Dictation in Word: how to use the Dictate button

In shortIn Word, start dictation with Home › Dictate (on a Mac, Option + F1 also works). According to Microsoft's help, you need a Microsoft 365 subscription, to be signed in, and an internet connection. Microsoft sorts spoken languages into fully supported and preview languages; preview languages may have lower accuracy or limited punctuation support.

What do you need to dictate in Word?

Word's built-in dictation feature is the Dictate button: you speak into the microphone, and Word types what you say at the cursor. The same feature is in Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote, but this article focuses on Word.

According to Microsoft's help, dictation needs:

• A Microsoft 365 subscription. The help puts it plainly: dictation is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers. This applies to Word for the web as well: its help also asks you to sign in with an active Microsoft 365 subscription.
• Signing in with your Microsoft 365 account on the device you want to dictate on.
• A microphone – built-in or external, as long as it works in your system.
• A reliable internet connection, because recognition runs through Microsoft's service.
• Windows 10 or above on Windows. The help specifically notes that Dictate isn't available in Office 2016 or 2019 for Windows without Microsoft 365.

If any of these is missing, the button simply doesn't appear or stays grayed out – there's a separate section on that below.

How do you start dictating in Word?

1. Open a new or existing document in Word, signed in with your Microsoft 365 account.
2. Click where you want the text to go.
3. On the Home tab, click Dictate (the microphone icon). The path in the help is Home › Dictate on both Windows and Mac.
4. If asked, allow microphone access.
5. Wait for the button to switch on and Word to start listening – then speak.
6. To finish, click the Dictate button again.

Keyboard shortcuts

• On a Mac, according to the help you can also start dictation with ⌥ Option + F1.
• On Windows, the help's tips mention Alt + ` for resuming dictation (` is the grave accent key; its position varies by keyboard layout). The help doesn't give a shortcut for starting dictation on Windows.

How do you set the spoken language?

By default, the help says, the spoken language matches your document language. So if you speak Spanish in a document marked as English, you'll get poor results. To change the spoken language:

1. Start dictation so the dictation toolbar appears.
2. Click the gear icon to open the settings.
3. In the Spoken Language drop-down, choose your language – for English, pick your regional variant (for example US or UK).

If you can't find your language, look further down the drop-down list too: Microsoft handles languages in two groups, and some languages aren't in the main one. The next section explains why that matters.

What does it mean when a language is in “preview”?

Microsoft's help lists dictation languages in two groups: supported languages and preview languages. The supported group includes several variants of English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, US), as well as French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish and Chinese (China). The preview group is longer and includes, for example, Czech, Dutch, Hungarian, Korean, Polish, Russian and Swedish.

According to the help, preview languages may have:

• lower accuracy than fully supported languages;
• limited punctuation support, which means automatic punctuation may not work.

In practice, you can dictate in a preview language in Word, but plan for more review, and say punctuation out loud rather than relying on automatic punctuation. The lists change from time to time, so check the current status of your language in the language section of Microsoft's “Dictate your documents in Word” help article.

How do you say punctuation and commands?

Microsoft's help lists spoken punctuation and symbols for each language in tables. Some useful ones from the English table:

In English, Word also understands editing and dictation commands, for example “delete that” or “scratch that”, “undo”, “insert space”, commands that begin with “select”, and “pause dictation” or “exit dictation”. For many other languages, the tables contain only punctuation and symbols – so when you dictate in those, do the editing with the keyboard and mouse.

What other dictation settings are there?

Besides the spoken language, two more settings behind the gear icon are worth knowing:

• Auto Punctuation: where available for the language, Word adds punctuation by itself. In preview languages it may not be available or reliable; if commas land in strange places, turn it off and say the punctuation.
• Filter sensitive phrases: masks potentially sensitive phrases with asterisks (***). If that gets in the way of technical text or a quotation, you can turn it off here.

You can also choose the Microphone there. If dictation has stopped, click the Dictate button – on Windows, according to the help, Alt + ` also works – to resume.

