speech to text macbook word

Jan 24, 2020

Dictate your documents in Word on Mac

• Add our blog to your RSS feed reader" href="/rss/blog.xml" data-bi-name="RSS Subscription" data-bi-id="rss_feed" data-bi-bhvr="120" data-bi-socchn="RSSSubscription" title="Microsoft 365 Insider Blog RSS" target="blank" class="d-inline-block">

My name is Emily Tran, and I’m a Program Manager on the Office Voice team.

I’m excited to share the news that Dictation is now available in Word for Mac. This feature enables you to save time and stay in flow by using speech-to-text to quickly get your thoughts into your document.

Prerequisites

In order to use the Dictate feature, you need:

• A microphone-enabled device or an external microphone
• Insider build 16.32 (19120802) or later installed
• To be logged into an account associated with an Office 365 subscription
• A stable internet connection

For best results, use a headset or microphone recommended for dictating. Also try eliminating background noise from your environment.

Configuration

Make sure your microphone-enabled device is on and confirm that the language is set to the one you’d like to dictate by clicking the down arrow on the Dictate button. We currently do not auto-detect the language you’re speaking.

If you have problems with your microphone-enabled device, check the sound input settings in System Preferences or dictation troubleshooting instructions.

Start Dictation

1. To turn on Dictation, click Home > Dictate .

2. Click on the Dictate button and wait for the red dot to appear.

3. Start talking and notice that the spoken text appears on your screen. If you see a mistake, simply move your cursor to fix it and move it back to continue dictating. You do not need to toggle off the Dictate button while making corrections.

4. When you’re done, click the Dictate button.

Tips & Tricks

• Speak clearly and conversationally, but feel free to pause in between thoughts.
• Question mark
• Exclamation point/mark
• Open quote(s)
• Close quote(s)
• To turn the microphone on without having to always go to the Home tab, you can add the microphone button to your Quick Access Toolbar .
• This feature is powered by the Microsoft Azure Speech Services and built-in directly to Word.
• Word Dictation is separate from Apple Dictation on Mac.

Supported Languages

Below are the currently supported languages:

• Chinese (China)
• English (Canada)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Spanish (Spain)
• English (Australia)
• English (India)
• French (Canada)
• Norwegian (Bokmal)
• Portuguese (Brazil)

*Preview languages may have lower accuracy or less punctuation available. Improvements will happen over time.

We do not store your speech data. Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft only to provide you with this service. When the transcription is done your audio and transcription results are not stored by our service. For more information see, Connected Experiences in Office .

Availability 

We typically release features over some time to ensure that things are working smoothly. This is true for Insiders as well. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as Insiders, have had the opportunity to try them.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, you can submit them by clicking Help > Feedback in Word.

Learn what other information you should include in your feedback  to ensure  it’s actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you! 

Sign up for the  Office Insider newsletter  and get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

Sorry, JavaScript must be enabled to use this app.

How to transcribe audio to text using Dictation on a Mac

You can use the Dictation feature built into your Mac to transcribe audio files, and in my experience, it's been about 98-99% accurate, so it saves a lot of time if you want to index your audio files, or you need a transcript for some other purpose.

These instructions were last updated for macOS Monterey 12.4.

First, open up System Preferences, go to Keyboard, then the 'Dictation' tab:

Turn on Dictation, and when prompted, accept the terms for Apple's Dictation service. Also take note of the 'Shortcut' (e.g. 'press dictation key' or 'press control twice'. You'll use that to activate dictation later.

Make sure you have your Mac's microphone selected, then open up TextEdit and create a new document:

Activate the dictation shortcut (e.g. press the dictation key), then start playing back your audio file through your Mac's speakers. The mic should pick up the audio and start transcribing live into the open document.

Bonus: Routing audio internally on the Mac with Loopback

If you have Rogue Amoeba's Loopback , you can also use it to route the audio signal internally , so you don't have to have audio playing out through the speakers.

After you have Loopback installed and running, create a new device called 'Transcription Device'. Delete the default Pass-thru source, and add in Quicktime Player as a new source:

Quit Loopback (the device will still be present on the system after quitting), then go back to the Dictation settings in System Preferences. In there, choose the new 'Transcription Device' sound input:

Then go back to TextEdit, and in a new document, activate Dictation using your configured shortcut (e.g. the dictation key). Pop over to QuickTime Player, and play your audio or video file, and watch as the words are transcribed as if by magic!

Alternative: Welder (or other online services)

As an alternative, you could use an online upload-to-transcribe service like Welder . I tested the same files on Welder that I used with Dictation, and Welder was better about adding punctuation and separating multi-person interviews.

Their transcription feature can be used for free; upload a video or audio file, and within a few minutes, you can read or download the transcribed text.

Further reading

• Transcribing recorded audio and video to text using Whisper AI on a Mac
• Recording multiple camera angles, full-size, simultaneously, on a Mac
• Achieving Pro Zoom meeting quality on my Mac
• Add new comment

This felt a little bit inefficient to me, so I did some digging and found that someone's made a command line tool for Apple's speech recognition API: https://github.com/sveinbjornt/hear

The real kicker here is that you can transcribe audio files, meaning that you don't have to wait for a video to play to get a transcript: hear -i /path/to/someone_speaking.mp3 > transcribed_text.txt

Oh nice, even better! I'll have to give it a try.

Thank you! :) Came here for this info.

