Transcribe as you talk and keep the audio in OneNote
OneNote has several audio features to allow Voice Recognition using Office’s Speech Tools or by recording a .wav file directly into OneNote with timestamps to text you type during it.
Casey Chesnut of Brains-n-Brawn has taken it to the next level with his Transcribe Audio Recordings in OneNote PowerToy. Although more of a “proof of concept” at this point (waiting on SAPI 5.3 in Vista), it clearly shows how useful this feature could be.
Getting the PowerToy running is not the most graceful, so I’ll start with the results…
- As you are speaking, it is transcribing (typing) text on the screen.
- Based on pauses, it creates text blocks in OneNote which can be merged later.
- At the beginning of every text block is the Playback Icon (hidden until moused over) which will start the audio recording playback at that timestamp.
- The transcribed text is searchable, which makes your audio file “searchable” since you can click on the nearest playback icon and be very close to the recorded audio.
As mentioned, getting it running takes a few too many clicks to be considered simple. Please read the instructions, but for a quick review…
- Powertoy installs to an icon on the desktop as “OneNote Transcribe PowerToy”
- Must use it to create the OneNote Page.
- Switch to OneNote and start your Audio Only Recording.
- Switch to the toy and click the Start Transcribing button.
- When finished, stop in OneNote and the PowerToy.
As with any Voice Recognition, the quality is greatly improved with “training” the system and using a good microphone. I was able to install SAPI 5.1 on my IBM ThinkPad T40 laptop and use the built-in microphone to get some results, but they weren’t that great. A little more training and using my USB headset should make a big difference.
