Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the Dictate feature was coming to OneNote. However, some OneNote beta users received this feature a couple of months ago, and now it is finally rolling out to everyone. Microsoft is rolling out the Direct to OneNote Windows 10 app and the Classic OneNote Desktop app. Now, you can use your speech in OneNote to write text for you. It will convert your speech to text, making writing notes easier.
Additionally, there is a major improvement in precision. It uses special commands like adding punctuation, changing formatting, or organising your text, such as strikeout text, bold, italic, or more. Currently, OneNote Dicate supports 51 different languages, including US and US English.
“Now it’s easy to break away from the keyboard and stay in the flow by using Dictate with AI-backed voice commands to add, format, edit, and organise your text,” explains Sofia Thomas (Product Manager of Microsoft’s Office Voice Team). “Over the next few months, we’ll be adding new voice commands, as well as some that are already available in other Office apps, to OneNote.”
Supporting 51 languages makes it more accurate, and Microsoft also released the OneNote Dicate command page to learn more commands. You can update your OneNote to use this functionality, and now it even supports the Web. Check the OneNote toolbar in the Home section if this feature is not enabled. From there, you can find (and enable) the date. To use the OneNote desktop app, you require a Microsoft 365 subscription to use this feature.
How to Enable the Microsoft OneNote Date Feature
- Open OneNote, and then stay on the home tab.
- There, you will find the Dictation Settings option.
- After clicking, it offers you the option to set your preferences.
- Courtesy: Microsoft
- Now, you can start speaking, and it will start writing text. Not to mention, click on the area where to write.
- To stop, say Stop dictation or click on the Stop Dictation button on the dictation tab.
- That’s it!
The company has also revamped the Android version with a new home page and support for voice dictation in its recent update. Not to mention, on a mobile device, Microsoft is not forcing you to have a Microsoft 365 subscription. However, the Android version has limited language support.