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How to use speech-to-text on a Windows computer to quickly dictate text without typing

• You can use the speech-to-text feature on Windows to dictate text in any window, document, or field that you could ordinarily type in.  
• To get started with speech-to-text, you need to enable your microphone and turn on speech recognition in "Settings."
• Once configured, you can press Win + H to open the speech recognition control and start dictating. 
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One of the lesser known major features in Windows 10 is the ability to use speech-to-text technology to dictate text rather than type. If you have a microphone connected to your computer, you can have your speech quickly converted into text, which is handy if you suffer from repetitive strain injuries or are simply an inefficient typist.

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It's likely that speech-to-text is not turned on by default, so you need to enable it before you start dictating to Windows.

1. Click the "Start" button and then click "Settings," designated by a gear icon.

2. Click "Time & Language."

3. In the navigation pane on the left, click "Speech."

4. If you've never set up your microphone, do it now by clicking "Get started" in the Microphone section. Follow the instructions to speak into the microphone, which calibrates it for dictation. 

5. Scroll down and click "Speech, inking, & typing privacy settings" in the "Related settings" section. Then slide the switch to "On" in the "Online speech recognition" section. If you don't have the sliding switch, this may appear as a button called "Turn on speech services and typing suggestions."

How to use speech-to-text on Windows

Once you've turned speech-to-text on, you can start using it to dictate into any window or field that accepts text. You can dictate into word processing apps, Notepad, search boxes, and more. 

1. Open the app or window you want to dictate into. 

2. Press Win + H. This keyboard shortcut opens the speech recognition control at the top of the screen. 

3. Now just start speaking normally, and you should see text appear. 

If you pause for more than a few moments, Windows will pause speech recognition. It will also pause if you use the mouse to click in a different window. To start again, click the microphone in the control at the top of the screen. You can stop voice recognition for now by closing the control at the top of the screen. 

Common commands you should know for speech-to-text on Windows

In general, Windows will convert anything you say into text and place it in the selected window. But there are many commands that, rather than being translated into text, will tell Windows to take a specific action. Most of these commands are related to editing text, and you can discover many of them on your own – in fact, there are dozens of these commands. Here are the most important ones to get you started:

• Punctuation . You can speak punctuation out loud during dictation. For example, you can say "Dear Steve comma how are you question mark." 
• New line . Saying "new line" has the same effect as pressing the Enter key on the keyboard.
• Stop dictation . At any time, you can say "stop dictation," which has the same effect as pausing or clicking another window. 
• Go to the [start/end] of [document/paragraph] . Windows can move the cursor to various places in your document based on a voice command. You can say "go to the start of the document," or "go to the end of the paragraph," for example, to quickly start dictating text from there. 
• Undo that . This is the same as clicking "Undo" and undoes the last thing you dictated. 
• Select [word/paragraph] . You can give commands to select a word or paragraph. It's actually a lot more powerful than that – you can say things like "select the previous three paragraphs." 

Related coverage from  Tech Reference :

How to use your ipad as a second monitor for your windows computer, you can use text-to-speech in the kindle app on an ipad using an accessibility feature— here's how to turn it on, how to use text-to-speech on discord, and have the desktop app read your messages aloud, how to use google text-to-speech on your android phone to hear text instead of reading it, 2 ways to lock a windows computer from your keyboard and quickly secure your data.

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If you're tired of typing with a keyboard, entering text can be as easy as using your voice in Windows 10. The OS includes built-in speech recognition and dictation features. Here's how to set them up.

Microsoft's dictation software is a useful way to write text quickly in Windows 10 using the Windows+h keyboard shortcut. But it may not already be enabled by default on your system, so you may have to make a quick trip to settings to enable it.

Begin by opening Windows Settings. To do so, open your Start menu and click the gear icon. You can also get there by pressing Windows+i on your keyboard.

In Settings, click "Ease of Access."

On the left pane, scroll down and click "Speech" in the sidebar. Under Speech settings, click the switch located below "Turn on Speech Recognition." It should switch over to the "On" position.

Keep in mind speech recognition is only available in a few languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. To perform this action quickly, hit Windows+Ctrl+s to toggle speech recognition on or off instantly.

When you toggle speech recognition on for the first time, you will need to set it up to recognize your voice.

To perform the initial microphone setup , hook up either a headset microphone, desktop microphone, or other peripheral mics. Then follow the on-screen prompt to choose and calibrate your microphone. We recommend using a headset mic for dictation software.

Once the headset is connected, say the on-screen phrase into your microphone, so the system will capture your voice and be able to recognize it while using the program.

Finish up by selecting whether or not you want to allow the computer to review documents and email to help it improve speech recognition accuracy.

Once the setup is complete, you're ready to begin typing with your voice!

Related: How to Set Up and Test Microphones in Windows 10

After you've successfully set up your microphone, you can start typing with your voice. The wizard will ask you to toggle run Speech Recognition every time you start up the computer. Answer appropriately according to your preferences, and you're finally ready to start typing with your voice.

If you want to use dictation, select a text field and call up the dictation bar with Windows+h. We'll use a blank text document as an example. After hitting Windows+h, the dictation bar will pop up at the top of the screen:

Dictation will automatically turn on and prompt you to speak once you call up the dictation bar. If it doesn't, simply click the microphone icon to enable it.

Begin speaking into your microphone. Speak in complete, deliberate sentences. You can say whatever you like, and you'll see it typed on the screen as you go along. Here are some tips while you dictate:

• Punctuation: To add punctuation, say the name of the punctuation mark you want to use as you work.  For example, say "period" to place a period at the end of a sentence, or say "comma," "E-M dash," "semicolon," "exclamation point," or "question mark" to add those punctuation makes to your document.
• Parentheses: For parentheses, say "open parentheses" to start a parenthetical phrase and "close parenthesis" to end the phrase.
• Numerical Values : Say "numerical" followed by a number to type out the numerical values.
• Navigating Paragraphs: To move to the next paragraph, say "next line" or "next paragraph."
• Deleting Text: To delete words, say "delete," followed by the word you want to delete. You can also say "delete previous sentence" to get rid of an entire sentence you no longer wish to keep in the document.
• Selecting: To select a word, say "select," followed by the word you wish to highlight.
• Move to Beginning or End of Sentence: If you want to go to the beginning or end of a sentence, say "go to start of the sentence" or "go to the end of the sentence. This also works for navigating paragraphs and the start or end of a document.

