Dictate in any app · Writing
Word's Dictate button is good, but it is tied to a Microsoft 365 subscription and an internet connection. Typally puts your words into Microsoft Word the moment you release the key, in whichever field you left the cursor.
From the people who build Typally. If Microsoft Word's own option covers your use, use it — this page will tell you when it does.The Dictate button on the Home ribbon, part of Microsoft 365. With a current subscription it works well and supports several languages. On a perpetual licence — Word 2019, Word 2021, a one-off Office purchase — the button may be missing or reduced, which surprises people who assume it is part of Word itself.
Word is where formal documents get written, and formal documents are where punctuation matters most. Dictating a contract clause or a report paragraph and then hand-fixing every comma undoes the time you saved.
In practice people use it for: Reports, formal letters, academic drafts, legal correspondence, and the long documents that get emailed as attachments rather than shared as links.
Setup happens once, outside Microsoft Word, and then applies to every program on the machine:
Install, sign in, and it waits in the tray.
Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in Microsoft Word before starting.
Nothing truncates part-way through.
Word's autocorrect runs on dictated text as well as typed text, so it will capitalise and 'fix' words after they land. Check names and technical terms, or add them to the AutoCorrect exception list.
Typally works on any Word — including perpetual-licence Office where the Dictate button is missing or reduced — because it types keystrokes rather than plugging into Microsoft 365. It also keeps working offline-adjacent quirks aside, and dictated text is recorded as a normal tracked insertion under your name.
A paralegal drafting a client letter dictates the four body paragraphs in about ninety seconds, then types the heading, the reference number and the enclosure list by hand. The parts that need exact formatting stay on the keyboard; the parts that are just sentences get spoken. The letter is finished before the kettle boils.
Dictate the body text but type the headings. Structure is faster with a keyboard and Word's heading styles, while prose is faster out loud — splitting the two beats doing either job entirely one way.
Word's autocorrect runs on dictated text as well as typed text, so it will capitalise and 'fix' words after they land. Check names and technical terms, or add them to the AutoCorrect exception list.
For Word's own Dictate button, generally yes — it is a Microsoft 365 feature. A separate dictation app types into Word like a keyboard would, so it works on any version, including perpetual-licence Office.
Word's Dictate is a cloud feature and needs a connection. Most accurate dictation tools, Typally included, also transcribe in the cloud — speech models that run fully offline are noticeably less accurate today.
Yes. Dictated text is inserted the same way typed text is, so it is recorded as a tracked insertion with your name on it.
The free plan gives you 100 minutes a month without a card — enough to find out whether talking beats typing for you.
Also dictate in: Google Docs · Outlook · Obsidian · see all apps