Amazon.com Product Description

With IBM ViaVoice 8.0 Advanced Edition, you can dictate to your computer in your natural speaking voice, and it will type what you say. ViaVoice allows your computer to translate your words and phrases into actions that carry out commands or create text. Speak directly into word processing applications like Microsoft Word, as well as Microsoft Excel 97 and 2000, and Microsoft Outlook Express 97, 98, and 2000. Navigate your desktop, applications, and the Internet by using only your voice. Key features such as the Advanced Acoustic Model, Enhanced Correction Model, and personalized Attention Words can make you more productive and efficient. ViaVoice contains specialized vocabulary topics in business and finance, computers, chatter's jargon, and cuisine, which allows you to dictate effectively and accurately in these areas. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

No problem with Windows Me.
I got this version specifically for Windows Me and I have not had any problems so far. As expected there was some training required but once that was out of the way it was smooth sailing. Navigating the web is a bit tricky but I'm still in the learning process. This is the second voice package I've had and it is a few GIANT steps above the first one. I wonder what the "Pro" is like?

Bad for ME
I personally don't recommend this product for WME users.

For my 600MHz computer running Windows ME, IBM included a notice in the box claimed performance issues while running with WME, as well as that important "direct dictation" feature for works other than word processing (ie using Excel/Outlook/IE4) will cause crashes. This made it not worth the price, and the risk of losing data.

However, it works exceptionally well for 600MHz running Windows 98 including 2nd Edition, for that I will give 4 stars.

NOT Windows NT or 2000 compatable
I don't need the features of ViaVoice Pro but guess what? IBM forces you to buy the pro version if you are going to use it on Windows 2000 or NT.

IBM's marketing department stated that the only reason that they crippled ViaVoice Advanced so it doesn't work on NT or 2000 is because if your using one of those operating systems, then you must be a "Pro". Nice assumption. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Unlike the Proversion, IBM ViaVoice 8.0 Standard Edition only runs on Windows 9x and WindowsMe. And, just like its rivals, ViaVoice is a snap to install. You'll need amoderately well-specified PC to get the best of it--a 300 MHz Pentium with 64 to96 MB of RAM is recommended, although more of either won't go amiss.

Plug in the headset, adjust the sound levels, and read out a script to trainViaVoice. This takes a mere five minutes or so--a far cry from when trainingtook anything up to one hour. More training is a good idea, but we experiencedexcellent recognition accuracies from the word "go"--when you read out reportsand business-style letters, you can expect to get as many as 96 words right outof 100, which is remarkable. Correcting mistakes remains a simple task, and ismade a lot easier by the playback of what you actually said.

You can dictate into any application, but Microsoft Word 2000/97 can becontrolled by using "natural language controls." With the mic active, you simplyutter "dictate to Word" to get going--Word then is loaded, and you can begindictation. New to this release is the ability to control Microsoft InternetExplorer in this way. ViaVoice 8.0 is modeless, which means that you can mixdictated speech and commands in the same breath. All you have to do is pauseslightly in your flow of words, and ViaVoice will know that your next word is acommand instead of text.

ViaVoice 8.0 Standard Edition differs from the Professional Edition in a few keyareas; but, for basic dictation purposes, the Standard Edition would satisfy thevast majority of users. --Roger Gann ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Impressive Voice Recognition
I've ordered the Advanced so that I can get more control, but the voice recognition cannot be better. I can pass paragraphs without an error.

New meaning to the phrase: "Talk it out!"
I purchased this to help me dictate some reports. I was up and running with ViaVoice 8.0 Standard in less than an hour. Training the computer to recognize your voice patterns can be done in as little as 15 minutes, but after continued use of the software, I recommend that you read all six training exercises that are presented during the setup phase of ViaVoice. I found that accuracy improves when the program has more of a voice model from which to extrapolate words.

