1. Start Dictate in Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows
Open a new or existing document, make sure Word is signed in to your Microsoft 365 account, and choose Home > Dictate. Wait for the Dictate button to turn on and start listening, then speak; the text appears at the insertion point. To pick up again after a pause, Microsoft points to the keyboard shortcut Alt+` (the backtick key) or the microphone in the floating dictation menu. Dictation starts in your document’s language by default.
The gear icon on the dictation toolbar holds four settings: Spoken Language, Microphone, Auto Punctuation (where the chosen language supports it) and Filter sensitive phrases, which masks potentially sensitive phrases with ***. Words Word may have misheard get a marking underneath with alternatives; select Ignore if the word is already right.
- Sign in to Word with the Microsoft 365 account that holds the subscription.
- Choose Home > Dictate and wait until the button shows it is listening.
- Press Alt+` or the floating menu’s microphone to resume.
- Use the gear icon for language, microphone, auto punctuation and phrase filtering.
2. Spoken punctuation, editing and formatting commands in Word
Besides plain text, Dictate accepts spoken commands. For punctuation say “period”, “comma”, “question mark”, “new line”, “colon”, or “open quotes” and “close quotes”; Word also knows parentheses, brackets, braces, “hyphen” and “ellipsis”. Saying “delete” alone removes the last word or punctuation mark before the cursor, “delete that” or “scratch that” removes the last thing you said, and “undo” works as you would expect.
Formatting works on what you just said: “bold last word”, “underline last sentence”, “capitalize that”, or “bold tomorrow” to bold one word in the sentence. Build lists with “create numbered list”, “next item” and “exit list”, add a comment with “add comment look at this tomorrow”, and say “pause dictation”, “stop dictation” or “show commands”. Symbols such as “at sign”, “underscore”, “backslash”, “section sign” and currency signs are on Microsoft’s list too.
As of October 2026 Microsoft lists 15 fully supported dictation languages: Chinese (China); English for Australia, Canada, India, the UK and the US; French for Canada and France; German; Hindi; Italian; Japanese; Brazilian Portuguese; and Spanish for Spain and Mexico. Another 36 preview languages, such as Dutch, Korean, Polish and Swedish, may have lower accuracy or limited punctuation, and each language has its own command list.
3. Word Dictate missing, grayed out, or not hearing you
A missing button is almost always about the license or the Windows version. Microsoft says Dictate is only for Microsoft 365 subscribers, is not available in Office 2016 or 2019 for Windows without Microsoft 365, and needs Windows 10 or later. For a grayed-out button, Microsoft’s check is whether the document is read-only. Dictation is also one of Microsoft 365’s connected experiences that analyze your content: with a personal Microsoft account you control those under File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings, and with a work or school account your administrator decides whether they are available.
For microphone errors, Microsoft’s checklist is short. “We don’t have access to your microphone” means another app may be holding it, so close that app and try again. “We can’t detect your microphone” means checking that it is plugged in and working. “Dictation can’t hear you” means checking mute and input level, moving somewhere quieter, or trying a headset. Lots of wrong or missed words call for a fast, reliable internet connection and less background noise.
On Windows 11, also open Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone. Microsoft says Microphone access and Let apps access your microphone should be on; an app that doesn’t appear in that list is likely a desktop app and is governed by Let desktop apps access your microphone. Turning that switch off can stop Windows’ own dictation as well.
- No button: check the subscription, the Word version, and Windows 10 or later.
- Grayed out: make the document editable.
- Work or school account: ask whether connected experiences are allowed.
- No sound: Windows microphone privacy settings, then mute and input level.
4. Where Word sends your voice, and dictating with no internet
Microsoft is direct about Dictate’s data path: your speech is sent to Microsoft and used only to give you text results, and the service does not store your audio or the transcribed text. It needs a reliable internet connection, and there is no offline Dictate. Windows voice typing, started with Windows key+H in Word or any other text box, is online too: Microsoft says it uses online speech recognition powered by Azure Speech, and Windows 10 dictation also requires an internet connection. On Copilot+ PCs, Fluid dictation runs small language models on the device to tidy grammar, punctuation and filler words, but Microsoft still describes voice typing itself as online recognition.
The built-in offline option is Voice access, in Windows 11 version 22H2 and later. Microsoft describes it as a way to control the PC and author text using only your voice and without an internet connection. Start it from Settings > Accessibility > Speech, say “Dictation mode” before a long passage so phrases aren’t taken as commands, and use “Add to vocabulary” for names and terms Word would otherwise mangle. Some languages are ready to use and others need a speech pack download first; Alt+Shift+B wakes Voice access or puts it to sleep.
Voice access is a Windows 11 feature, so on Windows 10 offline dictation into Word needs a third-party app.
5. Transcribe in Word: recordings and audio files, not live typing
Transcribe sits under the Dictate drop-down and solves a different problem: a meeting, interview or voice memo you want as text. Choose Home > Dictate > Transcribe, then Start recording, or Upload audio for a .wav, .mp4, .m4a or .mp3 file. Word separates speakers as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, lets you play back each timestamped section, and adds the transcript to the document only when you choose to add a section or all of it.
Microsoft says Transcribe in desktop Word is available only in Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows in commercial tenants; government tenants get it in Word for the web. A Microsoft 365 subscription covers 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month, and a Microsoft Copilot license raises that to 30,000. Recordings are saved to the Transcribed Files folder in OneDrive, and processing time depends on your internet speed, so this is a connected feature as well.
6. Offline dictation into Word on Windows and Linux with IraVoice
If you are online and subscribed, Word Dictate is the natural first choice: it is built in and understands Word’s formatting commands. IraVoice is for the cases it can’t cover: no network, Windows 10 without Voice access, a Word version without Dictate, or one dictation key across Word, Outlook, the browser and everything else. IraVoice 1.2.2 runs on macOS 13+ on Apple silicon, Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), and Linux (beta) and recognizes speech on the computer with NVIDIA Parakeet. The Parakeet Unified EN model (about 700 MB) downloads once; after that, nothing you say leaves the PC.
Put the cursor in Word, hold Right Ctrl, speak, and release; IraVoice pastes the text with Ctrl+V and restores your clipboard, so it does not depend on which Word edition you have. Tap the key for hands-free dictation and press Esc to cancel. It types words, not Word commands, so bold and lists stay on the keyboard. Replacements turn a spoken phrase into exact text such as an address or a clause you reuse, and when IraVoice mishears a name, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F, correct it, and it types the name right from then on. If Word is running as administrator, Windows blocks the paste; IraVoice leaves the text on the clipboard and says so.
Microsoft’s Dictate articles cover Word for Windows and Mac, Word for the web and Word mobile, so on Linux the route is Word for the web in a browser. There, IraVoice’s Linux beta, an AppImage for any 64-bit distribution from 2022 on (or a .deb or .rpm), types into the document when you press Ctrl+Space; Wayland support is limited in the beta. IraVoice Local costs $79 once for one computer, $109 for two, or $149 for three, with a 3-day free trial.