What are the Google Docs voice typing commands?

Google Docs voice typing has spoken commands for editing and formatting, in addition to typing. They fall into groups: selecting text, formatting, editing, tables, moving around the document, and stopping and resuming. Google's 2020 help page lists them in tables ¹, and the commands work only in English ². Open the voice commands list inside a document to see what your copy of Docs accepts.

The commands work only in English

Google's current help page says that voice commands are available only in English, and that the account language and document language must both be English ². Punctuation marks use their own spoken phrases, covered in our punctuation question. If your document is in another language, you can still dictate text, but you will do the editing and formatting with the keyboard or mouse. The guide to Google Docs voice typing covers that trade-off in more detail.

The main command groups

The table below sets out the groups and a sample command from each. It draws on the 2020 page, so treat it as the shape of the list, not a complete or current version.

The 2020 help page lists these under headings such as Select text, Format your document, Edit your document and Move around your document ¹. The examples in the table are from that page: "Select paragraph," "italics" and "Go to the end of the line" ³; "Copy," "Paste," "Delete" and "Delete last word" ⁴; "Insert row" and "Delete row" ⁵; "All caps" and "Capitalize" ⁶; "Stop listening" ⁷; and "Voice commands list" and "Voice typing help" ⁸. The exact wording of each command is on the page, so copy from it rather than from memory.

Deleting, selecting and undoing

Saying "Delete" by itself deletes the word before the cursor, according to the 2020 page ⁹. The same list includes "Delete last word" as a separate command. If Docs heard the wrong command, say "Undo" ¹⁰. The microphone shows a bubble containing the most recent command ¹¹, so check it to see what Docs heard.

Formatting: all caps is not the same as capitalize

Google's 2020 page describes two capital-letter commands. "All caps" makes the word or phrase all capital letters, and "Capitalize" capitalizes only the first letter ⁶. Choose the one you mean before you speak, because the two give different results.

Stop and resume without losing your place

To stop dictation, say "Stop listening" ⁷, and to restart at the end of the paragraph, say "Resume" ¹². You can also say "Resume with" followed by a word or phrase, to move the cursor to the end of that phrase before you continue ¹³. This keeps you from retyping a section after a pause.

Commands that do nothing

Google's troubleshooting steps say to pause before and after each command ¹⁴.

How to check the current list

The commands on this page come from a December 2020 copy of Google's help page, and we did not find a current copy of the full command list. The same help page lets you open the list from inside a document by saying "Voice commands list" or "Voice typing help" ⁸, so use that to see what your copy of Docs accepts. Read our question on where voice typing is in Google Docs for the steps to start it, and our question on punctuation for the marks you can speak. If commands are not working at all, read why Google Docs voice typing is not working.

For the same kind of command list in a system-wide tool, see the glossary entry for voice command. The overview of dictation in your apps compares the commands in other programs.