"VOICE RECOGNITION SOFTWARE" & "PICASA2"
This month, Deborah Bayley from Voice
Perfect will discuss and demonstrate the capabilities of Dragon
Naturally Speaking software. This voice recognition software can
"create documents and e-mail, write reports and fill out forms, without
having to type at all." Speak to your PC and the typing is done for
you! The software can "create documents over three times faster than
typing, and provides protection against repetitive strain injuries." It
is fully integrated in the Microsoft Office applications Word, Excel,
Outlook and PowerPoint. Simply dictate into a PC! There is also a
text-to-speech option to read e-mail and documents aloud! This
demonstration should be interesting because most people speak faster
than 120 words a minute but type fewer than 40 words a minute.
In the second presentation for the evening,
PCUG member Mike Boesen will present "Picasa2" a freeware application from
Google which can be used for management and editing of digital pictures.
It is described by Google at http://www.picasa.com/features/index.php .
According to Google: "Picasa is software that helps you instantly find,
edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa,
it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had)
and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you
will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels
to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.
Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and
powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share
your pictures - you can email, print photos at home, make gift CDs,
instantly share via HelloT, and even post pictures on your own blog."
Mike has been using Picasa2 since its release. He will demonstrate its
main functions and in particular will explain how it can be used to embed
and use IPTC-compliant keywords and captions within JPG picture files,
show how it can make quick fixes to pictures, and demonstrate how it
can be used to very easily assemble, resize and write a collection of
pictures to a CD as a slide show. This is a follow-on presentation from
the excellent June monthly meeting so be sure not to miss it!