Remember to speak clearly and avoid speaking too fast, as it can mess with your writing flow as the software tries to catch up your pace (When talking fast, we experienced some input lag until we slowed down a bit).

Stop dictating by say, "stop dictating." To turn it back on---or if it cuts out unexpectedly---click the microphone on the dictation bar to re-enable it:

Dictation will allow you to use your voice to write things faster and easier than if you were typing them, and it's pretty fun too.

Dictation software is ideal for a number of uses, but there you may decide to disable it at some point. If you accidentally enable dictation or simply no longer wish to use it, disabling it is fairly straightforward. All you need to do is hit Windows+h again to toggle it off.

If you want to shut off speech recognition entirely, so you don't accidentally start dictation, disable it by using Windows+Ctrl+s. This will completely disable speech recognition.

Alternatively, head back to Windows Settings. Click "Ease of Access" again, find "Speech," and flip the switch beneath the words "Turn on Speech Recognition" to the "off" position.

Remember, you can always turn speech recognition back on and use the dictation feature any time with Windows+H. Happy writing!

How to Use Voice Typing (Dictation) Tool in Windows 11

Learn how to use the new Voice Typing dictation tool in Windows 11 and take full advantage of the tool to type anything by voice on your PC.

Windows has a lot of secret tools. Okay, maybe they aren’t really “secret”, but not too many people know them. That makes them an awful lot like secrets. Like the dictation tool in Windows. Windows has an in-built speech-to-text tool that you can use to type whatever you say. You don’t have to install any additional software.

So, imagine you’re in class or a meeting, and instead of taking notes manually, you could just turn on dictation and Windows will type everything for you. How easy would that make everything? Instead of trying to jot everything down, you could turn your complete focus on listening. This is just one example. Dictation comes in handy in so many other situations as well.

Sometimes, you’re trying to gather your thoughts on something. Maybe, you’re writing your bridesmaid or best man’s speech. Or you’re trying to get down the next chapter of your novel. You have the perfect line, maybe even a paragraph in your mind. But by the time you get to typing it, the train has already left the station. Some thoughts are better captured in conversation. With dictation, you can do just that.

What is Voice Typing in Windows 11?

The dictation tool, voice typing, speech to text – whatever you might want to call it does exactly what it says. It listens to what you’re saying and converts it to text in real-time. And it works with any text box. That’s right, you can use it in text editors, or compose boxes of a chatting app, to type a mail, comment, virtually anything.

And Windows 11 has improved the dictation tool even further. On Windows 10, you could dictate the text to Windows. But it just threw up the words on the screen in continuous mumbo-jumbo. The burden of editing fell to you. You had to make outlines yourselves and punctuate them accordingly.

The new Voice Typing tool in Windows 11 detects the punctuation in your tone and auto-punctuates the text.

There are a few catches though. It only works with certain languages. And you should be connected to the internet.

The list of supported languages include:

• English (US, Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom)
• French (France, Canada)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish (Mexico, Spain)
• Simplified Chinese

Using Voice Typing (Dictation) in Windows 11

Using the Voice Typing tool to dictate to Windows is pretty simple. Select the text box where you want to type. Essentially, your cursor should be in the text field, otherwise, you’d receive an error that you need to select a text box and try again.

With your cursor in the text box, press the Windows logo key + H keyboard shortcut to launch the Voice Typing tool on the screen.

It is a little pop-up box you can move anywhere. If it’s obstructing your screen view, just click and hold the bar at the top to drag and move it around the screen.

When Voice Typing for the first time on Windows 11, you’d have to turn on auto-punctuation. Go to the Voice to Typing pop-up, and click the ‘Settings’ (gear) icon within the box.

A menu will pop up. Turn on the toggle switch next to ‘Auto-punctuation’.

Now, while the tool is still active on the screen, you can either press Windows + H from the keyboard again or you can click the ‘Microphone’ icon to start dictating.

Note: When your PC is listening, the microphone icon color will be the accent color of your theme. And when not listening, it will be a plain white color.

To stop or pause dictation, either press the ‘Microphone’ icon or press Windows + H keys again or just say, “Stop Dictation” .

To close the Voice Typing tool, either press the ‘Esc key or click on the ‘Close’ button on the tool’s pop-up.

You can also enable the Voice typing launcher to automatically appear anytime you click inside a text field. If you plan to dictate often, you will find this very helpful to have the tool open and ready for dictating.

To turn on the Voice typing launcher, click the Settings gear icon in the toolbox. Then, turn on the toggle switch next to ‘Voice typing launcher’ option.

Useful Voice Commands to Help you Dictate Better

You can also use some Voice commands while dictating to go completely hands-free.

Note: The words in bold are just placeholders. Replace them with similar words to get the results you want.

Dictating Symbols, Punctuation, and Numbers

You can also insert punctuation characters and symbols by simply dictating the symbol’s name. In Windows 11, no other command is required to dictate symbols, punctuation marks, and even letters and numbers.

To enter a letter or number, simply dictate them without any need for additional comments.

Dictating your PC to type for you can be a real lifesaver. And with auto-punctation in Windows 11 Voice typing tool, you don’t even have an excuse to not want to use this feature.

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How to Enable and Use Voice Typing in Windows 11

Enable and Use Voice Typing in Windows 11 (2021)

How to use windows 11’s built-in voice typing tool.

4. In case your dictation is not being picked properly, you can navigate to “Settings -> Time and Language -> Speech”. Here, select the appropriate “ Speech Language ” from the drop-down menu based on your region or accent.

Enable Voice Typing Launcher in Windows 11

2. For example, I am on Google Review’s page on Chrome and the Voice typing launcher automatically comes up when I click on the text entry field.

Use Voice Typing in Office Apps on Windows 11

1. To use voice typing within Office apps on your Windows 11 PC, open one of these apps – Word or PowerPoint. On the top-right corner, you will find a “ Dictate” option . The same step is applicable for Office on the web as well.

Use Voice Typing in Windows 10

While Windows 11 has a much smarter voice typing utility, Windows 10 also comes with a native Dictation Tool. You can use the same “Windows + H” keyboard shortcut, and the dictation pop-up will appear at the top of the screen.

