Speech recognition - German

Am trying to do setup for German/English speaking friend.

• OS: Windows 7 Home/Premium

Have setup new speech profile "hername English" using English keyboard and Microsoft English Recognizer 8.0 and she is currently working on training the profile.

Want to setup new German profile. Can add new keyboard (Germany-German) and new German language. Cannot find/activate/install Microsoft German Recognizer. What can I do? Where can I go?

Thanks so much for any ideas/assistance.

Mary

Prof Kerfuffle, thank you for the links. I had already utilized them, with the exception of the geographical location. This I did try, but it did not make any difference.

My focus is Speech Recognition. In Windows 7 Home Premium, I go to Control Panel/Ease of Access/Speech Recognition. In the window that opens on the left hand panel there is an Advanced Speech Options hyperlink. I click on that and the Speech Properties Window opens. Under the first heading "Language" I see "Microsoft Speech Recognizer for Windows - English 8.0". What I need to add is "Microsoft Speech Recognizer for Windows - German".

I have gone to Office 2010 and checked on the Language packs. It is enabled for German but the language pack has not been installed. I would consider paying to install it, but first would want to ensure that "Microsoft Speech Recognizer for Windows - German" would be included in it, as, if it were not, I would not have made any progress in allowing this person to be able to dictate in German and have the computer type it in German.

I hope I have been clear. If not, just ask me any question and I will try to answer.

Thank you so much.

Mary

Oh, Prof Kerfuffle, I don't need all of the menus to be in German, just the little speech recognition piece, but you may be right.

If so, what are my options? Would Dragon Naturally Speaking in German do the trick? Or would I have to upgrade to Ultimate? (This sort of makes me mad as I had extended conversation with a techie on exactly this subject in selecting the laptop and its OS...)

Mary

The person is doing English/German translation but has a bad hand so typing is painful and certainly not conducive to reducing inflammation. I have used speech recognition myself and it is very helpful.

I personally think that it is an extraordinary leap to assume that just because someone wants to be able to dictate a letter or other document in a foreign language that they would absolutely need to have all of the menus/wizards/ etc in that foreign language. To make a comparison - it is like saying that someone can't make Crêpe Suzettes unless they are using a cookbook written in French... I hear the sound of the cash register.

As for Dragon, I would not be so quick to disparage it. People tend to think that the Windows app is the poor man's Dragon. I will clearly have to investigate further and see what the cost of an Ultimate upgrade would be and how it compares with the cost of Dragon. All of this seems so unnecessary as it could have been managed much better had more customer friendly decisions been made earlier in the process.