Finally, fast and easy content entry

[sandman]

For the last few weeks, I've been developing a new content site. I figured out the logo, got a good backend up based on smarty's template and now it's time for the content. I've been dreading this part. Normally what I do is to get 4 to five books on the subject, do some reading, and write some articles.

I'm not a fast typer so it usually takes me weeks before I have any decent content. Somewhere, somebody, suggested that I try voice recognition software. So I thought, what the heck. I invested in a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking and I bought a nice headset microphone. After installing the software there's about a 10 minute orientation where the software learns your voice. After that I decided to give it a try.

All I can say is that it was awesome! I was able to bang out a complete new entry page twice as long, much better, in about a minute. It was so easy to do I figured I had the post about it, in fact I'm talking now and it's making this post for me much faster than I can type it. I'm leaning back with my feet on the desk writing content.

Anyway, so far it has been worth every penny.

Just had to share. :D

[Cutter]

Very cool, I don't know anyone who actually uses voice recognition (except on new cell phones) until now!

I don't think that would work very well for me. I'm always writing things out, then going back and making changes. On the other hand, most people can talk a lot faster than they can type.

[deronsizemore]

I can type pretty fast, but I can talk a lot faster...sometimes to fast. Do you have to talk slow and deliberate for the voice recognition to pick up?

[James]

I'd be surprised if it could match my voice to what I'm saying properly; I slur my words, and my pitch varies consistently. Aswell as the fact that uhhhh I have some uhhhh stupid uhhh sounding habits uhhh when I talk. uhh.

[Masetek]

I used voice software a few years back to help on some college projects..but back then it was so buggy, and it was hopeless at getting the words right...I spent so much time fixing mistakes, it was quicker to write it!

I'll def be giving it a try next time I need to write a lot of content

Here's the url for it http://www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking/

:cool:

[sandman]

I tried talking fast and doing some slurring to see how it did. It kept up with the speed just fine. It did not like the slurring at all. You do have to speak clearly but it does match itself to your voice.

My wife tried using it after I trained it to mine and it didnt go at all. You can set up different profiles for different users though. It isnt perfect by far but it was faster enough for me that it made a huge difference. You can also train it to how you say a word. It "remembers" when you make a correction.

I also tried some stuff a few years ago and was not impressed at all. This software is good enough to use as a tool.

Anyway, I'm going to try to write about 5 - 350 word articles tonight and see how it goes. Normally, with my typing skills, it would take three days. :rolleyes:

I hope to nail them out pretty quick.

[Westech]

You caught my attention when you said that you were writing this post leaning back with your feet on your desk. :)

I'm interested in how often you actually have to touch the keyboard or mouse while you're using it. Is it fairly easy to go back and make corrections to your text using voice commands only, or does that require keyboard/mouse usage?

Also, have you tried using voice commands to do things like browse the web:
"open browser"
"open www.websitepublisher.com"
"click forum"
....

Is that type of functionality included in the software, and does it work reasonably well?

[Blue Cat Buxton]

I used this software a few years ago to, v 6 I think and it was OK, but not life changing;

There were so many corrections required that by the time you went back to change the text you had forgotten what you were trying to say.

I could see how it could really be good though if it worked well.

$200 is a bit steep for the Word enabled version though - I remember a $50 price tag or there abouts :( - my mistake, the basic package if $99 wihcih includes a microphone

[sandman]

I have not tried the voice commands although it has the capability to run all of that. Right now I'm just using it whenever I need to do any length of typing.

I am having to go back and do some fixes but much less then when I am typing.

I have not tried it in word. I just use it in Wordpad with my html file open. I put the content strait in.

I'll give it some heavy usage tonight and see how it goes.

[sandman]

OK, I gave it a good workout over the weekend. I did miss some of the more technical words but there is a training option and it was easy to get it straitened out. It did make mistakes that I had to go back and fix. One of them I tried to say:

"This Vitamin has shown beneficial for your intestines" what I got was:

"This Vitamin has shown beneficial for urin test times" which I thought was funny.

Then I tried to type one of the paragraphs to see how I could compare and I was way off. It was also much easier for to get content out speaking at my own speed.

After doing the reading from about 3 different sources, I banged out 12 articles at 350 to 400 words per article in about an hour or so.

So I do have good content as its literally "In my own words". :D

May not be for everybody but it works for me.

[John]

How do you bang out 12 articles in an hour? Do you just come up with the stuff off the top of your head? I realize you have studied up on the topic before hand but just spitting out 12 articles in an hour is incredible.

[r2d2]

Thats is indeed very impressive - I take it that must be prepared before hand? I think 12 400 word articles is nearly constant normal talking rate for an hour?

I normally take at least an hour for a 500 word article, but that includes a little research.

[Shockt]

This sounds not only great for content websites but also great for English papers. It might be an investment worth making. Thanks for the post. ;)

[thebillionaire]

well u have fast computer I tried that program like a year or 2 ago, it sucked, i was using pr2.4 ghz with 512ddr ram and it would lag, plus it wrote down like eerything wrong after like 20mins + of training it.

[sandman]

My computer is slower then that and it lags maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Maybe its newer software or something.

I soak up content from different sources and spit it back out as one of the functions of my job (at work) so its not something I had to learn for this. I ussually have to take about 8 to 10 reports and summarize it into one a few times each do so this was no problem.

I did read for a few hours before hand so maybe I should have included that time also...

[paul]

The editor of a used book selling forum I read feels it is as important to his success as his cable modem. Combined with a scanner and OCR package it lets him post elaborate descriptions of his books on all his ebay auctions.

However, if you ever record yourself talking and listen to the playback you will find that normal speach is VERY sloppy. It is really hard to speak in complete sentences, enuncate clearly, etc.