Hi, I’m Elizabeth. Today we are going to learn how to use voice typing in Microsoft Word. Let’s take a look. Dictation lets you use speech-to-text to author content in Microsoft 365 with a microphone and internet connection. It’s a quick and easy way to get your thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes. In order to get started, open a new or existing document, and then go to the Home tab. Look for the microphone on the far-right side that says Dictate, or use the shortcut keys Alt plus Backtick. That’s this funny symbol on your keyboard. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening. Start speaking to see text appear on your screen. Dictation is also available on the web version of Word. You can adjust your settings by clicking on the gear icon next to the microphone. Under Spoken Language, you can view and change languages in the dropdown. By default, dictation is set to your document language in Microsoft 365. There are 15 supported languages and over 20 others in Preview mode, which means the accuracy is not as well vetted yet. Under Microphone, you can view and change your microphone settings. Next to Enable Auto-Punctuation, you can toggle the checkmark on or off. This provides you with the choice to have Word include punctuation or allow you to add it on your own throughout the document. Last is the Profanity Filter. You can mask potentially sensitive phrases with asterisks throughout your document. Once you’ve adjusted your settings to your liking, click on Save. In addition to dictating your content, you can speak commands to add punctuation, navigate around the page, and enter special characters. Some helpful phrases include Pause Dictation, Resume Dictation, New Line, New Line. Some examples of punctuation could include Period, Question Mark, Open Quotes, Close Quotes. Saying Delete by itself removes the last word or punctuation before the cursor. If you want to remove an entire sentence, you can say Delete that, and it will remove the last spoken utterance. You can bold, italicize, underline, or strike through a word or phrase. An example would be dictating, Review by tomorrow at 5 p.m., Bold tomorrow. You may have noticed that next to the Dictate button, there is a Transcribe button. You can record conversations or upload audio files, and Word will transcribe them automatically. Transcribe detects different speakers, so after you finish recording, you can easily follow the flow of the transcript. Good morning, Matthew. Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you, Elizabeth. I’m happy to be speaking with you today. Can you tell us why the topic of primary education is so important to you? The topic of education is one that I’m passionate about, and I am pleased to share my thoughts with your audience. After your conversation, your transcript will appear alongside the Word document, along with the audio recording. You can make edits or adjust the speaker’s names. You can add the entire transcript to your document, or just certain selections, like just the text, with speaker information, timestamps, or both. Likewise, if you’re writing something and you want to insert just a quote, you can go ahead and click on the plus icon next to any specific section of your transcript, and this will add it directly to your document. A somewhat hidden feature in Word, and one of my favorites, is text to speech. If you have text on the page that you want read to you, open your Word document and select control alt plus the space bar on your keyboard. You can adjust the settings, including the reading speed, as well as the voice. This is a great feature for multitasking, preparing for a presentation, or reviewing notes. Let’s shift to Google Docs. In this example, I’m using the web-based version. If you want to begin voice typing, click on Tools and then select Voice Typing. You can also use the keyboard shortcut control plus shift plus s. Just like with Word, Google Docs will default to your chosen language, but there’s a lot to pick from. And just like with Word, you can use commands to edit and format your document, although currently voice commands are only available in English. With both Word and Google Docs, if you see a lot of incorrect or missed words, make sure you’re on a fast and reliable internet connection. Also, try to avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice. I hope you found this tutorial useful. All the keyboard shortcuts I referenced are below, and please don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. See you next time.