It’s worth considering using an external microphone for your dictation, particularly if you plan on regularly using voice to text software within your organization. This can be done at the click of a button when prompted. If you haven’t used Microsoft Word’s speech to text software before, you’ll need to grant the application access to your microphone. (Image credit: Microsoft) Step 3: Allow Microsoft Word access to the Microphone
Gboard is less work-focused in its functions, however, and Microsoft’s feature is for the people and companies going for the whole Office 365 platform, so people may end up using both and having to move text and audio between them.Microsoft Word’s dictation software supports several languages.
Google also added real-time translation to the app’s voice dictation, however, putting it on a more even playing field with Microsoft’s option. Google Assistant can add dictated text to any app where typing is an option, giving it more flexibility than the Microsoft feature potentially. For instance, Google is adding its voice assistant to the new Gboard keyboard interface, allowing users to dictate text into any app on their device. And it’s necessary for Microsoft to compete with potential rivals. As the Cortana app vanishes and the voice assistant becomes focused on enterprise services, basic dictation capability was always a given. Speech-to-text may not be a very glamorous feature, but it is a valuable one for the kind of potential customers Microsoft is targeting with updates to Microsoft 365 and the improved Microsoft Teams. “Dictation can also help with informal writing as well-sometimes a message needs some personality! You can now say things like “smiley face” or “heart emoji” to give your message that little extra touch.” Future Speech Whether on desktop or mobile (or transitioning between devices), you can stay in the flow and focus on your message by using dictation with voice commands to add, format, edit, and organize your text,” Microsoft explained in a blog post. “We’ve been adding voice commands to Dictate so that you can break away from the keyboard. Dictate is what allows the transcription to understand natural speech in 29 languages, with real-time translation in 60 tongues. The voice commands were previously part of a separate Dictate add-on for Office 365 before Microsoft integrated it into the platform. The feature even understands commands for stopping and starting the dictation in case you need to do something in between sessions. The feature comes paired with new voice commands for dictation, allowing the user to start lists, adjust fonts and include special symbols without having to use the mouse or keyboard.
Transcribe in Word will also soon be available on mobile devices running iOS and Android operating systems. The user can edit the transcriptions to mark different speakers and fix any errors. Saved audio files can be uploaded whole for transcriptions as well. Transcribe in Word is a pretty standard speech-to-text system, using the cloud to transcribe what people say on documents and saving the recordings. The transcription and voice command combination adds an extra dimension to the popular product, part of the company’s integration of voice technology into other services as the Cortana voice assistant migrates to be mainly an enterprise product Transcribe the Word Microsoft has released its Transcribe in Word feature to the Microsoft 365 subscribers a year after first announcing the function.