Special Edition Using® Microsoft® Office Word 2003

Understanding Word's Speech Features

Word contains extensive support for speech recognition—and if you are running a fast computer in a quiet environment, you may be pleasantly surprised by its performance. Word's speech-recognition features take two forms:

• Voice Command, which allows you to choose Word commands, specify formatting, and perform other tasks by speaking directions to the computer aloud

• Dictation, which allows you to speak and have Word transfer your spoken language into text onscreen

How much Word's speech-recognition features improve your productivity depends heavily on how you use your computer and on how good a typist you are. Speech recognition is, of course, especially valuable for those with repetitive stress injuries or other ...