Thanks for the link! I also found -d flag useful, forcing it to process video on a device. Otherwise, I got transcriptions only for the first minute of my mp3 file.

Yo when I try to follow your instructions without loopback, seems simple enough.. when i press play and go into TextEdit and begin dictation, macOS silences the audio output and this doesn’t work running macos 12.5.1 September 18 2022

When using Rogue Amoeba's loopback, you need to add a 'monitor device'. I just added the built-in speakers but you could use another audio device.

I have the same problem. How did you fix it?

This is now even easier with Whisper: https://github.com/openai/whisper

Thanks to this comment, I test drove Whisper yesterday, and wrote up this new blog post today: Transcribing recorded audio and video to text using Whisper AI on a Mac .

Thank you for the tutorial. I am trying to transcribe audio that is about a hour long. Once I start the transcribing process, the microphone stops working every 2-3 minutes. Is there a way I can make the microphone continue recording for longer periods of time? Thanks!

I would use the github suggestions, but am not familiar with using the files and have very little experience with Terminal. If anyone can direct me to some tutorials, I would appreciate that also.

When we try to do this, as soon as we start playing the audio file dictation turns off. Little microphone disappears and nothing is transcribed. There are two of us, both on Macs running Monterey. Mine's an M1 iMac, hers is a Mac Book Pro. Any ideas? She has Blackhole installed and I have SWB audio capture - will that mess it up?

I have the same issue of the audio silencing when I open the dictation on textedit. Any remedies to this without having to download another software?

same here. I'm on Monterey. As soon as I start playback, the dictation stops.

Ditto. Has anyone figured out how to keep the dictation microphone operational so that it transcribes audio files?

Is there a way to directly input a file from a digital voice recorder and have it transcribed? Or, do I have to save it as an audio file and follow one of the methods in this article? Thanks!

Can a previously recorded speech sound file be used for dictation? That is sound from a source other than a microphone. If so how is this done?

I could not install Loopback as it cannot add system items on my machine. Blackhole works as well.

I am on Sonoma. May I ask how you configured Blackhole? Based on your and another commentor I installed Blackhole, set up a multi-output profile, one of which is a Blackhole 2 channel device, then configured the system dictation source to the Blackhole device. When I activate dictation it stops the audio output and nothing happens. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Although the first solution would be great, I'm unfortunately now the 7th commenter reporting this problem:

-> "Start dictation" within TextEdit (..and Pages.app) seems to deactivate audio output from VoiceMemos. <-

Jeff Geerling or anyone else - Can you help us to somehow successfully use the 1st solution? Thank you!

Search for: Search Button

Dictate into documents with Word 365 for Mac

Mac Word 365 and Outlook 365 have the same powerful ‘Speech to Text’ option, Dictate, that’s in the Windows version of Word and Outlook.  No compromises or differences except the setup is a LOT easier.

Dictate is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers with Office 365 software for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android devices.  In this article we’ll look at how Dictate works in Word and Outlook for Mac.

Dictation in Word 365 (and Outlook 365) is cloud based.  It’s being improved regularly and isn’t as dependant on the speed of your computer.

It’s also context sensitive, using whole spoken phrases to work out the right words (instead of the old method which converted each spoken word individually).

Another improvement is microphones, especially in laptops, which now pick up speech with better fidelity.

Microphone setup

Make sure the Mac computer and Office can ‘hear’ you.   It’s a lot easier on a Mac than in Windows.

If you want to use the in-built or default microphone, just click the Dictate button on the Home tab in Word.

The first time, a standard security warning will appear. Mac blocks apps from using some elements like microphone or camera until the user specifically approves.  Click OK.

A microphone in a laptop or webcam should be enough in most cases.  Wireless microphones may work.  If you’re in a noisy area, a headset with mic close to the mouth might be necessary.  Dictate needs to ‘hear’ your voice clearly without distracting background noise.

To choose a specific microphone or check it’s working go to Apple | System Preferences | Sound | Input.

Choose the microphone or device you want to use.  The input volume can be adjusted with the slider.  As you can see above,

Check the microphone is working with the Input Level ‘VU meter’ bars moving as you speak

Mac users might hear a faint sigh of envy in the distance … that’s millions of Windows users looking at the above image and wondering why it can’t be that easy in Windows!   As we’ve noted before, even the Microsoft’s Skype division does a better job of audio/video setup than Windows itself.

Dictate Setup

With a default microphone setup and working try Dictate.  It’s on the Home tab.

Pull down the list and choose your spoken language.  ‘Preview’ languages aren’t fully developed but should work fairly well.  This selection is separate and not linked to any language setting for the Mac.

• Chinese (China)
• Dutch (Netherlands)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (India)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• French (Canada)
• French (French)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Norwegian (Bokmål)
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish (Mexico)
• Spanish (Spain)
• Swedish (Sweden)

Some of these languages are currently tagged as ‘Preview’. The list can change at any time as Microsoft improves Dictate.

Does language selection matter for dialects?  Probably, though Peter’s Australian accent worked just as well with the setting on English US, UK, Canada or Australia. 

If your English dialect isn’t listed, try something close.  Our New Zealand and South African friends can try English (Australia) … even though it might seem unpatriotic <g>.

We’d be interested to hear from French speakers about their experience with French (France) and French (Canada).  Or Spanish speakers with the Spain or Mexico variants.  Can people from Portugal effectively use the Portuguese (Brazil) option?

