I know that XP has some speech recognition capabilities. But the Vista version is so much better than the XP version, it practically is a new feature.

Speech recognition is a Vista feature that lets you perform many tasks by talking rather than by typing or clicking. It’s a great solution to problems caused by motor impairments that make it difficult to use the mouse and keyboard. But it can also be useful if you just can’t type worth beans. You can use speech recognition to open programs, folders, and files, make selections in dialog boxes, dictate text that you’d normally type by hand, and more. To use speech recognition, you need a microphone. A USB headset microphone with noise cancellation to filter out background sound is best. If you don’t have one, you can purchase one at any place that sells geek gear. To see examples or purchase online, go to an online retailer (www.cdw.com, www.newegg.com, www.tigerdirect.com, www.walmart.com, www.amazon.com, or whomever you like) and search for USB headset microphone.

As I write this article, speech recognition is available only for English (United States and Great Britain), traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish. Others may be available by the time you read this book. Search the Web or Microsoft’s site for vista speech recognition engine for current information resources.

After you have a microphone, learn enough about it to plug it into the computer, make sure it’s not muted, and control its volume (if it has Mute and volume controls). Plug it into the computer and wait a few seconds for Vista to see it and show you a notification that it’s ready to use. Then try to set aside about an hour where you can have some peace and quiet without interruptions so you can learn how to use speech recognition. If you provide the microphone and time, Vista will provide the training, as discussed in the next section.

Getting started with speech recognition

The first step to using speech recognition is to connect your microphone to the computer as per the manufacturer’s instructions. The second step is to open the Speech Recognition control panel using whichever technique is easiest for you.

If the Speech Recognition control panel is already open and running, right-click its microphone or Notification area icon and choose Configuration  ->  Open Speech Recognition Control Panel.

- Click the Start button and choose Control Panel  ->  Ease of Access  ->  Speech Recognition Options.

- Tap the Windows key, type spe, and click Speech Recognition Options.

- If you’re already in Ease of Access Center, click the arrow next to Ease of Access in the breadcrumb trail and choose Speech Recognition Options.

Your first hour of learning to use speech recognition begins when you click Start Speech Recognition. You’ll be taken through the entire process of setting things up and learning how to do things. (Assuming you haven’t already been through that process.) I won’t repeat everything in the tutorial here because you’re better off just doing what the onscreen tutorial tells you to do. If you pay attention and try the things it tells you to, you’ll be up-to-speed on the basics of using speech recognition. If you can’t make it through the whole tutorial, click Set-up microphone or Take Speech Tutorial when you can resume. As in all things related to using a computer, the hour you invest in learning will save you hours of hair-pulling frustration later.

Commanding Windows Vista by voice

Table 12-3 lists things you can do by voice to control Windows Vista at that desktop, as well as program windows that are already open. Speak only the text shown in monospace font. Other text is for clarification. Replace italicized text with an actual name. For example in Open programName, say the name of the program in place of programName. So to open WordPad, you’d say Open WordPad. But be aware that if the cursor is in a word processing or text editing program (WordPad or Word, for example), your speech might be taken as dictation and typed into your document. You can say minimize Word or minimize WordPad to minimize either program to prevent that. Plain text in parentheses is for clarification and not to be spoken. Text shown in italics isn’t to be spoken literally. Rather, replace it with a spoken name. For example, Open ProgramName means you say “Open” then say the name of the program you want to open. For example, to open WordPad you say Open WordPad.

If you have Folder Options set to single-clicking, it may be difficult to select icons by voice. Consider switching to double-clicking so you can say Click and ShiftClick to select icons.

Dictate an E-mail Message In Windows Vista

Dictating e-mail messages in Windows Mail is fairly easy. The only tricky part is typing the e-mail address, because it contains words not found in the dictionary. If the person is in your Contacts, you can say their name instead. But even names can be tricky. You have to spell them, by saying press followed by each letter to type. Optionally, you can add names and domain names to the speech dictionary. Here’s an example of opening Windows Mail and sending a message to a hypothetical recipient at alan@coolnerds.com. The dashes indicate pauses in speech—you don’t say “dash” or anything else where you see a dash. Show desktop – Open Windows Mail – Create Mail – Press a-l-a-n atsign Press c-o-o-ln- e-r-d-s period Press c-o-m Go to subject Sample dictated message Press Tab I’m practicing my voice dictation period. It takes some practice but I think I’ll get the hang of it Period New paragraph See ya exclamation point Send.

