Never type an instructable again using Jott

Are you sick and tired of typing up your instructables? What if you could just say them instead? With Jott you can. Jott is a free service that transcribes your voice into text. You can then take that text and copy it into instructables without ever having to touch your keyboard.

Step 1: Sign up for Jott

Go to jott.com and click on sign up now.
Enter your name, email address, your time zone, and a password. You also have to accept the terms of service.
Click continue.
Go to your email, open the email and click on the link that was sent to you.
Click continue.
Enter your phone number and click continue.
Call 1-866-568-8123.
Click continue.
Sign in with your phone number and the password you created earlier.

Comments

[spike3579]

I just tried going to Jott but nuance bought them and shut them down. Booo!

[moomoocows]

Quick question. Does anyone know of any free software maybe on my computer already or downloadable the has speech to text options.

[Koil_1]

I do if you have Linux with a Debian kernel. Look it up in your Synaptic Package Manager. You can find that in the admin menu of any one of the newer Debian packages. If your a new user to Linux I would suggest Ubuntu. If your a seasoned pro go with the basics and just get the original Debian distro. There is of course Suse, Green Shoe, Gnome, Knoppix, and quite a few others to choose from. I don't use Windows anymore myself. It's a matter of principal. There are several commercial softwares available that work very well I assure you. If you really want to spend money on those or talk on the phone go for it. Personally I love Linux. It's free and so is most of the software for it. Take a leap of faith. I'm pretty sure you won't be sorry...

[Cann0n]

yeah but depending on the platform. festival, sphinx, ViaVoice (not free) are good starting points to look into with Linux.

[maruawe]

Good question I thought that xp had software to do voice to text or it could be vista

[sideways]

I think XP has text-to-speech, but not the other way around. In otherwords, XP can read *to* you, but not you to it. Fairly certain, anyway.

For sure M$ Office suite comes with the whole shebang; I've used it. It doesn't work too bad once you practice with it a bit.

[nathan42100]

XP has it but it is fairly well hidden. Look around in help and support for "Language Bar". Like any software recognition, it requires training (mainly reading books to your computer). Some of it is interesting, but not really. It isn't perfect, but with some tweaking it can "type" in any text field (look in the options for the language bar). Keep in mind you have to speak slooowwwwly.

[maruawe]

microsoft text to speech is like most of the rest, it lacks speed and power to recognize some words, same as all the rest that I have tried(that'sa lot)very slow and makes a lot of mistakes.. Every one speaks differently and it would be hard to make a program that encompasses all that is needed for speech to text program. hope fully it will come to pass in my lifetime.

[LinuxH4x0r]

This is free, but you can't download it. I think M$ word has something

[Firebert010]

How neat. I swear there's a web service for everything now...

[LinuxH4x0r]

lol, yes there is! Check out my other ones

[GorillazMiko]

Pretty cool, but I wouldn't want to be talking to the phone for a while... :P But still, an amazing idea, I might just try it out for the heck of it. By the way... Are the calls toll free? Amazing Instructable! +1 rating.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Thanks! Try it. Its awesome, especially if you have a cellphone. If you do you can do your instructables on the road, or at school, or whenever you get free time. Yes, the numbers are toll free. Reply again if you try it and like it.

[germanudo]

Sounds cool, can i record it in German and get a REAL English translation? Not like the common online translation, like i give the German input and the English translation comes up with. example: Put hole in wire thru needle afterwards. Or can i paste an English text and get a German Speech translation? I'm sure everybody have seen some kind of funny translations in a user guide or so.

[CameronSS]

It'll be a while before that's possible. Direct translations between languages are usually impossible to understand-an accurate translation requires first understanding the meaning of the original, then wording it in the other language.

[LinuxH4x0r]

I don't know? I don't think so. It only works in the US, and Canada. Cinfirmed- No german. Sorry. :,(

[germanudo]

Yeah , i live here in the US. I'm looking for a long time for a real good Translation software. Basicly i don;t have big Problems with english, but know and then i would like a better translation both way,s. It's sometimes real hard to understand technical english . Or sometimes i try to explain something and i can't get the people to understand me. but i will try it, so we may be smarter in view day's. If i figure something out, i'll post iy here. Oh by the way, is the service absolut free and how much spam mail do get after sign up?

[LinuxH4x0r]

Its absolutely free! I haven't gotten any spam yet.

[Goodhart]

I will have to test this before making any reasonable comment, I am only going to say that the "speak and type" program I had with WIN98, demanded about 2 + hours of my time to "train" it, and I never had that much time to finish the "training" of my computer :-)

[LinuxH4x0r]

Thanks! This doesn't need training. Just 5 minutes to register.

[Goodhart]

If it doesn't use any "funny characters" (I found that even Notepad can insert SOME marks that turn up unacceptable here and end up looking like Ђ ς )

Thanks.

[germanudo]

i just paste the sharp s in my comment and it turnd out in an a with dobble dots.

[germanudo]

Ђ ς ) Hey, this are german Letter. In the german Alphabet we got 4 extra letter. a,u,o and a sharp s. the a,o,u come with the double dots and the sharp s,--- ß
check the wiki----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9F

[ultrauber]

Ja. Ich lerne Deutsch in Schule. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut... woher in Deutschland kommen Sie?

[germanudo]

Hi there, I'm from Dortmund, that's about 100 miles north of Frankfurt. But i live in WV. Ich habe zuletzt in Dortmund gewohnt, das ist ungefaehr 190 km noerdlich von Frankfurt. Aber jetzt wohne ich in West Virginia. A litle extra lesson in german.lol Ja ich lerne Deutsch in der Schule. You forgot der. But no worry's my english is not good either. Have a fun Day, Udo

[ultrauber]

Ist das der Schule oder dem Schule?

[Goodhart]

Vielen Dank ;-)

[LinuxH4x0r]

It's pretty good. It automatically did ' s for me. No, no funny characters so far.

[bleachworthy]

I was about to mark this as spam, but by god I think you've found something useful! Of course you would need to have whatever you are going to say fairly well planned. hopefully this is more accurate than that god-awful engine that gets thrown in with ms office.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Thanks! I hope it doesn't seem too much like spam. (BTW: I am not affiliated with them in any way, just a happy user). Like you said, you need to have your thought s organized, but even if you don't you can still copy and paste segments of it. The sad thing is that I typed this instructable (all except for the first line), because my train of thought kept derailing. So far (I found this yesterday) it hasn't made any mistakes -yet. It probably makes some, but I don't think it is as bad as M$ word.

[Weissensteinburg]

How accurate is the speech to text? Did you write this instructable with it?

[LinuxH4x0r]

It's pretty good. No, unfortunately I didn't. I started to, but I couldn't compose my thoughts. I kept stalling and getting lost.

[LinuxH4x0r]

I think it would be really good for trips or if you are in the car and you see something, but don't want to stop to write it down.

[guyfrom7up]

this thing i so cool, but yeah, not good for writing instructables because you forget what to say or you can't think of everything on the spot.

[finfan7]

What's fun is that the best way to remember what you want to write in a logical order is to write it out. Then you are writing it out so you can read it aloud so you don't have to type it. Wait a minute...

[LinuxH4x0r]

I know exactly what you mean...