I’ve been using my phone’s speech to text feature more and more. I use the feature to compose emails, send text messages, and search on my phone’s internet browser. I have experienced some frustration that the phone doesn’t always do what I tell it to do. I’ve modified my instructions somewhat so that more and more often, the text result ends up looking more like what I intend for it to look!
For example, when I want to begin a new paragraph, “Return” and “next line” don’t work, but “New Line” does, and so does “Next Paragraph”. Note that “Next Line” will give you one standard return, but “Next Paragraph” will give you two lines in between the paragraphs.
Other symbols include:
- ? – “Question mark”
- . – “Period”
- ( – “Open Parentheses”
- ) – “Close Parentheses”
- @ – “At symbol” doesn’t work but “at sign” does.
- * – The asterisk is really tricky. Even with perfect diction, it gets confused. I’ve found it’s easier to edit that after I’m done speaking.
- + – “Plus Sign”
- – – “Minus Sign”
- & – “Ampersand”
- % – “Percent sign”
- # – “Pound Sign”
- ! – “Exclamation point”
I’ve also had issues with the word “to”, “two”, and “too”. It usually translates it as “to”. I’ve learned to say “Too Many”, or I just edit when I’m done speaking. I’ve not been able to reliably get it to correctly type “two”.
Other numbers under 10 will almost always translate as the number word and not the symbol itself. Numbers over 10 translate as the number symbol.
On a teeny tiny phone screen, sometimes using the speech to text feature makes life a whole lot easier. I hope these tricks help you too!
Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.
We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
