Troubleshoot speech recognition

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

I can't tell if speech recognition is on.

Speech recognition is on when your microphone is turned on, and you can see Dictation and Voice Command on the Language bar.

You can also tell if speech recognition is on by looking at Speech on the Tools menu. If there is a check mark by Speech, speech recognition is turned on. (In Microsoft Excel, point to Speech on the Tools menu, and then look at Speech Recognition.)

To turn speech on or off, click Microphone on the Language bar, or click Speech on the Tools menu (Speech Recognition in Excel). You can also turn the microphone off by saying "microphone."

Remember to turn the microphone off when you are not using speech recognition. Speech recognition will continue to process sounds until the microphone is turned off.

My company name isn't recognized when I say it.

You can add your company's name to the speech recognition dictionary as well as other words that speech recognition does not recognize. On the Language bar, click Speech Tools , and then select Add/Delete Word(s).

I tried speech recognition once, and now I can't get rid of the Language bar.

• Right-click the Language bar, click Close the Language bar, and then click OK.

Note   You cannot close the Language bar if you have installed an Input Method Editor (IME).

I closed the Language bar, and now I can't get it back.

1. On the Microsoft Windows Start menu, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Text Services.

2. In the Text Services dialog box, click Language Bar, and then select the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box.

Speech recognition isn't working

Either Dictation or Voice Command mode is on the Language bar.

• Verify that a Microsoft speech recognition engine is selected under Language in the Speech Properties dialog box.

  How?

  Change speech recognition engines to dictate in another language or to use a third-party engine.

  1. On the Microsoft Windows Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Speech, and then click the Speech Recognition tab.
  3. Under Language, select a speech recognition engine.

  Notes

  If you switch speech recognition engines:

  • To use dictation you must switch keyboard layouts to match the language of the speech engine.
  • To use voice commands, ensure that the language user interface of the program you're working in matches that of the speech engine.

• If Dictation is not on the Language bar, your current keyboard layout may not support the speech recognition engine.

  For example, the English (U.S.) speech recognition engine requires you to work with a U.S. keyboard layout.

  You may need to change your keyboard layout.

  How?

  You can use specialized keyboard layouts to type in specific languages. If you have more than one keyboard layout installed, you can switch between them.

  Install keyboard layouts for specific languages

  1. On the Microsoft Windows Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Do one of the following:

     If the Text Services icon is available

     1. Double-click the Text Services icon, and then click the Settings tab.
     2. Under Installed Services, click Add.
     3. In the Input Language box, click the language you want, and then click OK.

        The keyboard language you selected appears in the Installed Services box.

     4. If you want to be able to switch keyboard layouts by using the Language bar, click Language Bar under Preferences, and then select the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box.

     If the Text Services icon is not available

     1. Double-click the Keyboard icon.
     2. Do one of the following:

        • If you are running Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, click the Language tab.

        • If you are running Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 2000, click the Input Locales tab.

     3. Click Add.
     4. Do one of the following:

        • If you are running Windows 98 or Windows Me, click the language you want in the Language list, and then click OK.

        • If you are running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, click the language you want in the Input locale list, and then click OK.

     5. If you want to be able to switch keyboard layouts by using the Windows taskbar, make sure the Enable indicator on taskbar check box is selected.

  Switch keyboard layouts

  Do one of the following:

  If the Language bar is visible

  • On the Language bar, click the keyboard layout indicator , and then click the layout you want. The letters on the indicator change to reflect the language of the keyboard.

  If the Language bar is not visible

  • On the Microsoft Windows taskbar, click the keyboard layout indicator at the lower-right of the screen, and then click the layout you want. The letters on the indicator change to reflect the language of the keyboard.

  Note   To type East Asian text, you must be using an Input Method Editor (IME).

• If Voice Command is not on the Language bar, the language of the user interface may not support the speech recognition engine.

  You may need to change the language of the user interface by using Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack.

  How?

  To change the user interface or Help language, your organization must have purchased and distributed Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack, and it must be installed. For details, see your system administrator.
  1. On the Microsoft Windows Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office XP Language Settings.
  2. On the User Interface tab, do one of the following:

     Change the user interface language

     • In the Display menus and dialog boxes in box, click the language you want.

     Change the Help language

     • In the Display Help in box, click the language you want.

  Note   Some Microsoft Office components don't support changing the language of the user interface or Help. For more information, see the Microsoft Office XP Resource Kit.

Both Dictation and Voice Command modes are not on the Language bar.

You may be using an Input Method Editor (IME) from a previous version of Microsoft Office. Select another IME on the Language bar.

I said something, but the computer didn't do anything.

• If you're trying to dictate, you may be in Voice Command mode. On the Language bar, click Dictation (or say "dictation"), and then try speaking again.
• The microphone may not be turned on. To turn speech recognition on and off, on the Language bar, click Microphone  .
• You may be working in a read-only file.
• If your microphone has a mute button, check to see if it is turned on.
• You may need to change the speech recognition engine.
• Check the connection on your microphone and read the documentation that came with your microphone.
• See the Help topics for your Microsoft Windows operating system for information about changing volume settings in the Control Panel.

