Windows Vista® Step by Step Deluxe Edition

Controlling Your Computer by Using Voice Commands

People working in the legal, medical, and other industries are accustomed to dictating information—either to another person, or to a voice recorder—for other people to transcribe. Similarly, executives frequently find it faster to dictate letters and memos for an assistant to type, rather than type the documents themselves. Most of us can speak faster than we can type.

Dictation naturally evolved into the development of speech recognition software. For some years now, specialized programs have been available to record information dictated in a normal speaking voice as text. Windows Vista takes speech recognition a step further, providing a means by which you can control your computer by voice, rather ...