Four years ago attorney Vincent O. Hanley hit a turning point in his work life. Although his secretary typed all of his letters and the initial drafts of documents, e-mail had become the predominant means of communication. Attorneys regularly negotiated and exchanged documents electronically. These changes in the practice of law made it impossible for Vince to avoid typing - something he admits was never one of his strong-points.

The increased typing brought on a tennis elbow/tendinitis problem so severe that even typing brief e-mail messages had become extremely painful for Vince. The medical specialists he consulted identified the problem as a form of repetitive stress injury (also referred to as "RSI"), and they advised, among other things, eliminating or significantly reducing his reliance on a keyboard.

Even though he had the assistance of a secretary, Vince knew that, given the fast pace of the practice of law and the increased demands for efficiency and productivity in the profession, it would be impossible for him to avoid typing altogether. That reality prompted him to have a conversation with a member of Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel's management information system (MIS) team who recommended speech recognition software as a potential solution. Ready to try any alternative to typing, Vince agreed to meet with a trainer at Achieve Results to determine whether speech recognition software might be the answer.

It was.

In fact, after being cautioned to set reasonable expectations for the software, Vince says, "it was much easier than I thought it was going to be to train and use the software. I was able to use the Dragon Naturally Speaking software productively very soon after I was trained."

Today, Vince says he uses his speech recognition software constantly and has "significantly reduced the need for manual typing." He has also expanded the types of documents and correspondence he tackles with Dragon Naturally Speaking. According to Vince, he uses the software "for everything that previously required typing, including e-mail correspondence, creating and revising documents, and completing electronic forms." He added, "The software is very user-friendly, and far more versatile than I had expected."

One difference Vince points out between the version of Dragon he was initially trained on and the latest version which he uses today is that "the version I have now is extremely accurate." Vince says that, given the improved accuracy of the program, he now spends relatively little time making corrections.

That, however, does not mean he always speeds through his work. In fact, Vince has found that because the recognition software is easy to use, he often communicates with clients and other attorneys in greater detail than he would if he were typing manually. He noted, "The ability to generate detailed correspondence easily and efficiently is clearly one of the advantages to using speech recognition software."

So thrilled is he with speech recognition software that Vince has become a near champion of the cause, in part because of the improvements and enhancements he has witnessed in the software in the last few years. "When I was using the original version," Vince says, "I only recommended it to people who had physical problems that prevented them from typing because the original version was such a chore to correct."

Not so anymore. "Now I think using voice recognition software makes sense for anyone who does a lot of typing - even if it's just e-mail correspondence," says Vince.