Dictation lets you use speech-to-text to author content in Office with a microphone and reliable internet connection. It's a quick and easy way to get your thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes. 

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  1. Open a new or existing document and go to Home Dictate while signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device.Dictation in Word for the Web

  2. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening.Dictation in Word for the Web Listening

  3. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen.

Learn more about using dictation in Word on the desktop and mobile here:

Dictate your documents in Word on the desktop

Dictate your documents in Word for mobile

What can I say?

Try saying "Show more commands" to open the help pane whenever you're dictating. In addition to dictating your content, you can speak commands to add punctuation, navigate around the page, and enter special characters.

You can see the commands in any supported language by going to Available languages. These are the commands for English.

Phrase(s)

Output

period, full stop
.
comma
,
question mark
?
exclamation mark/point
!
new line
new line
apostrophe-s
's
colon
:
semicolon
;
open quotes
close quotes
" "
hyphen
-
ellipsis, dot dot dot
...
begin/open single quote
end/close single quote
' '
left/open parentheses
right/close parentheses
( )
left/open bracket
right/close bracket
[ ]
left/open brace
right/close brace
{ }

Phrase(s)

	backspace [1-100]	
	delete [word or phrase]	
	delete last/previous  [1-100] characters/words	
	delete last/previous  [1-100] sentences/paragraphs	
	delete next [1-100] characters/words	
	delete next [1-100] sentences/paragraphs	
	delete or scratch or erase	
	delete that or scratch that 	
	insert space	
	undo	

Phrase(s)

	Select word, characters, sentence, para, next, prev, range, unselect/deselect	
	select [phrase]	
	select word/sentence/paragraph 	
	select that	
	select last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	select next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	select from [x] to [y]	
	select the word before [phrase] 	
	select the word after [phrase] 	
	previous word or next word 	
	remove selection	
	unselect that or deselect that 	
	go to the next paragraph	
	go/move to the previous paragraph	
	go/move to the next/previous sentence	
	go/move to the next/previous word	
	go/move to the next/previous bullet	
	go/move to end of sentence	
	go/move to end of paragraph	
	go/move to the end of column	
	go/move to the start/beginning of column	
	go/move to the end of row	
	go/move to the start/beginning of row	
	go/move to the end of table	
	go/move to the start/beginning of table	
	go/move to the next cell	
	go/move to the previous cell	
	go/move to the next/previous column	
	go/move to the next/previous row	

Phrase(s)

	align center 	
	align left 	
	align right 	
	apply style [styleName]	
	apply/set [styleName] style	
	bold	
	bold [word or phrase] 	
	bold from [x] to [y]	
	bold last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	bold next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	bold that 	
	capitalize	
	capitalize [word or phrase] 	
	capitalize from [x] to [y]	
	capitalize last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	capitalize next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	capitalize that 	
	change font color to/as [color name]	
	change font size to/as [size]	
	change highlight color to/as [color]  	
	change style to [styleName]	
	clear formatting	
	clear/remove formatting from [word or phrase] 	
	clear/remove formatting from [x] to [y]	
	clear/remove formatting from last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	clear/remove formatting from next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	clear/remove formatting from that 	
	clear/remove formatting from word/sentence/paragraph	
	decrease font/text size or reduce font/text size 	
	decrease indent	
	highlight [word or phrase] 	
	highlight from [x] to [y]	
	highlight last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	highlight next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	highlight that 	
	highlight word/sentence/paragraph	
	increase font/text size 	
	increase indent	
	italicize [word or phrase] 	
	italicize from [x] to [y]	
	italicize last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	italicize next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	italicize that 	
	italics	
	lowercase	
	lowercase [word or phrase] 	
	lowercase from [x] to [y]	
	lowercase last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	lowercase next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	lowercase that 	
	make font/text bigger or make font/text larger 	
	make font/text smaller	
	remove bold	
	remove formatting	
	remove highlight	
	remove highlight from [word or phrase] 	
	remove highlight from [x] to [y]	
	remove highlight from last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	remove highlight from next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	remove highlight from that 	
	remove highlight from word/sentence/paragraph	
	remove italics/underline/strikethrough/subscript	
	set font color to/as [color name]	
	set font size to/as [size]	
	set highlight color to/as [color]  	
	set style as/to [styleName]	
	set text color to/as [color name]	
	set text size to/as [size]	
	strikethrough	
	strikethrough [word or phrase] 	
	strikethrough from [x] to [y]	
	strikethrough last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	strikethrough next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	strikethrough that 	
	subscript/superscript 	
	subscript/superscript [word or phrase] 	
	subscript/superscript from [x] to [y]	
	subscript/superscript last [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	subscript/superscript next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	subscript/superscript that 	
	underline	
	underline [word or phrase] 	
	underline from [x] to [y]	
	underline last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	underline next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	underline that 	
	uppercase	
	uppercase [word or phrase] 	
	uppercase from [x] to [y]	
	uppercase last/previous [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	uppercase next [1-100] characters/words/sentences/paragraphs	
	uppercase that 	