Dictation and Punctuation Commands for Enhanced Voice Typing

• English (US – Advanced Dictation Commands)
• Simplified Chinese
• English (Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom)
• French (France, Canada)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish (Mexico, Spain)

Smart Voice Typing with Auto Punctuation in Windows 11

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.

Wow! Thank you for this amazing article.

I was wondering if you’ve discovered a way to begin the dictation process with simply your voice. Ideally, I was thinking it’d be something like “ start dictation” to begin the dictation process.

I’m not sure if something like this exists. I’m hoping you may know.

Thanks again, appreciate the article.

Yes, there is a way to do it. https://beebom.com/what-is-voice-access-windows-11-how-use/

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Dictate messages and documents on Mac

With Dictation, you can enter text just by speaking, anywhere that you can type it.

On a Mac with Apple silicon , Dictation requests are processed on your device for supported languages—no internet connection is required. When you dictate in a search box, dictated text may be sent to the search provider in order to process the search. Additionally, you can dictate text of any length without a timeout. You can turn off Dictation manually, or it stops automatically when no speech is detected for 30 seconds.

When you dictate on an Intel-based Mac or in a language that doesn’t support on-device dictation, your dictated utterances are sent to Apple to process your requests.

Note: Dictation may not be available in all languages or in all countries or regions, and features may vary. See the macOS Feature Availability webpage to see Dictation languages and on-device processing support. To learn more about how Apple protects your information and lets you choose what you share, click About Ask Siri, Dictation & Privacy at the bottom of Keyboard settings, or see the Apple Privacy website .

If you need to dictate text and control your Mac using your voice instead of a keyboard and trackpad, use Voice Control. See Use Voice Control commands . When Voice Control is on, you can’t use Dictation.

Turn on Dictation

Open Keyboard settings for me

Go to Dictation on the right, then turn it on. If a prompt appears, click Enable.

If you’re asked if you want to improve Siri and Dictation, do one of the following:

Share audio recordings: Click Share Audio Recordings to allow Apple to store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions from your Mac. Apple may review a sample of stored audio.

Don’t share audio recordings: Click Not Now.

Note: You can delete the audio interactions (which are associated with a random identifier and less than six months old) whenever you like—see Delete Siri and Dictation history .

To dictate using another language, click the Edit button next to Languages, then select a language and dialect. (To remove a language, deselect it.)

To learn more about how Apple protects your information and lets you choose what you share, click About Ask Siri, Dictation & Privacy at the bottom of Keyboard settings, or see the Apple Privacy website .

Dictate text

In an app on your Mac, place the insertion point where you want the dictated text to appear.

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 then 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 “heart emoji” or “car emoji.”

Say the name of the punctuation mark, such as “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 appear when you’re done dictating.

For a list of the commands you can use while dictating, see Commands for dictating text .

For information about setting up Dictation for multiple languages, see Turn on Dictation .

When you’re done, press the Dictation keyboard shortcut or the Escape key. Dictation stops automatically when no speech is detected for 30 seconds.

Ambiguous text is underlined in blue. For example, you may get the result “flour” when you intended the word “flower.” If this is the case, click the underlined word and select an alternative. You can also type or dictate the correct text.

Set the Dictation keyboard shortcut

You can choose a specific Dictation keyboard shortcut or create one of your own.

Go to Dictation on the right, click the pop-up menu next to Shortcut, then choose a shortcut to start Dictation.

To create a shortcut that’s not in the list, choose Customize, then press the keys you want to use. For example, you could press Option-Z.

Change the microphone used for Dictation

The microphone source in Keyboard settings shows which device your Mac is currently using to listen for Dictation.

Go to Dictation on the right, click the pop-up menu next to “Microphone source,” then choose the microphone you want to use for Dictation.

If you choose Automatic, your Mac listens to the device you’re most likely to use for Dictation.

Turn off Dictation

Go to Dictation on the right, then turn it off.

Home » Tech Tips » Apps » How to Use Voice Typing in Microsoft Word Windows and Mac?

How to Use Voice Typing in Microsoft Word Windows and Mac?

Preparing a long document by typing word by word can easily make you boring. Microsoft Word being a most popular documentation software offers simple solution to overcome this situation. It is called “Dictate” feature which helps to convert your speech to text and type on the document. You can use voice typing in Microsoft Word without touching keyboard and finish the document quickly. After finishing the document, you can use Editor to check spelling and grammar to correct mistakes before sharing the document with others.

Voice Typing in Microsoft Word

Before explaining the function in Word, here are the things you should understand.

• Voice typing or dictate function needs internet connection. This means, your voice input is sent to Microsoft and processed for converting to text. Though Microsoft claims they do not store any voice data, you should be aware of this and avoid using dictation for preparing confidential documents.
• The function is available in both Windows and Mac versions of Word as part of Microsoft 365 subscription.
• You do not need to activate voice typing and is available as an in-built feature in Word. Similarly, you also do not need any additional configurations in system level.
• Dictate feature in Word is different than “Voice typing” accessibility feature in Windows operating system and “Dictation” feature in macOS.

Considering voice typing or dictation is part of both operating system and Word, here are the possible ways to use in Word:

• Dictate feature in Word for Windows
• Voice typing feature in Windows OS
• Dictate feature in Word for Mac
• Dictation feature in macOS

1. Use Voice Typing in Word Windows Version (Dictate)

It is super easy to start using dictation in Word.

• Open a blank Word document and go to “Home” tab.
• Click on “Dictate” icon from the ribbon to open a toolbar menu.

• Click the microphone icon in the toolbar and start speaking. Word will automatically recognize your voice input and start converting to text in your document. However, make sure you have stable internet connection for this to work faster.

• For configuring the dictation, click on the gear icon in the toolbar. You have options to select the language, microphone device , adjust volume, enable auto-punctuation and filter sensitive phrases. If you make changes, make sure to click “Save” button to apply your settings.

2. Use Windows Voice Typing in Word

As mentioned above, Windows has a separate feature called voice typing. This works similar as Word dictation and generate text output from voice or audio input. Earlier, you should setup external microphone and configure voice recognition for using Windows voice typing feature. Now, you can simply start using the feature by using a keyboard shortcut on any text input screen.

• Open your Word document and press “Win + H” keys.
• This will open a toolbar showing a microphone, settings and help icons.
• Click the microphone icon and start using voice typing similar to dictation feature in Word.

• For configuring the voice typing, click on the gear icon and change your settings.

