Wednesday, September 28, 2005
It wasn't long ago that talking to your computer marked you as a disturbed person or a Trekkie — or both. Perceptions have changed. All the Office suite programs, including Access 2003, has the Lernout & Hauspie (L & H) speech recognition engine built-in. That means that you can pretty much tell Access 2003 what to do and have a reasonable expectation that it won't talk back.
Most people find speech recognition in Access to be of limited usefulness unless their database contains a lot of lengthy text fields where dictation may come in handy. Yet, if you're among the many thousands who have trouble using keyboards, voice recognition may well be a savior.
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Speech recognition is an amazing technology. The computer "listens" to what you say by breaking electronic signals from a microphone into individual tokens and then combining those tokens into words based on a predefined vocabulary that the software understands. (So, if you said "gastroenterologist," the software would likely be confused unless you had previously bought and installed a medical vocabulary.) However, it gets even more complicated than that.
Consider the phrase "To be or not to be." For the computer to understand what you're saying, it has to discern among several possibilities for each word. For example, is the first word "to," "too," or "two"? They all sound alike. The second word might be "be" or "bee" and the third could be "or" or "ore." So, the computer has to apply some grammatical rules to discern among "to," "too," and "two."
Further complicating the process of speech recognition is the fact that we all talk differently and we may be in a noisy environment. Accurate speech recognition is nothing short of a miracle and yet is far from perfect. All that said, people with repetitive strain injuries or other handicaps may find speech recognition a boon.
The following are some tips on increasing speech recognition accuracy in Access 2003. For more tips, consult the Help file and also check out the Microsoft Office Web site by clicking Office on the Web on the Access Help menu.
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* Work in a quiet environment. If you work in a noisy office, Access tries to detect what everyone else around you is saying.
* Use a high-quality microphone. Make sure it provides signal boost and that it's unidirectional ("listens" in only one direction).
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* Wear the headset and microphone in the same position each time you dictate. Make sure the microphone is about an inch from your lips but not right in front of your lips (it's best if the microphone is just below or to the side of your mouth).
* Use a high quality sound card. If you detect hissing through your headset, so does Access. Try moving the sound card as far away from the power supply as possible.
* Speak in phrases rather than pausing between words. Enunciate clearly.
* Turn off the microphone when you're not dictating.
* Train your computer by reading prepared texts in the training wizard.
* Add new words to the dictionary by choosing Tools, Add/Delete words. Type the new word, and then pronounce it.
Most people find speech recognition in Access to be of limited usefulness unless their database contains a lot of lengthy text fields where dictation may come in handy. Yet, if you're among the many thousands who have trouble using keyboards, voice recognition may well be a savior.
icon
Speech recognition is an amazing technology. The computer "listens" to what you say by breaking electronic signals from a microphone into individual tokens and then combining those tokens into words based on a predefined vocabulary that the software understands. (So, if you said "gastroenterologist," the software would likely be confused unless you had previously bought and installed a medical vocabulary.) However, it gets even more complicated than that.
Consider the phrase "To be or not to be." For the computer to understand what you're saying, it has to discern among several possibilities for each word. For example, is the first word "to," "too," or "two"? They all sound alike. The second word might be "be" or "bee" and the third could be "or" or "ore." So, the computer has to apply some grammatical rules to discern among "to," "too," and "two."
Further complicating the process of speech recognition is the fact that we all talk differently and we may be in a noisy environment. Accurate speech recognition is nothing short of a miracle and yet is far from perfect. All that said, people with repetitive strain injuries or other handicaps may find speech recognition a boon.
The following are some tips on increasing speech recognition accuracy in Access 2003. For more tips, consult the Help file and also check out the Microsoft Office Web site by clicking Office on the Web on the Access Help menu.
icon
* Work in a quiet environment. If you work in a noisy office, Access tries to detect what everyone else around you is saying.
* Use a high-quality microphone. Make sure it provides signal boost and that it's unidirectional ("listens" in only one direction).
icon
* Wear the headset and microphone in the same position each time you dictate. Make sure the microphone is about an inch from your lips but not right in front of your lips (it's best if the microphone is just below or to the side of your mouth).
* Use a high quality sound card. If you detect hissing through your headset, so does Access. Try moving the sound card as far away from the power supply as possible.
* Speak in phrases rather than pausing between words. Enunciate clearly.
* Turn off the microphone when you're not dictating.
* Train your computer by reading prepared texts in the training wizard.
* Add new words to the dictionary by choosing Tools, Add/Delete words. Type the new word, and then pronounce it.
