Things you can do and say with speech recognition

This feature is available in the Simplified Chinese, English (U.S.), and Japanese language versions of Microsoft Office.

When you use Office speech recognition, you'll switch between working in Voice Command mode and Dictation mode by clicking buttons on the Language bar or by saying "voice command" or "dictation."

Language bar

1  Language bar with text labels hidden

Note   The Language bar by default shows text labels beside each button on the bar. You can hide or show the text labels by right-clicking the Language bar, and then clicking Text Labels.

Using Voice Command mode

Note   Using Voice Command mode for dialog box and task pane items is not available in Simplified Chinese and Japanese.

To select menu, toolbar, dialog box, and task pane items by using your voice, if the microphone is not already turned on, click Microphone on the Language bar, and then click Voice Command on the Language bar, or say "voice command."

For example, to change the font in any Office program by using your voice, do the following:

  1. To open the Format menu, say "format."
  2. To open the Font dialog box, say "font."
  3. To change the font from Times New Roman to Verdana, say "verdana."
  4. To close the Font dialog box, say "OK."

Note   You can also change font format without opening the Font dialog box. Say "font" to open the Font box on the Formatting toolbar, and then say a font name.

Other Voice Command mode examples

Do the following to select:

Toolbar buttons

Menu and command items

Dialog box items

Task pane items

To open the New File task pane in Office programs, do the following:

Commands you can say

The following list is a sample of the commands you can say. For more information, see the Microsoft Office Web site.

Navigation examples

The command you can say is shown first, followed by the keyboard or mouse equivalent for the command. For example:
END (command you can say)
Press END (keyboard or mouse equivalent)
Return
Enter
Press ENTER
Backspace
Delete
Press BACKSPACE
Back one word
Last word
Press CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Space
Space Bar
Press the SPACEBAR
Escape
Cancel (U.S. English only) 
Press ESC
Right-click
Context menu
Right-click menu
Right-click a menu
(Not available in Japanese language version of Office)
Tab
Press TAB
Shift Tab
Press SHIFT+TAB
End
Go End
Press END
Home
Go Home
Press HOME
Up
Go Up
Press UP ARROW
Down
Go Down
Press DOWN ARROW
Left
Go Left
Press LEFT ARROW
Right
Go Right
Press RIGHT ARROW
Previous Page
Press CTRL+PAGE
Next Page
Press CTRL+PAGE+DOWN ARROW
Page Down
Press PAGE DOWN
Page Up
Press PAGE UP

Using Dictation mode

To dictate text into any Office program, if the microphone is not already turned on click Microphone on the Language bar, and then click Dictation on the Language bar, or say "dictation."

Tips

The following lists tell you how to say some things as you dictate. What you can say is followed by what is inserted. For example:

Period
Dot (what you can say)
. (what is inserted)

Punctuation

Period
Dot
.
Comma
,
Colon
:
Semi-colon
;
Question mark
?
Exclamation point
!

Symbols and special characters

Ampersand
&
Asterisk
*
At sign
At
@
Backslash
\
Slash
/
Vertical bar
|
Hyphen
Dash
-
Double dash
--
Equals
=
Plus
Plus sign
+
Pound sign
#
Percent
Percent sign
%
Dollar sign
$
Underscore
_
Tilde
~
Ellipsis
...
Greater than
>
Less than
<
Caret
^
New line
Enter
New paragraph
Enter twice

Brackets

Bracket
Left bracket
Open bracket
[
End bracket
Right bracket
Close bracket
]
Open brace
Curly brace
Left brace
{
Close brace
End curly brace
Right brace
}
Open parenthesis
Left paren
(
Close parenthesis
Right paren
)

Quotation marks

Quote
Open quote
"
Close quote
"
Single quote
Open single quote
'
Close single quote
'

Numbers

5
five (numbers less than 20 are spelled out when inserted)
21
21 (numbers greater than 20 are inserted as digits)
first
first (ordinal numbers)
one half
1/2 (fractions)
five five five zero one eight seven
555-0187 (telephone numbers)

Tip

To dictate all numbers as digits, say "force num," pause briefly, and then say "5."

Notes