Brief poll: What's best voice recognition software?

[George]

I use all the mainstream MS products.... Outlook2003w/BCM, Office (Word,
Excel, etc.), WinXP, IE6, etc. along with the usual mainstream
software...Adobe, Dell toss-in's, etc. Would appreciate your responses
to...

1) Is there by chance a good voice recognition application on one of the
Microsoft/Windows CD's, or deep in the menu's of any of these things already
installed, or available from some place like the MS website?

2) If not, can anyone recommend a mainstream app that they've used
successfully? Can I just use this with my $2 microphone plugged into
existing sound card, then just read notes aloud and have it enter the text?
Does this easily "integrate" with MS Word...meaning, you click an icon,
start taking, and text appears in Word....or does the text appear in its own
screen and you paste it into Word later? Does it work 'ok'... or are we
talking long setup times, poor accuracy, and lots of special
equipment/cards/etc. to get going?

Thanks,
George

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi George,

You subject line doesn't match the text of
your message. Are you looking for 'best'
or 'best on the CDs I already have'?

Office XP(2002) and Office 2003 both include
an optional install dictation feature you can
train to your voice and use if you're using
U.S. English. It's available in the Microsoft
Office listing in Add/Remove Programs in the
Windows control panel.

Once installed you can use Tools=>Speech in Word
to activate it and train it. Training with any
speech recognition product is an ongoing task but
plan on spending 1/2 to 1 hour initially.

======
I use all the mainstream MS products.... Outlook2003w/BCM, Office (Word,
Excel, etc.), WinXP, IE6, etc. along with the usual mainstream
software...Adobe, Dell toss-in's, etc. Would appreciate your responses
to...

1) Is there by chance a good voice recognition application on one of the
Microsoft/Windows CD's, or deep in the menu's of any of these things already
installed, or available from some place like the MS website?

2) If not, can anyone recommend a mainstream app that they've used
successfully? Can I just use this with my $2 microphone plugged into
existing sound card, then just read notes aloud and have it enter the text?
Does this easily "integrate" with MS Word...meaning, you click an icon,
start taking, and text appears in Word....or does the text appear in its own
screen and you paste it into Word later? Does it work 'ok'... or are we
talking long setup times, poor accuracy, and lots of special
equipment/cards/etc. to get going?

Thanks,
George >>

--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[George]

Thanks Bob,

Even though I could've done better job on the subject heading, your response
was *exactly* what was needed.... In terms of what's best on CD's I already
have... it was right on the money... In add/remove, I went to MS Office
2003, clicked change, and clicked down through... Office Shared Features >
Alternative user input > speech. It then installed files. Then I opened
Word, clicked Tools > Speech, and it finished the install, and started a
short training session. Then tried it out--Microsoft calls it a "Dictation"
feature. The accuracy is quite good, even with 10 minutes "training" by
reading passages it puts up, plus a cheap microphone, and some slight
dialect.

Thanks! ...This will save a lot of time--the main purpose is for business
contact manager...I make a lot of calls and jot down notes (jotting is
faster and more acceptable than tap/tap/tapping notes when talking), which
generates 3-4 pages on a "critical call"...then it takes 20-30 minutes to
type them in...so calling 6 people adds about 3 hours of work... Dictating
should cut that way back. Hmmm, now if only it could pick up the phone
audio and do this real time....

Now, having said that, are there brand-name packages (I used to hear a lot
about Dragon Naturally Speaking) that would work better (or "much" better),
are they reasonably priced (well under $100), and are they "integrated" with
Word, Outlook, whatever? Thanks if you or anyone has recommendations.

Regards,
George

 

[John Doe]

Now, having said that, are there brand-name packages (I used to
hear a lot about Dragon Naturally Speaking) that would work
better (or "much" better), are they reasonably priced (well
under $100), and are they "integrated" with Word, Outlook,
whatever? Thanks if you or anyone has recommendations.

Yes. When you get frustrated with Microsoft's failed efforts, try
NaturallySpeaking. Unfortunately, version 8 includes Product
Activation. Version 7 works fine through Windows XP. Stay away
from IBM's ViaVoice, that program is like a huge bowl of
spaghetti.

Before attempting speech-recognition, you should try recording
your voice. Use Sound Recorder or whatever and turn up the volume.
Listen carefully. You need a good signal-to-noise ratio. That is
very important.

The least expensive source of NaturallySpeaking is eBay. One guy
was selling NaturallySpeaking version 8 for $50 (I bid $41),
surprisingly legitimate. I guess the product activation is putting
a hurt on sales.

If you have trouble with speech-recognition, you can ask in
(comp.speech.users) but beware of Martin Markoe, he aggressively
sells microphones and sound cards, even to disabled users when
their problem has nothing to do with hardware.

Good luck.