Using Speech Recognition

Windows Speech Recognition makes using a keyboard and mouse optional. You can control your PC with your voice and dictate text instead.

Note

Note

Speech Recognition is only available for the following languages:

English (United States and United Kingdom), French, German, Japanese, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional), and Spanish.

Show all

Set up Speech Recognition

There are a few steps you need to take before you can start using Speech Recognition. First, you’ll need to set up a microphone. Next, it’s a good idea to take the tutorial to learn how to use Speech Recognition effectively. Finally, you can train your PC to recognize your voice.

To set up a microphone

Before you set up Speech Recognition, make sure you've plugged the microphone into your PC so the following steps work.

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

  2. Enter set up a microphone in the search box, tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Set up a microphone.

  3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Note

Note

If possible, use a headset microphone; it's less likely to pick up background noise.

To take the tutorial

The tutorial that comes with Speech Recognition takes about 30 minutes to complete, and it’s a good use of time. It teaches you the voice commands used in Speech Recognition.

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

  2. Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Speech Recognition.

  3. Tap or click Take Speech Tutorial.

  4. Follow the instructions in the Speech Recognition Tutorial.

To train your PC to recognize your speech

Speech Recognition uses a special voice profile to recognize your voice and spoken commands. The more you use Speech Recognition, the more detailed your voice profile becomes—and that should improve your PC's ability to understand you.

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

  2. Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Speech Recognition.

  3. Tap or click Train your computer to better understand you.

  4. Follow the instructions in the Speech Recognition Voice Training.

Using Speech Recognition

You can use your voice for many purposes, such as filling out online forms or typing letters. When you speak into the microphone, Speech Recognition changes your voice into text on the screen.

To dictate text using Speech Recognition

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

  2. Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Speech Recognition.

  3. Say "start listening," or tap or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.

  4. Open the app you want to use, or select the text box you want to dictate text into.

  5. Say the text you want to dictate.

To correct mistakes

You can correct mistakes in three different ways.

  1. To correct the last thing you said, say "correct that."

  2. To correct a single word, say "correct" followed by the word that you want to correct. If the word appears more than once, all instances will be highlighted, and you can choose the one you want to correct.

  3. In the Alternates panel dialog box, say the number next to the item you want, and then say "OK."

To add or change words in the Speech Dictionary

Using the Speech Dictionary, you can add your own words, stop a specific word from being dictated, or correct or delete a word in the dictionary.

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

  2. Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Speech Recognition.

  3. Say "start listening," or tap or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.

  4. Say "open Speech Dictionary" and do any of the following:

    • To add a word to the dictionary, say "Add a new word," and then follow the instructions.

    • To prevent a specific word from being dictated, say "Prevent a word from being dictated," and then follow the instructions.

    • To correct or delete a word that is already in the dictionary, say "Change existing words," and then follow the instructions.

Controlling your PC with Speech Recognition

You can use simple, short commands to control your PC. The following table shows some of the most commonly used Speech Recognition commands. Words that look like this indicate that you can replace the example word or phrase with similar words and get useful results.

Note

Note

Any time you need to find out what commands to use, say "what can I say?"

To do this Say this

Select any item by its name

Click File; Start; View

Select any item or icon

Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click file name

Double tap or double-click any item

Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click file name

Switch to an open app

Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application

Scroll in one direction

Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left; Scroll right

Insert a new paragraph or new line in a document

New paragraph; New line

Select a word in a document

Select word

Select a word and start to correct it

Correct word

Select and delete specific words

Delete word

Show a list of applicable commands

What can I say?

Update the list of speech commands that are currently available

Refresh speech commands

Turn on listening mode

Start listening

Turn off listening mode

Stop listening

Move the Speech Recognition microphone bar

Move speech recognition

Minimize the microphone bar

Minimize speech recognition

View Windows Help and Support content about specific tasks

How do I do something?

For example, say “How do I install a printer?” and a list of Help topics is returned.

Note that this command is available only if you're using the U.S. English Speech Recognizer.

Dictation

To do this Say this

Insert a new line in the document

New line

Insert a new paragraph in the document

New paragraph

Insert a tab

Tab

Insert the literal word for the next command (for example, you can insert the word "comma" instead of the punctuation mark)

