| I'd been thinking for quite a while about getting | | | | The experience has been terrific! I'm actually not |
| some voice-activated typing software to help | | | | too sure that I write much faster than I did when |
| ease the strain I felt in my neck and shoulders if I | | | | I was typing with my hands, at least not yet, but |
| typed anything longer than a few hundred words. | | | | I can definitely report that the whole experiences |
| I put it off for quite a while because without | | | | easier physically. It's amazing how easy it is to |
| actually trying it myself I was a little bit skeptical | | | | produce several hundred words of content, |
| about how well it worked. In the last six months | | | | whether it's an e-mail or a blog post, and not feel |
| though, after anything more than a half an hour | | | | at all tight in my neck or shoulder area. |
| or so of typing it seemed like the next strain | | | | Initially I found myself carefully watching the |
| turned into a headache fairly easily which got old | | | | typing area to make sure that each and every |
| really fast. | | | | word was reproduced accurately by typing |
| I've never learned to touch type, something I | | | | software, which made the process pretty slow. A |
| regret a little bit now-- on the other hand getting | | | | method that I have settled on that seems to |
| real good at touch typing seems to lead to | | | | really speed things up and even increase the |
| problems in the wrists and hands for a lot of | | | | accuracy of the software, is to simply speak my |
| people, so I was a little bit reluctant to learn to tell | | | | entire e-mail or article and then go back and |
| the truth. | | | | correct errors later. The instructions actually |
| Anyway I decided to treat myself to some voice | | | | suggest to avoid starting and stopping, claiming |
| typing software for the holidays after reading | | | | that accuracy is increased by simply speaking |
| several reviews MacSpeech Dictate. As a Mac | | | | naturally. I found this to be exactly the case, |
| user my range of choices is narrower than it | | | | which makes it a lot easier for me. Also, it's hard |
| would be if I was a PC user, but I realized after | | | | to put a number on the error rate, but I'd say no |
| reading quite a bit about it in the last year or so | | | | more than one word out of 20 is wrong, maybe |
| that hardly any of the reviews were negative, so | | | | less. |
| I decided to give it a shot. | | | | So what are the negative aspects of voice typing |
| I'm not sure if it's appropriate to give reviews of | | | | software? Well it's not cheap; I paid over $150 for |
| particular products here, but I thought it might be | | | | my software. But aside from that I really can't |
| helpful to tell about how positive my experience | | | | think of anything. It only takes about five minutes |
| has been with voice-activated typing software | | | | to "train" the software by reading text that is |
| generally as a tool, in the last few weeks I've | | | | shown to you on the screen... that was hardly an |
| been using it. | | | | inconvenience. |