So what are you in the mood for? The Internet has a tremendous amount of options available for the Web radio listener. Use the following steps with Windows Media Player to begin hearing what the Internet has to offer.
Open Windows Media Player from the Start menu and select Radio Tuner from the menu along the left side of the screen.
This brings up the broadcast view.
Type in the genre or artist you're looking for in the Search box on the right side of the player window, and click the Search button.
Alternatively, you could choose a station from Microsoft's featured list on the left.
Select a radio station from the list that's returned by Windows Media Player.
If you can't find what you're looking for, try entering different keywords and see what you get. You're more likely to find popular acts than obscure treasures, but anything is worth a shot. Be aware that in some cases, you may have to register with a site or pay a membership premium to get access to the station. You may also have to sift through advertisements that help pay for the maintenance and management of the site. Nothing is totally free, even on the Internet.
Open Windows Media Player from the Start menu and select Radio Tuner from the menu along the left side of the screen.
This brings up the broadcast view.
Type in the genre or artist you're looking for in the Search box on the right side of the player window, and click the Search button.
Alternatively, you could choose a station from Microsoft's featured list on the left.
Select a radio station from the list that's returned by Windows Media Player.
If you can't find what you're looking for, try entering different keywords and see what you get. You're more likely to find popular acts than obscure treasures, but anything is worth a shot. Be aware that in some cases, you may have to register with a site or pay a membership premium to get access to the station. You may also have to sift through advertisements that help pay for the maintenance and management of the site. Nothing is totally free, even on the Internet.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
In an effort to make things easier, Windows lets you choose whether a single-click or a double-click should open a file or folder.
But if you're not satisfied with the click method Windows Me uses, here's how to change it:
Open the Control Panel from the Start button's Settings menu and choose Folder Options.
Choose your click preference in the Click Items As Follows section.
Click OK to save your preferences.
Don't like to follow steps? Just click the Folder Options' Restore Defaults button, and Windows will bring back double-clicking.
But if you're not satisfied with the click method Windows Me uses, here's how to change it:
Open the Control Panel from the Start button's Settings menu and choose Folder Options.
Choose your click preference in the Click Items As Follows section.
Click OK to save your preferences.
Don't like to follow steps? Just click the Folder Options' Restore Defaults button, and Windows will bring back double-clicking.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Word 2002
Word gives you lots of interesting opportunities to wrap text around text boxes, graphics, drawing canvases, and other objects in a document. By playing with the different ways to wrap text, you can create very sophisticated layouts. When you wrap text, you pick a wrapping style and the side of the object around which to wrap the text.
The fastest way to wrap text is to select the object around which text is to be wrapped, click the Text Wrapping button, and choose an option from the drop-down list. You'll find the Text Wrapping button (which has a dog on it) on the Picture or Drawing Canvas toolbars.
The fastest way to wrap text is to select the object around which text is to be wrapped, click the Text Wrapping button, and choose an option from the drop-down list. You'll find the Text Wrapping button (which has a dog on it) on the Picture or Drawing Canvas toolbars.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
If you want to create something in Word that will just dazzle someone, try your hand at customized greeting cards. To set up Word to create a greeting card from a single sheet of standard letter-size paper, follow these steps:
1. Choose File --> Page Setup.
2. Click the Margins tab.
3. Select the Landscape option in the Orientation area.
4. Choose the 2 Pages per Sheet option from the Multiple Pages drop-down list.
This option tells Word to vertically split each page down the middle, creating (aha! — you guessed it) a greeting card.
5. Click OK.
Now your document is properly formatted. All that remains is for you to fill in the greeting card with text and maybe a few graphics. But there's a special way you need to do it!
The greeting card must be four pages long: two pages on the inside and two pages on the outside. (Only one sheet of paper is used, two "pages" per sheet.) Here's how the various pages shape up:
Page 1 is the inside left-hand page. Usually, this page is left blank. So, in your document, you can press Ctrl+Enter to create a hard page break and leave that page blank.
Page 2 is the inside right-hand page. This page is where you put your sappy message — maybe a graphic.
Page 3 is the outside "back" cover. This page can be blank, or you can put at the bottom some tiny text boasting of your word-processing prowess or that the card would have cost $3.95 ($5.95 Canadian) had you bought it at a fancy greeting card store.
Page 4 ends up being the cover for the greeting card. Put a graphic and/or flowery text here.
Got it? Don't worry, it all works out.
Fill in your greeting card accordingly.
To print the greeting card, you need to be tricky. Follow these steps:
1. Choose File --> Print.
2. Type 1-2 in the Pages box.
You want to print only pages 1 and 2 the first time.
3. Click OK.
Take the page out of the printer and put it back into the printer tray. Ensure that the page is in the printer tray upside down so that the next page prints on the backside. (This may take a few tries, so be patient.)
Now, print the backside:
1. Choose File --> Print.
2. Type 3-4 in the Pages box.
You want to print only pages 3 and 4 this time.
3. Click OK.
If everything goes well, you should be able to fold the paper down the middle and — voilà! — you have a greeting card.
If you're into elaborate greeting card formatting, consider using section breaks to divide the greeting card and not just the hard page breaks you get by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
Watch out for fancy, thick paper. It tends to jam most laser printers. (If your laser printer has a single-sheet feed and a pass-through slot out the back, printing on thick paper may work.) Greeting-card stock is difficult as all heck to get through an inkjet printer, too!
1. Choose File --> Page Setup.
2. Click the Margins tab.
3. Select the Landscape option in the Orientation area.
4. Choose the 2 Pages per Sheet option from the Multiple Pages drop-down list.
This option tells Word to vertically split each page down the middle, creating (aha! — you guessed it) a greeting card.
5. Click OK.
Now your document is properly formatted. All that remains is for you to fill in the greeting card with text and maybe a few graphics. But there's a special way you need to do it!
The greeting card must be four pages long: two pages on the inside and two pages on the outside. (Only one sheet of paper is used, two "pages" per sheet.) Here's how the various pages shape up:
Page 1 is the inside left-hand page. Usually, this page is left blank. So, in your document, you can press Ctrl+Enter to create a hard page break and leave that page blank.
Page 2 is the inside right-hand page. This page is where you put your sappy message — maybe a graphic.
Page 3 is the outside "back" cover. This page can be blank, or you can put at the bottom some tiny text boasting of your word-processing prowess or that the card would have cost $3.95 ($5.95 Canadian) had you bought it at a fancy greeting card store.
Page 4 ends up being the cover for the greeting card. Put a graphic and/or flowery text here.
Got it? Don't worry, it all works out.
Fill in your greeting card accordingly.
To print the greeting card, you need to be tricky. Follow these steps:
1. Choose File --> Print.
2. Type 1-2 in the Pages box.
You want to print only pages 1 and 2 the first time.
3. Click OK.
Take the page out of the printer and put it back into the printer tray. Ensure that the page is in the printer tray upside down so that the next page prints on the backside. (This may take a few tries, so be patient.)
Now, print the backside:
1. Choose File --> Print.
2. Type 3-4 in the Pages box.
You want to print only pages 3 and 4 this time.
3. Click OK.
If everything goes well, you should be able to fold the paper down the middle and — voilà! — you have a greeting card.
If you're into elaborate greeting card formatting, consider using section breaks to divide the greeting card and not just the hard page breaks you get by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
Watch out for fancy, thick paper. It tends to jam most laser printers. (If your laser printer has a single-sheet feed and a pass-through slot out the back, printing on thick paper may work.) Greeting-card stock is difficult as all heck to get through an inkjet printer, too!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Inside every music file lives a form containing the song's title, artist, album, and similar information. When deciding how to sort, display, and categorize your music, Windows Media Player reads those tags -- not the songs' filenames. Most portable music players, including the iPod and Dell DJ, also rely on tags, so it's important to keep them filled out properly.
It's so important, in fact, that Media Player normally fills in the tags for you when it adds files to its library.
Many people don't bother filling out their song's tags; other people keep them meticulously updated. If your tags are filled out the way you prefer, stop Media Player from messing with them. Just click Options from the Tools menu, click the Library tab, and clear every box in the Automatic Media Information Updates for Files category. If your tags are a mess, leave those boxes checked so Media Player will clean up the tags for you.
To edit a song's tag manually in Media Player, right-click on it in the library and choose Advanced Tag Editor
It's so important, in fact, that Media Player normally fills in the tags for you when it adds files to its library.
Many people don't bother filling out their song's tags; other people keep them meticulously updated. If your tags are filled out the way you prefer, stop Media Player from messing with them. Just click Options from the Tools menu, click the Library tab, and clear every box in the Automatic Media Information Updates for Files category. If your tags are a mess, leave those boxes checked so Media Player will clean up the tags for you.
To edit a song's tag manually in Media Player, right-click on it in the library and choose Advanced Tag Editor
