Kindle Forum banner

I have had a stroke

3K views 39 replies 31 participants last post by  Lisa Blackwood 
#1 ·
not large one, as it turns out, but a troublesome one.  Hardest hit, is my typing speed, which is a fraction of what it used to be.  Every sentence is labored.  I'm looking for something to speed things up, like Dragon Naturally Speaking, for example.  It would be ideal to find a tying program that typed the correct word, so that "wuz" is always "was," as you type along.  I doubt that I will find such a program, which leads me back to voice recognition software.  What are your recommendations?
 
#5 ·
Jim Johnson said:
Really sorry to hear about the health challenges, Hudson. Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

I don't use it myself (yet) but I've heard a lot of good recommendations for Dragon.
Thanks.

Betsy the Quilter said:
Hudson, so sorry to hear this! Get better! *hugs*

Betsy
Thanks.
Shelley K said:
Dragon's the best voice-rec software. Take care of yourself!
Again, thank you!..
 
#7 ·
There is no easy way back from a stroke. I'm still struggling with my shortcomings almost two years later, but I look good for my age.  :D

My meds hamper me, at times. The pee pill is the worst. It leaves me . . . slower . . . mistake prone, and on those days not a lot happens. Those little boogers are the most dangerous pills out there today. If they dry you up on the inside, plug you up, if feels as if your kidneys want to explode. I take half of what was prescribed, and occasionally skip a day with the water pill, and managed to find a balance that suits me. Doctor approved changes.

Be careful, don't back away from the hard work, and know that it does get better with time.
 
#9 ·
Sorry to hear about your stroke. There's a Facebook group for authors using Dragon that you may want to look at. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648134245442422/

For myself I find Dragon keeps crashing my computer and I can't be bothered to get to the bottom of that right now. I think there's usually one problem or other that people have to push through to get it to work for them, then most people love it. I think patience and persistence is required so whether you will like it probably depends on how much you have right now.
 
#11 ·
Sorry to hear this, Hudson, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I had a TIA 6 years ago and really struggled to control my hands and fingers when typing. I couldn't afford to go the Dragon route and found that switching to a Dvorak keyboard layout helped tremendously with the pain of typing.

I wrote a post on my experiences for my editor's blog: http://www.pinnacleeditorial.co.uk/2014/08/when-writing-is-a-pain-dvorak-keyboard-layout/

Good luck.
 
#12 ·
Lyndawrites said:
Sorry to hear this, Hudson, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I had a TIA 6 years ago and really struggled to control my hands and fingers when typing. I couldn't afford to go the Dragon route and found that switching to a Dvorak keyboard layout helped tremendously with the pain of typing.

I wrote a post on my experiences for my editor's blog: http://www.pinnacleeditorial.co.uk/2014/08/when-writing-is-a-pain-dvorak-keyboard-layout/

Good luck.
I've never had trouble with the standard Microsoft keyboard, but I know there are better keyboards out there. Thanks.
 
#13 ·
Sorry to hear about the stroke, Hudson. I had a massive heart attack in 2012 and can understand the health challenges you are going through. And a car accident decades ago damaged the fine motor skills in my hand and I was never able to manage cursive writing again. (Try writing your school exams when you can only print  ;D)

Dragon had been a tremendous benefit to me from the time it came out. If you buy it, let it feed on all of your writing, your books, your email, any correspondence and it will learn your writing style and even new words. And the program also has a section where you read and it learns how you pronounce words as well. Check out the Nuance website and the videos on how to set it up.

Whatever you do, don't give up.
 
#16 ·
Lloyd MacRae said:
Sorry to hear about the stroke, Hudson. I had a massive heart attack in 2012 and can understand the health challenges you are going through. And a car accident decades ago damaged the fine motor skills in my hand and I was never able to manage cursive writing again. (Try writing your school exams when you can only print ;D)

Dragon had been a tremendous benefit to me from the time it came out. If you buy it, let it feed on all of your writing, your books, your email, any correspondence and it will learn your writing style and even new words. And the program also has a section where you read and it learns how you pronounce words as well. Check out the Nuance website and the videos on how to set it up.

Whatever you do, don't give up.
Thank you for your inspirational message, Lloyd MacRea. I will check out the Nuance website. Power to you, sir.
Nic said:
A speedy recovery! Dragon is the best there is currently. I've found the help forums to be invaluable in how to train the software best to my speech.
OK, I will check out the forums.

Sam Kates said:
Wishing you a full recovery, Hudson.
Thank you, sir.
 
#18 ·
Here's hoping Dragon works great for you ... and that you don't need it for long! Best wishes.
 
#19 ·
Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:
So sorry to hear that. What a nuisance, as my friend said when she had a medical problem. Hope you will soon be picking up your typing speed :).
Well, I muddle along.

Becca Mills said:
Here's hoping Dragon works great for you ... and that you don't need it for long! Best wishes.
You mean you can outgrow it?
 
#20 ·
Best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery.

I had some good experiences with using the Dragon application. So far my typing is faster and more accurate and I don't use it on a regular basis. It is important to be diligent about  training your new pet :) My father used his Dragon software for chatting online and never saved any training. As a result, the program became unreliable and he got frustrated with it.

I think it will be a viable asset to your writing during the rehab period. 
 
#21 ·
Hudson Owen said:
It would be ideal to find a tying program that typed the correct word, so that "wuz" is always "was," as you type along. I doubt that I will find such a program
There is software like that that. I use a really old editor called "EMACS". It's free and runs basically on any OS. It has a feature called "abbreviation expansion". You supply it a list of words and what you want them changed to as you type. Then, the second you hit the space bar (or a period or a non letter key) as you type, whatever you type is replaced with whatever you specified.

Other text editors have a similar feature.

Here's my list of abbreviations:

https://github.com/greglange/abrn/blob/master/data/abbr.txt

As an example, if I type "i uu abrx wn im typing tgs.", what appears on my screen is "I use abbreviations when I'm typing things."

Learning an abbreviation system like described and using might help somebody in your situation. It will reduce the number of keystrokes you have to make when writing.

I even use my abbreviations when I'm taking notes on paper. = )

It's sort of like shorthand that you can use on a keyboard.
 
#23 ·
Wishing you a full and speedy recovery.

If you have certain words that you always mistype, then you can add them to auto-correct in Word.  Otherwise, Dragon does sound like a good idea.  Good luck.  :)
 
#25 ·
Hudson Owen said:
You mean you can outgrow it?
I meant that, hopefully, your typing speed will return as you recover from the stroke. Fingers crossed for a full recovery. :)
 
#26 ·
I have a Dvorak keypad, too. I have shoulder/arm issues that make my hands shake (or used to). It hasn't come back (knock on wood) since I've had my new keyboard a few years ago. I really like it.

I wish you all the best. I'm glad it was as minor as it was.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top