Since my setback last year, my typing speed is down to about 20 wpm. So I went in search of a workable speech-to-text solution that runs under Windows.
Of course, I looked at Dragon first. When I saw that it is a subscription product and very costly, I didn't even try it. I don't rent software.
I googled "speech to text Windows" and got a lot of hits. I learned that Windows 10 has the feature built-in. I have Win 10 and a microphone on my Surface Pro, so I fired it up and gave it a try. It works and is fully featured, with one strong deficiency. After I've spoken a line and told it "new line," it moves the cursor to the next line and turns off the microphone. I researched that problem and found many complaints about that behavior from users. Microsoft's answer always was, "It's working here, must be your setup." It turned out that it works with multiple lines only if you have a paid license for Office 365, which is also subscription software. Deal-breaker. Manuscripts have more than one paragraph. Duh!
Next, I tried Google Docs, which has a "type by voice" feature. Junk. It does not automatically process smart quotes even though it does when you're typing from the keyboard. Plus it uses too much screen real estate displaying a giant microphone icon that obliterates some of the document, even where you're entering text. Who designs these user interfaces? Who tests and approves them?
I've looked into some of the online web-based dictation services and have not found anything I'd use. There are a lot of smartphone apps, but I can't use them. I can barely see well enough to place a call. I don't "text" at all.
If you have a speech-to-text Windows program that you can recommend, I'd like to hear about it.
