How to use Speech Recognition

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 recognise 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.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, then click Search.)
Enter setting up a microphone in the search box, tap or click Settings, then tap or click Setting up a microphone.
Follow the instructions on the screen.

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.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, then click Search.)
Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Settings, then tap or click Speech Recognition.
Tap or click Take Speech Tutorial.
Follow the instructions in the Speech Recognition Tutorial.

To train your PC to recognise your speech

Speech Recognition uses a special voice profile to recognise 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.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, then click Search.)
Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Settings, then tap or click Speech Recognition.
Tap or click Train your computer to understand you better .
Follow the instructions in the Speech Recognition Voice Training.

Using Speech Recognition

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

To dictate text using Speech Recognition

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, then click Search.)
Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Speech Recognition.
Say "start listening" or tap or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.
Open the application that you want to use, or select the text box that you want to dictate text into.
Say the text you want to dictate.

To correct mistakes

You can correct mistakes in three different ways.

To correct the last thing you said, say "correct that".
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.
In the Alternatives panel dialogue box, say the number next to the item that you want, 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.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, then click Search.)
Enter speech recognition in the search box, tap or click Apps, then tap or click Windows Speech Recognition.
Say "start listening", or tap or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.
Say "open Speech Dictionary" and do any of the following:
- To add a word to the dictionary, say "Add a new word", then follow the instructions.
- To prevent a specific word from being dictated, say "Prevent a word from being dictated", then follow the instructions.
- To correct or delete a word that is already in the dictionary, say "Change existing words", 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

Any time that 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 application		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
Minimise the microphone bar		Minimise 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 only available if you're using the U.S. English Speech Recogniser.

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
Capitalise the first letter of the word		Caps word
Capitalise all the letters of the word		All caps word
Make all the letters in the word lower case		No caps word
Change the next number of words to upper case		Change next 10 words to upper case
Change the next number of words to lower case		Change next 10 words to lower case
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

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 only works with languages that use Latin alphabets.

Punctuation marks and special characters

To insert this		Say this
,		Comma
;		Semicolon
.		Full-stop; 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; Hash sign; Pound sign
$		Dollar sign
%		Per cent 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

Controls

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
Minimise 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

To do this		Say this
Open an application		Open Paint; Open WordPad; Open application name
Switch to an open application		Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to application name; Switch application
Close an application		Close that; Close Paint; Close Documents
Minimise		Minimise that; Minimise Paint; Minimise Documents
Maximise		Maximise that; Maximise Paint; Maximise 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 application		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 centre 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