A great productivity booster

[Neil Morgan]

Hi guys

I am just discovering the benefits of speech recognition and I'm amazed at how much more I can get done.

The speech recognition built into Vista is amazing!

I've got a Scottish accent and it took a bit of time for the system to understand what the hell I was saying. I am actually dictating this post and the corrections I needed to make were minimal.

I'd say this ranks alongside dual monitors in the productivity stakes and is now much, much more than a gimmick.

Cheers,

Neil

[David Raybould]

Hi Neil,

That's a real coincidence - last week I was diagnosed with having RSI in my right hand, so I got a copy of dragon naturally speaking to ease the typing strain.

It's simply amazing. Any typing I need to do throughout my working day is now done literally twice as fast.

This could be a goldmine for article marketers and content writers...

Make you wonder why everyone doesn't use it doesn't it?

[WritingMadwoman]

I've been wanting to get DNS for a long time now, one of these days I will just have to do it.

Wendy

[David Raybould]

Wendy-

Just do it. It took me a couple of hours to get to grips with it, and get it to understand my English accent, but now it flies.

I type at about 50wpm, but using DNS is so much faster it's just silly.

I'm so pleased I did it.

David

[Neil Morgan]

Hi

Like myself, I guess a lot of people tried it a few years ago and found it to be gimmicky and not very effective.

I have found that it is worth spending the time getting it to recognise your voice.

When you have done that it works a lot better and can be used for real world work.

Now I need a version that can understand PHP code!

Cheers,

Neil

[Carpe Diem]

Thanks to you both. I am considering giving speech recognition software a try.
I have Vista but haven't explored it to much. I will definitely do that before spending the extra on Dragon, though it gets great reviews and good comments from the_writer.

[Neil Morgan]

Is DNS better than the voice recognition that's built into Vista because Vista's own voice recognition is amazing!

Cheers,

Neil

[Jack Duncan]

Hey...who says article writers aren't using it.

Yep..you are correct. It can be a really awesome tool. I use DNS 10 all the time.

Most people that complain about it not working seem to forget the training part...and it does take time for the engine to recognize your accent and speech patterns.

Another cool thing that DNS now offers is an Auto Dictation folder. If you have a simple handheld audio recorder you can actually train DNS just for that recorder (new profile) and then all you have to do is drag and drop the audio file into the folder and...whoila...your audio has been transcribed.

I actually used this the other day in the car and hammered out an article while driving down the road...pretty decent use of some traffic time.

Cheers,
Jack

[Neil Morgan]

I have Vista but haven't explored it to much.

I found that after I had gone through the speech training three times it worked much, much better. It's worth persevering.

Cheers,

Neil

[David Raybould]

Hi Neil,

I must confess, I didn't even think to try Vista before getting Dragon.

Still, I can hardly complain, having access to this stuff is like being able to finish my day's work in half a day...

Jack Duncan - thanks for telling me about the dictation feature. I use DNS 10 too, had no idea about this. Amazing!

David

[WritingMadwoman]

Originally Posted by Jack Duncan

Another cool thing that DNS now offers is an Auto Dictation folder. If you have a simple handheld audio recorder you can actually train DNS just for that recorder (new profile) and then all you have to do is drag and drop the audio file into the folder and...whoila...your audio has been transcribed.

I actually used this the other day in the car and hammered out an article while driving down the road...pretty decent use of some traffic time.

Cheers,
Jack

WOW that is so cool - I talk to myself all the time while I'm driving, I could actually be getting work done! LOL

Wendy

[Neil Morgan]

That's cool about the dictation.

form_animal_guy - Vista has it built right in. The speech recognition icon is in the control panel.

All you need is a microphone, which can be stand-alone or part of a headset and you're all set.

Cheers,

Neil

[Chris Hunter]

I've tried the Vista speech recognition but didn't like it as much as DNS.

May give it a try again though.

[topnotchservices]

I can't wait to fire DNS 10 up. I'm getting heavily into article marketing and anything to speed things up is a bonus

[bigtay]

I use DNS 10 all the time. It is great when you need to update all of your blogs.