The headset included with the program is very well made and extremely sensitive to speech. Connecting it was no problem for me, and I was given a choice of using my computer's external speakers or the headset speaker to hear my dictation. This is a useful feature as you can hear what you read back in your own voice (or you can use "Woodrow," the program's own synthesized voice).

Overall, I would say this product is a good value, and I would recommend it to those who are looking for a good beginning to voice recognition programs. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Use intuitive, spoken "natural language commands" to edit and format your documents in Microsoft Word 97--it's easy, fun, and natural. Say weights, currencies, phone numbers, measures, and dates normally, and they appear in the correct format. Correcting documents with your voice can be simple. You can make changes as you work, when you have finished, or you can ask someone else to do it for you. ViaVoice Outloud will even read documents aloud to you. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great program, good performance
Although is not 100% acurate (about 89%) it is amazing to see how well this program works, and you don't need an incredibly powerful computer to run it (altough the faster, the better). You need little time to train the program to your voice (with the 10 minutes basic training, the full 60 minutes training is advised) and best of all, is not limited to one user, many different people can use the program, you just have to train it for the different persons. There's no interference with background noises when using the headset with microphone

The drawbacks:

Sometimes misses when you teach new command words and you have to try several times. It seems that you can't use a second language, which would have been great ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

If you are working in the legal field, you can become more productive when you combine the power of IBM ViaVoice with this add-on vocabulary. The ViaVoice Legal Vocabulary includes 25,000 commonly used legal terms selected from legal literature written since 1995. The vocabulary covers most words used in general legal documents, both civil and criminal. Legal abbreviations and citations can be dictated naturally as if you were speaking to a colleague or your assistant. The format of abbreviations conforms to The Bluebook. Many common Latin terms and phrases also are included. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

ViaVoice
I love it.It is great.NO PROBLEMS.Anyone who uses it I guarantee, they will have juat a little more fun when the are typing.Well no typing anymore, just talking. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The extensive vocabulary of this add-on allows users to dictate a patient's history; patient symptoms and complaints; general examination findings; radiology, pathology, and laboratory test results; course of action taken; and details of follow-up therapy.

If your practice has an existing patient management software program, you can dictate your reports with ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary and export the information directly into your current software system. Also use ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary to dictate and print form letters.

You can design forms and templates to customize letters to patients, letters to insurance companies, follow-up therapy forms, report templates, and referral letters. Dictate patient information into predefined templates, and you're ready to print a letter, fax a prescription to a pharmacist, or electronically transmit a patient's report to a referring physician. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Medical Voice Dictation at your 24 hour beckon call
This product is a MUST for anyone in the medical profession who is responsible for writing any document associated with their work!!The terms used in our profession are truly unique.Most, if not all, voice recognition devices are not programed with our technical, complex terminology.Much easier than "teaching" a traditional software program and much cheaper than hiring a personal assistant.Great for the professional who "burns the midnight oil"...and there are a lot of us.Make your work life much more enjoyable...we LOVE to practice medicine, but hate the paperwork!This software "eases the pain like a couple of aspirin". ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

ViaVoice for Macintosh OS X Edition is a fully integrated voice recognition application for the Mac OS X platform. Built on IBM's series of continuous speech recognition developments for the Macintosh and designed to integrate with the new Mac OS X, users can dictate naturally into most text applications, easily launch and surf the Web, and navigate Apple's new Mac OS X--all by using their voice.

ViaVoice for Mac OS X is designed to take advantage of Mac OS X's Aqua interface. ViaVoice for Mac OS X sustains the Aqua look and feel throughout, including the new Command Center, redesigned Voice Center, SpeakPad, and preferences control. This latest version offers faster enrollment, allowing users to more quickly train the system to recognize their speech. ViaVoice's Outloud Text-to-Speech technology in U.S. and U.K. English allows users to listen to e-mail and other text documents that the computer reads out loud. An expandable, user-customizable, command-and-control feature allows you to speech-enable common tasks. ViaVoice for Mac OS X even features specialized vocabularies for computers, business and finance, "chatter's" jargon, and cuisine. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Don't Waste Your Money...
This review of his of ViaVoice for Macintosh OS 10. to begin I am using ViaVoice to dictate this review.So if you find a glaring errors, words out place caught or sentences that makes little sense please rest assured it is not my use of English grammar.

