Did you know that you can use your voice to control your Windows 8 computer? With Speech Recognition inside Windows 8, you can start programs, open menus, click buttons and other objects on the screen, dictate text into documents, and write and send e-mails. Just about everything you can do with your keyboard and mouse can be done with only your voice. All you need is a microphone.
Speech Recognition interface inside of Windows 8
Starting Speech Recognition in Windows 8
- Swipe in from the right side of the screen or press the Windows logo key
+ C to bring up the Charm bar.
- Left-click on Search button in Charm Bar.
- Left-click on Apps in Search.
- Type Speech Recognition in the Search field on the Search pane.
- In the results on the left-hand side, left-click on Windows Speech Recognition.
or
- Go to the Start menu.
- Right-click the Start menu background to bring up the app commands.
- Left-click on All apps.
- Scroll to the Windows Speech Recognition tile and left-click on it.
The first time you run Speech Recognition, you will get the setup wizard. After completing the setup wizard, It is recommended that you go through the Speech Recognition Voice Training.
Using Speech Recognition to control your Windows 8 computer
You can use simple, short commands to control your computer. The following table shows some of the most commonly used Speech Recognition commands. Words that look like this (italic) indicate that you can replace the example word or phrase with similar words and get useful results.
Note: Any time you need to find out what commands to use, say "what can I say?"
| To do this |
Say this |
| Select any item by its name |
Click File; Start; View |
| Select any item or icon |
Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click file name |
| Double tap or double-click any item |
Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click file name |
| Switch to an open app |
Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application |
| Scroll in one direction |
Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left; Scroll right |
| Insert a new paragraph or new line in a document |
New paragraph; New line |
| Select a word in a document |
Select word |
| Select a word and start to correct it |
Correct word |
| Select and delete specific words |
Delete word |
| Show a list of applicable commands |
What can I say? |
| Update the list of speech commands that are currently available |
Refresh speech commands |
| Turn on listening mode |
Start listening |
| Turn off listening mode |
Stop listening |
| Move the Speech Recognition microphone bar |
Move speech recognition |
| Minimize the microphone bar |
Minimize speech recognition |
| View Windows Help and Support content about specific tasks |
How do I do something? For example, say “How do I install a printer?” and a list of Help topics is returned. Note that this command is available only if you're using the U.S. English Speech Recognizer. |
| Insert a new line in the document |
New line |
| Insert a new paragraph in the document |
New paragraph |
| Insert a tab |
Tab |
| Insert the literal word for the next command (for example, you can insert the word "comma" instead of the punctuation mark) |
Literal word |
| Insert the numeral form of a number |
Numeral number |
| Put the cursor before a specific word |
Go to word |
| Put the cursor after a specific word |
Go after word |
| Don't insert a space before the next word |
No space |
| Go to the start of the sentence that the cursor is in |
Go to start of sentence |
| Go to the start of the paragraph that the cursor is in |
Go to start of paragraph |
| Go to the start of the document |
Go to start of document |
| Go to the end of the sentence that the cursor is in |
Go to end of sentence |
| Go to the end of the paragraph that the cursor is in |
Go to end of paragraph |
| Go to the end of the current document |
Go to end of document |
| Select the word in the current document |
Select word |
| Select the word range in the current document |
Select word range; Select word through word |
| Select all text in the current document |
Select all |
| Select a number of words before the location of the cursor |
Select previous 20 words; Select previous 10 words |
| Select a number of words after the location of the cursor |
Select next 20 words; Select next 10 words |
| Select the last text you dictated |
Select that |
| Clear the selection on the screen |
Clear selection |
| Capitalize the first letter of the word |
Caps word |
| Capitalize all the letters of the word |
All caps word |
| Make all the letters in the word lowercase |
No caps word |
| Change the next number of words to uppercase |
Change next 10 words to uppercase |
| Change the next number of words to lowercase |
Change next 10 words to lowercase |
| Delete the previous sentence |
Delete previous sentence |
| Delete the next sentence |
Delete next sentence |
| Delete the previous paragraph |
Delete previous paragraph |
| Delete the next paragraph |
Delete next paragraph |
| Delete the selected or last dictated text |
Delete that |
For more information on Speech Recognition and a complete list of commands, just right-click the Speech Recognition icon on the Desktop Taskbar and select Open Speech Recognition Reference Card.
ceeec54d-e29d-49e1-991d-a4d9b76a15d2|0|.0|96d5b379-7e1d-4dac-a6ba-1e50db561b04