Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Voice Recognition Software

I've known for years that Erle Stanley Gardner and Luke Short, a couple of favorite writers of mine, dictated their novels. Years ago I tried dictating into a little tape recorder and did a chapter or so of one book that way, but I didn't care for it and didn't continue. I'm always on the lookout for anything that will speed up my writing, so when voice recognition software became available, I was always intrigued by the idea of it. I'd never actually tried it until now, though.

A friend of mine uses Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and seems to like it, so when Livia ran across it on sale the other day, she picked it up so I could give it a try. I installed it on the computer this morning and spent an hour or so playing with it. So far it doesn't work very well, but I understand that it takes a while to train these programs so they work properly. (Hey, I don't always type what I'm trying to type, either.) And I can see enough potential in it that I'm still very intrigued. However, I don't have the time to keep messing with it right now, so I'm going back to writing my normal way and will try to train the program a little bit at a time. If any of you have used this software, though, and have any tips, I'd be very grateful to hear them.