Using Speech Recognition

Now that you've learned the basics of voice dictation and voice command, you're ready to start using them in a real way. The application I use voice recognition with most is Microsoft Word, so the examples that follow will come from Microsoft Word 2003.

In this section, I'll show you how I've used voice dictation and voice command to write this chapter.

Dictating to Word 2003

Dictating is easy, but at least initially the edits that you'll have to make may be significant and frustrating. Once you get into the flow of things, however, you'll be able to dictate long pieces of text with only minor edits.

When you're in Dictation mode, you will use very few commands. You will mostly be speaking text that you want to show up in your document. The main things that you need to consider when dictating are to speak clearly and at a speed that the computer can recognize, and to say the names of the various punctuation marks you need to use. (You'll learn how to use speech recognition to edit your text in the next section.)

To dictate, switch to Dictation mode and just start talking. As you begin to speak to your computer, you'll learn what the computer will recognize and what it won't. If you work in a specialized field, such as medicine or law, that uses a lot of nonstandard words, you might need to look at another package such as Dragon Naturally Speaking to handle a large specialized vocabulary.

Editing Text with Voice Commands

Editing text in speech recognition takes some getting used to. I usually keep at least one hand near the keyboard so that I can hit backspace, delete, or capitalize a letter quickly. But all of this can be done using your voice.

I've had much less success controlling applications than I have had editing text with voice commands. In fact, sometimes I cannot get voice recognition to recognize even simple voice commands such as "format," "file," "edit," and so on. I've also had some problems using simple editing commands that the What Can I Say dialog box says are available to me. For these reasons, I'm going to use this section to share with you a few of the tools that I use most when editing using Voice Command mode. In fact, these are some of the commands that I used when dictating this chapter.

Select Commands

The "select word," "select line," "select sentence," and "select paragraph" commands enable you to select the word, line, sentence, or paragraph on which your cursor currently rests. You can use these commands to move quickly through your text, as well as to apply formatting or changes to an entire selection.

Go to Commands

The four big navigation commands, "go to beginning of line," "go to end of line," "go to top," and "go to bottom," are useful for navigating through a page of text. Just say the command and the cursor will move to that location.

Move Commands

The move commands ("up," "down," "left," "right," and "next cell") move the cursor one character or cell at a time. You can also use the familiar keyboard-equivalent commands, such as "page up," "page down," "home," and "end" to move the cursor around.

Deletion Commands

The "delete" and "backspace" commands are just like their keyboard equivalents: "delete" deletes the character or selection to the right of the cursor, while "backspace" deletes the character or selection to the left of the cursor. These are commonly used commands.

Undo Commands

Just after you've done something that you didn't want to do, you can use the "undo that" or "scratch that" commands. If one of these commands is issued immediately after dictation, the entire dictation will be undone. If one of the commands is used after an action has taken place, the action will be undone.

Caps Commands

This is one of my favorite sets of commands. Especially when writing this book, in which I frequently needed to capitalize words in the middle of a sentence, I used the "cap that" command often. When you want to uncapitalize a selection, use the "uncapitalize" command. If you want the entire selection to be capitalized, use the "all caps" command.

Copy, Cut, and Paste Commands

The "copy that," "cut that," and "paste that" commands are exactly like the menu commands you use on a regular basis. Each works with the clipboard to enable you to copy, cut, and paste a selection. To use these commands, simply select the text you want to act on, and say either "copy that" or "cut that." You can then switch applications or move your cursor and use the "paste that" command to paste the selection into the current document in the spot where your cursor is located.

The "Correct <Phrase>" Command

"Correct <phrase>" is a great command to use when voice recognition is not 100%. Figure 9.12 shows what it looks like when the "correct <phrase>" command is issued within Microsoft Word. In this instance, I had said "correct your application."

Figure 9.12. The "correct <phrase>" command helps you correct a phrase using speech recognition.

Note

This command does not always work. If not, just get your pen out to select the text, and then click on the green icon in the upper-left part of your selection to access the correction tool.

If there could be multiple interpretations of your dictation for that phrase, you will see multiple items that you can choose from when you issued the "correct <phrase>" command. To select one of the items using speech recognition, just say the number next to the desired selection.

Real Voice Input Samples

Table 9.4 shows a list of samples of things I said versus what the computer thought I said. Notice that unexpected words and phrases often cause inaccurate interpretation.

Table 9.4. Dictation Samples and Their Results

What I Said	The Computer's Interpretation
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country"	Now's the time for all good men to come the aid of their country
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation comma conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal period now we are engaged in a great civil war comma testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure period"	Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we're engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated to catalog and you are.
"We the people of the United States comma in order to form a more perfect union comma establish justice comma ensure domestic tranquility comma provide for the common defense comma promote the general welfare comma and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity comma do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america period"	We the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote t he general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do more dame and establish this constitution of the united states of America.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident comma that all men are created equal comma that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights comma that among these are Life comma Liberty comma and the pursuit of Happiness period"	We hold these truths to be self-evident, but all men are created equal, that they are and down by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"Voice recognition is great, but it doesn't always work."	Voice recognition is great, but it doesn't always work.

As you can see above, voice dictation is not perfect, but it is really good. By speaking clearly and steadily, you can increase recognition capability. You don't have to speak slowly. Just avoid erratic speech.

Now go use speech recognition to write your next document. Happy speaking!

Tip

If you find that your computer is responding incredibly slowly after you finish using speech recognition, you may need to manually shut down the tabtip.exe process. To do this, right click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager. Then click on the Processes tab and look for the process that is taking up the most resources. If tabtip.exe is taking up more than a few CPU percentage points, then tap on tabtip.exe and then tap End Process. This will shut down that process, and free up your processor. I have to do this frequently after using speech recognition on my Tablet PC, but it may not be an issue for you.

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the key points to take away from this chapter:

• You must enable and train the speech tools before you can use speech recognition. Do this by turning on speech recognition in the Tablet PC Input Panel.

• Voice recognition will improve as you use speech recognition and as you complete additional training sessions.

• Use the What Can I Say dialog box to discover the commands that you can use in Dictation and Voice Command modes.

• Get to know the voice commands that work best for you. You will probably use only a subset of the total available commands during your speech-recognition sessions.

• The included voice tools are very good at what they do, but they're not perfect. Expect some time in editing, as well as some frustration at the start. Your accuracy and your skill with the tools will improve over time.

• For even better speech recognition and control capabilities, consider purchasing either the Dragon Naturally Speaking or the IBM Via Voice package.