Voice to text

What is voice to text

A voice to text program allows you to speak into a microphone so speak, and what you speak will appear in your word document or notepad or where ever.

Think of the possibilities you do not need to type any more. Chat by speaking instead of typing. You can lay in bed and write your blog. No more hands that hurt from typing too much.  Basically you will reduce your reliance on your keyboard and mouse.

I am not fully accustom to it so I use both now, a combination of voice commands (speech recognition) and keyboard is the best for efficiency.

Further you speech faster than you type and you can do more in less time. The accuracy will be about ninety-five percent accuracy if you train the program. It has self training capabilities. I personally do not know if I spell at ninety-five percent accuracy.

Note this is not text to voice, which is something else. Text to voice programs are everywhere and they read to you. This is a diction or voice to text, which means you do not have to type any more.

Where to get a free voice to text program

I use a free Voice to text program that is available to Windows users called SAPI. SAPI is part of the Microsoft Speech Software Development Kit (SDK).  If you are on XP then you need to install it from here from Microsoft.  Free voice to text program . If you have Vista or Windows 7 you do not need to install this.  Voice to text program is found on your start menu as displayed below.

Voice to text Speech recognition program free from Microsoft

This program will let you write e-mails or your blog or write that book you have been thinking about just by speaking.  When you speak it will write for you.  The set up is easy and Microsoft has a basic dictation program.  You can buy some commercial ones but why?  They have a few more whistles and bells but the one that comes with your computer.

Try blogging in the bath tube.  The bathroom has good acoustics and I just speak away.  However, I have to go back and revise my posts.

The future of voice to text

Skype and many other companies are already starting to come out with applications what you can speak into your phone and it will send an sms.  I think they technology was developed for the disabled in mind, but now, as it progresses it has uses beyond its original intention.  It is your personal dictation security.

The more advanced programs have commands for moving your mouse and scrolling etc.

Language application for speech recognition

Voice to text programs come in various languages of course. If you are trying to learn pronunciation in the Spanish language for example, you could practice with a Spanish voice to speech recognition program and try to improve your accuracy when you are reading Spanish text.

If you have question about the install or use of this speech recognition program please review this site.

Author: Mark Biernat

I live in with family between two worlds, US and Europe where I create tools for language learning. If you found my site you probability share my passion to be a life long learner. Please explore my site and comment.

13 thoughts on “Voice to text”

  1. I download this and it works great once you train it. I found it useful when I was on sales calls. It was a good way of taking note of the conversation. A very useful tool for sales professionals who don’t want to spend money on the full system as a way of keeping track of client conversations for themselves.

    1. Thanks for the comment, I think voice to text is very useful for even blogging. If the first download does not work for the voice to text problem, make sure you have .net framework installed on your system. Its a free Microsoft program.

  2. Hi Mark 🙂

    I have computer from my work so I’m not administrator so I can’t install this program. Do you know other way to work this program on my computer?

    1. Hi Mariusz, if you can not install a program on your computer as an administrator, then it might be hard. However, if you running vista or Windows 7 it should be installed. However, I am not sure if the Polish language is on there, however, it should work for English, even if you are a foreigner and have an accent. You can train the program to understand your accent and it will be no problem.
      I will have to look into this more. But if you have XP to run Voice to text or this transcription program you need to be able to install some things.

  3. I have windows 7 but I cant find any voice to text converter. What is its name or where can I find it?

    1. It it built into Windows 7, look under control panel -> “speech recognition options”. I am using Voice to text on Windows 7 with my Netbook. However, it is not available in all languages. I have another computer that has Windows Vista in the Polish language and it does not have speech recognition as it is not supported in that language.
      If this is the case I would recommend trying another one of the open source programs, but they are harder to install and I think do not come in all languages.

  4. Hello Mark, I also have Windows 7 on my HP computer, but i cant seem to find the voice recognition options in my control panel.

    1. Look under control panel then switch to ‘classic view’ – this will be on your upper left and side. After you switch to ‘classic view’ in your Windows control panel you will see a little microphone icon in the choice you have, and it will say ‘Speech recognition options’. If you have further trouble let me know.

  5. I love it! It works even better that Dragon I have version 9 and I have to go back and proof read everything. And on top of this, It’s free. Thanks. I just have a question can I dictated in Spanish?

    1. The problem with Windows is it is very language specific. Unless you get the premium version than only one language is supported.
      However, some good news. On Vista and Windows 7 you can change your Windows install language with froggie.sk
      However, I think that does not do you any good. I am pretty sure Spanish is supported in Voice to text but I think that has to be your install language.
      There might be another third party software that does it.

  6. I tried several programs before and they all worked like this artificial-intelligence.com/comic/17.

    Thanks for the article; it never occurred to me to try this Microsoft’s voice to text! I use Windows 8 and the program is integrated in it. It gets accurately almost everything I say!

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