Dictation Start

Click the Dictate button, wait a second until the button changes with a red dot.

Whatever you say now will be heard and turned into text.

Punctuation

Dictate has Automatic punctuation where the following words insert the symbol of that name.

• Period   or   Full Stop
• Question mark
• Exclamation point or Exclamation mark
• New line  or   New paragraph
• Open quote   or   Open quotes
• Close quote or Close quotes

There are more spoken punctuation phrases and symbols available – see our full Dictate punctuation list .

Microsoft now addresses privacy concerns with this statement.

“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.”

That’s good, as far as it goes.  Laws in various countries, including the USA, mean Microsoft can be compelled to monitor and handover data from any customer.  That can happen without notice to the customer or even a court warrant.

Troubleshooting

The most common problem with Dictate is the microphone setup. Click the Dictate button, start talking but no typing appears.

This happens a lot less on the Mac because the operating system and hardware are better integrated.

Dictate in Word or Outlook has no controls to choose a microphone.  Use System Preferences | Sound to select and check the microphone.

Dictate voice commands – the full list Turn talk into text in Word 365 for Windows

About this author

Office-Watch.com

Office 2021  - all you need to know . Facts & prices for the new Microsoft Office. Do you need it? Office LTSC is the enterprise licence version of Office 2021.

Office 2024 what's known so far plus educated guesses. Microsoft Office upcoming support end date  checklist.

Latest from Office Watch

• Quicker ways to Zoom in Microsoft Office
• Change Word Zoom to custom fixed settings
• British Isles, United Kingdom etc. explained in a simple diagram
• Don’t trust Excel’s Linked Data Types, always verify
• UK vs Great Britain and problems with Excel’s Geography
• What I’m looking forward to at this year’s Edinburgh Festivals
• Get the most for less money (and hassle) at the Edinburgh Festivals
• BBC TV backgrounds for PowerPoint and online meetings
• How to fix an imported appointment in Outlook
• Zoom Docs adds a word-processor with a Magical Key
• Straight lines and neater drawn shapes in Word for Windows
• Outlook (new) is NOT ready, ignore what Microsoft says
• Beware the privacy trap in the Outlook (new)
• Does Microsoft Word think ‘Walz’ is a spelling error?
• Olympic medal comparisons in Excel
• Use your free Skype minutes to save on overseas phone calls
• Microsoft Office highlights in latest company results
• Excel for Mac gets PowerQuery 'from folder' updates
• Dictation leaves Outlook mobile apps
• Major benefit removed from Copilot Pro

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.

You also might be interested in

How to Insert YouTube Video in PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is the most powerful application for making beautiful presentation[...]

How to Change Display Language in Single Language Windows Version?

You will find hundreds of articles on the internet explaining[...]

How to Manage Apps in Windows 10?

Windows 10 comes with a variety of pre-installed apps, but[...]

DOWNLOAD EBOOKS

• SEO Guide for Beginners
• WordPress SEO PDF Guide
• Weebly SEO PDF Guide
• Alt Code Emoji Shortcuts PDF
• Free ALT Code Shortcuts PDF
• View All eBooks

TRENDING TECH ARTICLES

• 600+ Windows Alt Codes for Symbols
• Fix Chrome Resolving Host Problem
• Fix Slow Page Loading Issue in Google Chrome
• View Webpage Source CSS and HTML in Google Chrome
• Fix Safari Slow Loading Pages in macOS
• Fix Windows WiFi Connection Issue
• ROYGBIV or VIBGYOR Rainbow Color Codes
• Fix I’m Not A Robot reCAPTCHA Issue in Google Search
• Structure of HTTP Request and Response

POPULAR WEB TUTORIALS

• Move WordPress Localhost Site to Live Server
• Move Live WordPress Site to Localhost
• Move WordPress Media Folder to Subdomain
• Fix WooCommerce Ajax Loading Issue
• Create a Free Weebly Blog
• Edit Weebly Source Code HTML and CSS
• Add Scroll To Top Button in Weebly
• Add Table in Weebly Site
• How to Add Advanced Data Table Widget in Weebly?
• Up to $500 Free Google Ads Coupon Codes

FREE SEO TOOLS

• Webpage Source Code Viewer
• HTTP Header Checker
• What is My IP Address?
• Google Cache Checker
• Domain Age Checker Tool
• View All Free Web and SEO Tools

© 2024 · WebNots · All Rights Reserved.

Type and press Enter to search

Dictation on Mac: How to Use Voice-to-Text Typing

Get your mac to type for you.

In case you are unaware, Apple provides a range of Accessibility features on Mac — especially with the recent versions of macOS. Accessibility features, essentially, are features that aid people with disabilities to better use certain functionalities to allow them to operate their devices independently. However, that is not to say that normal users cannot benefit from these features. Since some of the Accessibility features on Mac, such as Voice Over, Zoom, Voice Control, and Speech can also come in handy for those looking to get more out of their actions, and in turn, their device.

If you have been a Mac user for some time, you would be aware (or might have stumbled upon) the Dictation feature. Dictation, again, is an Accessibility feature on Mac. It allows you to speak text (instead of typing) and leverages the power of voice-to-text transcription to get the output in the form of text. Thus, allowing you to type-in text, without having to, well, actually type text. Since the feature can be used by anyone, for any of their use-cases, here’s a guide, with everything about the feature, including the steps on how to use Dictation (voice-to-text typing) on Mac.

