Is it just me, or is info on XP's speech utilty really scarce??

Can anyone explain why many of the voice command options under the "What Can I Say" menu are unavailable (greyed out)?
Better still, can anyone offer recommendations as to how I might fix it, or where else I might turn for answers?

For example, it would be VERY useful to be able to employ commands such as those listed under "Dictation into foreground application" (particularly 'Force num<number>') or those found under "Uppercase and lowercase" such as "Capitalize", "Cap that" or "All caps<phrase>," however these are consistantly unavailable no matter what application I happen to be running -- even basics like Word or Word Pad.

Anyone?

PS - I expect there is a thread on this poted somewhere here, but as the "Search This Forum" link doesn't work, I'm posting here anyway!

Be happy to learn how to search these forums. Pretty common format. Too bad about the broken search function.