Having a program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs installed on your computer is practically mandatory, as you never know when you need to write something down. But you won’t even need to literally write, thanks to a recent update for Microsoft Word. Microsoft 365 recently received a feature that orators will surely love.
The new feature works by uploading an audio file into Microsoft Word, and then a transcript will immediately arrive as text to your document. It’s pretty much like when you’re choosing the vocal search on Google’s search engine: the text appears on the search bar even though you’re adding it by vocal commands.
Limit: 200MB per file
The Dictate button is useful for those moments when you want to write and edit live. The 200MB limit per audio file surely must be enough, and the number of formats you can choose is very generous: MP3, MP4, WAV, and M4A.
Using the Transcribe function in Word is not difficult at all if you have the right update:
- Select the Dictate button from the toolbar
- Select Transcribe
- Select Upload Audio
- Locate your audio file
- Drag and drop the text from the menu to the document.
Only English language supported
If you’re not fluent in English, we’re sorry to say, but you can forget about the audio transcription from Microsoft Word. Last year, Microsoft spoke about the feature within its website:
Today, we’re announcing a solution that helps busy professionals upload their own audio files or record new ones on the fly, all within Word. Once your audio has been uploaded or recorded, Word—leveraging your OneDrive account to securely store the audio files and Azure Speech Services under the hood—displays a written audio transcription in the side panel and allows you to quickly and easily bring relevant snippets or the entire transcript into your document to edit.
With this audio transcription feature, Microsoft Word outclasses many other text editors.
