Microsoft Word has a ton of features, many of which are never used by a large number of users. Some are easier to use than others, but finding the right character or formatting option can be difficult.
But some of these lesser-used features are pretty interesting, including one which will have Microsoft Word read your document to you.
This feature, called Read Aloud, is part of Microsoft Word by default. It can even be customized to read at different speeds, or in different voices.
Our guide below will show you how to have Microsoft Word read to you if you would like to hear what your document sounds like when it’s read aloud by someone other than yourself.
Need to know how many letters and numbers are in your document? Our character count in Word tutorial can help you answer that question.
How to Have Microsoft Word Read to You
The steps in this article were performed in the Microsoft Word for Office 365. Some older versions of Microsoft Word may not have this feature, or it may not work as well as it does in newer versions of the application.
Step 1: Open your document in Microsoft Word.
Step 2: Select the Review tab at the top of the window.
Step 3: Click the Read Aloud button in the Speech section of the ribbon.
The controls for the reading appear at the right side of the window. You can click the gear icon to view some additional settings.
As shown in the image below, you can drag the slider to make Word read slower or faster, and you can click the dropdown menu to change the voice.
Note that the reading is a little robotic, like most other text-to-speech tools, and it can struggle with proper nouns.
See also
- How to insert a check mark in Microsoft Word
- How to do small caps in Microsoft Word
- How to center text in Microsoft Word
- How to merge cells in Microsoft Word tables
- How to insert a square root symbol in Microsoft Word
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.