Microsoft Office Speak – How-to

Microsoft Office OneNote, Outlook, and PowerPoint provide a built-in tool called “speak” that not too many people know about. Speak is similar to a GPS device as it converts text to speech. The speak tool will convert the

highlighted words in the document to spoken words. To convert text to speech, highlight a word or a paragraph in the document and click the speak tool.

By default the speak icon isn’t visible. Here, I’m going to show you how to add the speak icon to your quick access menu.

Open Microsoft Word and right click over the menu tabs (Home, insert, Design, etc..) and select “Customize Quick Access Toolbar…” or left click on the little arrow pointing down from the “Quick Access “ menu (top right corner) and select “More Commands…

 From the new dialog box “Word Options”

1.   Left side, select: “Quick Access Toolbar”
1.  Right side, from “Choose Commands from”  dropdown menu select “All Commands”
2. Scroll down and locate the “Speak” Icon and click “Add” to move the Speak icon to the right.

Click "Ok" to complete the setup and the Speak icon should appear at the top left corner with the other Quick Access icons.