A great all-round package (IBM ViaVoice Millennium Pro)

Member Name: ric10561

Product:	IBM ViaVoice Millennium Pro
Date:	17/07/00 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Say commands, control the cursor, surf the web.

Disadvantages: Not perfect at dictation.

ViaVoice came packaged with my spanking new high-end PC, and I wanted to experience voice-recognition software properly as my previous computer's voice regonition was trash. So I followed very simple instructions and plugged in the microphone, and allowed ViaVoice to set my audio level. Setup was easy.

The training process takes a while - between 15 to 60 minutes, depending on your chosen passage to read - but it allows ViaVoice to add punctuation automatically an be incredibly accurate. What's more, you can have different user accounts, so the whole family can use it.

While not very accurate at the start, the correction window allows you to make dictation work. ViaVoice can let you dictate into any application, or onto their own program SpeakPad. After ViaVoice makes an error, select the error and chose/type the real words. You can even play the owrd as it was said over the microphone, to see if YOU were to blame for the error.

There's loads of features with ViaVoice. It allows you to make commands, for example saying 'Save', 'Open' or 'Close' while dictating you can do those things. Select the ViaVoice toolbar and you can say 'Start Button' then 'Programs' etc. You can setup things like saying 'Virus Check' to setup a scan. You can also tell ViaVoice to move the cursor, select, delete and format.

This package even comes with a microphone, and is very easy to use. It may not be perfect at interpreting what you say, but it is highly recommended.

Summary: