I’ve never like VRS, it slows me down. I can type about 100 words a minute. VRS just gave me a sort throat and lots of corrections to do.
Must admit I love using Jott.
I just added Goggle calenders to my Jott file and can ad Inspections to my Calender from the field by cell phone in seconds.
Voice Recognition Systems are advancing.
That’s pretty cool. Jott integrates straight into the Google calendar?
Yes it does.
If I say Monday it goes to the next Monday and with the time I say.
It incorporates through a permission program with Goggle.
Jott asks developers If they would like to be added.
In this case it goes through Quick add.
Did it last night and it works great.
I tried the natural keyboard, but I’ve been playing the piano since I was two, and typing since I was six, so those crooked keyboards just didn’t play well with me.
On the other hand, VRS (voice recognition software) has been great. The latest iteration of DNS (Dragon Naturally Speaking) is awesome. I have taught it my normal voice, my I-have-a-cold voice, and my margarita voice. Buying it and sticking with it is the best thing I ever did for my wrists and fingers. However, sometimes my voice gets overworked, but a simple ol’ margarita helps refreshen it. :margarit:
Proofreading is mandatory regardless of whether one uses VRS or types it out on a keyboard.
Many years ago I was typing something that had Association in it. Let’s use the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors as an example. I typed it, put it through the spell check, and it stoped on “ociation” which I just naturally deleted. Consequently, I had “the National A-s-s of Certified Home Inspectors” since “A-s-s” is a word. The Realtor called me up laughing and said that I might want to correct that one page. I agreed with her.
My DNS has no problem with my conversation-type tone. You can teach it many different voices (see my previous post). Mine knew all of my employees as well as my many different “tones.”
That was my complaint when I first bought it, but I made a commitment to make it work since my wrists and fingers were aching so.
The fastest I ever typed was 318 WPM on a five-minute test with 1 error (I misspelled my name) on an IBM Selectric. I can still type 140 WPM over short stretches of time, but VRS is so much faster and easier. As with so many things, once one gets past the learning curve, so much time is saved.
Margaritas take care of sore throats. After training my DNS, I have it to 99% accuracy, whereas my typing, even at 60 WPM, is down to about 95% accuracy. Rarely do I “correct” something; rather, I usually edit to change my thought. DNS even understands grammar, knowing the difference between their, there, and they’re; it’s and its; to, two, and too; etc. It truly is an awesome program.
If you find an error in one of my posts, it’s because I went to change something using the keyboard and introduced the error. I do read all my posts here and edit them occasionally to correct something.
Haha
Russ I had my first ever complaint two weeks ago when my client got the report and said…
Bob I know your grammar is better than that.
I went uh oh.
You see I had accidentally deleted most of my report and needed to hurry from start , so I threw on my head set and trusted Dragon to help me rush through it.
I actually had a few embarrassing words put in the report.
One I remember was titles instead of tiles.
I don’t think I’ve actually tried Dragon Naturally Speaking in at least 5-7 years. Maybe I should check it out again.
Well at least you didn’t do “tits” instead of “tiles.”
If you have not yet trained DNS, or are trying to rush through things, it’s no better than trying to type faster than one is capable of. That’s why, after many years of using DNS, and having trained it for my various voices, I have no problem with it anymore. I will admit that DNS 9 is by far the best, but it accepted all the work that I had put into 6, 7, and 8, so I never lost anything, just better grammar recognition, more voices, and faster speed.
Like everything else it improves.
Check out **Jott **while you are at it.
I am suprised no one else has brought up using it.
I have been using it around six months now.
DNS 1, 2, 3, and 4 were horrible. 5 started getting good reviews, 6 improved upon 5. 7 started getting excellent reviews, and 8, in my mind, did for VRS what, say, Windows did for the IBM PC.
Funny you should mention that as I think I did catch it using tits on that report.:oops:
I’ve heard of inspectors adding all sorts of stuff to their inspections and packages to impress and please their clients, but I have to admit, that’s a new one bob!
Hey at least it did not include a picture.
I guess you could consider that a plus :shock:
Hey Dominic, is there a program that I can use to synchronize documents from 2 different computers?
I typically work off my decktop but want to be able to grab documents to go with me on my laptop but make sure any changes get synchronized back to the desktop when I get home.
Also, is wireless “n” operational or is it better to stick with “g”?
And finally, what is bluetooth used for with a laptop?
Thanks.
You can do that with most on line storage programs Larry.
The first one that comes to mind is Googles Doc and spreadsheets.
Another route to go is a simple file share program.
Just Google file share programs.
Larry yet another way to do it is by using a portable external hard drive which would have the benifit of also backing up your entire Laptop in case it goes down.
Yike another way is to by flash drive at the local CVS or Walgreens, Staples Office Max where ever and yet another is to store it on digital camera cards.
Gosh so many options, yet the most primitive way would be to simply e-mail the file to your self and down load on line.
Larry, Bob covered. Most of the options. There are programs that will sync files based on the latest version but I’ve never wanted to trust the as they just look at the date. I use Google Docs extensively for the files I want to access on multiple computers. I also have a thumb drive I use to sync items between computers.
Bluetooh is used for a lot of things. Bluetooth is a wireless system for devices and your comptuer. You can use bluetooth to backup your phone to your computer, to use your phones internet through your computer, to transfer files between two computers, to send data to a bluetooth printer (look ma, no cables!) , to use a wireless mouse. The list goes on and on.
802.11n still has not been officially ratified. I still use 802.11g because of this. If your just looking at internet access, remember that the fastest home internet connections are still about 1/20th of the wireless is capable. Faster wireless is only good to transfer files over the network. Even the old 802.11b wireless went 11mb/s and internet is up to about 3mb/s at home.
Dominic,
The PocketPCs we recommend (HP iPaq 210s) have a 4" diagonal screen and a 480x640 resolution which means it is easier to read then an actual Q1. Trust me I have tried them both right next to each other and the actual font is bigger and easier to read on the PocketPC. Now…if you shrink the PC screen down even further to 4.5" then it becomes ridiculous and that is what we found out. People can try it if they what for themselves and then let us know here what they think but my recommendation is NO on that Micro PC unit.
Jeff Knight
Knights Software Solutions, Inc.
www.knightssoftware.com
“Leading handheld inspection software for 10 years.”