looking for advise re. software for writing problems

Have you considered Dragon Naturally Speaking?

I have been hearing from new and old users alike that it’s crossed that elusive threshold and is “ready for prime time,” not just for the highly motivated, desperate folks who can’t type. It tends to spell correctly, even homophones becuase it’s programmed to know when you mean “there” and when you mean “their.” It doesn’t skip words. (I think the “Preferred” version is the most popular.)

Some of my word-skipping students find that a plain old text reader helps immensely. When they’re finished an essay they get our Genie from TextHelp! to read it back to them. Much excellent editing happens because it “doesn’t sound right.”

Thanks so much for suggesting dragon and text help. I would have never thought that a voice recognition program would be helpful to me, but after going on their website - it just might be of assistance. :)

I did some additional web surfing and found a cheap product called “as u type”. Have you ever heard of it? I like the concept of my text being highlighed as I type. I am very visual and color code everything anyway. do you know of any other products that utiyze a highlight function in this manner?

take care
DJC

DJC,
Have you considered text to speech software? This type of software would be helpful when you are editing your work. You said that your brain reads what should be there. Text-to-speech reads what IS there so that you can hear the mistakes. There are a number of programs that might help.
also, with the profile that you describe, it’s really hard to know or recommend what is best without actually working with you in person. Can you find a local assistive technology center where you can try a variety of different strategies and solutions?
There are solutions out there for you!
Karen

Thanks. I have done some research on my own, and I have a pretty good idea of what my needs are. In fact my disability policy colleagues in Washington specifically advised me to go to LD on-line rather than anywhere else.) KUDOS to LD-ONLINE!!

* I don’t want speech software, I have speech already (windoweyes software).
* I want something that uses a highlight function while I keyboard.

I already looked at my state’s tech act project website (as well as many sites) and they have nothing available for folks with LD (they offer assistance with augmentative speech devices, refreshable braille displays, products for folks with mobility issues, Etc…, but not for functioning LDs’ )

What I wrote was a not a ‘real’ profile, I was just looking for some advise because:

*I skip words
* I forget where I am in a document when I compose text in a document (cut, paste, copy text etc.,)

From my vantage point, as someone who works on AT issues for a national disability organization, I know that I most likely need something that highlights text as type.

I have my reasons for not wanting an official assessment, a VR recommendation, or other standard service that most professional providers would tend to offer.

I just want to write without mistakes so I do my job independently and efficiently (and so my boss won’t get in trouble).

So – anything on a program that highlights?

DJC

Sorry, DJC, I can’t think of anything that highlights as you type. I guess I’m still missing the point - why do you need text to be highlighted as you type it? Can you change the font, the font size or the color? I just don’t understand.
Sorry.

I’m thinking that Write:Outloud by Don Johnston has a highlighting function. Of course, I think it might be an expensive way of getting that (and not sure that it really does it). They main focus of Write: outloud is to say your words back to you. However, I think you could turn that feature off. You might look at their webpage (which I don’t think was all that helpful, they have redone it). They are helpful if you call them.
http://www.donjohnston.com

—des

Write:Outloud allows you to change the color of your font and the color of the background which works well for some students who may also benefit from color overlays. It includes a talking dictionary along with the text-to-speech but it is geared more for elementary age students.

I found the product listed below on a website. This is a type of product that I think will help me. has anyone heard of it? I have been highlighting text and putting edits into different color fonts etc… But it is really time consuming and it breaks up my flow of thought. I want a program does it for me automatically as well corrects things and highlights the corrections it makes (so I can review the text the changes/edits the program makes.)

because of my short-term memory problem I lose track of my thoughts when I go to make edits. But If I have it in my mind to edit, I do the edit and lose track of my thoughts on the document. I cut, paste, move senatace & paragraphs around edt. and lose track o thing. I end up with a final draft with fragments etc. I need to be able to track these changes.

I work with complex legal and legislative text. I need to track changes to my work.

