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Microsoft's new solution to take vocal commands

BS ICE Bureau

Are you tired of typing on your computer? Here is the solution from Microsoft. The world's largest software company today announced the launch of its latest software application called Office XP in India as part of its world-wide launch.

The new application will allow the user to give vocal commands to the computer or to write using a special pen like device instead of typing. Although the software at present does not support handwritten material in any of the Indian languages, it recognises English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

The software allows users to not only dictate text, but also make formatting changes and navigate menus using speech and voice commands. For example, if a user wants to open a file, he will just have to say "open file" and to save will just need to say "save file."

According to Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft India, "Office XP is at the very core of our .NET vision and with this product, we aim to simplify use of computers for individuals, teams and organisations."

Office XP will be immediately available through Microsoft's retail channel licencing programmes and through original equipment manufacturers. Office XP is available in four flavours, Office XP Standard, Office XP Professional, Office XP Developer and Office XP Small Busienss Edition.

Each of these variants includes a combination of products including Microsot Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft Powerpoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Access 2002, Microsoft Front Page 2002 and Publisher 2002.

The Standard and Professional versions of the product are immediately available throughout the country from over 2,000 resellers and over 100 Microsoft retail outlets. Office XP Small Business will be available through select OEMS.

Office XP Standard is available at an estimated retail price of Rs 20, 500; Office XP Professional is available for Rs 25,000 and Office XP Developer is available at Rs 40,000.

The company is also offering a free end user support for 90 days from the date of purchase of the product and the facility is available at all the authorised support centres of Microsoft. Additionally, Microsoft also launched Office XP related books and CDs from Microsoft Press.

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