How to use Voice Typing on Microsoft Outlook (Powered by AI)
Learn how to dictate emails in Outlook with perfect formatting and punctuation. Increase productivity, speed, and reduce strain on your fingers and wrists.
How speech-to-text tools can change your everyday tasks, like writing emails.
We are all drowning in emails, myself included. And when I get time to finally respond, it feels like I get 2 more in my inbox in the process.
Writing emails is a crucial and time-consuming part of our jobs and personal lives, especially if you’re constantly typing long messages.
Luckily, there are technologies out there that can make this much easier.
Today we'll talk about speech-to-text tools, specifically for writing emails on Microsoft Outlook, the Office365's emailing service.
Typing with your voice doesn't just save you a bit of time. Voice dictation brings far greater benefits, including:
- Save your wrist and fingers: Overusing your computer can lead to multiple injuries including carpal tunnel and RSI.
- Perfect formatting, grammar, and punctuation: Many tools automatically fix your dictated text and provide you with a perfect email.
- Natural-sounding emails: We overcomplicate things, especially when we're writing emails. Mark Twain even used some very early recording technology to write his work.
Step by Step: Voice Typing on Outlook
For this article, we'll use a free Chrome Extension called Voicy.
Voicy uses the latest AI-powered speech-to-text technology, while still remaining privacy friendly.
Step 1: Add the Voicy extension through the Chrome web store
Simply visit this link and click on download.
Step 2: Write a new email on Outlook
Click on the email's body to see the Voicy element.
Step 3: Click on the mic to start recording
Hover over the element to reveal the two buttons.
Click on the microphone to start recording. The icon will turn into a red dot which means you should speak!
Click again to stop recording.
Bonus: Use AI directly within Outlook to help you generate emails
If you check the images above, the Voicy element has another button.
That button allows you to speak directly to ChatGPT.
If you're like me and you struggle with starting emails, then this is perfect for you.
Simply click on the AI element and say something like: "Write an email to my boss to let them know I'm resigning."
Voicy will transcribe your audio, send it to ChatGPT, and return a block of text for you.
Give it a try!
Conclusion and next steps
By incorporating voice typing into your email routine, you’re adopting a more efficient way to manage communication. Writing with your voice allows for faster, more convenient emailing, all while reducing the stress of constant typing. So, if you want to boost productivity, give speech-to-text on Outlook a try!
Voicy also works on Gmail, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Hubspot, and every other website on the internet!