Dictation in Microsoft Word on a Mac

Word is the only app in this series that ships a dictation button and charges for it. The practical question is not how to click the button, it is whether the document you are dictating should be leaving the machine.

Option A: Word's Dictate button

1. Open the document and select the Home tab. Dictate sits at the right-hand end of the ribbon.
2. Click Dictate, or press Option+F1.
3. Wait for the button to turn on, then speak. Word inserts text at the cursor as it recognises it.
4. Click Dictate again, or press Option+F1, to stop.

• It requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. A perpetual Office licence, Word 2019, Word 2021, or a trial that has lapsed will not show the button at all. If Dictate is missing from your Home tab, this is why.
• It requires an internet connection, because the audio leaves your Mac. Microsoft's own documentation describes Dictate as a service that needs a connection. On a plane, in a secure facility, or on a document under NDA, this option is out.

Option B: macOS Dictation (any Word version, no subscription)

1. Turn Dictation on once: System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation. Full steps in enable dictation on macOS.
2. Click into the document where the text should go.
3. Start Dictation with your shortcut and speak.
4. Stop Dictation to finalise.

This works in Word 2019, Word 2021, a perpetual licence, and Word running with no network. It also works in the same shortcut in every other application, which Word's Dictate button does not.

The Word-specific trap: autocorrect edits the transcript

Word's AutoCorrect runs on inserted text regardless of which dictation engine put it there. Autocapitalisation of the first word after a period, straight quotes converted to curly quotes, and the automatic list detection that turns a dictated "one period" into a numbered list all fire on dictated input. In a document with tracked changes on, every one of those corrections becomes a revision with your name on it.

Turn off the ones that bite under Word → Preferences → AutoCorrect, on the AutoFormat as You Type tab, before dictating a long draft into a tracked document.

If nothing types at all

• System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone → allow Microsoft Word if you are using Word's Dictate button. System dictation is captured by macOS and needs the permission for the dictation tool instead.
• If Dictate is greyed out rather than missing, check that you are signed in to the account that holds the Microsoft 365 licence.
• Dictation dead everywhere, not just Word: dictation not working on Mac.

Option C: keep the audio on the Mac

Voice Type runs the recognition model on your Mac, so nothing about a confidential draft is uploaded, and the same hold-to-dictate hotkey works in Word, in the email you attach it to, and in the tracker where the review lives: voice typing for Mac.

Keep going

• Dictation in Google Docs (spoken formatting commands, English only)
• Dictation in Google Sheets (the cell-commit trap)

Sources

• Microsoft: Dictate your documents in Word
• Apple: Dictate messages and documents on Mac