Shoutbox

what's the microsoft speech 5.1? whenever i load the script of speech it tells me an error occured pls check ur microsoft speech 5.1

thx.. but i already searchd for it and i downloaded some stuff but it didnt work too

If you have word 2002 you open that up and click  tools > speech and follow the instructions given by the little paperclip!

Also see this!

Scroll down abit for other ways to install 5.1

i have office 2003.. is it the same?

How to install speech recognition by using Add or Remove Programs
1.    Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.
2.    Click Change or Remove Programs, click Microsoft Office XP, and then click Change.
3.    Click Add or Remove Features, and then click Next.
4.    Under Features to install, double-click Office Shared Features.
5.    Double-click Alternative User Input, click Speech, click the down    arrow, and then click Run from My Computer.
6.    Click Update. Speech recognition is now available in all Office programs and other programs where it is enabled such as Internet Explorer.


EDIT: I also belive that in any of the word applications after 2002 it will work in the same way!

thx a lot

I have the exact same problem (when script starts, it says: "An error occurred while initializing Speech Recognition, please make sure you have Microsoft Speech 5.1 installed."), and I tried all the above.

BUT... I then discovered some strange things......
because I'm from Holland and therefore have a Dutch version (vista, office2003), I DON'T seem to have the "Speech" option available in the "Tools" menu (offcourse it's all in Dutch here, so "Tools" shows as "Extra" and "Speech" translates to "Spraak", but that has nothing to do with the functionality, it's just a minor User Interface difference).
However, the Help-page (in Word) says that the Speech recognition feature is only available in the English (US), Chinese and Japanese versions of Office!!
(But after that, the help-page continues with explaining in detail how to use it.... ??WTF??)

I can certainly understand that the Speech Engine only "understands" English commands, but I DON'T understand that this functionality is completely DELETED from all other (non-US) versions. I have no problem giving commands in English.

I always thought that all the different language-versions out there only affected the User Interface part, in many progs you can even switch the UI-language at runtime.
So I never-ever expected that these non-US versions are completely ripped of basic functionality.

Especially if you consider that, even in the Dutch language version, you sometimes come across menu-items or help-pages or options-screens that are still (partly) in English, both in Vista and in Office.
So the Microsoft policy seems to be: we translate as much as possible,  and all the parts we didn't do (yet), you'll just have to cope with the original US version. Which is fine by me.
So why not also include the original Speech Recognition Engine in English? I have no problems with that, what-so-ever.
(Better an English version then none at all, right?)

So, in short, all users of non-US versions of Vista/Office:
Don't look any further! It's just not there!!!

The strangest thing, however, is that text-to-speech IS installed and working!! It speaks out with the "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)"-voice, offcourse with English accent. But in the opposite direction (speech-to-text, i.e. giving Speech-commands)  it's not available.

So if anyone knows how to remedy this and have this engine up-and-running, please let me know!
I would really appreciate it!

I have a brand new (4 days old) Packard Bell Easynote MH36-U-004 laptop with 4 GB ram, 320 GB harddisk, built-in webcam+microphone, wide-screen, pre-installed Vista Home Premium (with all recent updates), so that shouldn't be the problem.