A big advantage is that you can add Speak to the Quick Access toolbar, position the Quick Access toolbar below the Ribbon, and then Minimise the Ribbon (Right click on Ribbon > select Minimise). Speak offers a range of text-to-speech options - by word, paragraph etc. It uses whichever voice is the Default voice used by the computer. In favour of Speak are the fact that it is built in not just to Word but to other MS Office 2010 software. So how does Speak, the MS Office 2010 text-to-speech feature compare with WordTalk, the toolbar designed to use with MS Word versions from Word 97 onwards? You can also add Speak to the Quick Access Toolbar and position the toolbar below the Ribbon to simplify the interface for pupils. You follow the same steps to add the Speak feature in each program. It can also be made available to use with PowerPoint (yes talking PowerPoint), Excel and OneNote (one of our favourite programs that deserves more widespread use in schools). MS Word is just one of the Office Programs that the Speak feature works with. This is very useful for pupils with a visual impairment, poor mouse control or simply because the pupil finds it quicker to use keyboard commands rather than mouse clicking.
(You do this via the Control Panels rather in Word itself īecause it is part of MS Word you can assign a Keyboard Shortcut to start and stop speaking text. If you have Heather or Stuart or both installed you can choose one or other of these high quality Scottish voices to speak the text.
It is pretty basic but it is available.Īs MS Office is integrated with Windows it means that whichever voice is selected in that computer's Control Panel will be used when you select Speak. Yes, MS Office 2010 includes a text-to-speech feature. There are options to make language settings as well: Click on the downward arrow on the Dictate icon>Scroll down and click on the preferred language>There is additional Preview language also.A well hidden feature in Microsoft Office 2010 is the option to speak text out.To know some more advanced options>You can still use the keyboard when you are using the Speech-to-text features on MS word.
You can also use the voice command to complete your dictation or stop the function.Make sure you have to dictate everything accurately and precisely>After you are done click on the Date button again to finish the process.Use this keyword as you dictate along: dictate punctuation as you record along, say New line so that you can start a new line like pressing the Enter key.Make sure you pronounce the word clearly and speak slowly and clearly for more accurate dictating.You can now start dictating your speech or words>Recording has started when the icon turns red.
Open the Microsoft Word software on your computer.
Check out the guide to learn how to enable voice typing and use it in Microsoft Word. The function is useful for many situations and for many people. The following guide is to show how to enable the dictation of your document using Microsoft Word.