Does dictation work in Word for the web and on phones?

Microsoft keeps a separate help article for Word for the web. According to it, the steps are the same: Home › Dictate, and you choose the spoken language in the same Spoken Language list under the gear icon. The web help also asks you to be signed in with an active Microsoft 365 subscription, with a microphone and a reliable internet connection. The help doesn't say which browsers it works in – if the button doesn't appear in one, try another, and make sure the browser has microphone access.

Microsoft's overview page lists Word for Windows and Mac, as well as Word for iPhone and Android phones, among the apps that support dictation, but adds that features in the web or mobile apps may differ. On a phone, always try it on your own device, and if Word's button isn't available, dictate with your keyboard's built-in microphone.

Why can't you see the Dictate button, or why can't Word hear you?

Can't find the Dictate button

According to the help, check these:

• Are you signed in with an active Microsoft 365 subscription? An expired trial or a different account (personal instead of work, for example) is a common cause.
• Are you using Office 2016 or 2019 for Windows without Microsoft 365? Dictate isn't available in those.
• Is your PC running Windows 10 or later?

Microphone isn't working

Check that the microphone is connected and selected as the input in your system sound settings. On Windows, look in the Sound section of Settings; on a Mac, in System Settings › Sound › Input. On a Mac, also check in Privacy & Security that Word has microphone access.

Dictation can't hear you

The help suggests: check that the microphone isn't muted, look at the input level, move somewhere quieter, and use a headset if you can. If Word keeps typing the wrong words, first check that the Spoken Language is set to the language you're speaking.

How do you work on a longer Word document with dictation?

A short letter is easy to dictate in one go, but for a ten-page report it pays to have a method. The workflow below works well because it uses Word's strengths (formatting, styles, spell check) and dictation's strength (fast, continuous text) in separate steps.

1. Outline with the keyboard. Type in the section headings and apply heading styles to them on the Home tab. That way the document's structure is ready before you say a word.
2. Dictate section by section. Click below the first heading, start dictation, and say what belongs in that part. Then move below the next heading. Shorter units are easier to focus on, and if something goes wrong, there's less to fix.
3. Say the punctuation. Especially in preview languages, spoken periods, commas and question marks are more reliable than automatic punctuation.
4. Review at the end. When you've finished dictating, read the text through and run Word's spell check. Misheard words are often correctly spelled but wrong for the context – spell check won't flag those, only careful reading will.
5. Format last. Create bullet lists, emphasis and tables at the end, with the mouse and keyboard.

This workflow is especially handy for meeting summaries, reports and first drafts of proposals, where the content is in your head and just needs writing down.

Small habits for better recognition

• Check the language in every new document. Because Word uses the document language by default, a file started from a template in another language needs the Spoken Language set again.
• Speak in whole sentences, at a steady pace. Recognition works from context, and choppy speech gives worse results.
• Say the punctuation if automatic punctuation isn't reliable for your language.
• Separate dictating and editing. Say the whole text first, then structure, format and fix it with the keyboard. It's the fastest workflow, especially in languages without editing commands.
• Check names, abbreviations and numbers. That's where mistakes are most likely, especially in a preview language.
• A quiet room and a good microphone. Even a basic headset is a big improvement over a laptop's built-in mic.

If you're weighing up whether switching is worth it at all, our dictation vs. typing comparison helps you decide which kinds of text gain the most.

When should you choose a different dictation tool?

Word's Dictate button is a good choice if you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription and mostly write in Word. It has two limitations: it only works in Microsoft apps, and many languages are only in preview there.

If you work on a Mac and want to dictate the same way in Word, your email, chat or browser, Mondi types into Word too: you dictate with one key (the right ⌥ Option by default), it cleans filler words out of the text, and it turns spoken punctuation into the actual marks. Mondi dictates in English and Hungarian and is currently available on Mac (macOS 13 and later); the Windows version is in the works. Details on the text cleanup feature page.

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