Giving Tablet PC an Earful

The Speech feature of Windows XP for Tablet PC enables you to dictate content for documents such as letters, e-mails, or spreadsheets. You can also speak commands to your computer and software, such as Launch Program or Print.

Speech is probably best used for shorter notes and even entries you might make in form fields. Although you can enter longer content, you'll have to do a certain amount of editing where Speech hasn't recognized your words quite accurately.

 Tip  Also, if you can't remain in a quiet environment for the longer period of time it may take to write a longer document, your use of speech may be rendered inaccurate by intruding noises such as phones ringing or people speaking to you. You can pause the Speech feature, but it can get irritating to do so too often.

The first step in using the Speech feature is to train it to understand the way you talk.