Converting text to speech in excel

Various text-to-speech commands are available in Excel.

Notes: You may be able to use Windows text-to-speech functions in other Office programs:

• For Office see Using the Speak text-to-speech feature.

• For Windows 7, see Hear text read aloud with Narrator.

Use text-to-speech commands in Excel

1. Next to the Quick Access Toolbar, click Customize Quick Access Toolbar, then click More Commands..

   

2. In the Choose commands from list, select All Commands.

3. Scroll down, and for each text-to-speech command that you want to use, click any of the Speak Cells command, and then click Add.
   
   

4. Click OK.

5. When you want to use a text-to-speech command, click it the Quick Access Toolbar. 

   

Note: You can use the text-to-speech commands in Excel 2007 and 2003 by pointing to Speech on the Tools menu, and then clicking Show Text to Speech Toolbar.

Play back worksheet data

Note: You'll need to configure your computer audio to hear speech.

Play back a group of cells

To hear the speech that corresponds to the text in a group of cells, do the following:

1. Select a group of cells to that you want to hear as audible speech.

2. Choose how the computer will read back your data by clicking By Rows or By Columns .

3. Click Speak Cells .

4. To correct an error, click Stop Speaking , and then use your mouse and keyboard to make the necessary changes.

5. Click Speak Cells to make the computer continue to read back your selection.

Tip: You can select a specific range of cells for the computer to read back to you. Or, you can click Speak Cells without selecting any cells and Excel will automatically expand the selection to include the neighboring cells that contain values.

Play back after every cell entry

1. Click Speak On Enter .

2. Enter data in any cell. Press Enter, and the computer will read back the contents of the cell.

Note: If you hide the Text To Speech toolbar and you did not turn off Speak On Enter , the computer continues to read back each cell entry that you make. Click Speak On Enter to turn it off.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.