Johnson said:
that's a great idea! I have been looking online for something similar and Dragon is the name that keeps coming up! It looks pretty user friendly and from what I've read, it has really improved over the earlier versions.
The only thing that's kept me off speech recognition software is that I have to say the punctuation marks, the quotations, the new paragraphs, the italics. Stuff like that. When I'm writing, all this stuff is just done by my hands and my brain is just doing the story. I cant' imagine writing comfortably and having to say that stuff.
That said, I haven't tried it recently. I bet I would find it really handy for writing articles. Comic scripts, for that matter, might work MUCH better if I did them out loud. Certainly, I could do outlining just by chattering to myself while a microphone runs.
I didn't know that Word had a speech feature. Now I really want to get home and play with my Word 2007 Beta. I bet it has a nice version of it.
That said, I haven't tried it recently. I bet I would find it really handy for writing articles. Comic scripts, for that matter, might work MUCH better if I did them out loud. Certainly, I could do outlining just by chattering to myself while a microphone runs.
I didn't know that Word had a speech feature. Now I really want to get home and play with my Word 2007 Beta. I bet it has a nice version of it.
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