Speech capabilities for a computer system refers to the ability to play back text in a spoken voice (referred to as text-to-speech or TTS), or to convert a spoken voice into electronic text (referred to as speech recognition or SR). The two capabilities are independent of each other. Many systems will have only TTS. SR may be installed later either by loading a speech package, or more commonly, through an application which has incorporated speech into it. For example, a new word processor or office tool suite may include speech and it will be loaded at that time.
In general, speech-enabled applications will use Speech properties in Control Panel to access and control features. In this way, speech may be customized for your personal preferences or a specific office location. Since TTS and SR may be loaded at different times, it is possible that not all the Help will be applicable. In cases where SR is not available, references to SR help and SR procedures may be ignored.