Tired of Typing?

Tired of typing? Is your typing too slow or inaccurate? Have lots of information to enter into the computer but dread the thought of typing it or scanning it in?

Speech recognition has come of age. It's in our voicemail, it's on our phones and it's even in our cars. Isn't it time to use it on our computers?

How long do you think usable speech recognition has been part of Microsoft products, I think you'd be surprised to know that it's been part of Microsoft Office since 1996. Microsoft Office '97 had speech recognition built in: most of us it turned off. 

Microsoft Vista had speech recognition built into the operating system in 2006 and most of us never turned it on. Speech recognition is also part of Windows 7. It's easy to use. It's already there and, best of all, it's free. It works inside programs. It works on the Internet. It does not require much training, although works better with it. It works with your built-in microphone but it works better with a headset microphone. Isn't it time that your computer started listening to you?

There are many ways to activate speech recognition in Windows Vista and Windows 7. For those of you who like to click on a lot of menu entries – Click the Start Button, then click “all programs,” then click “accessories,” then click “ease of use,” then click “speech recognition.”

For those of you who just want to get there … Click the Start Button and type speech into the search window that is right above the start button. This will bring up a mini-menu with the speech recognition menu options. You want the one that says "Windows speech recognition." The help screens will guide you through the process of using a microphone with your computer to enter typed data without having to type.

This technology is remarkably accurate and most of this document was created with this process.