any thoughts?
**

The unique OS-level spell check and speed typing software

As-U-Type is a smart OS-level, real-time spell check and speed typing software that works with all Windows programs to increase your typing accuracy and productivity. The software can adapt itself to your keyboarding habits, detect and correct any spelling mistakes as you type and speed typing up. This innovative and award-winning software brings a brand new solution to protect you from making mistakes and save you lots of time, giving you accurate and fast typing.
Main Features
Automatic spell check and error flagging as you type. The program works by continuously monitoring your typing, spell checks and immediately alerts you to any spelling mistake that you may make on the fly:
By a simple beep.
By an external wave sound of your choice.
By highlighting the mistake on the document you are working with. (Please note that this smart highlighting feature is available in all applications. Global highlighting is only available in As-U-Type. To our knowledge, there is no other spell checker supporting this feature.)
Automatic correction of recognized spelling errors as you type. If a mistake is a recognized mistake, As-U-Type automatically and silently corrects it without disturbing you. Recognized mistakes include:
Common spelling errors, such as “teh” -> “the”, “don;t” -> “don’t”.
TWo INitial CApitals errors.
Capitalization of the first letter of a sentence.
Accidental use of cAPS LOCK key.
Correct use of space between words in a sentence.
Rich options to handle unrecognized mistakes. For all other unrecognized mistakes (e.g. mistakes are made due to tiredness and you don’t realize you make it — for example, when you accidentally slip your fingers — or don’t bother to train the program to recognize it), As-U-Type offers a range of options to handle them instantly as they occur and you can easily choose the best option for you. The fixable unrecognized errors include:
Transposition errors, such as transaltion -> translation (need to swap two adjacent letters ‘l’ and ‘a’).
Insertion errors, such as accesories -> accessories (need to add a letter ‘s’).
Deletion errors, such as accross -> across (need to remove the extra ‘c’).
Substitution errors, such as accidant -> accident (need to change ‘a’ to ‘e’).
And you can handle them as:
Manual correction: As-U-Type red underlines the mistake. At any time, you can spot the mistake easily, select it and press a hotkey to correct it.
Interactive correction: As soon as you make a mistake, As-U-Type shows you some suggestions and have you choose or not choose one to correct the mistake. The suggestion window is small and being shown in a convenient and unintrusive way: it locates next to your blinking caret and will disappear automatically after a certain amount of time.
Automatic correction: As-U-Type guesses at a fix and makes the change automatically.
Error tracking and mistakes review support. You can set As-U-Type memorize all your mistakes for a review later. Applying mistakes review gives you a chance to have a look at your typing habit and error patterns in order to improve both typing and writing skills. Applying mistakes review also lets you teach As-U-Type and make it more personally accustomed to your keyboarding style.
Automation of difficult and repetitive typing tasks by its text expanding feature. You can assign frequently used phrases, paragraphs, e-mail addresses etc. or even a whole document for short abbreviations (text shortcuts) and then whenever you want to type the original text, just type in the assigned shortcut and As-U-Type immediately replaces it with the complete, expanded text.
The replace text can be as long as 32,000 characters (about 20 pages, sufficient for most text), and even can contain control characters such as ENTER or TAB, date and time information, variables and cursor movement keystrokes.
The number of shortcuts is unlimited (only limited by your system resource such as hard disk and main memory capacity).
Multiple shortcut files support.
Shortcut finding support. It is especially useful when you have thousands of text shortcuts and want to know which is which.
Multiple clipboards support. As-U-Type supports as many simultaneous clipboards as the number of keys on your physical keyboard. It assigns each keyboard’s key a separate clipboard, so you’ll have clipboard ‘A’, clipboard ‘B’…, clipboard ‘1’, clipboard ‘2’ etc. You can copy and paste any text piece to any clipboard by pressing the single copy/paste hot key followed by the clipboard key.
You can copy/paste several text pieces at a time.
You can store a text in a particular clipboard by its attribute (for example, your address to clipboard ‘A’, your name to clipboard ‘N’, your password to clipboard ‘P’ etc.) and make it easy to paste out without the need of finding it in any list.
The clipboard contents can be saved to a file and reloaded the next time you start As-U-Type.
OS level support. The program works in background and at the OS level, so you can have your spelling and typing corrected at any time and everywhere, no matter what program you are using. Therefore you will have a consistent and unique error guarding mechanism. Once you add a correction to the software, the correction will immediately be registered system wide.
Machine Learning support. The program supports the latest technologies from the Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and using the Adaptive Software Architecture. It can adapt itself to your specific keyboarding habit. As a result, the more you use the program, the more intelligent it becomes and the more your typical error can be detected and corrected automatically.
Work in a fully automatic and transparent manner. In most cases you even don’t realize that your mistakes are corrected by As-U-Type. However, you still have complete control over its error detection and correction capability.
Expandable capability. You can add your own dictionary and correction word lists into the program. There is no limit to the amount of entries added to such dictionary and word lists.
Fully customizable. As-U-Type comes with a rich set of options. Though the options are preset and ready to use, you are able to modify them to what suits your style. Regarding this aspect, the program is fully customizable and gives you a complete control over its behavior.

DJC,
Do you use the reviewing toolbar built into Microsoft word? It tracks changes for you and allows you to accept or reject one change at a time or all at once. You can also using the audio comments feature with a microphone and dictate notes to yourself throughout your document. This sounds like it might be helpful to you. These features are built right into Word and don’t cost anything extra.

Many of the features that you mentioned As-U-type does are also built into Word. do you use the Auto Correct feature? Have you checked off Capitalize first letter of every sentence? or Two initial capitals errors? There are other features that are mentioned in the information that you included on this product that are built into Word for example, right clicking within a word that is red underlined and is spelled incorrectly. The correct choice is usually offered in the list and you click on the correct choice. Do you currently use this feature?

(Common spelling errors, such as “teh” -> “the”, “don;t” -> “don’t”.
TWo INitial CApitals error
Capitalization of the first letter of a sentence.
Transposition errors,etc. )
I hope that this helps.

One other thing - when you use the track changes feature on the reviewing toolbar - it does highlight the corrections in a different color. You can customize the change - font, font color, format, etc.