Student Quote: "I'm not talking; I'm Word Processing!"
Microsoft word: columns
Why columns?
Newspaper-style columns also make it easy to lay out a page. You have more flexibility to add small blocks of text, pictures, advertisements, et cetera, because the text can flow around them, in one column or another. Having a number of places for the eye to land makes a page inviting, even if just for a quick scan. Often it's easiest to begin with existing text.
demonstration: Don't Throw Away Keyboard Just Yet
By: Dwight Silverman
One of the Holy Grails of personal computing has long been voice recognition. Its proponents believe that it's better to talk to your computer than use that ancient instrument of torture known as the keyboard.
For the last few years, the companies that make software that can control a PC and turn words into text have said that it is finally ready for prime time, that it's good enough for everyday people to use comfortably. Come and get it!
Unfortunately, it wasn't true then. And, it's almost not true now.
I've been looking at each of the new voice-recognition releases over the last two years, but haven't found anything worth writing about. These earlier versions took too long to train to recognize an individual's voice and speech, and once they did, their recognition success rates were unacceptably low.
Of course, with each new version, these programs have gotten better. And, the latest are the best so far, but it's largely thanks to a pair of advances in hardware.
The first is a set of new multimedia-enhancing code found in Intel Corp.'s Pentium III chips, as well as in Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon processors. This code can be used to boost the ability of the software to hear and translate words into text more accurately.
The second is the development of microphones that plug into a Universal Serial Bus, or USB, port. These bypass a computer's traditional sound card, which takes two large variables out of the voice-recognition equation -- card and microphone quality. Using a USB microphone greatly increases the accuracy of what the computer hears.
I've been looking at two voice recognition programs, both of which work with a USB microphone. While both are much better than what was offered just two years ago, I still found them frustrating to use. However, they're now good enough that those with disabilities or who are seriously keyboard-phobic can use them for everyday tasks.
As with all voice recognition products, you must spend time training the program to recognize your voice. Often you select a passage to read from several sources -- I chose a chapter from Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which seemed fitting -- and the computer listens while you read. You can go through as many training sessions as you like, each taking about 15 minutes.
Indeed, I was able to do fairly well, achieving about 95 percent accuracy when I read from a document. When I just dictated off the top of my head, though, accuracy dropped way off. I found I was distracted by watching the process of the computer converting words to text, and it threw off my natural rhythm of speech. Since I trained the computer by reading to it, it was confused by the different speech pattern.
In order to correct mistakes, the voice programs bring up a text box that lets you alter mistranslated words, and with this program I seldom had to resort to typing in the correct letters.
So, even though voice recognition software has come a long way, they can be awkward and flaws still exist. Don’t throw away your keyboards just yet!