What is Dictation and how does it work?

As already mentioned, Dictation is an Accessibility feature on Mac that allows you to speak text and get an equivalent output for the same in the form of text across any input field. You can use it anywhere on your Mac to enter your input using voice. Most importantly, it is not to be confused with Voice Control, which is another Accessibility feature, which allows you to control your Mac using commands.

When you initiate Dictation and speak text, the same is processed by Apple and sent to their servers, where it is analyzed using language data and converted into text in real-time.

How to enable and set up Dictation?

Before you can use Dictation to enter text using voice, the first thing you need to do is enable Dictation from the Settings. Here’s how –

1. Head over to the System Preferences , and select Keyboard .

2. In the Keyboard settings tab, tap on Dictation and select the On radio button next to Dictation.

Once enabled, you can further change related settings for the same, like the input language, shortcut to initiate Dictation, and the input microphone.

1. Change input language – hit the dropdown button next to Language to choose your preferred input language. In case you do not see your language in the list, tap the Add Language button to search and add the language.

2. Set shortcut to trigger Dictation – to set the trigger shortcut to initiate Dictate, tap the dropdown button next to Shortcut and select a trigger option from the list. Alternatively, you can also set a custom key as the trigger for Dictation.

3. Set input microphone – tap on the dropdown button below the microphone (on the left) to select the input microphone.

How to use Dictate to input text?

Once you have set the shortcut to trigger Dictation, in the previous point, you are ready to use the feature to dictate text.

1. Open the app/website/service where you want to enter text and place the cursor in the input field.

2. Double-tap the trigger key you set for Dictation, and in the two prompts that appear, hit Ok and Enable Dictation , respectively. [ Note – you are only required to perform this step when you are using the feature for the first time ].

3. Once you tap the trigger shortcut, you should see a microphone icon, indicating that your Mac is ready to accept dictation. Start dictating your text now. Apple recommends no longer than 40-second dictations for best results.

4. When you are done dictating your text, tap the Done button, or hit the return key to stop Dictation.

Since a lot of the text we type involves the use of various punctuations make the text easier to comprehend and better convey the message, Apple also allows you to input punctuation marks using voice with Dictation. For instance, if you need to enter a comma (,), you can simply speak ‘comma’ in your dictation to include the same in your writing. Similarly, there are a bunch of other punctuation marks that you can use with Dictation, the commands for which you can learn here .

Now that you have discovered Dictation and how to use it to input text without having to actually type it, on your Mac, you can use the same to input text under different circumstances — like when your keyboard is broken, or you do not feel like typing. Not to mention, it can also be of help to those having disabilities, as they can now input text efficiently without having to be completely reliant on someone’s assistance.

How to dictate on a Mac computer, using the voice-to-text dictation feature that can type out your speech

• You can dictate on a Mac computer so that your computer types out your speech. 
• But before you can start using dictation, you'll have to enable it via your Mac's System Preferences, and decide the shortcut you'll use to turn it on, as well as the language it will dictate in.
• Here's how to set up and use the dictation feature on a Mac computer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Voice-to-text is a helpful feature for those who are often out and about.

And for those who have a Mac computer, you can take that feature and use it in your everyday workflow. The key is a built-in feature known as dictation. 

But before you can take advantage of dictation, you'll have to enable it. After that, it works similarly as any voice-to-text feature, any you may be able to access more in-depth voice commands to format your document.

Here's how to set it up and start using it.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Macbook pro (from $1,299.99 at best buy), how to set up dictation on a mac.

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left toolbar, then choose "System Preferences."

2. Select "Keyboard."

3. Toggle over to "Dictation" in the menu at the top of the window.

4. Next to "Dictation" select "On" and if desired, turn on enhanced dictation by ticking the corresponding box — this allows you to use additional commands, like bold, italics, underline, copy, delete, and undo — and dictate without an internet connection (enhanced dictation is only available for those with OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later ).

5. Set the language and create the desired shortcut.

How to dictate on a Mac

Once you've enabled the dictation feature, here's how to use it:

1. Open a document.

2. Place your cursor to the desired location for your dictation.

3. Use the shortcut you established when setting up dictation; alternatively, you can also select "Edit" and then "Start Dictation."

4. Start talking.

You should see a microphone icon appear on the screen after you start the feature. 

As you speak, it's important to remember to say your desired punctuation out loud, otherwise you'll end up with a long, run-on sentence. To stop dictation, click "Done" below the microphone icon.

Related coverage from  How To Do Everything: Tech :

How to easily record audio on your mac using either of its 2 simple recording apps, how to uninstall apps on a mac computer in three different ways, how to create folders on a mac computer and organize your files, how to set an alarm or event reminder on a mac using the calendar app.

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

Watch: A diehard Mac user switches to PC

• Main content

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!

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

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. 

