G'Day Mike,
Although the speech recognition engine is properly part of Xp (and is built
into windows Vista) it was distributed with Office 2003, and also
with Office 2002 (Office Xp).
Office 2007 has no commands (as far as I can see) that access it from
within Office programs - however, if already installed, it does work very
well from the Language bar.
Right-click the Taskbar>Toolbars>Language bar - you will see "EN" on
the taskbar. Click the "EN" > Restore the Language bar - it will float on
the screen - I like to put it just right of centre at the top of the screen
where the (say) Word title bar will be.
The Language bar changes the buttons available to adapt its functionality
to the program that currently has focus. For Office, these buttons include
Microphone, Tools, Handwriting and Writing Pad.
If it is not installed:
Start>Help and Support
- search for "speech recognition"
- see the task "Install handwriting recognition", and the section about
Office Xp
- be aware that a similar procedure may be adopted if you have
Office 2003