[Aaron Moser]

How long does it take for DNS to start recognizing your voice. Is DNS 10 leaps and bounds better than it was just 2 years ago?

Curious,

[Neil Morgan]

farm_animal_guy - apologies for getting your name wrong.

Another thing that gave Vista a major boost in recognising my voice is the setting that allows Vista to scan the document or email you're in.

So if you're replying to an email and you say something that is in the original email, it recognises it immediately because it doesn't need to work it out from scratch.

Cooler and cooler!

Neil

[sarasayshi]

Originally Posted by David Raybould

Hi Neil,

That's a real coincidence - last week I was diagnosed with having RSI in my right hand, so I got a copy of dragon naturally speaking to ease the typing strain.

It's simply amazing. Any typing I need to do throughout my working day is now done literally twice as fast.

This could be a goldmine for article marketers and content writers...

Make you wonder why everyone doesn't use it doesn't it?

Your post has just convinced me to run out and buy DNS tomorrow. My wrist has been hurting more the past few days and I even wear a wrist brace a few hours throughout the day to help stabilize it.

I absolutely hate writing articles but I am a woman; so naturally I have plenty to talk about.

[Marty S]

A few things about DNS which I use all the time (v9) -

1- Def excellent for writing articles.
2- Short recognition training after install (you read a short story, basically)
3- Some quirks with Vista (shuts/crashes my email for eg.)
4- On the expensive side, and you cannot download upgrades - they charge you for upgrade an mailing, intl charges are outrageous
5- Overall worth the money because you can sit down with it once a week and spew out 5 to 10 articles in half a day or so.

MAC users BEWARE:

DNS also makes MacSpeech, (I have this too on my iMac) and they have had huge compatibility issues since OSX and the latest MacSpeech. You can check out their forums at Macspeech.com and read the slew of complaints there. Never trust PC software designers to create Mac software. I think this company just needs some competition, because thier customer service is horrid.

DNS10 - buy it.
MacSpeech for OSX - wait for them to fix it.

[yves]

Hi Neil

That sounds like a great tool.

Years ago I had an archaic version called viavoice and I had a good laugh at seeing what rubbish it came up with. It was completely useless and got just about every word wrong but it was worth it in terms of entertainment .

Sounds like things have come a long way since, so this one cuts through the scottish accent? Will definitely be giving it a try.

Cheers.

[designfuschion]

lol. I'd seen someone's comment around here somewhere about using dragon naturally..looked into the price..it's out of my price range at the moment.

So i looked into freeware of speech recognition and found 'TalkItTypeIt'. Trained it 3 times..and it definitely worked alot better. I've yet to sit down and try and create a complete article.
I'm hoping that this will speed up my article/info product creation time. The thought of sitting down and writing 10 articles is just a pain.
Recently i ended up with a pressure bandage to relieve pain in wrists.

I tried speech recognition back in 03..what crap it was.

So would DNS 10 work good on a mac.dualbooted with xp? (run it in xp on a macbook pro)
AND
What is better the 'preferred' version or 'standard'?

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Wow, thanks for the tip.
As soon as I get artritus, I will
start typing with my mouth too

Igor

[tUNU52]

I have tried both the speech recognition soft DNS and Vista. I find DNS is more suitable than Vista.

[Marty S]

Originally Posted by designfuschion

So would DNS 10 work good on a mac.dualbooted with xp? (run it in xp on a macbook pro)
AND
What is better the 'preferred' version or 'standard'?

Considering my experience with these guys on MACosx, I would not go there. Abd they will not be able to help you with support if (when) something doesn't work.

[Mary Green]

Neil, I just got a new vista laptop, I didnt even know there was a voice recognition in it and I am a ghostwriter. Needless to say I am going to check this out. How long would you think it would take me to train it, Im American and I speak English.