Making dictation better

Voice dictation isn’t always easy. It’s certainly not like Star Trek where they just say whatever they want and the computer “understands.” Real computers don’t “understand” anything to say or type. They’re just mindless, brainless machines. When you use speech recognition and dictation, you’re not really “talking to” or “conversing with” the computer as you would another person. You’re trying to control a dumb machine with your voice. Because yours is the only brain in the “conversation,” the onus of getting it to work falls on you. Speech recognition often fails when there are homonyms involved—words that sound alike such as wood/would, to/too/two, and I am/IM (try saying I’m instead on that last one). Names and slang terms that aren’t in the dictionary are often mistaken for similar-sounding words from the dictionary. There are things you can do to improve matters, as discussed in the next three sections.

Correct that

When speech recognition gets a spoken word wrong, correcting it by voice helps it to learn your unique speaking style. To correct a wrong word, say Correct word (where word is the word you want to correct). If that word appears in several places, each will show a number. Say the number of the word you want to correct, then say OK. The Alternatives Panel opens. As instructed in the panel, say the number of the corrected word then say OK. Or say I’ll spell it myself and follow the onscreen instructions.

Improve voice recognition

Speech recognition offers little five-minute training sessions to help it better recognize your voice. To ensure it doesn’t think you’re dictating, close or minimize any open windows (say show desktop or right-click the clock and choose Show the Desktop). Then say stop listening. Right-click the Speech Recognition microphone or Notification area icon and choose Configuration  ->  Improve Voice Recognition. Then follow the onscreen instructions in the Voice Recognition Wizard that opens.

There are several different training sessions available from that same set of commands, so don’t feel that you can choose Configuration  ->  Improve Voice Recognition only once. You can choose it whenever you have a spare five minutes to improve speech recognition.

Add words to the speech dictionary

Speech recognition operates by comparing sound waves of words you say to words in its dictionary. You can add your own words to the dictionary, remove words, or change words. Adding words is especially useful for things like people’s names, domain names, e-mail addresses, and slang terms.

Advanced speech recognition configuration

Advanced Speech Recognition options let you choose a speech recognition engine (language), control automatic startup, and more. To get to those options, open the Speech Recognition Control Panel. Right-click the Speech Recognition microphone or Notification area icon (if available) and choose Configuration  -> Open Speech Recognition Control Panel. Otherwise use any method described under “Getting started with speech recognition” earlier in this article. The advanced options are as follows:

- Language: Choose the speech recognition option that matches the language in which you’ll be speaking.

- Recognition Profiles: Use this option to allow multiple users to define their own unique speech profiles. Each user can then train speech recognition independently for the best accuracy.

- Run Speech Recognition at startup: If you clear this checkbox, you can still start speech recognition manually by clicking Start and choosing All Programs  ->  Accessories  ->  Ease of Access  -> Speech Recognition.

As with any program, you can create desktop or Quick Launch shortcuts to Speech Recognition. See “Customizing the Quick Launch toolbar”.

- Allow computer to review your documents and mail: Clear this option only if you think the review is slowing down your computer.

- Number of spaces to insert after punctuation: Sets the number of spaces to type after end-ofsentence punctuation. The standard is 2 in English.

- Microphone: Use this option to make sure your microphone hears you or to adjust its settings. As always, click OK after changing anything in the dialog box.

