****ing Microphone

 

Not long ago, while watching a YouTube video of a genealogist whom I occasionally learn a tip from, I saw her using a microphone to dictate into a Word document. Since I often transcribe the more informative newspaper articles I find into my research notes, typed in Word, I thought to myself, why I wasn't using a microphone. So after searching for a bit and reading reviews, I settled on one that looked fairly nice but didn't cost an arm and a leg like the professional ones seem to charge. 

After it arrived on my doorstep, I plugged it into my computer and tested it out using the Sound app that comes on Windows 11 and it seemed to be working well. I fired up a blank Word document and started searching for the little microphone shaped dictation button that I saw the YouTube genealogist click but couldn't locate it. I searched for it using the search box and came up with nothing. Finally I used Google for help and it promptly gave me the correct answer. Despite buying a full blown "home" version of Microsoft Windows, one must purchase their subscription based 365 version in order to access that option. What a scam!

So I set out to find other ways to accomplish the same thing, thinking I could dictate using another app and just copy/paste the results into word. I started off with Google Docs which allows dictation but they have the annoying problem of only capitalizing the first letter of a paragraph. Even if you start a subsequent sentence in the same paragraph, it is lower case. I found that quite annoying having to go back and capitalize the start of every sentence after the first one. 

I looked into others but most were poorly reviewed or also had subscriptions too. Finally I found one article that said just to use the default Windows Dictation app. It is brought up by hitting the Window Key and the 'H' key at the same time and can be used in any program or app that you are using. So I pulled up a new Word document, brought up the Windows Dictation app and started speaking into the microphone. It has been a pleasant experience for the most part and although I can type faster than the average bear, still allows me to go even faster in transcribing lengthy newspaper articles.

It does have a few issues though. First, it isn't learning so it repeatedly makes the same mistakes over and over. One must be very deliberate with pauses in dictation in order to get the appropriate comma or period. That is sometimes hard for me to do when I'm reading old newspaper articles written with a different sentence structure than I am used to. It helps if I practice reading it first before dictation starts, but that defeats the speed of dictation and so I often don't. If I get flustered, I just stop the dictation, gather up my tongue while making corrections and start again.

Finally, perhaps the most frustrating thing I have found so far is dictating newspaper articles with an ancestral surname of Kuck. Microsoft evidently doesn't like the way I pronounce it and does one of two things. It will transcribe it as Cuck which I like because that is just a single letter correction after the fact OR, it will assume I am swearing and self censor by putting '****' in place. I will have a transcription full of things like, "Mr. **** and Mrs. **** went to visit their daughter Josephine **** Thursday evening."

Perhaps a future version of Microsoft Windows Dictation will allow for self learning using some sort of A. I. platform but until then, I just chuckle as I change all the ****s to Kucks.