I’ve been keeping an eye on the search keyword list for this blog. The hits are typically from search phrases like “technical writing” “masters degree” and “agile documentation.”
But one phrase that I found interesting was “just write what I say.” I would guess that the person is seeking voice recognition or speech recognition software, specifically verbal transcription tools. I suppose Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the first product that comes to mind, but there are OS-based options as well. I like their product’s tagline, “Turn talk… into text!” so props to them and a link.
Speech recognition can be integrated into certain programs on Windows XP SP1, such as Microsoft Word and Notepad, as this article from September 2003 describes, but you need Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine v5.0 and naturally, a microphone and hardware that can take in the speech sounds.
Mac OS X has speech recognition integrated as well, and you can even play chess with the computer giving it voice commands, according to this web page.
So, I’m writing this post to gather some traffic but offer useful information while collecting those hits. Give back, I say. Let me know if you found this information useful.