Click the Dictate button, start talking but no typing appears. The most common problem with Dictate is the microphone setup. That can happen without notice to the customer or even a court warrant. Laws in various countries, including the USA, mean Microsoft can be compelled to monitor and handover data from any customer. Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft and used only to provide you with text results.” “This service does not store your audio data or transcribed text.

Microsoft now addresses privacy concerns with this statement. There are more spoken punctuation phrases and symbols available – see our full Dictate punctuation list. Punctuationĭictate has Automatic punctuation where the following words insert the symbol of that name.

Whatever you say now will be heard and turned into text. The list can change at any time as Microsoft improves Dictate. Some of these languages are currently tagged as ‘Preview’. This selection is separate and not linked to any language setting for the Mac. ‘Preview’ languages aren’t fully developed but should work fairly well. Pull down the list and choose your spoken language. With a default microphone setup and working try Dictate. Mac users might hear a faint sigh of envy in the distance … that’s millions of Windows users looking at the above image and wondering why it can’t be that easy in Windows! As we’ve noted before, even the Microsoft’s Skype division does a better job of audio/video setup than Windows itself. As you can see above,Ĭheck the microphone is working with the Input Level ‘VU meter’ bars moving as you speak The input volume can be adjusted with the slider. Click OK.Ĭhoose the microphone or device you want to use. Mac blocks apps from using some elements like microphone or camera until the user specifically approves. The first time, a standard security warning will appear.

If you want to use the in-built or default microphone, just click the Dictate button on the Home tab in Word. It’s a lot easier on a Mac than in Windows. Make sure the Mac computer and Office can ‘hear’ you. It’s also context sensitive, using whole spoken phrases to work out the right words (instead of the old method which converted each spoken word individually).Īnother improvement is microphones, especially in laptops, which now pick up speech with better fidelity. It’s being improved regularly and isn’t as dependant on the speed of your computer. In this article we’ll look at how Dictate works in Word and Outlook for Mac.ĭictation in Word 365 (and Outlook 365) is cloud based. No compromises or differences except the setup is a LOT easier.ĭictate is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers with Office 365 software for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Mac Word 365 and Outlook 365 have the same powerful ‘Speech to Text’ option, Dictate, that’s in the Windows version of Word and Outlook.

Microsoft word for mac dictation