3. Use Voice Typing in Word for Mac (Dictate)

Word for Mac ( Microsoft 365 subscription ) also has a similar setup like Windows version.

• When you are in Word document, go to “Home” tab and click on “Dictate” icon in the ribbon.

• On the pop-up that appears, click on the microphone icon and start talking.
• Word will convert your speech to text and start typing on the document.
• Click on the gear icon to configure the dictate options. Here you can switch the language , select different microphone, set input volume level, enable auto-punctuation and enable avoiding sensitive content while text conversion process.

4. Using macOS Dictation Feature in Word

Mac comes with a “Dictation” feature similar to Windows voice typing. This is by default enabled and you can check and configure the settings if required.

• Click on the Apple logo menu and select “System Preferences…” option.
• Go to “Keyboard” section and then click “Dictation” tab.

• Make sure “Dictation” is “On”, select the language and check the keyboard shortcut keys . By default, pressing function key twice will open dictation feature in Mac.
• Launch Word app to open a blank document and press Fn key twice on your keyboard.
• This will show the microphone and you cat start speaking.
• Mac will convert your speech to text and type on the document.

Remember that when using dictation, Mac will send your voice inputs, contacts and location information to Apple for processing and converting to readable text.

Voice Typing Commands for Word

As we tested, voice typing and dictation features work very well with all the above options for converting your speech to text. However, the problem is that you should understand some basic commands for using these features.

• For example, you need to say “full stop” or “period” to end a sentence and “next line” to start a new line when using “Dictate” in Word. Most of these command also work with voice typing feature in all Windows apps.
• However, these commands are slightly different when using “Dictation” feature in macOS. For example, the command for creating a new line with macOS dictation feature is “new line” and using “next line” command will not work.

Below are the links to get complete list of voice typing commands from official Microsoft and Apple documentations.

• Dictate commands for Word Windows
• Dictate command for Word for Mac
• Voice typing commands for Windows OS
• Dictation commands for macOS

Final Words

We strongly recommend using the “Dictate” feature which comes as part of Word app. This function does not need internet connection and your voice input is not sent to Microsoft/Apple for processing. In case, if you are not comfortable using Word feature, then you can use the system wide “Voice typing” in Windows or “Dictation” in Mac. However, this needs a stable internet connection and your voice input is sent to Microsoft/Apple for processing. In either case, make sure to go through the voice typing/dictation commands and familiarize yourself before using the function.

About Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WebNots are team of experts who love to build websites, find tech hacks and share the learning with community.

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How to use voice dictation on Windows 10

Windows 10 includes a new voice-to-text feature, and in this guide, we'll help you to get started with the experience.

The Fall Creators Update to Windows 10 brought a new dictation feature that allows you to translate spoken words into text a lot easier than before — and in any app and across the desktop experience.

Dictation joins the touch keyboard and handwriting as input options, and is very similar to Speech Recognition that's also part of Windows 10 . Dictation focuses exclusively on converting voice into text, so you can't you can't use it to navigate the desktop and apps using your voice as you can with Speech Recognition.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the easy steps to start using voice dictation on your device.

How to get started with dictation on Windows 10

If you have a microphone connected to your device, dictation will be enabled by default, and you'll be able to access it using the Windows key + H keyboard shortcut or clicking the microphone button in the touch keyboard experience.

In order to properly invoke the dictation panel, make sure to place the mouse cursor on any text field, and then use the Windows key + H shortcut.

When the voice dictation panel appears, and you see the microphone icon in blue, you can immediately start dictating. However, bear in mind that using this experience, you'll also need to speak the punctuation and to dictate a symbol or letter, you'll need to use the "start spelling" command, and then speak the symbol or letter.

For example, if you want to say "Microsoft sells software, hardware, and accessories." with the quotation marks, you'll need to say open quote microsoft sells software comma hardware comma and accessories period close quote .

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In the same way, to input a letter using uppercase, you must use the "uppercase" command, followed by the letter. For example, uppercase m will give you an M.

Once you're done, say "stop dictating," or after five seconds of inactivity, dictation will turn off automatically.

If the panel gets in the way, you can always drag it around the desktop. When you're done dictating, you can dismiss it pressing any key in the keyboard, clicking anywhere outside of the experience, or clicking the close (X) button on the right.

The up arrow button allows you to open the touch keyboard or handwriting experience, whichever you were using last.

Windows 10 dictation commands

Here's a list of the most common dictation commands that you can use. The words using "quotation marks" are just examples. You'll need to replace them with different words to perform your task.

If you want to learn more about the punctuation and symbol commands you can use, check out this Microsoft support page .

Wrapping things up

Overall the experience using dictation on Windows 10 is good, but not perfect, as you may find it not very reliable all the time. For example, during my test, repeatedly saying "uppercase w" would keep on writing the words "uppercase" and "W."

In addition, it's not capable of recognizing punctuations automatically. It's limited to users running the US English version of Windows 10. And despite the fact that you can use some of the Speech Recognition commands, you'll notice the absence of the commands to navigate the desktop or app using your voice.

However, improvements and changes to dictation, such as an updated interface and customization options in the Settings app are expected to arrive in the next version of Windows 10 .

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

• Windows 10 on Windows Central – All you need to know
• Windows 10 help, tips, and tricks
• Windows 10 forums on Windows Central

Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides. He also has an IT background and has achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA. He has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.

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Type text with your voice

You can speak to enter text in most places you type. You can even add common punctuation when you say "comma," "period," "question mark," "exclamation mark," or "exclamation point."

• Speech won’t work if the spoken language doesn't match the device language.
• Some voice commands aren’t yet supported in right-to-left languages.

Set up voice commands

• At the bottom right, select the time or press Alt + Shift + s .

• Under "Keyboard and text input," turn on Dictation .
• Tap or select where you want to type.

Edit your text with voice commands

To use a command, wait for your spoken text to clear from the box, then say your command.

To edit your text, use the following commands:

Use new dictation commands

Important: You can only use these new commands in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

You can now use multiple commands to perform the same action and use more natural language to edit text.

For example, “Move to the next letter” and “Right one letter” moves the cursor to the next letter.

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Ask Kim: ‘Can you help me get better with speech-to-text?’

By Kim Komando

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! 

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.

• 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.
• 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.

Don’t stop there. Now that you’re familiar with voice-to-text, take things to the next level.

