If I had to pick one of the best new features in Windows 11, I would definitely choose the voice typing experience in Windows 11. It’s very smooth, accurate, and the voice recognition is surprisingly good. It looks like Microsoft has made a ton of improvements to Microsoft Speech Services online. So, if you want to enable and use voice typing in Windows 11, follow our simple guide below. You can even get this Windows 11 feature in Windows 10 by following the last method. On that note, let’s dive in.
Enabling and Using Voice Typing in Windows 11 (2021)
Here we have mentioned two ways of voice typing in Windows 11. One is the built-in voice typing tool and the other is the built-in dictation tool in Office apps on your Windows 11 PC. I also talked about how to use voice typing in Windows 10 and some helpful dictation commands.
How to Use Windows 11’s Built-in Voice Typing Tool
The native voice typing tool in Windows 11 is a system-wide utility and works in any application and environment, such as a browser, Notepad, or Office application. If you see a text field, simply invoke the voice typing toolbar; you are ready to go. Note, however, that you will need an active internet connection for voice typing to work.
1. The easiest way to enable voice typing is to use a Windows 11 keyboard shortcut. press “Windows key + H” to open the voice typing prompt at the same time.
2. Next, click the “microphone” button and start talking. Using Microsoft Speech Services online, your dictation will be converted from speech to text in no time. I was surprised to find that Windows 11’s voice typing experience was usable and accurate. You can see the voice typing feature in action here:
3. The best thing about voice typing in Windows 11 is “automatic punctuation” and again, it works really well. By the way, it is not enabled by default. You need to click on the “Settings” icon and turn on the “Auto punctuation” toggle.
4. In case your dictation is not selected properly, you can go to “Settings -> Time and Language -> Speech”. Choose the appropriate one here”Speaking language” from the drop-down menu based on your region or accent.
Enable Voice Typing Launcher in Windows 11
Moreover Open the “voice typing launcher” so every time you click on a text field, the voice typing layer appears. No matter what app or window you are in, click the “microphone” button and start voice typing instantly.
1. Click the “Settings” icon in the voice typing layer to enable this feature. Next, turn on the “Voice typing launcher” toggle.
2. For example, I’m on the Google Review page in Chrome and when I click on the text input field, the Voice typing launcher comes up automatically.
3. Now, I can click on it “microphone” button and add my review extremely easy. Pretty helpful, right? You can do this on any web page, text field in programs, web form, etc. You can do.
Using Voice Typing in Office Applications in Windows 11
If you’re not aware, besides built-in voice typing, Office apps also have a “Dictat” option, and it works pretty much the same. In fact, it also has Auto punctuation support and works on Windows 10 as well. Those using the free Office portal on the web can also enjoy Microsoft Speech Services without any limitations. As a side note, you can find the differences between Office Web and Desktop apps in our detailed article. Note that the Typing to Text feature in Word is different from voice typing and is only available to paid users. To learn how voice typing works in Microsoft Office applications, follow these steps:
1. To use voice typing in the Office apps on your Windows 11 PC, open one of these apps – Word or PowerPoint. In the upper right corner a “Dictate” option. The same step applies to Office on the web.
2. Click “Dictate” and immediately speak to convert Convert your speech to text in real time. Just press the “microphone” button and start talking.
3. Similar to Windows 11’s built-in voice typing, you can click the “Settings” icon and enable “Auto punctuation”. You can also customize your preferred speech language and enable the profanity filter when working on office documents or school projects.
Using Voice Typing in Windows 10
Windows 11 has a much smarter voice typing utility, while Windows 10 also comes with a native Dictation Tool. You can use the same “Windows + H” keyboard shortcut and a dictation popup will appear at the top of the screen.
Difference between dictation tools in Windows 10 and voice typing in Windows 11, lack of automatic punctuation on the old. In Windows 11, punctuation, letters, symbols, etc. You need to use dictation commands to add it. Here’s how to do this.
1. First, open Settings and go to Privacy -> Speech and select “online speech recognition“.
2. Now, “Windows + HYou will be able to dictate your speech with the ” shortcut. You won’t find automatic punctuation here. Instead, you need to use the dictation commands I mentioned below to add punctuation, symbols, and special characters.
