I continue to rely on Windows XP’s built-in voice recognition, and have found a few things that help improve it.
The recognition software is built into XP, and here’s what I’ve found yields the best results:
- Good headset (I like the Plantronics DSP-400)
- Training (I did about 30 minutes to get started)
- Word has the best all-around support for editing, etc.
- Run the volume-level adjustment wizard before use
- Find the right distance for the mic to not pick up breathing
- Speak clearly and consistently (but normally)
- Periodically add custom words to the dictionary
Note that if you configure Outlook to use Word as your message editor, you get all the benefits for voice recognition in composing emails.
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