How to convert audio files to text

Converting audio files to text can be handy. Here are a couple of easy ways to do it.

Transcribe in Word

Are you a Microsoft Word user who’s looking for a transcription service? You’re in luck because Word has a feature called Transcribe that you can use to transcribe your .mp3, .wav, .m4a or .mp4 audio recordings.

The features allow you to record your conversations directly in Word for the web or upload audio files and then transcribe them automatically. It can identify different speakers within the recording and even timestamps your transcription to let you easily replay the parts of the audio file you need to edit.  

There are tons of other tools you can use with the transcription feature. Want to highlight a quote from the transcript and add it to a Word document? All you have to do is click the plus icon on the line you want and it’s inserted into your document. Or, if you want to send a complete transcription of the audio file to someone else, all you have to do is click “add all to document.”

This feature is available for all Microsoft 365 subscribers and is supported in the new Microsoft Edge or Chrome browsers. Microsoft 365 personal plans start at $6.99 per month , and you’ll get up to five hours of transcription services per month with your subscription.

Amazon Transcribe

If most of your audio files are recorded in noisy public places, check out Amazon Transcribe . This cloud-based automated speech recognition platform was built to convert audio files to text, and it works well with low-quality or noisy audio files.

While Amazon Transcribe is primarily geared toward businesses, you can still use it for your individual transcription needs. In return, you’ll get accurate, well-formatted transcriptions of the audio files you submit for transcriptions.

Amazon Transcribe automatically adds punctuation and formatting, and you’ll also get access to other features that you can use to edit and manage your transcribed texts. Your transcriptions will have time stamping, speaker identification and even document annotation if needed.

The nice thing about Amazon Transcribe is that you can pay as you go, so if you don’t need regular transcription services, you won’t have to pay monthly for them. A free tier option gives you 60 minutes free per month for 12 months. For more information on Amazon Transcribe’s pricing, click here.

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Tags: Amazon , Apple , audio files , dictation , emails , home , Lenovo , Mac , Microsoft , Microsoft 365 , Microsoft Edge , Microsoft Word , privacy , settings , software , speech-to-text , suggestions , transcription , Typing , voice-to-text , Windows 10 , Windows 11 , Word

How to use speech to text in Microsoft Word

Speech to text in Microsoft Word is a hidden gem that is powerful and easy to use. We show you how to do it in five quick and simple steps

Master the skill of speech to text in Microsoft Word and you'll be dictating documents with ease before you know it. Developed and refined over many years, Microsoft's speech recognition and voice typing technology is an efficient way to get your thoughts out, create drafts and make notes.

Just like the best speech to text apps that make life easier for us when we're using our phones, Microsoft's offering is ideal for those of us who spend a lot of time using Word and don't want to wear out our fingers or the keyboard with all that typing. While speech to text in Microsoft Word used to be prone to errors which you'd then have to go back and correct, the technology has come a long way in recent years and is now amongst the best text-to-speech software .

Regardless of whether you have the best computer or the best Windows laptop , speech to text in Microsoft Word is easy to access and a breeze to use. From connecting your microphone to inserting punctuation, you'll find everything you need to know right here in this guide. Let's take a look...

How to use speech to text in Microsoft Word: Preparation

The most important thing to check is whether you have a valid Microsoft 365 subscription, as voice typing is only available to paying customers. If you’re reading this article, it’s likely your business already has a Microsoft 365 enterprise subscription. If you don’t, however, find out more about Microsoft 365 for business via this link . 

The second thing you’ll need before you start voice typing is a stable internet connection. This is because Microsoft Word’s dictation software processes your speech on external servers. These huge servers and lighting-fast processors use vast amounts of speech data to transcribe your text. In fact, they make use of advanced neural networks and deep learning technology, which enables the software to learn about human speech and continuously improve its accuracy. 

These two technologies are the key reason why voice typing technology has improved so much in recent years, and why you should be happy that Microsoft dictation software requires an internet connection. 

Once you’ve got a valid Microsoft 365 subscription and an internet connection, you’re ready to go!

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Step 1: Open Microsoft Word

Simple but crucial. Open the Microsoft Word application on your device and create a new, blank document. We named our test document “How to use speech to text in Microsoft Word - Test” and saved it to the desktop so we could easily find it later.

Step 2: Click on the Dictate button

Once you’ve created a blank document, you’ll see a Dictate button and drop-down menu on the top right-hand corner of the Home menu. It has a microphone symbol above it. From here, open the drop-down menu and double-check that the language is set to English.

One of the best parts of Microsoft Word’s speech to text software is its support for multiple languages. At the time of writing, nine languages were supported, with several others listed as preview languages. Preview languages have lower accuracy and limited punctuation support.

Step 3: Allow Microsoft Word access to the Microphone

If you haven’t used Microsoft Word’s speech to text software before, you’ll need to grant the application access to your microphone. This can be done at the click of a button when prompted.

It’s worth considering using an external microphone for your dictation, particularly if you plan on regularly using voice to text software within your organization. While built-in microphones will suffice for most general purposes, an external microphone can improve accuracy due to higher quality components and optimized placement of the microphone itself.

Step 4: Begin voice typing

Now we get to the fun stuff. After completing all of the above steps, click once again on the dictate button. The blue symbol will change to white, and a red recording symbol will appear. This means Microsoft Word has begun listening for your voice. If you have your sound turned up, a chime will also indicate that transcription has started. 

Using voice typing is as simple as saying aloud the words you would like Microsoft to transcribe. It might seem a little strange at first, but you’ll soon develop a bit of flow, and everyone finds their strategies and style for getting the most out of the software. 

These four steps alone will allow you to begin transcribing your voice to text. However, if you want to elevate your speech to text software skills, our fifth step is for you.

Step 5: Incorporate punctuation commands

Microsoft Word’s speech to text software goes well beyond simply converting spoken words to text. With the introduction and improvement of artificial neural networks, Microsoft’s voice typing technology listens not only to single words but to the phrase as a whole. This has enabled the company to introduce an extensive list of voice commands that allow you to insert punctuation marks and other formatting effects while speaking. 

We can’t mention all of the punctuation commands here, but we’ll name some of the most useful. Saying the command “period” will insert a period, while the command “comma” will insert, unsurprisingly, a comma. The same rule applies for exclamation marks, colons, and quotations. If you’d like to finish a paragraph and leave a line break, you can say the command “new line.” 

