Dictate Help [Internal]

Using dictation

Dictating with your voice

1⁠. Make sure you are on a supported browser such as Edge, Firefox, or Chrome.

2⁠. Go to Home > Dictate. First-time users will be prompted to enable microphone permissions.

3⁠. A mic icon will appear - wait for it to turn on to be sure it started listening.

4⁠. Insert punctuation any time by saying them explicitly.

5⁠. Fix mistakes with suggestions or keyboard without having to turn off the mic icon.

6⁠. Exit dictation with Close (X) in the Dictation toolbar or pressing the button in the ribbon again.

Dictation and language settings

Click on the gear icon to see the following settings:

Auto Punctuation: Toggle the check-mark on or off, if it is available for the language chosen.

Voice Commands: Toggle commanding on or off. By default, it is turned on for supported languages.

Spoken Language: View and change languages in the drop-down. By default, Dictation is set to your document language in Office.

Supported Languages

Chinese (China)

English (Canada)

English (United Kingdom)

English (United States)

French (France)

German (Germany)

Italian (Italy

Spanish (Spain)

Spanish (Mexico)

Preview languages *

Danish

Dutch (Netherlands)

English (Australia)

English (India)

Finnish

French (Canada)

Japanese

Norwegian (Bokmål)

Portuguese (Brazil)

Swedish (Sweden)

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

Making corrections

Fix mistakes with suggestions or keyboard without having to turn off the mic icon. At the moment, corrections cannot be made fully with voice.

Markings may appear under words with alternates that we may have misheard.

If the marked word is already correct, you can select Ignore.

What can I say?

Choose your language:

English | Chinese | Spanish | French | German | Italian | Portuguese | Japanese | Norwegian | Swedish | Danish | Dutch | Finnish

English

Dictation is more powerful with punctuation and voice commands (preview). Try phrases like "new line", "delete", "bold that", "underline last sentence", "start list".

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
Period	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation mark	!
New line	New line (i.e. Enter)
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
Open quotes	"
Close quotes	"

Editing

Undo
Delete
Delete that
Delete last word
Delete last sentence

Formatting

Bold
Italics
Underline
Strikethrough
Superscript
Subscript
Remove [format]
Clear all formatting
[format] that
[format] last word
[format] last sentence
Align [left, center, right]

Creating lists

Start list
Start numbered list
Next line
Exit list

One-Shot Commenting

Add comment [content]

While dictating

Show help
Pause dictation
Exit dictation

Chinese

Phrase	Output
句 号	⁠。⁠
逗 号	⁠，⁠
换 行	New line
问 号	⁠？⁠

Spanish

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punto	.
coma	,
signo de apertura de interrogación	¿
signo de interrogación	?
signo de apertura de exclamación	¡
signo de exclamación	!
salto de línea nueva línea	nueva línea
dos puntos	:
punto y coma	;
comillas izquierdas	«
comillas derechas	»

French

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
point	.
virgule	,
point d'interrogation	?
point d'exclamation	!
saut de ligne	saut de ligne
deux points	:
point-virgule	;
guillemet gauche guillemet ouvrant	«
guillemet droit guillemet fermant	»

German

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punkt satzende	.
komma	,
fragezeichen	?
ausrufezeichen rufzeichen	!
neue zeile zeilenumbruch	neue zeile
doppelpunkt kolon	:
strichpunkt semikolon	;
öffnendes anführungszeichen beginn zitat	?
schließendes anführungszeichen ende zitat	"

Italian

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punto	.
virgola	,
punto interrogativo punto di domanda	?
punto esclamativo	!
a capo nuova riga	nuova riga
due punti	:
punto e virgola	;
virgolette aperte	«
virgolette chiuse	»

Portuguese

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
ponto final	.
vírgula	,
ponto de interrogação	?
ponto de exclamação	!
nova linha mudar de linha	nova linha
dois pontos	:
ponto e vírgula	;
abrir aspas	"
fechar aspas	"

Japanese

Phrase	Output
読 点	⁠、⁠
句 点	⁠。⁠
く て ん	⁠。⁠
ク エ ス チ ョ ン マ ー ク	⁠？⁠
疑 問 符	⁠？⁠
改 行 か い ぎ ょ う	New line
び っ く り マ ー ク	⁠！⁠
感 嘆 符	⁠！⁠
か っ こ 開 く	(
か っ こ 閉 じ る	)

Norwegian

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punktum	.
komma	,
spørsmålstegn	?
utropstegn	!
ny linje	ny linje

Swedish

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punkt	.
kommatecken	,
frågetecken	?
utropstecken	!
plustecken	+
påbörja ny rad ny rad	ny rad

Danish

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punktum	.
komma	,
spørgsmålstegn	?
udråbstegn	!
plustegn	+
linjeskift	linjeskift
kolon	:
semikolon	;

Dutch

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
punt	.
komma	,
vraagteken	?
uitroepteken	!
plusteken	+
nieuwe regel regeleinde	nieuwe regel
puntkomma	;
dubbele punt	:

Finnish

Adding punctuation

Phrase	Output
piste	.
pilkku	,
kysymysmerkki	?
huutomerkki	!
plusmerkki	+
uusi rivi rivinvaihto	uusi rivi

Troubleshooting

Microphone issues

Microphone doesn't have access

If you see "We don't have access to your microphone":

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

Microphone isn't working

If you see "There is a problem with your microphone" or "We can't detect your microphone":

• Test the microphone to make sure it's working.

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.

Privacy

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.