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How to dictate email in Microsoft Outlook

It's time to speed up the way you write emails. If you have trouble typing quickly, dictating an email can help increase your productivity. We're going to show you Dictate, which integrates directly into Outlook.

Dictate is a utility developed by Microsoft and it also works with other Office programs. Just plug in your microphone, click a button and start talking. Everything you say is transcribed..

If you use Dictate or have a different speech-to-text software that you use, please let us know in the comments.

About Dictate

Microsoft Garage is a division of Microsoft that allows employees to work on their own projects. Microsoft's new app means you'll never fall asleep again. Microsoft's new app means you'll never fall asleep again. Microsoft's new Android app has some creative ways to do just that. Turn off the alarm in the morning. Read more with the support of the company. His name comes from the fact that Bill Gates took Microsoft out of his garage and this division is now housed in his old office on the Redmond campus.

Teams can be made up of any number of people and can be supported by those experienced at all stages of project development. Microsoft Garage not only encourages creativity, but also helps the company to seek innovation..

One such project that grew out of this is Dictate. It is a speech-to-text utility that integrates into Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint, similar to Google Doc's voice typing feature. Google Doc Voice Typing:A Secret Weapon for Productivity Google Doc Voice Typing:A secret productivity weapon Learn everything you need to know about voice dictation and voice control in Google Docs, including how to get started and some essential productivity tips. Read more . Simply speak into your microphone and it converts to text, using the technology that powers the Windows 10 Cortana virtual assistant. Hey Cortana? Everything you didn't know to ask and more Hey Cortana? Everything you didn't know to ask for and more Cortana can do a lot more than you think. This master list of basic and not-so-obvious commands will help you get to know your virtual assistant and increase your productivity. Read more.

Dictate is capable of understanding over 20 languages ​​and can type in 60. You can also enter punctuation automatically, or you can switch to speaking it manually. Let's show you how it works for Outlook.

Download Dictate

Before downloading Dictate, you should first check whether you are using the 32-bit or 64-bit version. What is the difference between 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows? What is the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows? What is the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows? Here is a simple explanation and how to check which version you have. Read more from Office. Keep in mind that even if you're using 64-bit Windows, it doesn't mean that's your version of Office.

To check, open Outlook and go to File> Office Account> About Outlook . You'll see your version of Outlook listed.

How to dictate email in Microsoft Outlook

Then close all open Office programs. Then go to the Dictate website and download the version you need. Run the installer and open Outlook once it's complete.

How to use Dictate

You can use Dictate at any time when writing an email, accessible via Dictation section on the tape. Before you begin, make sure your microphone is plugged in.

Use the From dropdown menu to set which language you will speak and the A dropdown to set the language in which you want the text to be printed.

How to dictate email in Microsoft Outlook

When you're ready to talk, click start . It will detect your microphone and the icon will show a red circle to indicate that it is listening.

How to dictate email in Microsoft Outlook

Unlike other email dictation apps, Dictate doesn't immediately enter text as you speak. Instead, it will wait until it has reached the end of the sentence, and then include it. When you're done, click Stop .

You can use the following commands while speaking:

  • New line: Enter a line break.
  • Delete: Delete the last line you dictated..
  • Stop dictation: End the dictation session.

Dictate will automatically put punctuation into your sentences. It's pretty good at detecting when to do this, but you may want to control it yourself. If so, before recording, click Manual Scoring ribbon button.

How to dictate email in Microsoft Outlook

These are the commands you can use for that:

  • Period
  • Comma
  • Question mark
  • Open Quote
  • Close quote
  • Colon

One of the most requested features for Dictate is support for more manual punctuation commands, so this list may be expanded in the future.

Dictate in action

I've recorded some videos so you can see how to dictate email in Outlook with Dictate. This first video shows me speaking in English, with the English text and punctuation automatically detected.

As you can see, Dictate is very precise. I tried several different attempts, somewhere it was either talking too fast or missing the words at all, and it still did a commendable job of converting it to text. Of course, your mileage may vary, especially if you're in a noisy room.

I then created a second video to test manual punctuation while dictating the email.

Although it correctly transcribed what I said, including punctuation, it did not adhere to grammar rules as well as when punctuation was automatically detected. You put spaces between punctuation if you pause before saying it, which was not necessary. However, it will handle punctuation well enough if you say it at the same time as the sentence.

Other speech-to-text options

It's still early days for Dictate, so I hope the development team will continue to improve its functionality along with the detection quality of Cortana's technology. Maybe one day it will be integrated into Office out of the box.

If you're looking for other email dictation options for Windows 10, check out our articles on how to enable use of speech recognition to control your PC Enable speech-to-text and speech control using speech recognition settings in Windows speech to Text and speech control when setting up speech recognition in Windows speech recognition is still more powerful than Cortana. Drive voice to text and voice control. This article will show you what speech recognition can do, how to set it up, train it, and use it. More information and the best free third-party programs to do similar things. Best Speech to Text (Free) Software for Windows Best Speech to Text (Free) Software for Windows Looking for the best free speech to text software for Windows. ? We compare Dragon Naturally Speaking to free alternatives from Google and Microsoft. Read more.

Do you use Dictate to transcribe your emails? Is there another program you prefer??