If I were you and I would save my money I am actually dictating this review using ViaVoice, and today it is behaving as usual.In just these first few sentences the software has missed multiple words, and important to punctuation.As I continue to take you will notice that the sentences really don't make a lot of sense that I am afraid of this garbage software.

I have attempted to upgrade as well as teaching the voice model her IBM instructions to no avail.This is an incredibly frustrating software program.I took it with me to Africa so that I could dictate my daily journal and other documents.I spent more time tweaking, restarting, just plain and trying to make this program work I would have been better off just typing as I have in the past.If you think this program will save you time, think again.You'll probably spend more time trying to get to work then if you simply typed by the hunt and peck method I use.Bottom-line is IBM has produced [bad product]

Didn't work under OsX 10.2.2
Tried it on my new g5, under OSX 10.2.2.It never really ran enoughfor me judge how well it would work if it did.

Viavoice not so good
I tried ViaVoice on Mac OS X. I was disappointed that it turned out to be so unstable with such poor recognition. It's a pity because it is a really nice looking program.

I ended up buying iListen, that's much much better, and a little easier to use. I guess I expected something from IBM to be better than something from a small mac only company, MacSpeech - I was wrong.

Frustrating - just doesn't work
Well, maybe I am totally wrong but I just have had it trying to use this product... I don't know what is wrong... the OS X or the ViaVoice, but I have had it. The support is only during the day time hours... great tostay on the line for a large segment of your day waiting to speak to someone...calling some long distance number... so use email ... last email he wanted to know how many "Favorates" I had in Internet Explorer...This product works well for about 5 to 10 minutes ... then you start to talk to the wall... nothing works... bombs sometimes, abberrant behavior other times... accuracy is not too great... bought the Medical Vocabulary and it works well a while then God knows what happens... it goes into some funky state ... I can't get it to work....It is just as bad as ViaVoice Millenian edition and just as slow... helps.....if.... you......talk.....like..... this.........ViaVoice Beta Version all over again -

Really, really, good but not perfect.
I've only had ViaVoice for about one week now, but I have a pretty good impression of it.At first, what I was using it, I thought that it wasn't doing very well.It was making a large number of mistakes, and I was spending a lot of time correcting them.However, IBM seems to have done a good job, since I find that I'm correcting the program less, even after just one week.I probably use it for about one hour a day.The interface is actually very good, and mostly shows that they did try to write a Mac program.What finally convinced me that this program was great, is a test that I did earlier tonight.I read several paragraphs, and then figured out just how fast I was dictating to the software.It turns out, that I've been dictating at 150 words per minute.

However, there are a couple things wrong with the program.At least a couple times a day when using it, SpeakPad just stops responding. And I have to save my work, and restart the program.Not deadly by any means, but rather annoying.I also find that the in line correction that ViaVoice uses can often screw up.Sometimes when I'm correcting it will start inserting text randomly or cutting out text randomly and I can't figure out a pattern, and it's obviously a bug.However, for the most part it works.I have a repetitive stress injury in my wrists, and even though I'm spending time correcting, I still think that I'm probably getting at least 70 words per minute, which is about how fast I can type. The speed of ViaVoice is not an issue, at least on my Cube. It's plenty fast enough to keep up with my dictation.

And just for your information, I dictated this review using ViaVoice, and there were six mistakes (that I noticed).=) ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

ViaVoice Pro USB Edition 10 contains not only the award-winning, updated ViaVoice software, but also a Plantronics DSP-300 stereo headset microphone. Together with this excellent hardware, ViaVoice's new speech engine provides better, more accurate dictation and voice command accuracy in a host of PC applications.

