Using Voice Commands

Another tool the Speech feature provides is voice commands. You can open and select menus in an application and even navigate dialog boxes using voicecommands.

To use voice commands, open the Language bar (click Tools, Speech or restore the Language Bar from the system tray). Click the Microphone icon, if necessary, to expand the Language bar. Then, click the Voice Command icon on the bar (or say "voice command").

To open a particular menu such as the Format menu, say "format." Then, to open a particular submenu such as Font, say "font." In the case of these voice commands, the Font dialog box opens.

You can then navigate a particular dialog box using voice commands. In the Font dialog box, for example, to change the size of the font, say "size"; this activates the Size box that controls font size. Then, say the size of the font, such as "14." You can also activate other font attributes in the dialog box in this manner. Say the name of the area of the dialog box you want to use, and then say the name of the feature you want to turn on or select.

When you have finished working with a particular dialog box, say "OK" (or "Cancel" or "Apply," as needed) and the dialog box closes and provides you with the features you selected in the dialog box. When you have finished using voice commands, say "microphone," or click the Microphone icon on the Language bar.

Believe it or not, you can also activate buttons on the various toolbars using voice commands. For example, you could turn on bold by saying "bold." The Bold button on the Formatting toolbar becomes active. To turn bold off, say "bold" again.