Dictating, selecting and editing text

Transcript:

​​

Whether you're writing emails, documents, or filling in forms, Voice access can transform the way you input text.

 

When you're dictating, speak clearly and at your own natural pace. Pause briefly at the end of sentences and try to dictate in phrases rather than individual words, if you're able to. Using your voice to input and format text is a new way of working, so you may want to try a few techniques at a time to build your knowledge up gradually.

​

Select a listening mode

Remember, Voice access has three modes of listening. If you want it to convert your speech to text, you will need to make sure you are in either default mode or dictate mode. If you are in command mode, Voice access won't convert any of your speech to text.

​

Show touch keyboard

Voice access can work with the Windows touch keyboard when needed. Simply say “show touch Keyboard” or “show keyboard”. When you're using the on screen keyboard, you can say the number associated with each key rather than the name of each key. This can be useful if you're entering a password and you don't want to say it out loud, or when you're using special characters, and so on.

 

To hide the Windows touch keyboard, use the command “hide touch keyboard”, “hide keyboard”, or “dismiss”.

​

Capital letters (caps)

Voice access includes special formatting options for capitalisation and spacing. To capitalise the first letter of each word as you speak, say “caps” followed by your text.

​

It's important to give document titles the correct heading levels so that they can be accessed by assistive technology. 

 

Correct that

If the last thing you dictated wasn't quite right, you can use the command “correct that” and Voice access will give you alternatives or allow you to re-dictate what you said. You can configure the settings in Voice access to handle punctuation automatically or manually.

​

Punctuation

If you are inserting punctuation manually, simply say the name of the punctuation you want to include. You can add punctuation to the end of a sentence by saying the name of the punctuation you want to include. As well as at the end of sentences comma, you can also add punctuation midway through them. 

​

Select that

Voice access allows you to select portions of text for editing, formatting, or deleting. You can select everything from an individual character to an entire document using voice commands.

​

Immediately after you've dictated text, you can select it by saying “select that”.

This will select the last thing that you've said. That's really handy for immediately formatting or editing what you've just dictated.

​

Select all

To select all text in a document or field, say “select all”. This is the equivalent to pressing Control + A.

​

Select a word or phrase

You can select any specific word or phrase by using the select command followed by the text you want. For example, if your document contains the word pepper, you can say “select pepper” and Voice access will find and highlight that exact text.

​

If your content contains multiple instances of the word you want to select, it will number these instances and you can select the one you want by saying the number.

​

Select individual words

To select individual words near your cursor, use the command “select previous word”, “select last word” or “select next word”. These commands select one word relative to your current cursor position. You can also select multiple words with commands such as “select previous three words” or “select last five words”, or “select next two words”. This gives you precise control over exactly how much text you select.

 

Character selection

Character level selection gives you even finer control. You can use the command “select previous character”, “select last character”, or “select next character” for single character selection. For multiple characters add the number you want to count. For example, “select previous ten characters”, “select next 15 characters”, and so on. You can also use directional language such as “select backwards five characters” or “select forward a character”.

​

Paragraph selection

For larger blocks of text, Voice access supports line and paragraph selection. You can use commands such as “select last line” or “select next line”. You can also select multiple lines by using commands such as “select previous three lines” or “select next two lines”. To select a paragraph of text, you can use commands such as “select previous paragraph”.

 

Unselecting text

To unselect, use the command “unselect that” or “clear selection”. This will remove the highlighting and return your cursor to normal editing mode."

​

Deleting text

You can use the command “delete that” which removes whatever you currently have selected. If nothing is selected, it deletes the last text you dictated. You can also use the command “scratch that” or “strike that” to achieve the same thing. To clear everything in a text field, use the command “delete all”.
 

For character level deletion, use the command “delete previous character” or “delete next character”. You can also specify the number of characters you want to delete by using commands such as “delete previous five characters” or “delete next ten characters”.

Word level deletion works in a similar way. You can use the command “delete previous word”, “delete next word”, “delete previous three words”, “delete next two words”, and so on.

The commands for line deletion include “delete previous line”, “delete next line”, “delete next four lines” and so on. For paragraph deletion, use the commands “delete previous paragraph”, “delete next paragraph”, or “delete next three paragraphs”.

​

Saving text to the Clipboard

Voice access allows you to remove text and save it to the clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere. The command “cut”, cuts whatever is currently selected or the last thing you dictated. This removes the text from its current location, but saves it so you can paste it somewhere else. Just like with deletion, you can cut at different levels. You can use commands like “cut previous word”, “cut last two words”, “cut next word”, and so on. The same pattern works for characters, lines and paragraphs.

 

In Voice access copy commands work in an identical way to cut commands. You can say “copy that”, “copy next paragraph”, and so on.

 

If you make a mistake, or want to reverse an action by using Voice access, you can use the command “undo”.

 

Typing a 'command' word

Sometimes you might want to insert Voice access commands as actual text, rather than having those commands carried out. If you want to type a Voice access command, say “type” followed by the command. For example, if you want to write about Voice access commands, you could say “type show numbers” and Voice access will insert the text ‘show numbers’ rather than executing the overlay command. You can also use the command “dictate” instead of “type” if you prefer.

If you’ve followed all the videos in this series, you should have a good grasp of the core Voice access commands. Don't forget to subscribe for the latest updates on new Voice access features as they're released, or for useful information about other assistive technologies.

​