Dictate in PowerPoint, OneNote and Excel

PowerPoint and OneNote both have a Dictate button on the Home tab. On Windows, Microsoft ties the PowerPoint button to a Microsoft 365 subscription ¹. In PowerPoint it types into slide placeholders and slide notes. In OneNote it types into your notes. Excel is different. Microsoft's main Dictate article does not list Excel under Applies To, and Microsoft has no Dictate article for Excel. If you need to speak into a spreadsheet cell, the route with the most documentation behind it is your operating system's dictation: select the cell, press F2 to edit it, then start dictation.

If you write slide text, meeting notes or budget figures by hand, a built-in button can save real typing time, provided it exists in your version. This guide shows what each app documents, where the documentation disagrees with itself, and how to test your own copy before you depend on it. For the same button in Word, see our guide to dictation in Word. For the difference between built-in and system-wide tools, see how to dictate into any app.

PowerPoint and OneNote have Dictate, and Microsoft does not document it for Excel

Microsoft's Dictate in Microsoft 365 article links to a help article for each of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote, and to none for Excel. Its note says the steps apply to the desktop versions of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint ². Its Applies To list, though, names Word, Outlook and PowerPoint and leaves Excel out ³. The two statements disagree. Until you see the button on your own Home tab, treat Excel's Dictate button as unconfirmed.

The table sets out what each app's documentation says. Where a cell says "not documented", no Microsoft page we opened describes that case.

Microsoft's own pages also disagree about the Mac. The main article lists PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac ⁶, but the PowerPoint page gives steps only for the web and Windows. If you use PowerPoint on a Mac, open Home and look for the button before you plan a deck around it.

Three places where Microsoft's pages disagree are worth knowing before you plan around these buttons:

• Excel: the note in the main article says its steps cover desktop Excel, but Excel is missing from its Applies To list ^{2 3}.
• PowerPoint on a Mac: the main article lists it, but the PowerPoint page gives no Mac steps.
• OneNote transcription: the transcription article lists OneNote under Applies To, but its note limits the feature to Word ⁷.

Speaking is also much faster than typing for the words themselves. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English entered by speech reached 153 words per minute, against 52 words per minute on the built-in keyboard ^{8 9}. The study used short phrases read aloud, so the gap for a long document may be different. It did not measure the time spent editing a dictated draft afterwards.

In PowerPoint, Dictate writes slide text and slide notes

Microsoft describes Dictate in PowerPoint as a quick and easy way to add content into presentation placeholders and slide notes ¹⁰. The steps for PowerPoint for the web, from Microsoft's PowerPoint article, are short:

1. Sign in to PowerPoint for the web using Edge, Firefox or Chrome.
2. On the Home tab, select Dictate, the button that looks like a microphone, in the Voice section ⁴.
3. Wait for the button to turn on and start listening.
4. Move your cursor to a placeholder or to the slide notes, and start speaking.

On Windows, Microsoft's steps are Home > Dictate while signed into Microsoft 365 on a device with a microphone. The feature is for Microsoft 365 subscribers on the Windows desktop app only ¹.

A workflow for building one slide by voice

Start with the slide layout you want, then click inside the placeholder where the text belongs, so the cursor is there before you start. Turn on Dictate and wait for the button to start listening. Dictate the title first, then the body text, and use the keyboard to correct a word without turning the microphone off. Say "new line" when you want a line break inside a placeholder. When the placeholder is done, move the cursor to the slide notes and repeat. This follows the sequence in Microsoft's steps: wait for the button, move the cursor to a placeholder or to the slide notes, start speaking, and fix mistakes with the keyboard.

Spoken punctuation and editing commands

The PowerPoint page lists spoken punctuation, such as "period", "comma" and "new line", along with symbols, currency and editing commands. Editing commands include "undo", "delete that" and "backspace". Two commands control the session: "pause dictation" and "exit dictation". The page also says you can fix mistakes with the keyboard without turning the microphone off. Glossary: spoken punctuation.

Language and accuracy

By default, Dictation uses your document language ¹¹. Some languages are listed as preview languages, and the supported-language table marks them. Check your language there before you rely on Dictate for a long document.

In OneNote, Dictate types notes, but Microsoft does not confirm Transcribe for it

Dictate in OneNote works like the button in PowerPoint. On a Mac, Microsoft says to go to Home > Dictate while signed into Microsoft 365 on a mic-enabled device ⁵.

Microsoft's Applies To list covers OneNote for Microsoft 365 for Mac, OneNote 2024, OneNote 2021, OneNote 2016 and the OneNote web app ¹². Being in that list is not the same as having the button in your version. The troubleshooting section says Dictate is not available in Office 2016 or 2019 for Windows without Microsoft 365 ¹³.

Recording and transcription are separate

Dictation types as you speak. Recording is a different job. Microsoft's OneNote recording article says that to create an audio-only recording you click Home > Record Audio ¹⁴. The same article mentions a Transcribe button and adds that, depending on the OneNote version, the Record button might be visible once you click Transcribe ¹⁵. It does not say what Transcribe does.

