Using the Speak Cells tool improves accessibility by allowing Excel to read the contents of a cell, range of cells, or worksheet to you. You can access this feature on the Quick Access toolbar.
Note
You may be able to use Windows text-to-speech functions in other Office programs:
- For Office see Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud.
- For Windows 11, see Chapter 1: Introducing Narrator.
How to enable the Speak Cells tool
Next to the Quick Access toolbar, select Customize Quick Access Toolbar, and select More Commands.
In the Choose commands from list, select All Commands.
Scroll down and select the Speak Cells command. Select Add. Do the same for the Stop Speaking command and the On Enter command.
Select OK.
Note
You'll need to configure your computer audio to hear speech.
Using text-to-speech
Start speaking
When you want to use a text-to-speech command, select a cell, a range of cells, or an entire worksheet, and select the Speak Cells button on the Quick Access toolbar. Or, you can select Speak Cells without selecting any cells and Excel will automatically expand the selection to include the neighboring cells that contain values.
Stop speaking
To stop the reading, select the Stop Speaking button in the Quick Access toolbar or select any cell outside the area selected for reading.
Play back after every cell entry
Select On Enter.
Enter data in any cell. Press Enter, and the computer will read back the contents of the cell.
Note
If you hide the Quick Access Toolbar and you did not turn off On Enter, the computer continues to read back each cell entry that you make. Search On Enter to turn it off.
Need more help?
You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in Communities.