A Review of Microsoft Vista's Voice Recognition Software

Welcome, this review is being created with the use of voice recognition software provided within Microsoft Vista. With the purchase of an inexpensive headset from Wal-Mart for less than $15.00 I have all that is necessary to create documents without the use of the keyboard.

Making use of this clever function only requires that you plug in the headset and go to the voice recognition icon located on the control panel. Spending about 15 minutes going through the setup procedures which really is nothing more than teaching the computer to recognize your voice.

It is all very simple to use and only requires that you enunciation properly. It did take a little bit to get used to talking smoothly. It almost sounds like I am talking like a robot. Overall it is a small price to pay to have the convenience of many less typographical errors. You must be careful to avoid slang or slurring your words.

If you take your time and talk clearly and crisply you will find that the software makes very few errors. There is the possibility of confusing the computer if you don't speak in logical sentences. There is also the possibility of the computer confusing there with their. Though I must say that it got it right in that last sentence. It does seem that the computer will add a couple of extra words every now and then. The longer the sentence or part of a sentence that you speak at a time will decrease the number of errors overall.

Words like don't, won't, aren't seem to work just fine. Going to the store or too many rocks both used the correct version of two. It seems as long as I talk clearly and crisply it refuses to make mistakes.

The voice recognition software works proficiently with Microsoft notepad. I had hoped that it would also work with Microsoft works or with other applications I already have installed on my computer. At this point I have not been able to get it to work on anything other than Microsoft notepad.

Making use of cut and paste I can easily move text from the notepad to any other program of my choosing. This added step is not a bad thing because it allows me to create new documents offline that I can plug into online forms. This prevents the loss of work that I have done online while timing out my Internet connection. No longer will I write complete articles only to have them vanish at the point that I press submit.

Overall I am very pleased that I've found a way to avoid typographical errors created by my own clumsiness. Using an inexpensive headset with the included voice recognition software included in Microsoft Vista I will be able to greatly increase my productivity.

I highly recommend Microsoft Vista's voice recognition software and give it two thumbs up. Anyone who wants to increase their productivity will quickly catch on to what is necessary to avoid errors while speaking into the microphone. If nothing else is accomplished you'll find yourself speaking much clearer.

(Back to typing by hand) As a post note when I transfered the text from MS Notepad to the article submition screen it didn't format correctly. Once I got it on screen I had to remove all the (new line) commands I had used to keep the document in view on Notepad. Still, as you would proofread your work anyway this extra step can be done as you read your article that one last time before submitting. No matter what, there are less errors, and a noticable time saving over doing it all by hand.