These tools are easy to use. In our testing, the software was consistently accurate in discerning words versus punctuation commands.

Microsoft’s speech to text software is powerful. Having tested most of the major platforms, we can say that Microsoft offers arguably the best product when balancing cost versus performance. This is because the software is built directly into Microsoft 365, which many businesses already use. If this applies to your business, you can begin using Microsoft’s voice typing technology straight away, with no additional costs. 

We hope this article has taught you how to use speech to text software in Microsoft Word, and that you’ll now be able to apply these skills within your organization. 

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How to Use Windows Text to Speech Feature

Press Win+Ctrl+Enter to read text aloud with Narrator

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• What Is Narrator?
• How to Enable Narrator
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Frequently Asked Questions

What to Know

• Press Win + Ctrl + Enter to start and stop Narrator from the keyboard.
• Or, go to Settings > Ease of Access > Narrator . Toggle on/off Turn on Narrator .
• Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate and read the screen.

This article explains how to use the Windows 10 text-to-speech feature.

Is There a Text-to-Speech Option in Windows 10?

The Windows 10 text-to-speech option is called Narrator . It's accessible through Ease of Access settings and a keyboard shortcut.

Narrator is a screen reader designed for the visually impaired, but anyone can use it to give their eyes a rest. With the text-to-speech features, you can navigate apps and web pages. For instance, it can read entire web pages, spreadsheet tables, and describe formatting attributes like font types and font colors to help you work with any content. 

Here are some of the key features of Narrator:

• Change the voice and install other text-to-speech voices.
• Personalize the speaking rate, pitch, and volume of the voice.
• Use Narrator's scan mode to navigate apps and web pages faster with keyboard shortcuts and arrow keys.

How Do I Turn on Text-to-Speech on My Computer?

Narrator is switched off by default. The easiest way to trigger it is to press Win + Ctrl + Enter , but it's also accessible through Settings:

Select the Start button and choose Settings .

Go to Settings > Ease of Access > Narrator . 

Enable Narrator by toggling the button to the On position. 

You can quickly jump to the Narrator settings by pressing Win + Ctrl + N .

A Narrator dialog box will appear on the screen explaining keyboard layout changes. The blue border around the text highlights the parts read by Narrator. 

Select OK to stop the message narration and exit the dialog. Also, check the box next to Don’t show again if you don’t want the box to appear every time Narrator starts.

A welcome screen will appear when you start using Narrator for the first time. From here, you can learn how to use the screen reader and find related learning resources like the comprehensive Narrator guide available online. 

How Do I Use Text-to-Speech in Windows?

Different keyboard shortcuts are associated with navigating everything on the screen with Narrator.

The keyboard shortcuts use the Narrator modifier key, which, by default, is the Caps lock key or the Insert key. You can choose another modifier key in Narrator Settings, but no matter what you choose, you want to press-and-hold the modifier key while also pressing the other keys mentioned below.

Control Voice Playback

Here are some important Narrator shortcut keys that involve voice playback:

• Narrator + Ctrl + + to increase text-to-speech volume.
• Narrator + Ctrl + - to decrease text-to-speech volume.
• Narrator + + or Narrator + - to speed up or slow down voice playback.

Narrator can read any text on the screen. Navigate across the content with the arrow keys or use Scan Mode for more precise control over what you want to read. 

Use the Narrator modifier key with the correct shortcut to read text by page, paragraph, line, sentence, word, or character.

• Read the current page: Narrator + Ctrl + I
• Read from the current location: Narrator + Tab
• Read the current paragraph: Narrator + Ctrl + K
• Read the current line: Narrator + I
• Read the current sentence: Narrator + Ctrl + Comma
• Read the current word: Narrator + K
• Read the current character: Narrator + Comma
• Stop reading: Ctrl
• Navigate out of the content: Tab

Basic Navigation

With Tab and the arrow keys, you can jump between interactive controls like buttons, checkboxes, and links.

• To open a hyperlink on a web page, go to it with the tab and arrow keys. Then, press Enter to open the page.
• To find out more about a link, press Narrator + Ctrl + D and Narrator can tell you the page title behind the link.
• To find out more about an image, press Narrator + Ctrl + D and Narrator will read a description of the image.

Advanced Navigation With Scan Mode

Scan Mode in Narrator will help you work through page content like paragraphs using just the Up and Down Arrow keys. Turn it on or off with Caps Lock + Space and then use keyboard commands like H to jump forward through headings, B for buttons, or D for landmarks.

There are many Scan Mode commands. Refer to the Microsoft Support's Narrator Guide to learn more about them.

Narrator has an exhaustive list of commands to help navigate a screen with the help of sound and shortcuts. Remember these two keyboard shortcuts

• Narrator + F1 : Display the entire commands list.
• Narrator + F2 : Display commands for the current item.

Microsoft Support's Chapter 2: Narrator basics online guide explains the fundamentals of navigating a screen or a web page with Narrator. The complete online guide is a vital resource to learn how to use text-to-speech in Windows.

Select Settings > Ease of Access > Narrator > and move the toggle to the left (off position) under Turn on Narrator . Alternatively, use the Win+Ctrl+Enter keyboard combination.

If you want to dictate text instead of typing,  turn on Windows Speech Recognition ; go to  Settings  >  Time & Language  >  Speech  >  Microphone  >  Get Started . Say, "Start listening," or press Win+H to bring up the dictation toolbar. For help using voice recognition for dictation, browse this list of  standard Windows Speech Recognition commands .

Try online text-to-audio file converters such as  VirtualSpeech  to create an MP3 file from a block of text. The Microsoft Store offers similar apps such as Any Text to Voice and Convert Text to Audio.

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Speech to Text - Voice Typing & Transcription

Take notes with your voice for free, or automatically transcribe audio & video recordings. amazingly accurate, secure & blazing fast..

~ Proudly serving millions of users since 2015 ~

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Dictate Notes

Start taking notes, on our online voice-enabled notepad right away, for free. Learn more.

Transcribe Recordings

Automatically transcribe (& optionally translate) recordings, audio and video files, YouTubes and more, in no time. Learn more.

