Writing an Article in Three to Five Minutes
8:49 a.m. Several weeks ago I started experimenting with the built-in Vista speech recognition software. I’ve been trying to find a way to continue my prolific writing habits, even though I have problems with my arms, hands and wrists when I write too much. I’m a very fast typer. When I’m in the zone, I literally type about 120 words per minute. On a good day I can write 6000 to 10,000 words. That’s a wonderful feeling to do that much work at once, but it takes a major toll on my body. So I’ve been looking for alternative ways to continue writing, without causing myself more problems.
So I decided to try speech recognition. And since I have Microsoft Vista installed, I started with their built-in speech recognition software. I was ultimately not happy with it. The software is actually not bad, but it’s not great either. Vista speech recognition software makes many mistakes and it’s not overly easy to correct those mistakes quickly. It also works best in Microsoft software. You can configure the software to allow you to dictate into any program on your computer, and it will technically work, but it’s determined to make it difficult for you.
When dictating in a Microsoft application, the software will transcribe your speech directly into the program. If you’re using a non-Microsoft program however, the software will pop up a selection box for everything you say. That means after you say a sentence or two, you have to select your sentence from a list and confirm that’s what you said. This feature combined with the frequent mistakes and corrections needed, makes dictation extremely slow. And unfortunately, the Vista speech recognition software has very little training capability. Theoretically, you train it by simply dictating to it. And as you go along making corrections to the mistakes, it is supposed to learn from those mistakes and do better next time. This is time consuming.
I was so frustrated with that software, that I decided to download a trial version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and try it instead. I had used the software almost 10 years ago because it came free with my WordPerfect office. Back then, it didn’t work so well. Today however, I’m amazed and thrilled.
The latest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking does not have to be trained before using it, but you can improve your accuracy right out of the gate if you do spend a little time training it first. And that’s what I did. Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually come loaded with several different texts that can be read to train the software to your voice. And simply sitting and reading for 30 minutes to an hour makes a huge difference in the accuracy of the dictation program.
So that’s what I did. I went through the tutorials, played around with it a bit, and then spent approximately 30 minutes reading through a couple of the training materials. I tried doing this with the Vista speech recognition as well, but unfortunately the only options it gives you for training are two very brief, almost promotional, texts all about speech recognition and operating your computer by voice. Dragon naturally on the other hand, provides you actual book excerpts, as well as many other texts from a variety of different fields. I chose to read part of the business book for example, because that contains many of the same types of words that I use in my daily writing. I feel that helped tremendously with the software being able to understand what I’m trying to write.
And it appears I was right. For the past two days I have been writing articles of about 400 to 500 words in length. And for the most part I’m writing these articles in three to five minutes. And that’s including any minor corrections that need to be made. The article that I’m writing at this very moment is actually taking longer than normal because the software was stumbling over the word “Vista” until I added that word to its dictionary. I’m still having minor problems with that particular word, but it’s learning.
Overall I really love the software. It is making my life much easier, and increasing my productivity to no end. The trial version of this software lasts for 15 days. And you’re trying out the standard version of the software, which costs about $100. I wouldn’t mind having the professional version which is about $200 and has some portable dictation features plus more advanced macros, but for now I’ll probably start with the standard version and then upgrade later.
9:09 a.m.
752 words
Even though the software stumbled over a couple of new words, I still wrote the 750 words above in 15 minutes. My average time for a 400 word article is about five minutes. If I have miscellaneous corrections to do, it may take about eight minutes. Overall, that’s really fast! And my arms don’t hurt after writing two or three articles! 
©2008, Kathy Burns-Millyard
Correction: DNS Preferred is the $200 version which enables mobile dictation and more advanced macros. DNS professional is about $700-$800 retail.
