I'm almost positive that this has been touched on already but I'm facing the problem of having a ton of written work that now needs to be converted and edited on my comp but It's taking forever to type up and I'm actually a very good typist. I was recently released from prison so Im kind of behind on technology but one of my friends informed me of a program or app where you can just verbally speak your story and it converts the words into text right then which would help me out a lot. Does anyone know about this?
I've only used it a few times, but Dragon NaturallySpeaking is pretty good. It's quite expensive though and the only reason i have it is because it was free for my dyslexia, but perhaps they do a trial or something. Also modern versions of Windows since Vista have speech recognition and it's getting pretty good. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/set-speech-recognition#1TC=windows-7 You also have the option of scanning or photographing your writing and getting a program to convert it. Not sure on any specific programs for that though, but i know there are some.
I'm definitely going to try these because I just posted up a chapter of one of my books and no lie it took me all day to type up. I guess that's just a necessary evil though.
Looks like this "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" thing is pretty well cracked and pirated versions are readily available, if you didn't know. I don't exactly condone or promote piracy but if you can't actually afford it (I dunno if you can or not, I'm just hypothetically speaking) and it's something that would really help you, I'm prone to telling you to do what you gotta do.
I mean what do you guys do, do you all actually take the time to type up all of your handwritten work?
I can see myself starting to do that in the future just to cut down on this problem of having to rewrite things though I think the revision of a first draft is something that you will wind up doing either way. I just have so much stuff that I wrote while I was locked up that I now have to convert over to the computer and it's making my head and hands hurt doing it so I'm looking for an easier way. Update: I searched on my phone and found an app called ListNote and it seems to be doing just what I want so that might be something someone else might try if they are having the same problems as I.
Seems like advising people to pirate something and violate the author's copyright is poor form in a board for Writers, who depend on copyright to protect their own works.
You could always use the 30 day free trial to see if it works well or not and to get most of it typed up. http://shop.nuance.co.uk/store/nuanceeu/en_GB/Content/pbPage.201508_dnspremium13trial_uk?utm_source=google&utm_medium=emea-cpc&utm_campaign=DBU+|+DNS+Trial+|+Product+|+UK+-+EN&keyword=dragon+naturallyspeaking+trial-e
Well of course it's morally wrong no matter what the pretext, but I merely offered it if he perhaps didn't have the money at the moment and really needed/wanted a program to put his voice into word. I'm not condoning you should ever really pirate, just throwing the option out there. Didn't mean to offend.
If you use the Google Chrome web browser, you can use FREE voice-to-text right in Google Docs. Open Chrome, go to Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), create a new document, and select "Tools->Voice Typing." A microphone icon will appear. When you're ready to say something, click the microphone and then start dictating!
