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

This is a subscriber-only feature Read Aloud is only available for Office 2019, Office 2021, and Microsoft 365.

  1. On the Review tab, select Read Aloud.

       Select Read Aloud

  2. To play Read Aloud, select Play in in the controls.

    Select Play

  3. To pause Read Aloud, select Pause.

    Select Pause

  4. To move from one paragraph to another, select Previous or Next.

    Select Previous or Next

  5. To exit Read Aloud, select Stop (x).

    Select Stop

Change Read Aloud settings

  1. Select the gear icon in the controls at the top right.

    Read Aloud audio settings

  2. Use the Reading speed slider to change the reading speed.

  3. Under Voice Selection, select the voice you want.

  4. 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: 

CTRL + Alt + Space Start Read Aloud
CTRL + Space Play or pause Read Aloud
CTRL + Left Arrow Skip to start of current paragraph
CTRL + Left Arrow + Left Arrow Skip to start of previous paragraph
CTRL + Right Arrow Skip forward to start of next paragraph
Alt + Left Arrow Decrease reading speed
Alt + Right Arrow Increase reading speed

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:  

  1. Select a word or block of text in your document.

  2. In the Quick Access Toolbar, select the Speak selected text icon.

    Select Speak icon

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.  

Voices

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.

Privacy

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.