Dictation lets you use speech-to-text to author content in Office with a microphone and reliable internet connection. It's a quick and easy way to draft emails, send replies, and capture the tone you're going for.

Use the dictation feature to author an email in the new Outlook. The following steps apply to both Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.

  1. Start a New Email or reply and select the body of the message.

  2. Go to the Message tab and select Dictate Dictate button turned On in the Options Tab in Outlook.​​​​​​​

  3. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening.Dictation activated                                                 

  4. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen.

  1. Start a New Email or reply, select the body of the message, then go to the Message tab and select Dictate  Office Dictate Buttonwhile signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device.

  2. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening.Dictate Outlook Listening

  3. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen.

This is a subscriber-only feature Can't find the Dictate button? The dictation feature is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

  1. Start a New Email or reply and go to Message > Dictate  Office Dictate Buttonwhile signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device.Dictate button

    Tip: You can also start dictation with the keyboard shortcut: ⌥ (Option) + F1.

  2. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening.Dictation activated

  3. Start speaking to see text appear on the screen.

This is a subscriber-only feature Can't find the Dictate button? The dictation feature is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Tip: To resume dictation, please use the keyboard shortcut ALT + ` or press the mic icon in the ribbon.

Learn more about using dictation in Outlook mobile

Dictate your emails in Outlook Mobile

What can I say?

In addition to dictating your content, you can speak commands to add punctuation and enter special characters.

Commands by language

For a list of commands available in each of the supported languages, select a language from the dropdown list.

Note: For the English language, only punctuation and symbols, currency, mathematics, and emojis/faces are currently supported.

More Information

By default, Dictation is set to English (United States).

We are actively working to improve these languages and add more locales and languages.

Supported Languages

Chinese (China)

English (Australia)

English (Canada)

English (India)

English (United Kingdom)

English (United States)

French (Canada)

French (France)

German (Germany)

Hindi

Italian (Italy)

Japanese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Spanish (Spain)

Spanish (Mexico)

 Preview languages *

Arabic (Bahrain)

Arabic (Egypt)

Arabic (Saudi Arabia)

Bulgarian

Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong)

Chinese (Taiwan)

Croatian (Croatia)

Czech

Danish

Dutch (Netherlands)

English (New Zealand)

Estonian

Finnish

Greek

Gujarati (India)

Hebrew

Hungarian

Irish

Korean

Latvian

Lithuanian

Maltese

Marathi (India)

Norwegian (Bokmål)

Polish

Portuguese (Portugal)

Romanian

Russian

Slovak

Slovenian

Swedish (Sweden)

Tamil (India)

Telugu (India)

Thai

Turkish (Turkey)

Vietnamese

* Preview Languages may have lower accuracy or limited punctuation support.

Click on the gear icon to see the available settings.

Dictation settings button in the options Tab in Outlook.

  • Spoken Language: View and change languages in the drop-down

  • Microphone: View and change your microphone

  • Auto Punctuation: Toggle the checkmark on or off, if it's available for the language chosen

  • Profanity filter: Mask potentially sensitive phrases with ***

This service does not store your audio data or transcribed text.

Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft and used only to provide you with text results.

For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see Connected Experiences in Office.

Microphone issues

If you see "Another app is using your mic":

  • Make sure no other application or web page is using the microphone and try again.

If you see “Mic issue”, “Can’t detect mic” or “Can’t access mic":

Dictation can't hear you

If nothing appears on the screen as you dictate:

  • Make sure your microphone is not muted

  • Adjust the input level of your microphone

  • Move to a quieter location

  • If using a built-in mic, consider trying again with a headset or external mic

Accuracy issues or missed words

If you see a lot of incorrect words being output or missed words:

  • Make sure you're on a fast and reliable internet connection

  • Avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice

  • Try speaking more deliberately

  • Check to see if the microphone you are using needs to be upgraded

Need more help?

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