Save 15% on Photoshop for three months with this exclusive Adobe deal

ConnectWise ScreenConnect review: great remote access and other controls

Hoping for some cheap new GPUs from AMD soon? Sadly, new rumor suggests RX 7400 and 7300 aren’t happening

Most Popular

• 2 Best Buy's massive weekend sale is live: 32 deals I'd buy on TVs, laptops, and appliances
• 3 AMD just unleashed FSR 3.1 – and it’s a great day for PC gamers no matter what brand of graphics card they own
• 4 Early 4th of July deal drops LG's all-new C4 OLED TV to a new record-low price
• 5 Everything new on Max in July 2024
• 2 Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PCs aren't all that special right now, but there's one major reason why that's about to change
• 3 This One Million Checkbox game is sparking an internet war – and it's taken hours of our life we'll never get back
• 4 Geekom launches yet another mini PC that makes it a little bit more difficult to justify buying a traditional desktop PC — AX8 Pro looks like Intel's legendary NUC but with an unbelievably low price tag
• 5 Slowest new laptop in the world is now on sale, with Windows 95 and a CPU that's almost 40 years old — but at least it is (almost) pocketable and can run Doom or Commander Keen

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Is there a way of converting voice memos to text?

I would like to record some notes with Voice Memos and transcribe that to text when the time comes.

It seems that since both are part of macOS, there must be a way of linking the two. Failing that is there an open source solution?

Using an M1 Mac Mini with macOS Ventura.

• voice-dictation

3 Answers 3

There are many services, my favorite being Otter.ai .

You can use Apple Dictation to perform this task. Here is the great and detailed article on the subject:

How to transcribe audio to text using Dictation on a Mac .

Use Google Docs if you have [free] Google account.

Just open Google Docs and select Voice Typing, then start your Voice Memo. Google shall transcribe everything into text.

Official Google Docs Help for Voice Typing

I've used Just Press Record in the past on iOS, although it's also the recording app, not just for transcription. They have a macOS version too. The transcription is good.

It will import audio files from other applications also (not mp3 for some reason), and will automatically transcribe them. It records to wav, aiff or m4a, so I assume the import formats are also the same, though I can't find any docs on that.

It has a neat trick of highlighting each word as the audio plays back.

Overall a nice app!

I use Textify for this. Does the job reasonably well, but the result usually needs editing.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged macos voice-dictation voice-memo ..

• The Overflow Blog
• Scaling systems to manage all the metadata ABOUT the data
• Navigating cities of code with Norris Numbers
• Featured on Meta
• We've made changes to our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy - July 2024
• Bringing clarity to status tag usage on meta sites

Hot Network Questions

• Would several years of appointment as a lecturer hurt you when you decide to go for a tenure-track position later on?
• What was I thinking when I drew this diagram?
• Suitable tool bag for vintage centre pull brake bike
• Is there a plurality of persons in the being of king Artaxerxes in his use of the pronoun "us" in Exra 4:18?
• 3D cartoon involving a lion with a crown on his head, a crystal, and artifacts that need to be found
• Why is Excel not counting time with COUNTIF?
• Isn't an appeal to emotions in fact necessary to validate our ethical decisions?
• Automotive Controller LDO Failures
• Is there a limit to how much power could be transmitted wirelessly?
• Trigger event if both conditions are met
• Sam Harris' Moral Landscape objection
• Using "where" to modify people
• Combinatorics: Bars and Stars Confusion
• How can sound travel as a transverse wave?
• Uniqueness of morphisms that make sequence exact (hom functor)
• Variant of global failure of GCH
• How can one design earplugs so that they provide protection from loud noises, such as explosions or gunfire, while still allowing user to hear voices?
• How is delayed luggage returned to its owners in this situation?
• Can you continue a database log restore after putting an interim restore online?
• Reference Request: Suttas that address avijja (ignorance) with respect to anatta (non-self)
• Sums of X*Y chunks of the nonnegative integers
• Did Newton predict the deflection of light by gravity?
• What rule prevents a card from being played if its effect is known to be unresolvable?
• Transit from intl to domestic in Zurich on Swiss

MacBook tips: How to use speech-to-text to dictate in macOS

Take notes without a keyboard using this handy feature

Speech-to-text is a handy tool for dictation available in macOS. Once you set it up, you can scribble words to a page using this tool anywhere you would otherwise type with a keyboard. In addition to typing text, you can also enter punctuation marks and formatting such as line breaks and special symbols by speaking the commands.  

While this feature was full of glitches and actually made typing more laborious in years past, Apple really has ironed out most of the wrinkles and made it fairly useful. If you find yourself needing a break from the keyboard, it’s definitely worth trying.

It is a handy tool when you need to work hands-free, or jot down a quick note before its lost forever. That said, it’s still not perfect, and I find that it works best when you speak slowly and accentuate bigger words.

1) Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner.

2) In the menu that opens, select System Preferences .

3) In System Preferences, select Keyboard .

4) In the Keyboard window, go to the Dictation tab .

Stay in the know with Laptop Mag

Get our in-depth reviews, helpful tips, great deals, and the biggest news stories delivered to your inbox.

5) There, switch on the dictation option .

6) Click Enable Dictation to allow Apple to use the recording.

7) In any document processor, click the Dictate icon and start speaking.

8) To change the default language, click the down arrow to open the language drop-down menu .

9) Select a language you would like to convert from speech to text.

Apple could release the first M4 Macs as soon as October: Here are the potential release dates, models and prices

How to change Apple ID password: Cybersecurity experts say to do it every 90 days (but now is better than never)

25 best back-to-school laptop deals of 2024: Save up to 70%

Most Popular

• 2 57 best back-to-school sales 2024: Up to 70% off laptops, more
• 3 7 last chance Lenovo back-to-school deals to snag this week
• 4 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon with Intel Ultra 5 CPU drops 50% in exclusive back-to-school deal
• 5 5 best back-to-school laptop backpack deals I recommend

Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.

