Windows Vista Voice Recognition

Voice recognition is an alternative to typing on a keyboard. It is useful for people with physical disabilities who often find typing difficult, painful or impossible.

Open ‘Ease of Access’ press ‘Windows’ logo key and using the arrow keys or mouse select ‘Control Panel’ + ‘Ease of Access’ + ‘Speech Recognition Options’, see Fig 1.

 
Fig 1

Click to select or press ‘Alt’ + ‘S’ to ‘Start Speech Recognition’, see Fig 2.

 
Fig 2

If this is the first time running speech recognition you will be prompted to setup your microphone.

To check your microphone is working click ‘Setup Microphone’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘M’.

‘Tab’ to or click the kind of microphone you are using, see Fig 3.
 
Fig 3

Click ‘Next’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘N’.

You will see a screen on placing your microphone.

Click ‘Next’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘N’.

Next you are asked to read a sentence on screen and you see a slider in the volume bar move as you speak, see Fig 4.

 
Fig 4

 Click ‘Next’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘N’.

The microphone is setup, click to select or ‘Tab’ to ‘Finish’ and press ‘Enter’.

If this does not happen, see the Trouble shooting section.

You can now start dictating, however the recognition will not be accurate as the computer has not “learnt” your voice.

Click to select or press ‘Alt’ + ‘R’ to select ‘Train your computer to better understand you’. This takes 5 minutes and you can take further units if you want.

Read the Welcome screen text, click ‘Next’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘N’.

Read the training text.

To select ‘More Training’ click to select or press ‘Alt + ‘M’.

Select ‘Finnish’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘F’.

After you have done this the computer should recognise your voice.

For a list of speech commands click ‘Open reference card’ or press ‘Alt’ + ‘C’.

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help.