Literal word

Insert the numeral form of a number

Numeral number

Put the cursor before a specific word

Go to word

Put the cursor after a specific word

Go after word

Don't insert a space before the next word

No space

Go to the start of the sentence that the cursor is in

Go to start of sentence

Go to the start of the paragraph that the cursor is in

Go to start of paragraph

Go to the start of the document

Go to start of document

Go to the end of the sentence that the cursor is in

Go to end of sentence

Go to the end of the paragraph that the cursor is in

Go to end of paragraph

Go to the end of the current document

Go to end of document

Select the word in the current document

Select word

Select the word range in the current document

Select word range; Select word through word

Select all text in the current document

Select all

Select a number of words before the location of the cursor

Select previous 20 words; Select previous 10 words

Select a number of words after the location of the cursor

Select next 20 words; Select next 10 words

Select the last text you dictated

Select that

Clear the selection on the screen

Clear selection

Capitalize the first letter of the word

Caps word

Capitalize all the letters of the word

All caps word

Make all the letters in the word lowercase

No caps word

Change the next number of words to uppercase

Change next 10 words to uppercase

Change the next number of words to lowercase

Change next 10 words to lowercase

Delete the previous sentence

Delete previous sentence

Delete the next sentence

Delete next sentence

Delete the previous paragraph

Delete previous paragraph

Delete the next paragraph

Delete next paragraph

Delete the selected or last dictated text

Delete that

Keyboard keys

To do this Say this

Press any key on the keyboard

Press keyboard key; Press a; Press capital b; Press Shift plus a; Press Ctrl plus a

Press certain keyboard keys without saying "press" first

Delete; Backspace; Enter; Page Up; Page Down; Home; End; Tab

Notes

Notes

  • You can also use the ICAO\NATO phonetic alphabet to say the keyboard keys to press. For example, you can say "press alpha" to press "a" or "press bravo" to press "b."

  • Using Speech Recognition to press keyboard keys works only with languages that use Latin alphabets.

Punctuation marks and special characters

To insert this Say this

,

Comma

;

Semicolon

.

Period; Dot; Decimal point

:

Colon

“

Open double quote; Open quote

”

Close double quote; Close quote; Close inverted commas

'

Apostrophe

‘

Open single quote

’

Close single quote

>

Greater than sign

<

Less than sign

/

Forward slash

\

Backslash

~

Tilde

@

At sign

!

Exclamation mark; Exclamation point

?

Question mark

#

Number sign; Pound sign

$

Dollar sign

%

Percent sign

^

Caret

(

Open parenthesis; Open paren

)

Close parenthesis; Close paren

_

Underscore

-

Hyphen; Minus sign; Dash

–

En dash

—

Em dash

=

Equal sign

+

Plus sign

{

Open brace; Open curly bracket

}

Close brace; Close curly bracket

[

Open bracket; Open square bracket

]

Close bracket; Close square bracket

|

Vertical bar

:-)

Smiley face

:-(

Frowny face

;-)

Winky face

™

Trademark sign

¾

Three quarter sign

¼

One quarter sign

½

One half sign

£

Pound sterling sign

&

Ampersand; And sign

*

Asterisk

//

Double slash

`

Back quote

<

Open angle bracket

>

Close angle bracket

±

Plus or minus sign

«

Open angle quote

»

Close angle quote

×

Multiplication sign

÷

Division sign

¢

Cent sign

¥

Yen sign

§

Section sign

©

Copyright sign

®

Registered sign, Registered trademark sign

°

Degree sign

Paragraph sign

…

Ellipsis; Dot dot dot

ƒ

Function sign

Commands

To do this Say this

Select any item by saying its name

File; Edit; View; Save

Select any item

Click File; Click Bold; Click Save; Click Close

Double-tap or double-click any item

Double-click Computer; Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click folder name

Press and hold or right-click any item

Right-click Computer; Right-click Recycle Bin; Right-click folder name

Minimize all windows to show your desktop

Show desktop

Select something if you don't know what it's called

Show numbers (Numbers will appear on the screen for every item in the active window. Say an item's corresponding number to select it.)

Select a numbered item

19 OK; 5 OK

Double-tap or double-click a numbered item

Double-click 19; Double-click 5

Press and hold or right-click a numbered item

Right-click 19; Right-click 5

Windows Commands

To do this Say this

Open an app

Open Paint; Open WordPad; Open app name

Switch to an open app

Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to app name; Switch application

Close an app

Close that; Close Paint; Close Documents

Minimize

Minimize that; Minimize Paint; Minimize Documents

Maximize

Maximize that; Maximize Paint; Maximize Documents

Restore

Restore that; Restore Paint; Restore Documents

Cut

Cut that; Cut

Copy

Copy that; Copy

Paste

Paste

Delete

Delete that; Delete

Undo

Undo that; Scratch that; Undo

Scroll in one direction

Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll right; Scroll left

Scroll an exact distance in pages

Scroll down 2 pages; Scroll up 10 pages

Scroll an exact distance in other units

Scroll up 5; Scroll down 7

Go to a field in a form or an app

Go to field name; Go to Subject; Go to Address; Go to cc

Tap or click anywhere on the screen

To do this Say this

Show the mousegrid

Mousegrid

Move the mouse pointer to the center of any mousegrid square

Number of the square; 1, 7, 9

Tap or click any mousegrid square

Click number of the square

Select an item to drag with the mousegrid

Number of the square where the item appears; 3, 7, 9 (followed by) mark

Select an area in the mousegrid where you want to drag the item

Number of the square where you want to drag; 4, 5, 6 (followed by) click
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