Office 365 Adds Transcription, Voice Commands In Word For The Web

Office 365 Adds Transcription, Voice Commands In Word For The Web

Microsoft today started rolling out new transcription capabilities and support for voice commands to Word for the web for all Microsoft 365 subscribers.

The new Transcribe in Word feature is supported in the new Microsoft Edge and other Chrome-based browsers, and it currently only comes with support for transcribing audio into English (EN-US).

Microsoft will also launch a transcription feature for Office mobile until the end of the year, with the company also currently evaluating other endpoints.

Transcribe conversations effortlessly

The new Microsoft 365 for the web (formally Office 365) Transcribe in Word feature allows transcribing recorded or uploaded conversations automatically in Word the web, cutting the need for dedicated third-party apps.

Transcribe in Word also detects the speakers in recorded conversations on its own, making it a lot easier to follow the flow of an interview or a discussion when going through the generated transcript.

You can learn how to transcribe live recorded conversations or discussions uploaded as an audio file using the detailed instructions available here.

“After your conversation, you can revisit parts of the recording by playing back the timestamped audio and you can even edit the transcript if you see something amiss,” Dan Parish, Microsoft Principal Group PM Manager for Natural User Interface & Incubation, explained.

“Your transcript will appear alongside the Word document, along with the recording, which enables you to leverage your transcript to create great content in the way that is best for you.”

At the moment, the feature also comes with a five-hour limit of transcription time per month for any uploaded recordings (in .mp3, .wav, .m4a, or .mp4 formats), as well as a file size limit of 200mb.

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Voice commands via Dictation

“We’ve been adding voice commands to Dictate so that you can break away from the keyboard. Whether on desktop or mobile (or transitioning between devices), you can stay in the flow and focus on your message by using dictation with voice commands to add, format, edit, and organize your text,” Parish added.

A full list of all the voice commands currently available can be found on this Office support page dedicated to helping you learn how to use Dictate in Word for the web.

“Voice commands understand a variety of symbols so you can add things like ‘ampersand’ and ‘percent sign’, and you don’t have to sound like a robot!”, Parish said. “We’ve based commands on the way people naturally talk so that you can capture your ideas easily.”

The new Dictate with voice commands feature is available to all Word for the web and Office mobile users for free after they sign in using their Microsoft accounts.

Microsoft says that support for voice commands will also roll out to Word for desktop and Word for Mac app until the end of the year for Microsoft365 subscribers.

“New enhancements in office apps allow you to harness the power of your voice to spend less time and energy creating your best work, so can focus on what matters most,” Parish added.

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