Learning Every Day - Speak Command on Word

First, a little information that has nothing to do with writing.

Happy Anniversary to me!
On July 15, 1978 my husband and I were married.
Thirty Five years have flown by.

I am learning every day - in my married life and in my writing life.

Now on to writing!

I just found out from reading a post on Facebook that Word has a speech command! (I have Word 2010) I didn't know that. Of course,  it is a computer voice and sounds a little different  at  times, but I am  so glad I found it.


For those of you who don't know how to use it, here are my instructions.

At the very top left hand section of your Word document there is a little row of icons - save, undo, repeat, print/ print preview and spelling and grammar check (that is what mine are, yours may be a little different) and then there is a small line and a down arrow. Press on that and it says Customize Quick Access Tool Bar. Go down to More Commands and click. In the box that comes up, where it says Choose Commands from - pick All Commands and click on it. Scroll down until you find 'speak' and click on it and then click on OK.

That is all there is to it.

The speak  icon is now at the top of your Word document. When you have your Word document up,  highlight the text you want it to 'speak,' then click  on the speak icon at the top of your Word document. Voila - it speaks your highlighted section to you.

I was having fun with this program. I highlighted different sections of my manuscript and listened to it. I even found a few mistakes I had made by listening to her speak. Great!

Now here is the really neat part of this post.

The female voice kept saying January when it came to the girl's name of Jan in my manuscript. I guess the program thought Jan was the abbreviation for January. I laughed and thought it was funny. But, the more I listened to it, the more I liked the idea of her name being January.

Guess what. I changed the name of my character to January, and I really like it.

Do you use this option of Word when editing or writing your manuscripts?

If not, give it a try. You never know what might happen.

Posted by Janet Smart  on Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.