Speechnotes is a reliable and secure web-based speech-to-text tool that enables you to quickly and accurately transcribe & translate your audio and video recordings, as well as dictate your notes instead of typing, saving you time and effort. With features like voice commands for punctuation and formatting, automatic capitalization, and easy import/export options, Speechnotes provides an efficient and user-friendly dictation and transcription experience. Proudly serving millions of users since 2015, Speechnotes is the go-to tool for anyone who needs fast, accurate & private transcription. Our Portfolio of Complementary Speech-To-Text Tools Includes:

Voice typing - Chrome extension

Dictate instead of typing on any form & text-box across the web. Including on Gmail, and more.

Transcription API & webhooks

Speechnotes' API enables you to send us files via standard POST requests, and get the transcription results sent directly to your server.

Zapier integration

Combine the power of automatic transcriptions with Zapier's automatic processes. Serverless & codeless automation! Connect with your CRM, phone calls, Docs, email & more.

Android Speechnotes app

Speechnotes' notepad for Android, for notes taking on your mobile, battle tested with more than 5Million downloads. Rated 4.3+ ⭐

iOS TextHear app

TextHear for iOS, works great on iPhones, iPads & Macs. Designed specifically to help people with hearing impairment participate in conversations. Please note, this is a sister app - so it has its own pricing plan.

Audio & video converting tools

Tools developed for fast - batch conversions of audio files from one type to another and extracting audio only from videos for minimizing uploads.

Our Sister Apps for Text-To-Speech & Live Captioning

Complementary to Speechnotes

Reads out loud texts, files & web pages

Listen on the go to any written content, from custom texts to websites & e-books, for free.

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Live captions & simultaneous translation for conferences, online meetings, webinars & more.

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Dictation Notepad

Start taking notes with your voice for free

Speech to Text online notepad. Professional, accurate & free speech recognizing text editor. Distraction-free, fast, easy to use web app for dictation & typing.

Speechnotes is a powerful speech-enabled online notepad, designed to empower your ideas by implementing a clean & efficient design, so you can focus on your thoughts. We strive to provide the best online dictation tool by engaging cutting-edge speech-recognition technology for the most accurate results technology can achieve today, together with incorporating built-in tools (automatic or manual) to increase users' efficiency, productivity and comfort. Works entirely online in your Chrome browser. No download, no install and even no registration needed, so you can start working right away.

Speechnotes is especially designed to provide you a distraction-free environment. Every note, starts with a new clear white paper, so to stimulate your mind with a clean fresh start. All other elements but the text itself are out of sight by fading out, so you can concentrate on the most important part - your own creativity. In addition to that, speaking instead of typing, enables you to think and speak it out fluently, uninterrupted, which again encourages creative, clear thinking. Fonts and colors all over the app were designed to be sharp and have excellent legibility characteristics.

Example use cases

• Voice typing
• Writing notes, thoughts
• Medical forms - dictate
• Transcribers (listen and dictate)

Transcription Service

Start transcribing

Fast turnaround - results within minutes. Includes timestamps, auto punctuation and subtitles at unbeatable price. Protects your privacy: no human in the loop, and (unlike many other vendors) we do NOT keep your audio. Pay per use, no recurring payments. Upload your files or transcribe directly from Google Drive, YouTube or any other online source. Simple. No download or install. Just send us the file and get the results in minutes.

• Transcribe interviews
• Captions for Youtubes & movies
• Auto-transcribe phone calls or voice messages
• Students - transcribe lectures
• Podcasters - enlarge your audience by turning your podcasts into textual content
• Text-index entire audio archives

Key Advantages

Speechnotes is powered by the leading most accurate speech recognition AI engines by Google & Microsoft. We always check - and make sure we still use the best. Accuracy in English is very good and can easily reach 95% accuracy for good quality dictation or recording.

Lightweight & fast

Both Speechnotes dictation & transcription are lightweight-online no install, work out of the box anywhere you are. Dictation works in real time. Transcription will get you results in a matter of minutes.

Super Private & Secure!

Super private - no human handles, sees or listens to your recordings! In addition, we take great measures to protect your privacy. For example, for transcribing your recordings - we pay Google's speech to text engines extra - just so they do not keep your audio for their own research purposes.

Health advantages

Typing may result in different types of Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI). Voice typing is one of the main recommended ways to minimize these risks, as it enables you to sit back comfortably, freeing your arms, hands, shoulders and back altogether.

Saves you time

Need to transcribe a recording? If it's an hour long, transcribing it yourself will take you about 6! hours of work. If you send it to a transcriber - you will get it back in days! Upload it to Speechnotes - it will take you less than a minute, and you will get the results in about 20 minutes to your email.

Saves you money

Speechnotes dictation notepad is completely free - with ads - or a small fee to get it ad-free. Speechnotes transcription is only $0.1/minute, which is X10 times cheaper than a human transcriber! We offer the best deal on the market - whether it's the free dictation notepad ot the pay-as-you-go transcription service.

Dictation - Free

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Dictation - Premium

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Transcription

$0.1 /minute.

• Pay as you go - no subscription
• Audio & video recordings
• Speaker diarization in English
• Generate captions .srt files
• REST API, webhooks & Zapier integration

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Privacy Policy

We at Speechnotes, Speechlogger, TextHear, Speechkeys value your privacy, and that's why we do not store anything you say or type or in fact any other data about you - unless it is solely needed for the purpose of your operation. We don't share it with 3rd parties, other than Google / Microsoft for the speech-to-text engine.

Privacy - how are the recordings and results handled?

- transcription service.

Our transcription service is probably the most private and secure transcription service available.

• HIPAA compliant.
• No human in the loop. No passing your recording between PCs, emails, employees, etc.
• Secure encrypted communications (https) with and between our servers.
• Recordings are automatically deleted from our servers as soon as the transcription is done.
• Our contract with Google / Microsoft (our speech engines providers) prohibits them from keeping any audio or results.
• Transcription results are securely kept on our secure database. Only you have access to them - only if you sign in (or provide your secret credentials through the API)
• You may choose to delete the transcription results - once you do - no copy remains on our servers.

- Dictation notepad & extension

For dictation, the recording & recognition - is delegated to and done by the browser (Chrome / Edge) or operating system (Android). So, we never even have access to the recorded audio, and Edge's / Chrome's / Android's (depending the one you use) privacy policy apply here.

The results of the dictation are saved locally on your machine - via the browser's / app's local storage. It never gets to our servers. So, as long as your device is private - your notes are private.

Payments method privacy

The whole payments process is delegated to PayPal / Stripe / Google Pay / Play Store / App Store and secured by these providers. We never receive any of your credit card information.