Dictation and Punctuation Commands for Advanced Voice Typing
Currently only supports English (US) advanced dictation commands, but the following languages support basic symbols, text, numbers, etc. supports.
- English (US – Advanced Dictation Commands)
- Simplified Chinese
- English (Australia, Canada, India, UK)
- French (France, Canada)
- German (Germany)
- Italian (Italy)
- Portuguese Brazil)
- Spanish (Mexico, Spain)
Here are the dictation commands you can use while voice typing on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer:
| To do this | Say this |
|---|---|
| Clear a selection | Clear selection; deselect this |
| Delete the last dictation result or currently selected text | Delete this; hit this |
| Delete a text unit such as the current word | delete word |
| Move the cursor to the first character after a specified word or phrase | After that, go; movement after the word; go to the end of the paragraph; go to the end of this |
| Move the cursor to the end of a text unit | Follow the word; movement after the word; go to the end of this; go to the end of the paragraph |
| Move the cursor back one unit of text | Go back to the previous word; go to previous paragraph |
| Move the cursor to the first character before a specified word or phrase | Go to beginning of word |
| Move the cursor to the beginning of a text unit | Go before him; go to the beginning of this |
| Move the cursor to the next text unit | Scroll to the next word; go to next paragraph |
| Moves the cursor to the end of a text unit | Go to the end of the word; go to the end of the paragraph |
| Enter one of the following keys: Tab, Enter, End, Home, Page up, Page down, Back, Delete | Tap Enter; press the back key |
| Choose a specific word or phrase | choose word |
| Select the latest dictation result | choose this |
| Choose a text unit | Choose the next three words; select the previous two paragraphs |
| Turn typing mode on and off | Start typing; stop spelling |
If you want to dictate letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols, you need to execute the commands below. For example, if you want to add a capital letter, simply say “capital” before the letter.
| to add this | Say this |
|---|---|
| @ | in the symbol; mark |
| # | Pound symbol; hash mark; number symbol; number sign; hash symbol; hash sign; hashtag symbol; tag mark; sharp symbol; sharp mark |
| $ | dollar symbol; dollar sign; dollar symbol; dollar sign |
| % | percent symbol; percent sign |
| ^ | hat |
| & | And the symbol; and sign; ampersand symbol; ampersand |
| * | star; times; Star |
| ( | open money; left parenthesis; open parenthesis; left parenthesis |
| ) | close parenthesis; right parenthesis; close brackets; right parenthesis |
| _ | Emphasize |
| – | Hyphen; short line; Minus sign |
| ~ | Tilde |
| \ | backslash; hit |
| / | slash; divided |
| , | Comma |
| . | Period; dot; decimal; point |
| ; | Semicolon |
| ‘ | apostrophe; open single quote; start single quote; close single quote; close single quote; end single quote |
| = | Equal symbol; equal Mark; the equals symbol; equal Mark |
| (space) | Space |
| | | Pipe |
| : | Colon |
| ? | Question mark; question symbol |
| [ | Open bracket; open square bracket; left bracket; left square bracket |
| ] | Close the bracket; close square brackets; right parenthesis; right square bracket |
| { | Open brace; open curly brace; left curly brace; left curly brace |
| } | Close the curly brace; close curly braces; right curly brace; right curly brace |
| + | Plus symbol; plus sign |
| Open angle bracket; less hungry; left angle bracket; less left | |
| > | Close angle bracket; larger close; right angle bracket; bigger than right |
| “ | Open citations; start quotes; close quotes; recent quotes; open double quotes; start with double quotes; close double quotes; double quotation mark |
Intelligent Voice Typing with Auto Punctuation in Windows 11
This is how you can enable and use voice typing in Windows 11. I use Gboard’s voice typing on my Android phone every day, and I must say Microsoft has greatly improved the voice typing experience in Windows 11. Fast, accurate and automatic punctuation mostly works. I’m excited about Windows 11 and the other new features it will bring before the final release. For now, you can learn how to take a screenshot in Windows 11 or customize the Windows 11 Start Menu or check in Screen time in Windows 11. Anyway, this is us. If you have any questions, comment below and let us know.
