If typing is not one of your strong points or if you need your hands free for things other than typing, voice recognition may be ideal for you. People who have repetitive strain injuries or disabilities that prevent them from typing well or typing for long periods of time may also find voice recognition advantageous.
             To decide what type of voice recognition you want you must first decide what you want voice recognition to do. The simplest level is Command and Control. These programs allow you to operate windows or other operating system using voice navigation commands and voice macros. Word processing and similar typing is specifically for online use with browser, email, chat, and messaging software. At the other extreme are full-featured dictation systems that allow you to dictate into word processing or spreadsheet programs, write email, and participate in chats using voice recognition. Most of these will also include Command and Control features.
             If you will be using voice recognition in a field with very specialized vocabulary, there may be versions designed for your profession. Specialized versions are available for medicine, legal, and emergency professions. Often these versions also include software or forms particular to the needs of that profession. If most of your dictation is dome on the go, several companies make mobile versions of their software that include a digital voice recorder. Documents are saved as a digital recording that can be uploaded to your computer at a later time. Will there be multiple users? If there is even a possibility that the rest of your family will want to use the program, make sure the software has multi-user capabilities.
             Voice recognition software has improved quite a bit. Many of the older voice recognition systems only had the capability to recognize discrete (or isolated) dictation. With discrete voice recognition you...have...to...say...each...word...slowly and distinct...