Being a little handicapped—long story, chronicled here—I use dictation options quite a bit, to give my good arm a break. But, as you’ve probably discovered for yourself, the results are far from perfect. In fact, I’m convinced the dictation engine deliberately, perversely, picks the least likely choice possible.
Consider this passage in The Last Word I’m writing for the 5/10 issue. Here’s what I wanted to say:
I wonder if anyone remembers that when we first took over the newsletter from Bob Doll, we were printing and mailing the newsletter every week. We had a staff of two, a folder, a collator, and a copy machine that could print on both sides of an 11 x 17 sheet of paper directly from our computers.
But here’s what MS Word heard (as opposed to the Word Herd, a club for evangelists):
I wonder if anyone remembers that when we first took over the newsletter from mom doll, we were printing and mailing the newsletter every week. We had a staff of two, a folder, a cola, and a coffee machine that could print on both sides of an 11 x 17 sheet of paper directly from our computers.
I’m sure have stories of your own, but I got a good LOL moment out of it.
Got any good ones you want to share? Let me know.