Ask Kim: 'Can you help me get better with speech-to-text?'
I would like to get talk-to-type software to use for emails and Word. What suggestions do you have? Anything free that does not violate my privacy too much? I have a Lenovo PC and Windows 11.
Brian, Ohio
Good news, Brian. It’s built right in!
For Word:
Open a new or existing document and go to Home > Dictate while signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen. Easy peasy!
For Outlook:
Start a new email or reply to an existing one, select the body of the message, then go to the Message tab and select Dictate while signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen.
For Windows 10:
To use the Windows 10 speech recognition, open a document, email, or other file you want to dictate within. Hold down the Windows key and press H to trigger the dictation toolbar. You can now dictate text. When finished, press the Win key + H to turn off the dictation toolbar.
For Windows 11:
Press the Windows key + H on the keyboard. Next, press the microphone key next to the Spacebar on the keyboard. To stop, say a voice typing command like “Stop listening” or press the microphone button on the voice typing menu.
For Mac:
- In an app on your Mac, place the insertion point where you want the dictated text to appear.
- Press the microphone button if available in the row of function keys, use the Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation. Note: Press and release the microphone button to start Dictation; press and hold the microphone button to activate Siri (Siri must be enabled).
- When a microphone icon appears above or below a highlighted cursor, or you hear the tone that signals your Mac is ready for dictation, dictate your text. On a Mac with Apple silicon, you can type text even while dictating; there’s no need to stop dictation. The microphone icon disappears while you type and reappears after you stop typing so you can continue dictating.
- To insert an emoji or a punctuation mark or perform simple formatting tasks, do any of the following:
- Say the name of an emoji, like a heart or car emoji. Say the name of the punctuation mark, such as an exclamation mark. Say, “new line” (equivalent to pressing the Return key once) or “new paragraph” (equivalent to pressing the Return key twice). The new line or new paragraph appears when you’re done dictating. For a list of the commands you can use while dictating, see Commands for dictating text. Note: In supported languages, Dictation automatically inserts commas, periods, and question marks for you as you dictate. To turn this feature off, choose the Apple menu > System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) Go to Dictation on the right, then turn off Auto-punctuation.
- Press the Dictation keyboard shortcut or the Escape key when you’re done. Dictation stops automatically when no speech is detected for 30 seconds.
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