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. Then, 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.

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

You can also open Search with a keyboard by pressing Windows logo key +Q.
Enter Set up a microphone in the search box, and then tap or click Set 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 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.

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

You can also open Search with a keyboard by pressing Windows logo key +Q.
Enter Speech Recognition in the search box, and then tap or click Speech Recognition.
Tap or click Train your computer to better understand you.
Follow the instructions in the Speech Recognition Voice Training.

Using Speech Recognition

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

To dictate text using Speech Recognition

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

You can also open Search with a keyboard by pressing Windows logo key +Q.
Enter speech recognition in the search box, 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 app you want to use, or select the text box 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 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.

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

You can also open Search with a keyboard by pressing Windows logo key +Q.
Enter speech recognition in the search box, and 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," 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.

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 in bold indicate that you can replace the example word or phrase with similar words and get useful results.

You can also keyboard shortcuts as verbal commands to control your PC. To view all of the available shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Note

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

To do this	Say this
To do this Open the Start screen	Say this Start
To do this Open the charms bar	Say this Press Windows C
To do this Open the Search charm	Say this Press Windows Q
To do this Show all apps	Say this Apps
To do this Start working with an app	Say this Right-click; Press Windows Z
To do this Use an app	Say this Say what you want to do. For example, change to Celsius in the Weather app.
To do this Select any item by its name	Say this Click File; Start; View
To do this Select any item or icon	Say this Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click file name
To do this Double tap or double-click any item	Say this Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click file name
To do this Switch to an open app	Say this Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application
To do this Scroll in one direction	Say this Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left; Scroll right
To do this Insert a new paragraph or new line in a document	Say this New paragraph; New line
To do this Select a word in a document	Say this Select word
To do this Select a word and start to correct it	Say this Correct word
To do this Select and delete specific words	Say this Delete word
To do this Show a list of applicable commands	Say this What can I say?
To do this Update the list of speech commands that are currently available	Say this Refresh speech commands
To do this Turn on listening mode	Say this Start listening
To do this Turn off listening mode	Say this Stop listening
To do this Move the Speech Recognition microphone bar	Say this Move speech recognition
To do this Minimize the microphone bar	Say this Minimize speech recognition
To do this View Windows Help and Support content about specific tasks	Say this 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
To do this Insert a new line in the document	Say this New line
To do this Insert a new paragraph in the document	Say this New paragraph
To do this Insert a tab	Say this Tab
To do this Insert the literal word for the next command (for example, you can insert the word "comma" instead of the punctuation mark)	Say this Literal word
To do this Insert the numeral form of a number	Say this Numeral number
To do this Put the cursor before a specific word	Say this Go to word
To do this Put the cursor after a specific word	Say this Go after word
To do this Don't insert a space before the next word	Say this No space
To do this Go to the start of the sentence that the cursor is in	Say this Go to start of sentence
To do this Go to the start of the paragraph that the cursor is in	Say this Go to start of paragraph
To do this Go to the start of the document	Say this Go to start of document
To do this Go to the end of the sentence that the cursor is in	Say this Go to end of sentence
To do this Go to the end of the paragraph that the cursor is in	Say this Go to end of paragraph
To do this Go to the end of the current document	Say this Go to end of document
To do this Select the word in the current document	Say this Select word
To do this Select the word range in the current document	Say this Select word range; Select word through word
To do this Select all text in the current document	Say this Select all
To do this Select a number of words before the location of the cursor	Say this Select previous 20 words; Select previous 10 words
To do this Select a number of words after the location of the cursor	Say this Select next 20 words; Select next 10 words
To do this Select the last text you dictated	Say this Select that
To do this Clear the selection on the screen	Say this Clear selection
To do this Capitalize the first letter of the word	Say this Caps word
To do this Capitalize all the letters of the word	Say this All caps word
To do this Make all the letters in the word lowercase	Say this No caps word
To do this Change the next number of words to uppercase	Say this Change next 10 words to uppercase
To do this Change the next number of words to lowercase	Say this Change next 10 words to lowercase
To do this Delete the previous sentence	Say this Delete previous sentence
To do this Delete the next sentence	Say this Delete next sentence
To do this Delete the previous paragraph	Say this Delete previous paragraph
To do this Delete the next paragraph	Say this Delete next paragraph
To do this Delete the selected or last dictated text	Say this Delete that

Keyboard keys

To do this	Say this
To do this Press any key on the keyboard	Say this Press keyboard key; Press a; Press capital b; Press Shift plus a; Press Ctrl plus a
To do this Press certain keyboard keys without saying "press" first	Say this 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 works only with languages that use Latin alphabets.