For a fascism-curious billionaire who loves cuddling up to right-wing loons, Elon Musk sure is good at making right-wing politicians look stupid.

Former President Donald Trump had loudly trumpeted a planned Monday night interview with Musk that would stream on X. But much like the disastrous X-platformed launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign , the Musk/Trump interview failed to launch , leaving social media users laughing at the collective incompetence.

Since Vice President Kamala Harris rose to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket last month, Trump’s reelection campaign has been flailing . His childish attacks against her aren’t working. His racist comments about her mixed-race heritage have repelled all but his most loyal supporters. His vice presidential pick, JD Vance, becomes less likable every time he speaks .

So his answer, weirdly, was to sit down with Musk and talk to what would undoubtedly be a very online audience that doesn’t represent the broader electorate. Had the conversation gone off without a hitch, it still would have been odd and largely useless for Trump’s effort to halt Harris’ momentum.

Trump's interview with Elon Musk was an unmitigated disaster

But the online interview went off (the rails) with a multitude of hitches. X users erupted with either frustration or laughter as the planned start time passed, and nothing could be accessed. It took more than 40 minutes before the interview could start and be heard by anyone. It was amateur hour, the last thing a campaign struggling to project competence needed.

In May 2023, when DeSantis' presidential campaign premiered with a glitch-tastic interview with Musk on what was then called Twitter, Trump mocked the debacle , writing on social media: “Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!”

On behalf of DeSantis, allow me to say this: HAH!

Forget the glitches, Trump's X interview got worse when he started talking

Of course, things didn’t get better for Trump once the interview was able to proceed. 

Trump says AI did it: Trump blames Harris' crowds on AI, so let's all assume everything we don't like is fake!

He was rambling, babbling on about crowd sizes and immigration and President Joe Biden and whatever else seemed to pass through his mind. He was also badly slurring his words , raising questions about his health, and doing nothing to knock down rising concerns about his age and well-being.

He sounded like a disoriented, racist Daffy Duck.

Elon Musk is no Barbara Walters – his interview skills stink

Musk, meanwhile, has the interviewing skills of a stoned introvert. He did little but cheerlead Trump and agree with every bizarro thing that fell out of his mouth, while occasionally going on the kind of odd right-wing tangents you’d expect from a man too rich to ever be told to pipe down.

I’m not going to quote anything Trump said in the interview because it was either too stupid to merit transcription or a mere repetition of the nonsense he spouts at every rally he holds.

Harris can beat Trump: I was wrong about Kamala Harris. And that's a huge problem for Donald Trump

A big part of Trump’s problem right now is he has become almost unbearably boring. Build a wall. Drill, baby, drill. Marxist, socialist something-something. Harris only recently became Black. Blah, blah, blah.

Musk gave Trump the same gift he gave Ron DeSantis. Whomp whomp.

So for Trump, sitting down with a rich weirdo few people like and slurring his way through an interview that failed to launch was, in the words of one Donald J. Trump, “a DISASTER!”

Musk, with his social-media ineptness and unmerited sense of self-importance, made DeSantis look like a fool. And now he’s done the same to Trump.

Heck, if Musk keeps this up, I might start to like him.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter,  @RexHuppke  and Facebook  facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page , on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter .

Listen to your Word documents

There are many reasons to listen to a document, such as proofreading, multitasking, or increased comprehension and learning. Word makes listening possible by using the text-to-speech (TTS) ability of your device to play back written text as spoken words.  

There are multiple tools for listening to your Word documents: 

Read Aloud     reads all or part of your document. You can use Read Aloud on its own or within Immersive Reader for Word in Windows and MacOS.

Immersive Reader     is a set of tools that help improve reading fluency and comprehension. For more information about Immersive Reader, see Learning Tools in Word .

Speak     reads only the text you've selected. Speak is available for Windows only. For more information about Speak, see Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud .

Narrator      is the Windows Screen reader app that reads your dialog boxes, buttons, and other user interfaces as well as the text. For more information about Narrator, see Using Windows Narrator in Office for the web .

Speech      is a built-in accessibility feature of MacOS. When you set up Speech preferences in your Mac system preferences, you can select text and have it read by pressing a keyboard combination you’ve defined.

Note:  For the full list of supported languages, see  Language and voice support for the Speech service.

Listen with Read Aloud 

Change Read Aloud settings 

Use the Reading speed slider to change the reading speed.

Under Voice Selection , select the voice you want.

Listen to selected text with Read Aloud.

Select the text to be read aloud.

Start Read Aloud from Review tab or shortcut or select  play on Read Aloud UI.

Keyboard shortcuts 

You can easily control Read Aloud using the following keyboard shortcuts in Windows: 

Listen to your documents with Speak 

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Speak reads aloud only the text you select. Read Aloud reads the entire document starting from your cursor location like an audiobook.  

To use Speak:  

Select a word or block of text in your document.

Tip:  For instructions about how to add the Speak icon to your Quick Access Toolbar, see the help article Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud . 

Supported languages 

Read Aloud uses the proofing language set for the document. To change the language, see the help article Fix text-to-speech reading in wrong language .  

Depending on your platform, text-to-speech (TTS) uses software that comes built into your device or through a Microsoft service. The voices available will differ between TTS services. If you’re using Immersive Reader, see the help article Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud for more information. 

Our team is working on making voices sound more natural, so keep looking for improvements. 

