Why Use Windows Speech Recognition?
There are many reasons, including a disability or an injury, why someone may not be able to use their hands to navigate a PC. That’s why speech recognition was built into Windows—to help those who have to overcome a physical problem. Even so, speech recognition is also a great tool for anyone who wants to experiment with voice interaction or would rather not use their hands to control their PC all the time.
How to Turn on Windows Speech Recognition
You can turn on Windows Speech Recognition in the Control Panel. The interface for each version of Windows is a little different, but the steps for activating Speech Recognition are basically the same:
How to Use Windows Speech Recognition
Once it is enabled, the Speech Recognition tool appears at the top of your screen. Say “Start Listening” or type Win + Ctrl to activate it. You should hear a sound letting you know Speech Recognition is ready and listening. If you ever ask for something that Speech Recognition can’t carry out, you hear an error sound.
Manual mode means you must use the keyboard shortcut Win + Ctrl before giving voice commandsVoice activation mode is activated by saying “Start Listening.“Both methods use the command “Stop Listening” to turn off Speech Recognition.
Some commands can be used at any time, while others are context sensitive. For example, using Speech Recognition while you are in a text document adds your words to the page. If you want to create a new Microsoft Word document using Windows voice commands, here’s how: Speech Recognition doesn’t work perfectly with all third-party programs. Your favorite text editor may not accept dictation, for example, but opening and closing programs, as well as navigating menus, works well enough.
Using Speech Recognition With Cortana
One issue to note for Windows 10 users is that you’ll run into frustration if you try to use the “Hey Cortana” voice command while Speech Recognition is active. To get around this, you can turn off Speech Recognition with the “Stop Listening” command before using Cortana. Alternatively, say “Open Cortana” and then use Speech Recognition’s “typing” functionality to input your request into the Cortana search box.