I adjusted the microphone, and I can't hear anything when I play back dictated text.

• Speaker volume may be too low, or it may be turned off.

• The microphone may not be connected properly, or the microphone headset may not have a speaker. Check the documentation that came with your microphone. You can also try to playback a file in Sound Recorder.

I opened another program, and now speech recognition isn't working.

Click in the program you want to use speech recognition in to shift "focus" to the correct place. For example, if you use speech recognition in Microsoft Word, and then open Microsoft PowerPoint, focus may shift to PowerPoint. Click in Word to shift the focus to Word.

If you open a Help topic, focus may shift to the topic. If a message appears on the screen, focus may shift to the message. Just click in the program you want to use speech recognition in to regain focus.

Speech recognition isn't working with the Office Assistant.

You can use Dictation mode with the Office Assistant; however, Voice Command mode is not recommended for use with the Office Assistant.

I'm working in another language, and speech isn't working the way I expect it to.

If you are using a speech recognition engine for a language other than Simplified Chinese, English (U.S.), and Japanese, Voice Command mode will not work. Dictation mode will work; however, the way to say punctuation will not be as described in Microsoft Office Help.

When I say "right-click" over a spelling error, the shortcut menu does not have any spelling alternatives.

Move the insertion point into the misspelled word before saying "right-click."

When I say "escape" in Microsoft Word when I'm using the correction alternative list, nothing happens.

Say "cancel" instead (U.S. English only).

What's happening?

I see messages on the Language bar.

As you work, messages on the Language bar offer help or hints. In Voice Command mode, you'll see the name of the last recognized command you said using speech recognition. If you used your mouse or keyboard instead of speech recognition, you'll see the name of the command you could say.

  Language bar speech message

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.

In Dictation mode, the messages may increase speech recognition accuracy. For example, the "Too soft" message means that you may be speaking too softly for the computer to recognize your words.

Note   You can turn the messages on or off by clicking Speech Tools on the Language bar, and then clicking Show Speech Messages.

I see a blue box on the screen when I dictate.

As you dictate, the blue box appears on the screen while the computer is processing your voice. After the computer finishes, your words are displayed in your file, and the blue box disappears.

Note   If the color scheme on your desktop has been customized, the color of the box as speech is being processed may vary depending on the color scheme.

I see a gray box instead of a blue box on the screen when I dictate.

Your computer may be set to 256 colors rather than True Color. See the Help topics for your operating system for information on changing the settings.

Note   If the color scheme on your desktop has been customized, the color of the box as speech is being processed may vary depending on the color scheme.

I'm not using speech recognition, but text is appearing in my file or menus are opening.

Speech recognition is still on. To turn speech recognition off, click Microphone on the Language bar.

You can also turn the feature off by clicking Speech on the Tools menu (in Microsoft Excel, point to Speech, and then click Speech Recognition) or by saying "microphone."

You can tell that speech recognition is turned off by looking at the Language bar. The Dictation and Voice Command buttons are hidden when the feature is turned off.

Remember to turn the microphone off when you are not using speech recognition. Speech recognition will continue to process sounds until the microphone is turned off.

Sometimes when I say a command, it appears in my file.

You may be in Dictation mode. Click Voice Command on the Language bar, and then say the command again.

When I create a list, there are two lines after each item instead of just one line.

To start a new line in a list, say "new line" to insert one line between entries. If you say "new paragraph," two lines are inserted instead of one.

The size of my file is large after I save it.

Turn off the option to save speech recognition input. On the Language bar, click Speech Tools , and then clear Save Speech Data.

I want to save speech input data in my Word document.

• After the document was saved in Microsoft Word 2002, it may have been saved again in Microsoft Word 2000. Speech recognition is not backwards compatible.
• Speech input data is saved only in .doc format.
• The feature may not be turned on.
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save tab.
  2. Select the Embed linguistic data check box.
  3. Click Speech Tools on the Language bar, and then select Save Speech Data.

When I use the Office Clipboard in Word to cut, copy, and paste dictated text, I can't right-click an error and see the corrections alternative list.

Dictated text pasted from the Microsoft Office Clipboard does not retain a recording of dictated text for the corrections alternative list. To retain the original speech input data in the current document, copy and paste one item at a time without using the Office Clipboard.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) doesn't work after I installed speech recognition.

Text-to-Speech does not work if speech recognition is installed and your computer has a half- duplex sound card. Either use a full-duplex sound card, or uninstall Microsoft Office speech recognition.

I added another keyboard, but it isn't available when I open my program.

If you added a keyboard by clicking Text Services in the Control Panel while a Microsoft Office program was open, you need to close the program, and then reopen the program.

My microphone won't work in other programs while speech recognition is running.

You cannot use other programs that use a microphone, such as Sound Recorder, while the microphone is in use for speech recognition.