How to Use Speech Recognition in Vista

Windows Vista comes with a speech recognition program. It can be used for both computer operations and speech to text dictation. If you do not want to spend a lot of money on speech recognition the program in Vista is a good alternative. Learn how to use it to minimize mistakes and make your computer easier to operate.

Things You'll Need

• Windows Vista operating system
• computer
• microphone

Instructions

1. Click on the Windows Vista start button in the lower left hand corner of your desktop. Move your cursor to the control panel button and click it. In the control panel screen navigate to the ease of access section. In the next screen, click on speech recognition options.

2. Click on set up your microphone. Plug your microphone into the appropriate jack on your computer. If necessary, specified to your computer what type of microphone it is. This screen may come up automatically. Turn your microphone on and position it approximately 1 to 2 inches away from your mouth. Follow the directions in the microphone setup screen to complete this process.

3. Navigate back to the configure your speech recognition window. Take the speech recognition tutorial to get an overview of the capabilities on Windows Vista. This will teach you commands to use to open programs, dictate text, and do many other computer tasks.

4. Train your computer to recognize your individual voice by clicking on the train your computer link in the speech recognition window. The program will give you a series of sentences to read. Read these in it as normal a voice as you can. Hopefully, the computer will be able to understand you. Speak clearly and directly into the microphone for best results.

5. Click start speech recognition and you will see a small speech widget pop up on your desktop. This will show you if the computer is listening to you, and is it is understanding what you say. It to be closed or minimized at any time.

6. Begin speech recognition by saying, "Start listening." The computer will now be ready to hear commands and take dictation. Depending on what you want to do, saying the commands clearly into the microphone. If you do not remember a command, simply say, "What can I say?" This will bring up a window of common command prompts.

Tips & Warnings

• Correct your errors to help speech recognition learn.

• Speak clearly and enunciate every letter.