Phrase(s)

	add/start/create [c] by [r] table	
	add/start/create table or add/start/create new table 	
	create bullet list	
	create list 	
	create number list 	
	create numbered list	
	delete cell	
	delete column	
	delete row	
	delete/remove [n] columns	
	delete/remove [n] columns to/on the left/right 	
	delete/remove [n] rows	
	delete/remove [n] rows above/below 	
	delete/remove table 	
	exit list 	
	exit table or exit this table 	
	insert [c] by [r] table	
	insert [c] column(s) by/and [r] row(s) table	
	insert [r] row(s) by/and [c] column(s) table	
	insert column	
	insert row	
	insert table or insert new table 	
	insert/add/create [n] columns	
	insert/add/create [n] columns to/on the left/right 	
	insert/add/create [n] rows	
	insert/add/create [n] rows above/below 	
	next bullet or next item	
	next line	
	start/insert/add bullet list	
	start/insert/add list	
	start/insert/add number list	
	start/insert/add numbered list	

Phrase(s)

	pause dictation	
	stop dictation	
	exit/close dictation	
	open/show help	
	show commands	
	insert/add comment 	
	insert/add comment [content]	
	resume dictation	

Phrase(s)

Output

asterisk
*
backslash
\
forward slash
/
vertical bar sign, pipe character
|
backquote, backtick
`
underscore
_
m-dash
n-dash
paragraph sign/mark
section sign
§
ampersand, and sign
&
at sign
@
copyright sign
©
registered sign
®
degree symbol
°
caret symbol
^

Available languages

Select from the list below to see commands available in each of the supported languages.

More Information

By default, Dictation is set to your document language in Office.

We are actively working to improve these languages and add more locales and languages.

Supported Languages

Chinese (China)

English (Australia)

English (Canada)

English (India)

English (United Kingdom)

English (United States)

French (Canada)

French (France)

German (Germany)

Hindi

Italian (Italy)

Japanese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Spanish (Spain)

Spanish (Mexico)

Preview languages *

Arabic (Bahrain)

Arabic (Egypt)

Arabic (Saudi Arabia)

Bulgarian

Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong)

Chinese (Taiwan)

Croatian (Croatia)

Czech

Danish

Dutch (Netherlands)

English (New Zealand)

Estonian

Finnish

Greek

Gujarati (India)

Hebrew

Hungarian

Irish

Korean

Latvian

Lithuanian

Maltese

Marathi (India)

Norwegian (Bokmål)

Polish

Portuguese (Portugal)

Romanian

Russian

Slovak

Slovenian

Swedish (Sweden)

Tamil (India)

Telugu (India)

Thai

Turkish (Turkey)

Vietnamese

* Preview Languages may have lower accuracy or limited punctuation support.

Select the gear icon to see the available settings.

Dictation in Word for the Web Settings

  • Spoken Language: View and change languages in the drop-down.

  • Microphone: View and change your microphone.

  • Enable auto-punctuation: Toggle the checkmark on or off, if it's available for the language chosen.

  • Filter senstive phrases: Mask potentially sensitive phrases with ***.

  • Saying “delete” by itself removes the last word or punctuation before the cursor.

  • Saying “delete that” removes the last spoken utterance.

  • You can bold, italicize, underline, or strikethrough a word or phrase. An example would be dictating “review by tomorrow at 5PM”, then saying “bold tomorrow” which would leave you with "review by tomorrow at 5PM"

  • Try phrases like “bold last word” or “underline last sentence.”

  • Saying “add comment look at this tomorrow” will insert a new comment with the text “Look at this tomorrow” inside it.

  • Saying “add comment” by itself will create a blank comment box you where you can type a comment.

  • To resume dictation, please use the keyboard shortcut ALT + ` or press the Mic icon in the floating dictation menu.

  • Markings may appear under words with alternates we may have misheard.

    If the marked word is already correct, you can select Ignore.

    Dictate Suggestions

This service does not store your audio data or transcribed text.

Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft and used only to provide you with text results.

For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see Connected Experiences in Office.

Troubleshooting

If you can't see the button to start dictation:

  • Make sure you're signed in with an active Microsoft 365 subscription.

  • Dictate is not available in Office 2016 or 2019 for Windows without Microsoft 365.

  • Make sure you have Windows 10 or above.

If you see the dictate button is grayed out

  • Make sure the note is not in a Read-Only state.

Microphone doesn't have access.

If you see "We don’t have access to your microphone":

  • Make sure no other application or web page is using the microphone and try again.

  • Refresh, click on Dictate, and give permission for the browser to access the microphone.

If you see "There is a problem with your microphone" or "We can’t detect your microphone":

If you see "Dictation can't hear you" or if nothing appears on the screen as you dictate:

  • Make sure your microphone is not muted.

  • Adjust the input level of your microphone.

  • Move to a quieter location.

  • If using a built-in mic, consider trying again with a headset or external mic.

If you see a lot of incorrect words being output or missed words:

  • Make sure you're on a fast and reliable internet connection.

  • Avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice.

  • Try speaking more deliberately.

  • Check to see if the microphone you are using needs to be upgraded.

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