Microsoft's transcription article is written for Word. It lists OneNote for Microsoft 365 under Applies To, but its note says the feature "is currently only available in Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows in Commercial Tenants" ⁷. For Microsoft 365 subscribers, Microsoft sets a maximum of 300 minutes of uploaded audio per month in Word ¹⁶. OneNote's recording article shows no menu path for transcription. Read together, the documentation does not confirm that OneNote can transcribe a recording. The question on whether OneNote can transcribe audio explains how to check your own version. Glossary: Transcribe (Microsoft 365).

In Excel, the operating system's dictation is the route, after you press F2

Microsoft's shortcut page for Excel is the most useful document for a spreadsheet cell. It says F2 edits the active cell and puts the insertion point at the end of its contents ¹⁷. The same page applies to Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac ¹⁸.

The steps, in order:

1. Select the cell where the text should go.
2. Press F2 so the cell is in edit mode. If editing is turned off for the cell, the insertion point moves into the formula bar instead ¹⁷.
3. On Windows, press Windows key + H on a hardware keyboard to start voice typing ¹⁹. Microsoft says voice typing needs a working microphone and the cursor in a text box ²⁰. Glossary: voice typing.
4. On a Mac, Apple says to place the insertion point in an app where you want to enter text ²¹. Then press the Microphone key if your Mac has one, use the Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation.

Entering numbers and currency

Spreadsheets are mostly numbers, so check how each platform handles them. On Windows, voice typing lets you dictate most numbers and punctuation by saying the number or the punctuation character ²². On a Mac, Apple says you can use commands to enter punctuation, capital letters and symbols, including symbols for math and currency ²³. Check each value before you move to the next cell, because a misheard digit in a column is easy to miss.

How to check your own copy of Excel

Open a workbook in Excel for Microsoft 365, sign in, and look at the Home tab. If a Dictate button appears, try it on one cell with a short phrase before you use it for a column of data. If it does not appear, use the steps above. Microsoft's Dictate article says its steps cover the desktop version of Excel ², so the button may exist even though no Excel article describes it. We could not find a Microsoft page that says voice typing or Dictation writes into a cell in edit mode, so test that too. Use this routine, which takes a few minutes:

1. Open a blank workbook and select cell A1.
2. Press F2, and check that the cursor sits inside the cell.
3. Start voice typing on Windows, or Dictation on a Mac, then say a short phrase such as "test one".
4. Say a number, then check the cell and the formula bar to see what was entered.
5. Delete the test text before you use the sheet for real data.

Read the result carefully. If the words land in the cell, the route works in your copy. If they land in the formula bar, or the cursor is not in the cell at all, edit mode was not on, so press F2 again and repeat the test.

If you need long text rather than a few values, draft it in Word, which has its own detailed Dictate article, and paste it into the cell when it is finished.

This route is a form of system-wide dictation: the tool types into whichever field has focus and needs no support from Excel itself. Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows that works this way. The guide to dictating into any app compares it with the built-in options. The question on whether you can dictate in Excel gives the short answer.

All three share the Microsoft 365 license and connection requirements

Microsoft says Dictation in Office works "with a microphone and reliable internet connection" ²⁴. Microsoft also does not offer Dictate in Office 2016 or 2019 without a Microsoft 365 subscription ²⁵. In practice, that means a single rule for all three apps: if your copy of Microsoft 365 shows the Dictate button, use it for slides, notes and mail. If it does not, or if the app is Excel and no button appears, use the operating system's dictation and the F2 route described above. On Windows the button is limited to subscribers using the desktop app ¹.

Microsoft's Word page says the service does not store your audio data or transcribed text, but that your speech is sent to Microsoft to produce the text ²⁶. Because Dictate needs a reliable connection, it is not an offline tool. For the offline and system-wide options, see the guide to dictating into any app.

Troubleshooting the button

Microsoft's troubleshooting steps cover three common problems:

If none of these work, the question on why Dictate is not working in PowerPoint lists the next steps.

Voice commands for spreadsheets come from accessibility tools, not dictation

The commands on Microsoft's PowerPoint and OneNote pages are for text: punctuation, deleting words, and pausing. None of them describes moving between cells, choosing a menu or editing a formula. Controlling a spreadsheet by voice is an accessibility job, and it is handled by a different tool.

On Windows, that tool is Voice Access. Microsoft says Voice Access in Windows 11 lets you control your PC and write text by voice without an internet connection ²⁹. On a Mac, Apple says that once Voice Control is on, you can speak commands to navigate the desktop and apps and to dictate and edit text ³⁰.

We did not find a list of Excel-specific commands in either company's documentation. If you rely on a particular command, such as moving to the next sheet, test it on a copy of your workbook before you depend on it.

Other apps have their own Dictate steps and limits

• Dictate in Word, for the same button in Microsoft's word processor.
• Dictate emails in Outlook and Gmail, for the same Dictate button in mail.
• Voice to text in Teams, Slack and Notion, for apps that have no built-in button.
• Our overview of dictation in your apps, for the full map of this subject.