- Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop-down button and then choose the More Commands option from its drop-down menu.Doing this opens the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box.
- Choose Commands Not in the Ribbon from the Choose Commands From drop-down menu.The Text to Speech command buttons include Speak Cells, Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells, Speak Cells by Columns, Speak Cells by Rows, and Speaks Cells on Enter.
- Click the Speak Cells button in the Choose Commands From list box on the left and then click the Add button to add it to the bottom of the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list box on the right.
- Repeat the process outlined in Step 3, this time adding the Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells and Speak Cells on Enter buttons.If you want to reposition the Text to Speech buttons on the Quick Access toolbar, select each button in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list box and then move it left on the bar by clicking the Move Up button or right by clicking Move Down.If you want to set off the Text to Speech buttons as a separate group on the Quick Access toolbar, add a <Separator> icon ahead of the Speak Cells command button (and following the Speak Cells on Enter button if you have buttons not related to the Text to Speech function that follow on the Quick Access toolbar).
- Click the OK button to close the Excel Options dialog box.
- Select the cells in the worksheet whose contents you want read aloud by Text to Speech.If you want to check a table of data, simply position the cell cursor in the first cell, and Excel will then automatically select the entire table when you click the Speak Cells button.
- Click the Speak Cells button to have your Windows device begin reading back the entries in the selected cells.The Text to Speech feature reads the contents of each cell in the cell selection by first reading down each column and then across the rows.
- To pause the Text to Speech feature when you locate a discrepancy between what you’re reading and what you’re hearing, click the Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells button.
Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use Speak to have text read aloud in the language of your version of Office.
Convert To Text In Excel
Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For example, if you're using the English version of Office, the English TTS engine is automatically installed. To use text-to-speech in different languages, see Using the Speak feature with Multilingual TTS.
To learn how to configure Excel for text-to-speech, see Converting text to speech in Excel.
Add Speak to the Quick Access Toolbar
You can add the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar by doing the following in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote:
- Next to the Quick Access Toolbar, click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
- Click More Commands.
- In the Choose commands from list, select All Commands.
- Scroll down to the Speak command, select it, and then click Add.
- Click OK.
Use Speak to read text aloud
After you have added the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar, you can hear single words or blocks of text read aloud by selecting the text you want to hear and then clicking the Speak icon on the Quick Access Toolbar.