More generic notes regarding our site, cookies, analytics, ads, etc.

• We may use Google Analytics on our site - which is a generic tool to track usage statistics.
• We use cookies - which means we save data on your browser to send to our servers when needed. This is used for instance to sign you in, and then keep you signed in.
• For the dictation tool - we use your browser's local storage to store your notes, so you can access them later.
• Non premium dictation tool serves ads by Google. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings . Alternatively, users can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting https://youradchoices.com/
• In case you would like to upload files to Google Drive directly from Speechnotes - we'll ask for your permission to do so. We will use that permission for that purpose only - syncing your speech-notes to your Google Drive, per your request.

The Complete List of Windows 11's Narrator Keyboard Shortcuts

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Whether you are looking for assistance while using the computer or just want to learn more about accessibility tools, Narrator has many benefits that can be a big help to all users. It is basically a text-to-speech tool that reads text aloud so that you can easily access and understand information on your computer.

There are many keyboard shortcuts available for Narrator to help you make the most of this useful tool. To help you use Narrator more efficiently, we've compiled this comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts.

All the Narrator Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 11

Here are all the Narrator shortcuts available to you:

The Windows Narrator Can Do More

Are you tired of clicking around with your mouse while using Narrator? If so, learning Narrator keyboard shortcuts on Windows can enhance your productivity. Here's a list of keystrokes for Narrator that you should know.

• Keyboard Shortcuts

SoundType AI - Voice To Text 4+

Transcribe voice to text, innosquares ltd, designed for ipad.

• 4.7 • 170 Ratings
• Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description.

Turn spoken words into written text effortlessly with SoundType AI! Our advanced app for transcribing voice to text and transcribing audio transforms your voice or video files into accurately transcribed text. Its also equipped with innovative audio features and AI-powered summaries. With our standout feature of individual speaker identification, its an ideal choice for transcribing from meetings, interviews, podcasts, and more. Supporting over 90 languages, SoundType AI simplifies transcription of conversations from around the globe. Features: ● AI-Powered Transcribe Voice to Text Accuracy Our AI boasts an unrivaled precision for transcribing voice to text, trained on an impressive 680K hours of multilingual and multitask data. Experience flawless transcriptions each time you use SoundType AI. ● Individual Speaker Recognition for Transcribing Ideal for group meetings and interviews, SoundType AI identifies and tags different speakers in your audio, providing well-structured, easy-to-follow transcriptions. ● Uncomplicated Long Audio Transcription Have lengthy recordings to transcribe? No problem! SoundType AI handles long audio files with ease, ensuring all-inclusive and accurate transcriptions. ● Engaging Transcribe Audio to Text Experience Engage with your transcriptions in unique ways. Ask questions about your audio or video, and our AI will generate responses from the content, enhancing your transcribe experience. ● Summarized Transcriptions Receive the key points and highlights of your audio in a concise, understandable format with SoundType AIs summary feature. ● Comprehensive Voice/Video to Text Transcription Whether its uploading an audio or video file, recording within the app, or importing from YouTube, SoundType AI transcribes it into text for straightforward analysis. ● Broad Language Support for Transcription With our sophisticated AI technology, transcribe in over 90 languages and dialects effortlessly, perfect for international meetings, research work, and global podcasts. Use SoundType AI for transcribing spoken content from: ○ Meeting Notes ○ Negotiations ○ Interviews ○ Language Studies ○ Podcasts ○ Lectures And more, all converted into simple-to-read text! Supported Formats: Our app accepts a broad range of file formats, including MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A, and more. If you have queries about specific file types, our support team is ready to help. Export Formats: Easily export your transcriptions in various formats, such as TXT, SRT, PDF and Docx. Requirements: Internet connection Upgrade your productivity with SoundType AI - the future of transcribe voice to text and transcribe audio to text at your fingertips. Privacy Policy: https://soundtype.ai/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://soundtype.ai/terms-of-use

Version 1.6.8

- Improve video conversion - Improve youtube support

Ratings and Reviews

170 Ratings

Efficient and Reliable

it cọmes to converting spoken words into text. The interface is simple to navigate, and I appreciate the robust features offered.

I was really considering upgrading bc I like this app. It does a good job transcribing - accuracy is higher than others I’ve tried. Speaker detection is just ok. I like the ability to edit the text, create folders, and so much more. There is a lot to like about the app. Having said that, I uploaded 2 audio files as my testers to see how I would like the app. One is approximately 54 SECONDS - a very short conversation between 2 people meant to see how well voices would be distinguished. The other is a lecture and is about 6 MINUTES long. BUT when I went to my account settings to look at upgrade options, I noticed it shows that my free account has used 172 of the 180 free minutes of transcription!!!! I haven’t deleted anything or used it for more than testing the 2 audio files totaling under 10 minutes! Very shady. I will not be upgrading.

Impressive Accuracy and Speed

I am thoroughly impressed with the ability to transcribe speech accurately and swiftly. This app is definitely worth the download!

App Privacy

The developer, Innosquares Ltd , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Contact Info
• Identifiers

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• Pro Subscription $9.99
• Pro-Yearly $79.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

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Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use Speak to have text read aloud in the language of your version of Office.

Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For example, if you're using the English version of Office, the English TTS engine is automatically installed. To use text-to-speech in different languages, see Using the Speak feature with Multilingual TTS .

To learn how to configure Excel for text-to-speech, see Converting text to speech in Excel .

Add Speak to the Quick Access Toolbar

You can add the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar by doing the following in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote:

Next to the Quick Access Toolbar, click Customize Quick Access Toolbar .

Click More Commands .

In the Choose commands from list, select All Commands .

Scroll down to the Speak command, select it, and then click Add .

Use Speak to read text aloud

After you have added the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar, you can hear single words or blocks of text read aloud by selecting the text you want to hear and then clicking the Speak icon on the Quick Access Toolbar.

Listen to your Word documents with Read Aloud

Listen to your Outlook email messages with Read Aloud

Converting text to speech in Excel

Dictate text using Speech Recognition

Learning Tools in Word

Hear text read aloud with Narrator

Using the Save as Daisy add-in for Word

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Steve Inskeep

In his first solo campaign experience, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will address a prominent public sector union to highlight both his own and Vice President Kamala Harris' support for workers.

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