Troubleshooting 

If you don’t see Read Aloud available, make sure that you’re signed into your Microsoft 365 account, and then try restarting the Word app or logging out and back in. 

If you are unable to access Neural Voices, make sure you have a stable internet connection and are signed into your Microsoft 365 account.

Read Aloud doesn’t store your content or audio data. Microsoft uses your content only to provide you with audio results. For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see  Connected Experiences in Office .

In MacOS you can listen to documents using Read Aloud or Speech.

Listen with Read Aloud for MacOS

Change Read Aloud settings

Use the Reading speed slider to change the voice speed.

Keyboard shortcuts

You can easily control Read Aloud using the following keyboard shortcuts in MacOS:

Listen to your documents with Speech

Speech is a built-in accessibility feature of MacOS. After you activate Speech for your Mac, you can select text and have it read by pressing a keyboard combination you’ve defined.

To activate Speech, do the following: 

On the Apple menu, select System Preferences .

Supported languages

Read Aloud uses the proofing language set for the document. To change the language, see the help article Fix text-to-speech reading in wrong language . 

Depending on your platform, text-to-speech (TTS) uses software that comes built into your device or by a Microsoft service. The voices available will differ between TTS services. If you’re using Immersive Reader, see the help article Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud for more information.

Our team is working on making voices sound more natural, so keep looking for improvements.

Troubleshooting

If you don’t see Read Aloud available, make sure that you’re signed in to your Microsoft 365 account, and then try restarting the Word app or logging out and back in.

If you are unable to access neural voices, please make sure you have a stable internet connections and are signed in to your Microsoft 365 account. 

Read Aloud doesn’t store your content or audio data. Microsoft uses your content only to provide you with audio results. For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see Connected Experiences in Office .

In Word for the Web, you can listen to your documents using Immersive Reader.

Using Immersive Reader

Change Immersive Reader settings

You can change the voice speed and selection for Immersive Reader.

Use the Voice Speed slide to change the voice speed.

Depending on your platform, text-to-speech (TTS) uses software that comes built into your device or through a Microsoft service. The voices available will differ between TTS services. If you’re using Immersive Reader, see the help article Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud for more information.

Listen with Read Aloud in Word for iPad

Tap the menu  icon at the top.

Tap Read Aloud .  

Listen to selected text with Read Aloud. 

Start Read Aloud from Review tab or overflow menu or select  play on Read Aloud UI.

Change Read Aloud settings for iPad

In the Read Aloud controls, tap the gear icon.

Listen with Read Aloud in Word for iPhone

Tap the Review tab.

Change Read Aloud settings for iPhone

To change the speech rate, in the Read Aloud controls, tap the gear icon.

When you’re online, Read Aloud tries to detect the language of the text and can support multiple languages in a single document. For the full list of supported languages, see the help article Language and voice support for the Speech service . 

Listen with Read Aloud in Word for Android phone

At the top, tap the menu icon.

Change Read Aloud settings for Android phone

For the full list of supported languages, see the help article Language and voice support for the Speech service . 

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

macOS User Guide

• What’s in the menu bar?
• Work on the desktop
• Search with Spotlight
• Quickly change settings
• Get notifications
• Open apps from the Dock
• Organize your files in the Finder
• Connect to the internet
• Browse the web
• Preview a file
• Take a screenshot
• Change your display’s brightness
• Adjust the volume
• Use trackpad and mouse gestures
• Use Touch ID
• Print documents
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Apps on your Mac
• Work with app windows
• Use apps in full screen
• Use apps in Split View
• Use Stage Manager
• Get apps from the App Store
• Install and reinstall apps from the App Store
• Install and uninstall other apps
• Create and work with documents
• Open documents
• Mark up files
• Combine files into a PDF
• Organize files on your desktop
• Organize files with folders
• Tag files and folders
• Back up files
• Restore files
• Change System Settings
• Choose your desktop wallpaper
• Add and customize widgets
• Use a screen saver
• Add a user or group
• Add your email and other accounts
• Automate tasks with Shortcuts
• Create Memoji
• Change your login picture
• Change the system language
• Make text and other items on the screen bigger
• Set up a Focus to stay on task
• Set up Screen Time for yourself
• Use Dictation
• Send emails
• Send text messages
• Make a FaceTime video call
• Edit photos and videos
• Use Live Text to interact with text in a photo
• Start a Quick Note
• Get directions
• Work across devices using Continuity
• Use iPhone as a webcam
• Use iPhone with Desk View
• Stream audio and video with AirPlay
• Use one keyboard and mouse to control Mac and iPad
• Hand off between devices
• Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch
• Make and receive phone calls on your Mac
• Sync music, books, and more between devices
• Manage Apple ID settings
• Set your Apple ID picture
• What is iCloud?
• What is iCloud+?
• Store files in iCloud Drive
• Share and collaborate on files and folders
• Manage iCloud storage
• Use iCloud Photos
• What is Family Sharing?
• Set up Family Sharing
• Set up Screen Time for a child
• Share purchases with your family
• Watch and listen together with SharePlay
• Share a Photo Library
• Collaborate on projects
• Find content shared with you
• Find your family and friends
• Play games with your friends
• Listen to podcasts
• Watch TV shows and movies
• Read and listen to books
• Read the news
• Track stocks and the market
• Apple Music
• Apple Arcade
• Apple News+
• Podcast shows and channels
• Manage subscriptions in the App Store
• View Apple family subscriptions
• Guard your privacy
• Use Mail Privacy Protection
• Control access to your camera
• Use Sign in with Apple for apps and websites
• Set up your Mac to be secure
• Keep your data safe
• Create a passkey
• Understand passwords
• Keep your Apple ID secure
• Find a missing device
• Get started with accessibility features
• Connect an external display
• Use the built-in camera
• Connect a Bluetooth device
• Use AirPods with your Mac
• Optimize your Mac battery life
• Optimize storage space
• Burn CDs and DVDs
• Control accessories in your home
• Use Windows on your Mac
• Resources for your Mac
• Resources for your Apple devices

