Office Insiders on Windows can now ditch the keyboard, use voice dication across Word, Outlook, PowerPoint

Are you an Office Insider on Windows? If you are, you might want to move your fingers away from your keyboard and consider using your voice more often thanks to a new “Dictate” feature.

Indeed, Microsoft has added voice dictation in Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint with the latest Office Insider build for Windows. According to Microsoft, the Dictate feature is powered by Office Intelligent services and brings the power of state of the art speech recognition to the Office 365 apps. This a pretty cool addition, and it may well be a threat for premium voice dictation apps on Windows.

Windows #OfficeInsiders, get ready to ditch your keyboard and use your voice to write documents, compose emails, and create presentations! Voice dictation is available now to #InsidersFast. Find out more here: https://t.co/RaryJPeoyq pic.twitter.com/F6SgNTMX8x

— MS Office Insiders (@OfficeInsider) March 12, 2018

To enable the feature, you’ll first need to ensure you’re an Office Insider and connected to the internet. Keep in mind it is only available if you have an active Office 365 Subscription here for the English Language in the United States. If you pass those initial requirements, you can then enable the Trust Center Privacy Options by going to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Option. You can then open Word, Outlook, or Powerpoint, turn on your Microphone, and click Dictate and speak to have your voice turned into words.

Certain phrases will be required for punctuation, and you can say “period, comma, question mark” to add these to your document. This is definitely a cool feature, so be sure to tinker with it and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.