Who knew that word 2010 can speak?  I just learned about a feature on word 2010 that allows you to hear what you’ve written. Whether you’re a writer, writing a letter, poem or whatever, this could be useful  and I thought I’d pass it along. I’ve installed it, and it does work fairly well. As you might expect, the voice is a bit stilted, but it’s still a useful device. It just takes a few minutes to install. Once installed on your tool bar, just highlight the paragraph you wish to hear and click on the microphone icon.

Here are the instructions.

    1. Open a document in Word 2010.
    2. Right-click anywhere in the Ribbon underneath the HOME tab and click “Customise the Ribbon.”
    3. Right-click HOME in the Right-hand pane.
    4. Click “Add New Tab.”
    5. Right-click New Group then click RENAME.
    6. Give the group a suitable name such as Narration – or similar.
    7. Choose a relevant symbol from the grid (i.e. microphone) then click OK.
    8. Click the Dropdown menu headed “Choose commands from.”
    9. Select “All Commands” then scroll down the left-hand pane and click SPEAK.
    10. Click the name you have used (i.e. Narration) in the right-hand list.
    11. Click the “Add” button in the middle of the screen and then OK.
    12. The SPEAK button will now appear under the HOME tab (if you have too many buttons on the ribbon, it may appear in a New Tab at the top).
    13. Highlight a section of your text.  Click the SPEAK icon and sit back and listen to your work!

Happy Writing – and listening.