Punctuation marks and special characters

To insert this	Say this
To insert this ,	Say this Comma
To insert this ;	Say this Semicolon
To insert this .	Say this Period; Dot; Decimal point
To insert this :	Say this Colon
To insert this “	Say this Open double quote; Open quote
To insert this ”	Say this Close double quote; Close quote; Close inverted commas
To insert this '	Say this Apostrophe
To insert this ‘	Say this Open single quote
To insert this ’	Say this Close single quote
To insert this >	Say this Greater than sign
To insert this <	Say this Less than sign
To insert this /	Say this Forward slash
To insert this \	Say this Backslash
To insert this ~	Say this Tilde
To insert this @	Say this At sign
To insert this !	Say this Exclamation mark; Exclamation point
To insert this ?	Say this Question mark
To insert this #	Say this Number sign; Pound sign
To insert this $	Say this Dollar sign
To insert this %	Say this Percent sign
To insert this ^	Say this Caret
To insert this (	Say this Open parenthesis; Open paren
To insert this )	Say this Close parenthesis; Close paren
To insert this _	Say this Underscore
To insert this -	Say this Hyphen; Minus sign; Dash
To insert this –	Say this En dash
To insert this —	Say this Em dash
To insert this =	Say this Equal sign
To insert this +	Say this Plus sign
To insert this {	Say this Open brace; Open curly bracket
To insert this }	Say this Close brace; Close curly bracket
To insert this [	Say this Open bracket; Open square bracket
To insert this ]	Say this Close bracket; Close square bracket
To insert this \|	Say this Vertical bar
To insert this :-)	Say this Smiley face
To insert this :-(	Say this Frowny face
To insert this ;-)	Say this Winky face
To insert this ™	Say this Trademark sign
To insert this ¾	Say this Three quarter sign
To insert this ¼	Say this One quarter sign
To insert this ½	Say this One half sign
To insert this £	Say this Pound sterling sign
To insert this &	Say this Ampersand; And sign
To insert this *	Say this Asterisk
To insert this //	Say this Double slash
To insert this `	Say this Back quote
To insert this <	Say this Open angle bracket
To insert this >	Say this Close angle bracket
To insert this ±	Say this Plus or minus sign
To insert this «	Say this Open angle quote
To insert this »	Say this Close angle quote
To insert this ×	Say this Multiplication sign
To insert this ÷	Say this Division sign
To insert this ¢	Say this Cent sign
To insert this ¥	Say this Yen sign
To insert this §	Say this Section sign
To insert this ©	Say this Copyright sign
To insert this ®	Say this Registered sign, Registered trademark sign
To insert this °	Say this Degree sign
To insert this ¶	Say this Paragraph sign
To insert this …	Say this Ellipsis; Dot dot dot
To insert this ƒ	Say this Function sign

Windows commands

To do this	Say this
To do this Select any item by saying its name	Say this File; Edit; View; Save
To do this Select any item	Say this Click File; Click Bold; Click Save; Click Close
To do this Double-tap or double-click any item	Say this Double-click Computer; Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click folder name
To do this Press and hold or right-click any item	Say this Right-click Computer; Right-click Recycle Bin; Right-click folder name
To do this Minimize all windows to show your desktop	Say this Show desktop
To do this Select something if you don't know what it's called	Say this Show numbers (Numbers will appear on the screen for every item in the active window. Say an item's corresponding number to select it.)
To do this Select a numbered item	Say this 19 OK; 5 OK
To do this Double-tap or double-click a numbered item	Say this Double-click 19; Double-click 5
To do this Press and hold or right-click a numbered item	Say this Right-click 19; Right-click 5

Working with windows and apps

To do this	Say this
To do this Open an app	Say this Open Paint; Open WordPad; Open app name
To do this Switch to an open app	Say this Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to app name; Switch application
To do this Close an app	Say this Close that; Close Paint; Close Documents
To do this Minimize	Say this Minimize that; Minimize Paint; Minimize Documents
To do this Maximize	Say this Maximize that; Maximize Paint; Maximize Documents
To do this Restore	Say this Restore that; Restore Paint; Restore Documents
To do this Cut	Say this Cut that; Cut
To do this Copy	Say this Copy that; Copy
To do this Paste	Say this Paste
To do this Delete	Say this Delete that; Delete
To do this Undo	Say this Undo that; Scratch that; Undo
To do this Scroll in one direction	Say this Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll right; Scroll left
To do this Scroll an exact distance in pages	Say this Scroll down 2 pages; Scroll up 10 pages
To do this Scroll an exact distance in other units	Say this Scroll up 5; Scroll down 7
To do this Go to a field in a form or an app	Say this 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
To do this Show the mousegrid	Say this Mousegrid
To do this Move the mouse pointer to the center of any mousegrid square	Say this Number of the square; 1, 7, 9
To do this Tap or click any mousegrid square	Say this Click number of the square
To do this Select an item to drag with the mousegrid	Say this Number of the square where the item appears; 3, 7, 9 (followed by) mark
To do this Select an area in the mousegrid where you want to drag the item	Say this Number of the square where you want to drag; 4, 5, 6 (followed by) click