Type & edit with your voice

You can use your voice to type and edit your document in Google Docs and your speaker notes and captions in Google Slides. This feature works with the latest versions of:

Chrome
Edge
Safari

When you turn on voice typing or captions, your web browser controls the speech-to-text service. It determines how your speech is processed and then sends the text to Google Docs or Google Slides.

Tip: If this feature is not enabled in your organization, it may have been turned off by your administrator.

Type with your voice

Step 1: Turn on your microphone

To use voice typing or voice commands, your computer microphone needs to be on and working.

Devices and microphones vary, so check your computer manual for instructions. Typically, microphone settings are in the System Settings on a Mac, or the Control Panel on a PC.

Step 2: Start voice typing in a document

Open a document in Google Docs in a supported browser.
Click Tools Voice typing. A microphone box appears.
When you're ready to speak, click the microphone.
Speak clearly and at a normal volume and pace. Learn how to add punctuation.
When you're done, click the microphone again.

Start voice typing in Slides speaker notes

On your computer, in a browser, open a presentation in Google Slides.
At the top left, in the menu bar, click Tools Dictate speaker notes .
- The speaker notes open and a microphone box displays.
When you're ready to speak, click Microphone .
Speak clearly and at a normal volume and pace. Learn how to add punctuation.
When you're done, click Microphone .

Correct mistakes while voice typing

If you make a mistake while you're typing with your voice, you can move your cursor to the mistake and fix it without turning off the microphone.
After you correct the mistake, move the cursor back to where you want to continue.
You might get suggestions on some words. To find the list of suggested alternatives, from the voice-typed text, right-click on words underlined in gray.

Languages that work with voice typing

Add punctuation

Important: Punctuation might not be available in every language:

Voice commands are available only in English. The account language and document language must both be English.
Voice commands aren’t available in Slides speaker notes.

To add punctuation to your text, you can use these commands:

Period
Comma
Exclamation point
Question mark
New line
New paragraph

Step 3: Use voice commands

After you start voice typing, you can use commands to edit and format your document. For example, "Select paragraph," "italics," or "Go to the end of the line."

Select text

To select text, you can use these commands:

Select [word or phrase]
Select all
Select all matching text
Select list item
Select list items at current level
Select next character
Select next [number] characters
Select last character
Select last [number] characters
Select line
Select next line
Select next [number] lines
Select last line
Select last [number] lines
Select paragraph
Select next paragraph
Select next [number] paragraphs
Select last paragraph
Select last [number] paragraphs
Select word
Select next word
Select next [number] words
Select last word
Select last [number] words
Deselect
Unselect
Select none

Format your document

To select text, you can use these commands:

Text formatting

Apply heading [1–6]
Apply normal text
Apply subtitle
Apply title
Bold
Italicize
Italics
Strikethrough
Subscript
Superscript
Underline
Uppercase
Title case
Lowercase

Text color & highlighting

Text color [color]
Highlight
Highlight [color]
Background color [color]
Remove highlight
Remove background color

Tip: The colors available are: red, red berry, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, cornflower blue, purple, magenta, black, white, and gray. For all colors except black and white, you can add "light" or "dark" along with numbers 1-3 (for gray, 1-4), such as "dark purple 3." If you say "highlight" by itself, the highlighting color is yellow.

Paragraph formatting

Decrease indent
Increase indent
Line spacing [1-100]
Line spacing double
Line spacing single

Alignment

Align center
Align justified
Align left
Align right
Center align
Left align
Right align

Columns

Apply 1 column
Apply 2 columns
Apply 3 columns
Column options
Insert column break

Lists

Create bulleted list
Create numbered list
Insert bullet
Insert number

Remove formatting

Clear formatting
Remove formatting
Remove bold
Remove italics
Remove strikethrough
Remove underline

Edit your document

Add & edit tables

Move around your document

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
Example: Go to	end of	paragraph
Go to Move to	end of start of	paragraph column line row table document
Go to Move to	next previous	character column footnote formatting change heading heading [1-6] image line link list list item misspelling paragraph row table word page
Go Move	forward backward	[number] characters [number] words
Go Move	up down	[number] lines [number] paragraphs