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COMPUTER HELP

Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)

Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)

Beloved Grand Eagle
I am an author and need to retype entire books I have written that are not on my PC.
Has anyone tried a voice recognition device that you read text into and it types it on the computer?

I've read that the best-selling one is Dragon Naturally-Speaking Home 1.3.
Anyone tried that or have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Walt Oleksy
waltmax69@gmail.com
 
Thanks, dear Ellen. I tried that. I scanned a page of my book and it came up but very large. When I tried to resize
it to 8x10 it looked okay but would not copy so I could save it as a Word document. It also did not look as sharp as I wanted,
in Times New Roman 12 point.

Can you email me at waltmax69@gmail.com ? Thanks.
 
The thing that will allow you to copy the text after you scan it is called "Optical Character Recognition" or OCR. A bunch of programs can do OCR, but they can be very hard to use, so you'd want to get someone's help who is very patient. Otherwise, you might try Dragon Naturallyspeaking. It requires a good microphone and a fast computer, though, and you'll need someone to help set you up as it can be hard to set up as well (though not as hard as OCR). Here's a link to a good version of NaturallySpeaking:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LX4BZAQ/
 
Thanks, Forest. I've read that the best voice recognition system is the one you mention. I could get it for about $50.
Some say it's easy to set up and work, but others say it's hard to.
I don't know anyone to help me set it up.

I would also prefer to scan the book and copy and paste it into a Word document so I will look into OCR.
OCR could be faster and more accurate than talking the text into the voice recognition system.
 
That sounds possible. OCR might not work on text that has a picture in the background because the picture in the background could confuse the computer (only if the text is literally on top of the picture, though - if the picture is just nearby that won't be a problem if you know how to use the OCR software). You'd definitely need someone in Glenview to help you with OCR, though.
 
The text I want to copy has no picture behind it, thank heaven. Just regular book text.

I'm sure you're right that I'd need someone to show me how to use it.

A friend nearby does know a lot about computer and may help me.
Or I may ask a neighbor's teenage son. Teens know so much about computers these days.

Thanks. I think OCR is the answer for me. I hate to think of retyping 300 pages of a book of mine
I wrote 15 years ago and didn't put it on the computer.
 
I just talked to the neighbor a few blocks away and he said he is pretty sure his teenage son can help me on the OCR.
He'll call me Tuesday after work. He said I may not even need to buy an OCR program, that Micosoft Word can do it.
I already have and use a scanner. I know how to scan documents and copy them into a Word document. This book copying
just doesn't work, but I''ll play with it a while.
 
Let us know if it works out. If it doesn't, I am sure we'll find a way to help you with this.
gr. Giga
 
Often OCR software is delivered together with the scanner or in my case an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. Never tried it, but maybe you need to look on the CD that was delivered with your scanner...
 
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