Tip of the Week: Typing Through Dictation

Sometimes the last thing you want to do is type on your keyboard, especially if you have already been doing it just about all day. In cases like this, you can give your fingers a break and use Microsoft Word’s dictation features to “write” by speaking into your device’s microphone. Let’s go over how you can use this feature on a desktop, your web browser, and even your mobile device.

On Your Desktop Application

If you are using Microsoft Word on your desktop or laptop, there is a dictation feature built right into it. From the Home tab, click on the Dictate button. It looks like a blue microphone in the top-right corner. From here, you can use the gear icon to adjust the settings for your dictation. Some of the settings you can adjust are auto-punctuation, language filtering, and dialect. You can also pause or unpause the dictation whenever you need to. If you’re unsure of how to do certain things, like add punctuation, you can click on the help icon for a handy guide on what you can say.

On the Browser Version of Word

The browser version of Microsoft Word looks much the same as the desktop version. All you have to do is click on the Home tab and use the Dictate button. The settings are largely the same on the web version of Microsoft Word, so the directions above work for this version, too. When you are done using the dictate feature, you can click the X and close out of dictation.

On Your Mobile Device

In the mobile app version of Microsoft Word, you should see a button just above the keyboard that has a microphone on it. This one has all the same features as the above versions of the Word app. To stop dictation, just click on the keyboard button that takes the place of the dictate button while you are dictating.

Notice a pattern? It’s really quite easy to take advantage of the dictation feature in Microsoft Word. However, we will caution you to always proofread whatever it is you happen to be writing using this feature, as anything voice-related can be unreliable on its own. After all, how many times have you had a voice-reactive virtual assistant activate and do something you don’t want it to do, all because you misspoke or it heard you incorrectly?

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