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How to Use Speech Recognition and Dictate Text on Windows 10

Need to write something on your computer without using your keyboard? You can easily talk to your PC

Lance Whitney
By Lance Whitney 

Did you know you can talk to Windows to issue commands, open applications, dictate text, and perform other tasks?

You can do that in Windows 10 through Cortana, but you can also talk to Windows 10 and previous versions of Windows using the built-in speech recognition. Or dictate text on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or later.

After teaching Windows to understand the sound of your voice, you can then talk to the OS to get it to respond to your commands. The speech-recognition feature can be especially helpful for people with disabilities who can't use the keyboard or mouse. But it's available to anyone who'd like to try talking to Windows instead. The feature even serves up a reference guide so you know what commands and other tasks you can throw at Windows via your voice.

More recent versions of Windows 10 also offer a dictation feature you can use to create documents, emails, and other files via the sound of your voice. Once the dictation is active, you can dictate text as well as punctuation marks, special characters, and cursor movements.

Let's check out how to use speech recognition and dictation in Windows.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

Trigger Dictation

Open an application in which you want to dictate text, such as Notepad, WordPad, Microsoft Word, or your email software. As long as you're running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or higher, you can trigger the dictation by pressing the Windows key + H. If you have not enabled speech services, a pop-up will tell you to do so in Settings.

Enable Speech Services

Click the pop-up or navigate to Settings > Privacy > Speech, inking & typing. Once there, click "Turn on speech services and typing suggestions." A pop-up will tell you that Microsoft collects this data to improve its products. If that's okay with you, click Turn On.

Trigger the Dictation Feature

With speech services turned on, press the Windows key + H once again. The dictation window pops up ready to listen.

Issue Commands

Start speaking. Windows is smart enough to handle certain tasks automatically, such as capitalizing the first word of a sentence.

Dictating Punctuations and Formatting

You can also issue commands to dictate punctuation and start a new paragraph. As you do with other dictation programs and apps, just speak what you need it to do. Say "period," "comma," "new line," "new paragraph," or whatever action you want to take.

Here are the punctuation characters and symbols you can dictate, according to Microsoft:
To Insert This:Say This:
@at symbol; at sign
#Pound symbol; pound sign; number symbol; number sign; hash symbol; hash sign; hashtag symbol; hashtag sign; sharp symbol; sharp sign
$Dollar symbol; dollar sign; dollars symbol; dollars sign
%Percent symbol; percent sign
^Caret
&And symbol; and sign; ampersand symbol; ampersand sign
*Asterisk; times; star
(Open paren; left paren; open parenthesis; left parenthesis
)Close paren; right paren; close parenthesis; right parenthesis
_Underscore
-Hyphen; dash; minus sign
~Tilde
\Backslash; whack
/Forward slash; divided by
,Comma
.Period; dot; decimal; point
;Semicolon
'Apostrophe; open single quote; begin single quote; close single quote; close single quote; end single quote
=Equal symbol; equal sign; equals symbol; equal sign
(space)Space
|Pipe
:Colon
?Question mark; question symbol
[Open bracket; open square bracket; left bracket; left square bracket
]Close bracket; close square bracket; right bracket; right square bracket
{Open curly brace; open curly bracket; left curly brace; left curly bracket
}Close curly brace; close curly bracket; right curly brace; right curly bracket
+Plus symbol; plus sign
<Open angle bracket; open less than; left angle bracket; left less than
>Close angle bracket; close greater than; right angle bracket; right greater than
"Open quotes; begin quotes; close quotes; end quotes; open double quotes; begin double quotes; close double quotes; end double quotes

Fixing Mistakes

What if you or the dictation program makes a mistake? Simply undo it. Say "Undo that," and your recent word or phrase or sentence is removed.

Starting and Stopping Dictation

Notice that if you stop speaking for a few seconds, the dictation stops listening. You can also pause the dictation on your own by saying "stop dictation" or by clicking on the microphone icon. To wake it up, just click on the microphone icon on the dictation bar.

