 | Want to type using your voice? Just select WIN + H to open voice typing — great for long form text, or just if you have a word you can’t spell. Learn more about how to use it ❯ |
With voice typing, you can enter text on your PC by speaking. Voice typing uses online speech recognition, which is powered by Azure Speech services.
How to start Voice Typing
To use voice typing, you’ll need to be connected to the internet, have a working microphone, and have your cursor in a text box.
Once you turn on voice typing, it will start listening automatically. Wait for the “Listening…” alert before you start speaking.
To turn on voice typing:
- Press Windows logo key + H on a hardware keyboard
- Press the microphone key next to the Spacebar on the touch keyboard
To stop voice typing:
- Say a voice typing command like “Stop listening”
- Press the microphone button on the voice typing menu
Note: Press Windows logo key + Alt + H to navigate through the voice typing menu with your keyboard.
Install a Language
You can use a voice typing language that’s different than the one you’ve chosen for Windows. Here’s how:
- Select Start > Settings > Time & language > Language & region.
- Find Preferred languages in the list and select Add a language.
- Search for the language you’d like to install, then select Next.
- Select Next or install any optional language features you’d like to use. These features, including speech recognition, aren’t required for voice typing to work.
To see this feature’s supported languages, see the list in the following article.
Switch Language
To switch voice typing languages, you’ll need to change the input language you use. Here’s how:
Press the language switcher in the bottom right of the touch keyboard
Select the language switcher in the corner of your taskbar
Press Windows logo key + Spacebar on a hardware keyboard
Voice typing Commands
Use voice typing commands to quickly edit text by saying things like “delete that” or “select that”.
The following list tells you what you can say. To view supported commands for other languages, change the dropdown to your desired language.
Select your desired language
| Voice typing command | What you can say |
|---|---|
| Stop or pause voice typing | Pause voice typing |
| Pause dictation | |
| Stop voice typing | |
| Stop dictation | |
| Stop listening | |
| Stop dictating | |
| Stop voice mode | |
| Pause voice mode | |
| Delete last spoken word or phrase | Delete that |
| Erase that | |
| Ignore that | |
| Select last spoken word or phrase | Select that |
| Press Enter | Press Enter |
| Press Backspace | Backspace |
| Press Backspace | |
| Press Tab | Tab |
| Press Tab | |
| Press Space | Insert Space |
| Press Space |
Note: If a word or phrase is selected, speaking any of the “delete that” commands will remove it.
Punctuation Commands
Use voice typing commands to insert punctuation marks.
The following list tells you what you can say. To view supported commands for other languages, change the dropdown to your desired language.
Select your desired language
| To Insert this | Say this |
|---|---|
| ‘ | begin/open single quote |
| ’ | end/close single quote |
| – | Hyphen |
| minus sign | |
| n-dash | |
| — | m-dash |
| ! | exclamation mark/point |
| # | number/pound sign |
| $ | dollar sign |
| % | Percent sign |
| & | ampersand, and sign |
| ( | left/open parentheses |
| ) | right/close parentheses |
| * | asterisk |
| , | comma |
| . | period, full stop |
| … | ellipsis, dot dot dot |
| / | forward slash |
| : | colon |
| 🙁 | frowny face |
| 🙂 | smiley face |
| ; | semicolon |
| 😉 | winky face |
| ? | question mark |
| @ | at sign, at mention |
| [ | left/open (square) bracket |
| \ | backslash |
| ] | right/close (square) bracket |
| ^ | caret symbol |
| _ | underscore |
| ` | backquote, backtick |
| { | left/open (curly) brace |
| | | vertical bar sign/character, pipe character |
| } | right/close (curly) brace |
| ~ | tilde symbol |
| “ | open quotes |
| ” | close quotes |
| £ | pound sterling sign |
| ¥ | yen sign |
| € | euro sign |
| + | plus sign |
| < | less than sign, left/open angle bracket |
| <3 | heart emoji |
| = | equal sign |
| > | greater than sign, right/close angle bracket |
| ± | plus or minus sign |
| × | multiplication sign |
| ÷ | division sign |
| § | section sign |
| © | copyright sign/mark |
| ® | registered sign |
| ° | degree symbol/sign |
| ¶ | paragraph sign/mark |
| new line | new/next line |
| new paragraph | new paragraph |
| ‘s | apostrophe-s |