Windows 11 offers two ways to type and perform actions on your computer with just your voice. This is beneficial for people with mobility disabilities who can use these tools to control your PC and author text using your voice.
Voice Access and Voice Typing on Windows have similarities, but also include some differences which may help you decide which tool to choose. Voice Access offers both commanding and dictation which means that you can perform not just text authoring but all tasks on your PC like working and interacting with different apps and editing text. Voice Access does not require an internet connection. Voice Typing offers dictation that allows you to author text with voice and requires an internet connection. (formerly known as Dictation on Windows 10).
Voice Access
Voice access in Windows 11 everyone to control their PC and author text using their voice. You can open and switch between apps, browse the web, and read and author emails using your voice. Voice access uses on-device speech recognition to accurately recognize speech and works without an internet connection.
This article will cover the basics on how to get started with Window Voice Access. Voice Access is a comprehensive tool that can perform many different functions. To get more in-depth information about the tool, please visit the following article from Microsoft Support: Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice.
Using Voice Access
How to start Voice Access
- In the Start menu, select Settings > Accessibility > Speech.
- Toggle the Voice access switch to on.
- Alternatively, you can type "voice access" into the Windows search bar and select "open".
How to stop Voice Access
You can use one of the following commands to put Voice Access to sleep:
- "Voice access sleep"
- "Mute"
You can also completely close Voice Access by issuing one of the following commands:
- "Turn off voice access"
- "Stop voice access"
- "Close voice access"
- "Exit voice access"
- "Quit voice access"
Typing with Voice Access
To dictate text into a text box, first move the focus to the text box.
- To move the cursor to a specific text box, say "click (text box name)"
- If you don’t know the name or label of a text box, you can use number overlays. Say "show numbers" followed by the number that is associated with the text box. For more information, go to the Use voice to interact with items on the screen article from Microsoft Support.
- Alternatively, you can also move the mouse to focus on a text box. For more information on how to work with the mouse, go to the Use the mouse with voice Microsoft Support article.
When you have moved focus to a specific text box, you can start dictating text with your voice by speaking what you want typed onto the screen.
For more in-depth information about dictating text with Voice Access like spelling non-standard words, filtering profanity, and typing special characters and punctuation, please see the following article from Microsoft Support: Dictate text with voice.
Voice Access Commands
There are many commands you can use to control Voice Access. Commands allow you to navigate your PC, switch between apps, browse the web, author text, and control your PC just by speaking. To find an in-depth list of commands please visit the following Microsoft Support article: Voice access command list. There are too many commands to list in this article, but here are a few common commands:
- "Open (app name)" opens an app.
- Example: "Open Teams" will open Microsoft Teams.
- "Close window" closes the current window.
- "Minimize window" minimizes the current window.
- "Double-click (item name)" double clicks on the requested item.
Voice Typing
With Voice Typing on Windows 11, you can speak the text you want entered into your PC without using a mouse or keyboard. Voice Typing uses online speech recognition powered by Microsoft Azure Speech services.
Note: Windows Speech Recognition is available only for the following languages: English (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia), French, German, Japanese, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional), and Spanish.
Using Voice Typing
How to start Voice Typing
-
Press Windows logo key + H on a hardware keyboard
Alternatively, if you are using a tablet, tap the microphone key next to the spacebar on the touch keyboard.
How to stop Voice Typing
-
Say the command like "Stop listening"
Alternatively, if you are using a tablet, press the microphone button on the voice typing menu.
Voice Typing Commands
Use voice typing commands to quickly edit text by saying things like "delete that" or "select that".
Privacy
The following is a quote from the Microsoft Support website:
"When you use cloud-based speech recognition technologies from Microsoft—whether enabled by the Online speech recognition setting or while you interact with HoloLens or voice typing—Microsoft collects and uses your voice recordings to provide the service by creating a text transcription of the spoken words in the voice data. Microsoft will not store, sample, or listen to your voice recordings without your permission. For more info, see How does Microsoft protect my privacy while improving its speech recognition technology?"
For more in depth detail on privacy with voice typing, visit the following Microsoft Support article: Speech, voice activation, inking, typing, and privacy.