How to Use Voice to Edit Your Articles

I use Microsoft's Word 2007 to write all of my articles, and you will also need Adobe Reader 9. Be sure that your speakers on your computer are turned on. Once I have created my article, it's a very simple process to convert the file to a PDF file where Adobe Reader 9 has a voice function to read your document. This voice feature has helped me correct errors in all the documents that I have used it on.

After you complete your article be sure to save it and then click on the Office Button in the top left side of the Word page. Go to the Save As selection and choose PDF or XPS. This will allow you to save the document in the PDF format. Once you click on this another box will open up. At this point everything will be filled in for you, including the name of the document. Be sure that the document is being saved in the directory that you want. The default folder is My Documents. Then all you do is hit publish and the document is saved on your computer. The publish button is a bit confusing. It doesn't actually publish your article anywhere except on your computer. So don't worry that your article is going off somewhere. If you left the Open File after Publishing checked then your article will open right away.

Now comes the fun part. At the top menu choose View. The last selection under View is Read Out Loud. Highlight this and click on Activate Read Out Loud. Now you will have to go back into View and highlight Read Out Loud again and choose Read to the End of the Document.

That's all there is to it. I haven't researched older versions of Word to see how to do this same process, but I know that it can be done. My guess is that you could just print your document to Adobe Distiller and as long as you have Adobe Reader 9 you will be able to do the same thing.

This makes the chore of editing your articles so much easier. For me it saves time and lets me know that my article is following in a logical manner. Hope this helps you as much as it does me....Happy Editing.