Control your Windows Vista computer with your own voice
Wouldn’t it be cool if we can talk to our computer rather than using the keyboard and mouse to get things done? Well, Windows Vista allows you to make use of your own voice to control many of the activities that you do with your computer. With Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition you can train your computer to recognize your voice and react to what you say.
With Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition you can start programs, open menus, click on buttons and links, dictate text into documents and you can compose and send emails as well. You can do most of the activities with your voice that you do with your mouse and keyboard otherwise. Depending on your accent Vista might have some hard time understanding what you are saying but if you train it with a slow and steady voice then it shouldn’t cause much issues. Follow these steps to control your Windows Vista using your own voice,
Step-1:
Click on the “Start” button and then click on the “Control Panel” option.
Step-2:
Click on the “Ease of Access” link.
Step-3:
Click on the “Start speech recognition” link under “Speech Recognition Options”.
Step-4:
Vista will pop-up with a “Speech Recognition” dialog that allows you to setup a microphone with which you can record and instruct the computer. Just follow the “Next” button.
Step-5:
On the microphone selection page choose the microphone option that’s applicable to you.
Step-6:
On the”Adjust the microphone volume” dialog speak as clear as you can so that Vista can adjust the volume to better fit your needs.
Step-7:
On the “Speech recognition accuracy” dialog click on the “Enable document review”. Enabling document review helps Vista learn the words and phrases quick and your privacy is not compromised as it is not revealed to other or sent to Microsoft.
Click thru the “Next” button until you hit the “Start Tutorial” button. Click on the “Start Tutorial” button to get an understanding of Speech Recognition.
Once all is done, Vista will display a Speech Recognition gadget that keeps an eye on what you voice command your computer.
You can even see a “Speech Recognition” icon on your system tray.
Right clicking on the system tray icon reveals quite a bit of options that you can make use of.
To get started, here are some frequently used commands,
| To Do This | Say This |
|
Click any item by its name |
File; Start; View |
|
Click item |
Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click File |
|
Double-click item |
Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click File |
|
Switch to an open program |
Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application |
|
Scroll direction |
Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left; Scroll right |
|
Insert a new paragraph or new line in a document |
New paragraph; New line |
|
Select a word in a document |
Select word |
|
Select a word and start to correct it |
Correct word |
|
Select and delete specific words |
Delete word |
|
Make the computer listen to you |
Start listening |
|
Make the computer stop listening |
Stop listening |
Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition is a very powerful tool if made use of it in the right way. I hope this article helps you get started with Vista’s Speech Recognition. If you have any questions regarding this please make sure to ask in comments.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:13 am
Cool! I didn’t know about this before. Could be an interesting feature to try. Thanks for the detailed post.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:38 am
At least we can tell our friends now that “I have someone at last at home who listens to me”
…thanks for sharing this.