Years ago when typing an assignment in high school or taking a typing class we used a machine called a typewriter.
Then came the computer. I was one of the first people in the world to use a personal computer.
I was initiated to computers by my uncle, who lent me a TRS-80. I learned a little about programming in BASIC programming language on a Commodore Pet in School. My Brother-in-law gave me a Commodore 64. My father bought me an Apple II plus. Then everybody jumped on the bandwagon. (Too bad I didn’t buy stock in Apple at that time, but Gam Zu LeTova – Also this is for the good.)
Computers made things easier. With a typewriter, when you made an error – you had to use wite-out to correct it. The computer allowed to to change text on the screen and print it out again, instead of getting white paint on your fingers.
Increase in Efficiency
I read an article on how to move the cursor quicker. Instead of pressing the arrow-key 50 times to get to the second to last word in the line – It suggested you jump to the end of the line and then jump two words back. 3 keystrokes instead of 50.
I learned to improve my typing speed using software. Trying to become more efficient – I also used a word processor that would allow you to use short hand – instead of typing certain words and phrases, I could type an abbreviation and the entire phrase would appear typed. I remember using a MS-DOS program called PC-Write 3.0 – that had that function. I had a long list of shorthand words and their typed out equivalent.
Then I learned of speech recognition software. Basically – you dictate and the computer does the typing.
Some statistics:
- An average professional typist types usually in speeds of 50 to 80 words per minute.
- Using speech recognition, one can easily achieve over 100 words per minute with more than 95% accuracy.
The Best Program I found was Dragon Naturally Speaking – by Nuance. It runs on the Windows platform. They now have it for the Mac. It can also be run on a Linux Operating System using WINE (which allows one to run Windows programs on a Linux system.) I got it to work on a Fedora (a certain Linux distribution).
A person speaks faster than they type. Thus it helped me to become more efficient with typing text.
Recently though – I was searching for speech recognition in Hebrew. At times, I do write in Hebrew. I found:
1. Nuance, I believe has an engine that allows dictation of Hebrew.
2. The Chrome Browser allows one to download an App that can transcribe – English. There is another App , run on Chrome (by Google) that allows Hebrew. It is called Speechlogger.
3. Siri – found on Apple Ipads can be configured to type notes in Hebrew as well as in English. Those notes can be then shared with other other systems.
4. Google Voice found on Android Systems can also do speech to text dictation in English and Hebrew.
5. For those who are more techies – One speech recognition program is called Simon that can be configured to type in Hebrew. Those who are programmers can look into Sourceforge site that has programs that also aid in speech recognition.