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Microsoft Word 2013: Make Word Speak
Did you know that Microsoft Word 2013 can read your document aloud to you?
Admittedly, the text is spoken using a very robotic sounding voice, but at least you can
proof “read” your document with your eyes closed!
The way we’re going to demonstrate speech in Word 2013 is by adding the Speak button
to the Quick Access Toolbar. Click the File tab and then click Options (near the bottom).
Click on Quick Access Toolbar on the left and you’ll see two columns. The left one
contains commands that you can add to the Quick Access Toolbar, while the right one
lists all those that are already there. Above the left column, you should see the Choose
commands from selector: change that to Commands Not in the Ribbon. Be sure to
remember to click OK.
All the commands are in alphabetical order, so we have a long way to scroll down to
“Speak”. You can speed things up by clicking on the first command and then typing “s”
to position to the first command starting with “s”.
Once you find the Speak button, select it and then click on the Add button between the
two columns. The button will be transferred to the list of commands in the Quick Access
Toolbar. When you click OK you should see the new addition there. If you didn’t already
know, the Quick Access Toolbar is situated at the top of the workspace, near the File tab,
by default.
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We can test the Speak button using any document to hand. If you don’t have a document
that has any text in it, you can easily generate some random text by typing:
=rand(5, 5)
… and then pressing Enter. This will generate 6 paragraphs of 5 sentences each.
Select the text that you want Word to read and then click the Speak button. Behold! Word
reads the text to you. And it will read everything you selected. Imagine: you go to bed but
can’t sleep. You are alone and have nobody read you a story. Simply fire up Microsoft
Word 2013, generate some random text, and get Word to read it to you. Once you realize
that the random text comes from Word Help, you’ll understand why it shouldn’t take
long before you find yourself in dreamland.
When you click the Speak button, it changes into the Stop speaking selected text button,
and there are no prizes for guessing what that does.
Sadly, when you stop the text speech using this button and then resume by clicking the
button again, speech begins at the start of the text again – not where you stopped.
I know that you’re already asking the question in your mind. The answer is, yes Word
does swear. Type out the most colorful phrase you can, select it and then click the Speak
button. For increased dramatic effect, omit commas between your words.