The new speech engine comes complete with improved background noise adaptation, which leads to superior dictation and command accuracy. It's also snappier, able to quickly respond to dictation and voice commands. Starting with over 300,000 words in its vocabulary and backup dictionary, ViaVoice Pro USB Edition lets you add customized names, acronyms, addresses, terms, and more.

ViaVoice for Windows Pro USB Edition 10 works with a vast number of programs. Dictate, edit, format, and correct in ViaVoice's own SpeakPad, Microsoft Office XP and 2000, Outlook, Internet Explorer, AOL, Netscape Messenger, and other e-mail applications. You can also dictate directly and use customized voice commands in many other popular PC applications. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Cheap Microphone
Watch out. The reviews that I had read before buying this product claimed that it came with a Plantronics DSP-300 stereo headset microphone but when I recieved it a cheap Andrea NC-61 was included. I paid the extra money believing I would recieve a quality microphone. For this reason alone I gave it a one star rating. I returned the product for a refund.

I don't understand why this product is not more widely used
I am a physician who dictates, on average, 5,000 word/day in patient records. I have been using ViaVoice exclusively for 2 years and am very happy with it's performance. I used release 8 with the medical vocabulary add-on initially, and recently upgraded to release 10. The upgrade has improved recognition.

The program works best with streams of text, particularly with the multisyllable technical terms. I average over 95% recognition and I can dictate very fast and still get good recognition, even though my computer is 2 years old. Unlike the other reviewer, I always dictate into "SpeakPad" and copy into "Word" if necessary. I very, very rarely have problems with the program picking up extraneous sounds, but if you breathe into the microphone it will do that.

On the downside: The User Manuel is pretty bad. The installation would be intimidating for an inexperienced user. There is lots and lots of discussion of using the program for program navigation and internet navigation. Why would you want to do that when it is quick and easy to do on a keyboard? This program is best used for text.

A buggy program
ViaVoice's recognition accuracy is excellent (although it is annoyingly inclined to pick up all sorts of surrounding sounds and interpret them as short words).My problem is that it's a buggy program beset by software conflicts, notably with MS Word and Outlook.These other programs may be slowed down dramatically - up to 90% - when ViaVoice is open even if one is not using it.These software conflicts are attested to by the extraorinarily lengthy Readme file, which only begins to list the numerous conflicts.

On some systems it apparently works fine while on others - often more powerful, state of the art systems - it just doesn't, and no-one seems to really know why.If you are one of the unlucky ones - or perhaps become one on a software or hardware change - the advice set out in the Readme file, and re-iterated by Microsoft on its website and by the ViaVoice technical support staff, is to disable functions in ViaVoice and the other programs that it interferes with until it works.You may or may not be willing to live with what's left.

Dragon seems a more robust program, but is far more costly. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Just what the doctor ordered! Voice Xpress for Medicine is a speech-dictation product that allows you to create medical documentation by simply dictating to your PC. It works with virtually all Windows applications so that you can create documents by speaking to your word-processing system, create spreadsheets by dictating to your spreadsheet application, and send e-mail and faxes by speaking to your e-mail and fax system.

The Specialty Suite Edition contains 13 separate vocabulary versions: internal medicine, primary care, emergency medicine, pathology, neurology, oncology, radiology, neonatology, orthopedics, pediatrics, mental health, general surgery, and cardiology. Each vocabulary is designed to assist the specialist with the creation of documentation particular to that specialty. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

PICK THIS ONE UP
PICK THIS ONE UP. THIS WAS A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN I EXPECTED. IT HAS SOME AMAZING FEATURES I WOULD HAVE NEVER THOUGHT COULD BE PUT TO SOFTWARE AND MANAGED AND CATAGORIZED SO EASILY AND SIMPLE. THIS IS A GREAT PRODUCT. PICK THIS ONE UP. ... Read more