Have your Mac speak text that’s on the screen

If you have trouble reading text on your screen, you can have your Mac speak text whenever you press a keyboard shortcut. You can customize the keyboard shortcut and set other options—for example, you can choose to show an onscreen controller that lets you easily change the speaking rate, stop speaking, and more.

Listen to spoken text

Click Spoken Content on the right.

Open Spoken Content settings for me

Turn on “Speak selection.”

On your Mac, press the specified keyboard shortcut (the default key combination is Option-Esc).

If text is selected when you press the keyboard shortcut, the selected text is spoken. Otherwise, available text items in the current window are spoken; for example, if Mail is the current window, an email message is read.

If you set the option to automatically show the controller, it appears onscreen when your Mac starts speaking. Use the controller to change the speaking rate, move forward or backward one sentence in the text, pause and resume speaking, or stop speaking.

Note: If no text items are available, a beep sound plays.

To stop the speaking, press the keyboard shortcut again.

Customize how spoken text appears on the screen

Keyboard Shortcut: Press the key combination you want to use. For example, press the Option and Tab keys together to set the keyboard shortcut as Option+Tab.

Highlight Content: Click the pop-up menu, then choose to have words, sentences, or both highlighted as your Mac speaks. Click the Word Color and Sentence Color pop-up menus to choose the highlight color.

If you don’t want spoken content highlighted, choose None from the Highlight Content pop-up menu.

Sentence Style: Click the pop-up menu to have spoken sentences indicated by an underline or with a background color.

Show Controller: Click the pop-up menu to choose to automatically show the controller when you press the keyboard shortcut, or to never or always show it.

The controller is especially useful when your Mac is reading long pieces of text. You can use the controller to pause, resume, or stop the speaking, change the speaking rate, and skip ahead or backward in the text.

When you’re done choosing options, click OK.

You can also use VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader for macOS, to hear descriptions of every item on the screen and to control your Mac using the keyboard. See the VoiceOver User Guide .

site categories

Former disney+ series ‘nautilus’ swims to prime video uk & ireland, breaking news.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Calls Out Media & Own Network Over Donald Trump Presser Coverage & Ignoring Kamala Harris

By Armando Tinoco

Armando Tinoco

Night & Weekend Editor

More Stories By Armando

• ‘Surreal Life: Villa Of Secrets’ Star Kim Zolciak Says She Suffers From PTSD After Starring In Bravo’s ‘The Real Housewives Of Atlanta’
• James Cameron Says Michelle Yeoh Is Not In ‘Avatar 3: Fire & Ash’: “She’s In 4 & 5”
• Halle Berry On Exiting ‘All’s Fair’ Hulu Drama Starring Kim Kardashian: “Things Happen For A Reason”

Lawrence O’Donnell had  The Last Word  on Thursday night on MSNBC . The news anchor called out the media, including his n etwork, for covering Donald Trump ‘s press conference in full and ignoring Kamala Harris .

O’Donnell took to his late-night show to blast the media for not fact-checking Trump, who held a press conference in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, saying, “It was 2016 all over again.”

Related Stories

Jeff Shell Faces Scrutiny Over Past Conduct As Top Paramount Job Looms - The Dish

Democratic National Convention To Stream On TikTok, Instagram & YouTube

O’Donnell noted that “every network has the capacity, especially with these wide screens we now have at home, to run a live scroll at the side of the screen” to fact-check Trump in real time.

The MSNBC anchor used as an example when Trump said Kamala Harris wasn’t smart enough to run a press conference, the network could’ve noted her academic accomplishments.

O’Donnell then highlighted Trump’s inability to answer reporters’ questions at the press conference. The newscaster highlighted a question from NBC News reporter Garrett Haake, who asked Trump if he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone. O’Donnell read Trump’s exact answer to the yes or no question, adding, “The words Donald Trump spoke to those reporters in response to that clear, simple and important yes or no question were an insult to everyone in that room, and they took the insult. Nothing in those words was an answer, nothing.”

“Donald Trump is not smart enough to answer questions. Anyone who then tells you that Kamala Harris has to answer questions from reporters because Donald Trump already answered questions from reporters is lying to themselves and to you and you must not allow them to do it,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell also called out the cable news networks for not covering Harris’ speech in Michigan live as they did with Trump’s presser.

O’Donnell added that he would “correct that mistake” by airing Harris’ appearance in Michigan in full.

Watch O’Donnell’s full segment in the video below.

Must Read Stories

Why uk riots were a reminder of how film & tv failed south asian creatives.

Paramount Television Studios Closing As Latest Par Global Layoffs Begin

Amy savitsky, others out as a+e nets layoffs hit lifetime & history programming teams, sony acquires new script by ‘kraven the hunter’ helmer j.c. chandor, read more about:, subscribe to deadline.

Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.

61 Comments

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.