FAQs: How to ‘Voice Type’ in MS Word

If you write a lot of documentation, it’s worth looking at the voice access tool in Microsoft Word.

Basically, this allows you to dictate text which it automatically transcribes into text. The quality is about 95% accuracy. For some reason I always avoid doing this I’m not quite sure why. But over the weekend I installed it even though there were a few hitches getting it to downloaded, I began to experiment to see where and how it could work. Here’s a few things I learned. See if you find this helpful.

Getting Started

So, a few things to bear in mind. If you set it up the microphone it is always listening or to put it another way you can set it up so that the microphone is always listening and it will record what you’re saying, then transfer from audio to text into a blank Microsoft Word document. Like I’m doing right now.

Use Cases

So when should you use this feature? Here’s a few examples that I’m finding useful.

Working backwards: one is when I’m too tired to write in the evenings but I just want to get something down on paper. For example, I want to list some items to be included in the next set of SOP docs, but am too tired to write things down in detail. But I would like to get started – and get them out of my mind before I switch off for the evening. 

I don’t know about you but if I’ve been typing all day long sometimes it just gets so difficult to type correctly that is not worth the effort in trying to work. However, since I started to use the ‘addiction’ aspects of Microsoft Word – yes, that came out in the text when it should have said diction – it’s allowed me to do some more lightweight work in the evenings. After I get something down, even in a rough format, I can then tidy it up in the morning.

Alternative Audio-To-Text Tools

I should say you can also do this with a lot of other apps on your phone and you can also do it with Google Docs. However, because I live in the Microsoft ecosystem having this set up in Word does make things that little bit easier.

Once I have material in different place, I can simply get it into Microsoft Word and use that as a starting point. I should also add that I have Microsoft Word the free version on my phone and I use this for dictating things on the go.

Shortcuts

There are a few shortcuts that you might find helpful if you are using this method.

Lean closer to your laptop.

Breathe slowly and talk in a nice relaxed manner.

You’ll find that after a while that you get into a certain kind of cadence and the rhythm when speaking and the dictation tool will pick this up. There are occasions when you talk too fast or safe to network goes down that you might lose a line or two here or there but that’s fine you can always go back and add it in later.

Don’t look at the document when dictating!

I know that my team counter-intuitive but I found that if you keep your attention somewhere else for example looking out the window or another part of the room and just get out of your mind what you want to run to the paper, that seems to work best.

I think the reason for this is that if you’re looking at the text as you’re typing it in you’re kind of getting into the process of subconsciously reviewing or editing the material rather than simply getting it out of your mind onto the page.

Of all the things I would suggest that’s probably the main one.

Formatting on the go

Another thing you can do if you want to format a document as you’re going along is you can say at the end of every sentence, “add a period. Add a new line.”

So for me I keep it super simple I don’t get I don’t overcomplicate things. I add more shortcuts in the next tutorial.

Accent

The other thing is to do with your accent. What I’ve found is that if you speak as a normal cadence, it will pick up what you’re saying pretty good.

The reason I’m stressing this is that paradoxically if you speak too s.l.o.w.l.y. it seems to interfere with the diction process.If you speak too affectedly, it interprets each part of a word as a seperate word, or at least tries to. 

So, just speak in a normal pattern and you’ll find that the results are better. 

If you try too hard to speak in a kind of effective or professional or you know super clear way, you’ll find it is kind of exhausting and not only that but you’ll probably notice that your throat begins to tighten up.

Something as simple as talking becomes very stressful.

Pause, breathe.

There’s no hurry when you’re dictating. Just get whatever out of your mind it is you want to get onto the page.

Setu your spellchecker so that if you know Microsoft Word continually misinterprets certain words you’re saying, it will correct those automatically.

Final thoughts

The diction tool in Microsoft Word is quite interesting.

I wouldn’t recommend using it all day long however I found that it’s quite handy to use on the go and also when you’re too tired to do ‘real’ writing.

Finally, it is really good for brainstorming when you simply want to get things out of your mind onto a page. I have more ideas in my mind than I can ever type down. Using the diction tool is a great way to transfer the ideas without struggling with typos on my keyboard. 

Try it and let me know how you get on. Send me any questions over on LinkedIn.