Writers and bloggers face many challenges on a day-to-day basis: finding time to write without distractions, dealing with writer’s block, earning a living as a writer. Anything that can make the process easier can be a blessing. A great tool to make a writer’s life easier is speech recognition software. For those who have considered speech recognition software but never tried it – today’s programs are faster and more accurate than ever before.
The average person can type 40 words a minute and in many cases writers can type up to 60-70 wpm. But with the help of voice recognition software, it is possible to produce up to 150 wpm – a significant improvement, which can save a lot of time. And for writers that don’t touch-type, trying to remember where that next key is can interrupt the flow of ideas – speech recognition software can keep that creativity going and allow you to quickly capture those thoughts and ideas and focus on the content of your writing. Dictating aloud will also help you see if your writing makes sense.
Writers that spend several hours a day in front of their computer run the risk of developing repetitive strain injury, which can threaten their ability to earn a living. Back, neck and wrist pain can be avoided with voice recognition software, allowing you to work more comfortably. Those with serious conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome or arthritis can be as productive as ever, without aggravating their injuries.
The most well-known voice recognition and dictation software is Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The latest release offers an impressive 99% recognition accuracy. And the more you use it, the more the program learns to understand your voice and vocabulary, as well as your formatting preferences, and becomes ever better at transcribing. When the program does make a transcription error, the corrections list in the latest version contains even more alternate word choices for easy editing.
Dragon scans for context – understanding the probability of certain words appearing near other words, and choosing the correct homonym. Dragon also adapts to your writing style. You can speed up this process by allowing it to scan documents you’ve written and analyze them. This further improves accuracy.
You can also use thousands of voice commands to carry out text formatting and editing in Dragon, to navigate the Windows desktop and different applications, and to search the internet.
There’s also a great free Dragon iPad app. The app allows you to use your iPad to transcribe dictation – just speak directly into your iPad and the app sends the recording of your voice over the internet to Nuance’s servers to be transcribed before returning the text back onto your screen a few seconds later. You can then edit your text with the iPad keyboard. When you’re done, send your text to email with a few quick taps of the screen. So you no longer have to be tied to your computer or laptop – now you can be even more mobile with the lighter, smaller iPad. You can work curled up on your sofa, in bed, in your garden ….. make yourself comfortable and let the inspiration flow.
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