Common commands in Speech Recognition

Windows 7

You can print this topic for quick reference while you're using Windows Speech Recognition.

How do I use Speech Recognition?

To use Speech Recognition, the first thing you need to do is set it up on your computer. To learn how to do that, see Set up Speech Recognition. When you're ready to use Speech Recognition, you need to speak in simple, short commands. The tables below include some of the more commonly used commands.

To open Speech Recognition

Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Windows Speech Recognition.
Say "start listening" or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.

Note

Speech Recognition is available only in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Common Speech Recognition commands

Frequently used commands

The following table shows some of the most commonly used commands in Speech Recognition. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

To do this	Say this
To do this Click any item by its name	Say this Click File; Start; View
To do this Click any item	Say this Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click file name
To do this Double-click any item	Say this Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click file name
To do this Switch to an open program	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 Make the computer listen to you	Say this Start listening
To do this Make the computer stop listening	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 only available if you're using the U.S. English Speech Recognizer. For more information, see Setting speech options.

Dictation

Commands for working with text

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to work with text. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

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 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

Commands for keyboard keys

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to press keyboard keys. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

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 will only work with Latin alphabets.

Punctuation marks and special characters

Commands for punctuation marks and special characters

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to insert punctuation marks and special characters. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

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

Controls

Commands for using common controls

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to perform tasks in Windows. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

To do this	Say this
To do this Click any item by saying its name	Say this File; Edit; View; Save; Bold
To do this Click any item	Say this Click File; Click Bold; Click Save; Click Close
To do this Double-click any item	Say this Double-click Computer; Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click folder name
To do this 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 Click something you don't know the name of	Say this Show numbers (Numbers will appear on the screen for every item in the active window. Say an item's corresponding number to click it.)
To do this Click a numbered item	Say this 19 OK; 5 OK
To do this Double-click a numbered item	Say this Double-click 19; Double-click 5
To do this Right-click a numbered item	Say this Right-click 19; Right-click 5

Windows

Commands for working with windows

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to work with windows and programs. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

To do this	Say this
To do this Open a program	Say this Open Paint; Open WordPad; Open program name
To do this Switch to an open program	Say this Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application
To do this Close a program	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 a program	Say this Go to field name; Go to Subject; Go to Address; Go to Cc

Click anywhere on the screen

Commands for clicking anywhere on the screen

The following table shows commands for using Speech Recognition to click anywhere on the screen. Words in italic font indicate that you can say many different things in place of the example word or phrase and get useful results.

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—or numbers—of the square; 1; 7; 9; 1, 7, 9
To do this 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—or numbers—of the square where the item appears; 3, 7, 9 (followed by) mark
To do this Select an area where you want to drag the item with the mousegrid	Say this Number—or numbers—of the square where you want to drag; 4, 5, 6 (followed by) click

Windows Vista