More speech recognition help

To get the most from speech recognition, you want to have easy access to all of your resources. You’ll find lots of information in Windows Vista Help and Support. Click the Start button, choose Help and Support, type Speech Recognition, and press Enter. Or say the following. But don’t say anything where you see a hyphen. The hyphen means to just pause briefly until the computer responds to what you just said: Click Start - Help and Support - Search - 1 - OK - Speech Recognition - Press Enter. Be sure to check out the Speech Recognition Web site. There you’ll find news, tips, tricks, and a Community where you can ask questions. To get there, right-click the Speech Recognition microphone or Notification area icon and choose Windows Vista Speech Recognition Website. Once you get there, add the site to your Favorites and name it Speech. In the future you can get there by voice: Say Open Internet Explorer - Go to Address - Favorites – 1 – OK - Speech.

Change how numbers, dates, and times look

The Formats tab of Regional and Language Options shows how numbers, currency values, dates, and times are displayed on your screen. But you’re not stuck with those formats. To change them, click the dropdown button under the Current format heading and choose whichever option best describes your region. The formats beneath your selection will change to reflect how things are shown in that region. If you need to change one or more of the formats shown under your selected language, click Customize this format. In the dialog box that opens, specify exactly how you want Vista to show Number, Currency, Time, and Date formats on your screen. When you’re happy with the examples shown in your Formats tab, click Apply. You might want to take a look at the next section before you close the dialog box.

Let them know your correct location

Some programs and online services tailor their content to match the location in which your computer is located. If that information seems incorrect, click the Location tab in the Regional and Language Options dialog box. Choose your actual location from the drop-down button, then click Apply.

Working with multiple languages

For people who work in multiple languages, Windows Vista offers some handy options for adjusting your keyboard to work in a specific language. These features are especially useful for translators who need to switch from one language to another. There are two different types of languages you can work with:

- Input Language: The language you use to type, edit, and read documents is called the input language. Input languages come pre-installed. There’s nothing to download or buy. When you install an input language for reading and typing, you can also choose to use that language for speech recognition.

- User Interface Language: The user interface language determines the language displayed on menus, in dialog boxes and wizards, and elsewhere on the screen. A few of these are installed by default, others have to be installed separately. There are two different types of user interface languages you can install:

- Language interface packs (LIPs): These user interface languages translate about 80% of the user interface. These are preferred if your goal is to change the language that’s on your screen for everyone who uses the computer. These work with all versions of Windows Vista, are free, and are easy to install.

- Multilingual user interface (MUI) packs: These user interface languages translate the entire user interface. They can be applied to individual user accounts. So if some users need an English version of Windows, while others need a Spanish version, these are the way to go. But MUI packs work only with Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise editions.

They can be installed from your original Microsoft Windows DVD or downloaded from Microsoft’s Web site. Tools for adding input languages and user interface languages are on the Keyboard and Languages tab of the Regional and Language Options dialog box. As you can see, the top box is strictly for input languages (how your type, read, and edit documents). The bottom half is for user interface languages (text that appears in menus, dialog boxes, and wizards). We’ll look at techniques for working with all the different types of languages and files in the sections to follow.

You don’t need anything described in this article to type special characters. Those you can insert with Character Map. See “Typing Special Characters with Character Map” in Article 15. Using input languages

If you’re a translator or need to type, edit, and read documents in multiple languages, input languages described here are for you. To install an input language, click the Change keyboards button. The Text Services and Input Languages dialog box opens. To install an input language, click the Add button. A dialog box containing a long list of languages appears. Scroll through that list until you find the language you need. Then click the + sign next to that language. Then you can choose which keyboard style you want to use with that language. Click the Preview button to see the layout of whichever keyboard you choose.

You can translate text electronically without using input languages. Copy-and-paste text from any language to a translator like http://babelfish.altavista.com/. Then copy-andpaste the translated text to any document.

For languages that use complex characters, you can also choose an Input Method Editor (IME). These allow you to use alternatives to the keyboard, such as a pad, for typing. You can select (check) the Speech checkbox for most languages. However, speech recognition engines are available for a limited number of languages. To see which speech recognition engines are currently available, go to the Windows Vista Web site (www.microsoft.com/vista) and search for vista speech recognition engines. Click OK after making your selection. You can install as many languages and keyboards as you wish. You don’t have to do them all in one fell swoop either. You can add them on an as-needed basis. Each language you add appears in the Installed Services list.