The "Dictate" function in my Word disappeared

Question

The "Dictate" function in my Word disappeared. I have Office Professional Plus 2021. Initially, everything was working perfectly fine, but after transferring my old files via USB (as I was working with Word 2007 on my old computer), the "Dictate" function suddenly disappeared, and I have tried everything to bring it back, but it is impossible.

Could someone please help me solve this problem?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi @djam

According to "Dictate your documents in Word", the dictation feature is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

I suggest you use Speech Recognition of Windows as a workaround. You may enter it in Windows Search Box to open it.

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Answer 2

If you create a new document, is the Dictate function available?

Is it possible that the transferred documents are in the .doc format?

By the way, within Word, do not do anything with files on a flash drive. This is one of the most frequent causes of document corruption. Make sure that the files are on your computer's hard drive.

I am using Word from a Microsoft 365 subscription. I do not know that Office 2021 has the Dictate function. Functions like this are sometimes mistakenly put into updates and then withdrawn because they are not supposed to be in that version of Office. (Most of the code for Office 16 to Office 2024 and Microsoft 365 apps is shared code, and mistakes happen.)

Dictate is available in the free online app. (I do not use dictate because I type faster and more reliably than I dictate.)