Editing Through Dictation

Now, let's say you've finished your document or message and need to edit the text to correct mistakes and change certain words. You can edit by voice, though the process is more cumbersome than using your trusty mouse and keyboard. But if you know the right phrases, you may want to try it out.

Here are the editing commands you can dictate, according to Microsoft:
To Do This:Say This:
Clear a selectionClear selection; unselect that
Delete the most recent dictation result or currently selected textDelete that; strike that
Delete a unit of text, such as the current wordDelete [word]
Move the cursor to the first character after a specified word or phraseGo after that; move after [word]; go to the end of [paragraph]; move to the end of that
Move the cursor to the end of a unit of textGo after word; move after [word]; go to the end of that; move to the end of [paragraph]
Move the cursor backward by a unit of textMove back to the previous word; go up to the previous paragraph
Move the cursor to the first character before a specified word or phraseGo to the start of [word]
Move the cursor to the start of a text unitGo before that; move to the start of that
Move the cursor forward to the next unit of textMove forward to the next word; go down to the next paragraph
Move the cursor to the end of a text unitMove to the end of [word]; go to the end of the paragraph
Enter one of the following keys: Tab, Enter, End, Home, Page up, Page down, Backspace, DeleteTap Enter; press Backspace
Select a specific word or phraseSelect [word]
Select the most recent dictation resultSelect that
Select a unit of textSelect the next three words; select the previous two paragraphs
Turn spelling mode on and offStart spelling; stop spelling

Activate Speech Recognition

To use Speech Recognition, open Control Panel on Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 and double-click Speech Recognition.

Start Speech Recognition

The Speech Recognition window pops up with links to dive into the feature. Click on the first link to "Start Speech Recognition." The first screen for setting up speech recognition explains what the feature does and how it works. Click Next.

Select Microphone

The next screen asks what type of microphone you're using—a headset, desktop, or other. Choose the correct option and then click Next. At the next screen, read the information on proper microphone placement and click Next.

Read Aloud

At the next screen, read the sentence aloud to make sure the speech-recognition feature picks up the sound and volume of your voice. Then click Next. If your voice is detected properly, the next screen will tell you the microphone is set up and ready to use. Click Next.

Document Review

The next screen asks if you want the speech-recognition feature to examine the documents and email messages in your Windows search index. That helps the feature better understand the words you typically use. If you're okay with this, click "Enable document review." If you're concerned about privacy issues, click "Disable document review." Click Next.

Activation Mode

At the next screen for activation mode, choose the first option to "Use manual activation mode" if you want to turn off speech recognition when you're done with it and are willing to click the onscreen microphone button to restart it. Otherwise, choose the second option to "Use voice activation mode" to put speech recognition to sleep when you're done with it and say "Start listening" to wake it up. Click Next.

At the next screen, you can view a Reference Sheet listing all the commands you can issue via your voice. Click the button to "View Reference Sheet" to open and read a webpage with all the voice commands. Then return to the speech recognition setup and click Next.

Run at Startup

At the next screen, choose whether you want Speech Recognition to automatically load each time you start Windows. Click Next.

At the next screen, you can opt to run a tutorial to learn and practice the commands that you can issue by voice. Click the button to "Start tutorial" to run this, or click the button to "Skip tutorial" to bypass this part.

If you chose to run the tutorial, an interactive webpage pops up with videos and instructions on how to use speech recognition in Windows. The Speech Recognition control panel also appears at the top of the screen.

Customize and Control

You can now start talking to your computer. You can also customize and control the speech recognition. At the Speech Recognition window in Control Panel, click on the link for "Advanced speech options" to tweak the Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech features.

Features and Options

Finally, you can right-click on the microphone button on the Speech Recognition Control Panel at the top of the screen. From the pop-up menu, you can access different features and configure various options.
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