Mary Green

[LB]

I tried the latest incarnation of DNS and I don't know, I must be an alien or something. I spent hours training it and bought one of those expensive headset microphones that are designed for voice recognition...but DNS still sucked. Always chose the wrong words, failed to recognize many simple phrases, etc. It was not faster than typing by any means for me.

[ken_p]

i am wondering how much space this guys would take in my tiny drive?

[Sean Kelly]

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

Hi
Now I need a version that can understand PHP code!

Better still..

"Hey computer! Go create my next product!"

Wouldn't that be terrific

Sean

[Barry Walls]

Originally Posted by LB

I tried the latest incarnation of DNS and I don't know, I must be an alien or something. I spent hours training it and bought one of those expensive headset microphones that are designed for voice recognition...but DNS still sucked. Always chose the wrong words, failed to recognize many simple phrases, etc. It was not faster than typing by any means for me.

LB...I have a strong Irish accent and DNS sucked until I trained the words it consistently got wrong...using the "add word" function.

Now, it zips through dictation. I cant recommend it highly enough.

[GuruGazette]

I love DNS too. I type really fast (120+ WPM) but my arms and hands can't handle that on an extended basis. The longer I'm using it in one setting though the more I run into issues with it understanding me because my tongue gets tired, mouth gets dry, etc. For the most part it's really good.

I didn't care for the Vista recognition myself. Part of my issue was that I couldn't dictate directly into NoteTab or Firefox and I can do that with DNS.

My biggest issue with it though is the buffer. Every 1500 words or so it tells me the buffer is full and it can't do (something) anymore. Can't remember the exact message offhand. It's only a minor hassle and only comes up when I'm writing reports and ebooks. I have to close the document I've been dictating in and reopen it to continue. If I'm writing articles though, I create separate text files and be sure to close finished ones as I go.

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by Barry Walls

I have a strong Irish accent and DNS sucked until I trained the words it consistently got wrong

I have a strong Irish accent too but the speech recognition in Vista worked pretty well right from the start. I haven't tried DNS though.

Tommy.

P.S. - Btw, Barry, what self-respecting Irishman uses the word "sucked"!?

[Barry Walls]

hehe...fair point...lived all over the place for 20 years...makes you kinda forget the rules dude.

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by Barry Walls

... dude.

"Dude" too? Yeesh!

[Barry Walls]

Originally Posted by Thomas

"Dude" too? Yeesh!

You Da Man. I'm down with ma homies.

Hope I spelt homies right...not questioning your sexuality.

[jacktackett]

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

I found that after I had gone through the speech training three times it worked much, much better. It's worth persevering.

Cheers,

Neil

As a writer I wish these types of programs worked for me. I haven't tried Vista yet but may have a go on my wife's laptop.

I've tried DNS in the past - even spent over 2 hours in the training modules, but the recognition rate was abysmal. I don't have much luck with directory assistance or with other voice recognition systems over the phone either.

It seems machines just can't recognize my voice, but I didn't know this about vista so thanks for the tip!

best,
--Jack

[Barry Walls]

Originally Posted by jacktackett

As a writer I wish these types of programs worked for me. I haven't tried Vista yet but may have a go on my wife's laptop.

I've tried DNS in the past - even spent over 2 hours in the training modules, but the recognition rate was abysmal. I don't have much luck with directory assistance or with other voice recognition systems over the phone either.

It seems machines just can't recognize my voice, but I didn't know this about vista so thanks for the tip!

best,
--Jack

Jack

You need to train DNS in an ongoing fashion. Use the "add word" and "spell that" functions, import word docs and your email client and it will get better FAST.

2 hours of training isn't enough. 1 hour a week for 2 months should do it...and learning to train it as you go is best. It is almost flawless for me now.

All the best

Barry

[sweetiepie]

Barry, I was reading Michelle Green's post about quiting her job and she mentioned that you had coached her. Are you taking on any new trainees and how much is your fee?

[Planetpeoplefinder]

Thanks for the post Neil! I have been using Vista for about a year, and I never realized it had speech recognition software.

I think this is going to really boost my article marketing, blogging, and just life in general!