The Outlook email client provides you with a large number of functions that allow you to improve productivity and makes it easy to compose emails.
Among these functions, one of the most interesting is the possibility of writing messages through voice dictation, leaving your hands free to perform other tasks.
The appeal of this feature lies in how practical it is for you, so, in the next paragraphs, we will teach you everything you need to learn to use the voice writing function from any of your devices to compose your emails in a much more comfortable way
Benefits of using your voice to compose emails in Outlook
Voice dictation, both in email and in other applications, is one of the most useful functions when it comes to optimizing your time and improve performance when writing written texts. This feature became so popular in the 2010s and virtually all text entry programs have a speech-to-text converter, and can be found on both computers and mobile devices.
Among the most outstanding advantages of voice dictation, we can count the following:
- It is faster: In general, text-to-speech generators process incoming speech at high speed, so you can work faster this way if you have your ideas in order.
- Less tired: after some time of typing, you start to feel tired and this is a situation that we can avoid by using voice dictation for our emails
- Improve diction: When you have practice using this function, you will notice an improvement in pronunciation and diction, thanks to the constant use of your voice to write.
- Keep the order of ideas: Sometimes, as you write, certain ideas slip away before you can translate them into text. With voice typing, you can write those ideas as soon as you have them without losing the thread of the text.
- You can do other things while you dictate: Although it is necessary to maintain attention in the dictation, it is possible to do other tasks that require less concentration while we are composing the mail.
Learn how to dictate emails in Outlook
The Outlook voice dictation It is a tremendously practical function and very easy to use, so it will not be difficult for you to activate it on all your devices.
However, what you should keep in mind is that, in order to use this tool, the device you use, be it computer or mobile, must have a functional microphone:
From the phone
The Outlook mobile application has access to voice typing from the composition options on the new message screen, so the process to activate it is very simple:
- Enter the Outlook application on your mobile device.
- Choose access to new message, which you will see in the lower right corner, in the form of a circular icon.
- On the new mail screen, click on the microphone icon, located just above the keyboard, to activate the speech-to-text function.
- Grant the permissions that are requested.
- Wait for the microphone to activate, click on the space corresponding to the body of the message and start dictating.
It should be noted that, for now, This feature is only available to users of the Outlook application located in the US, therefore, outside of this region, you will have to have another text input method to perform the dictations. This is the voice dictation function that comes by default on the native keyboard of most Android devices, and which you can use to dictate emails, even if the Outlook function is not available in your region.
To activate this alternative, follow the steps below:
- Enter the application of Outlook.
- Choose circular icon in the lower right corner to compose a new email.
- On the new message screen, the keyboard will be activated automatically.
- Click on the microphone icon which you will see at the top of the keyboard.
- If the application asks for permission to access the microphone, tap “Let”.
- Hover over the field where you want enter text and begins to speak into the microphone.
While in some cases the speech-to-text processor may be a little less accurate, will be used to write draft emails. In addition, it allows you to enter periods, commas and create new paragraphs through voice commands.
From the computer
The Outlook voice dictation in the computer greatly facilitates work when composing long emails. This function is only available through the desktop application, and to be able to use it it is necessary to have a functional microphone to be able to dictate.
The process to activate and use the speech-to-text function is as follows:
- Open Outlook on your computer and click “New message”.
- Choose the eyelash “Message” and click on the microphone icon, marked with the label “Dictate”.
- If you are using this function for the first time, you will likely see the icon “…”, in which case you must select it to display the options menu and click on the microphone icon.
- Wait for what the dictation tools window is displayed and begins to speak.
The text field change must be done manually, by clicking on these before starting the dictation. Punctuation marks can be added by naming them clearly and explicitly, as well as starting new paragraphs. An advantage that the computer application has over the mobile version, is that you can use the voice command to send the mail, and although error correction must be done manually, it does not disable the microphone function.
Other tools to improve the productivity of your Outlook mail
Outlook gives you the possibility of accessing a series of very interesting tools that, used correctly, lead you to greatly increase your productivity so you can do work much more efficiently.
Here are some extra actions you can take to make sure your work in Outlook is as efficient and streamlined as possible:
Create autoresponder templates
Response templates are a useful time-saving method found in most email services.. Outlook allows you to schedule automated responses both in its mobile application and in its web and desktop version. Basically consists of programming a text that will be sent automatically to all senders who send you emails during a certain period of time, and allows you to stay connected with your clients and other contacts in a coordinated way.
Use labels
This function, also known as categories, it is one of the most versatile organization tools in Outlook, as it groups messages from any mail folder by means of a common label. Also, tags can be assigned to favorites section, so that you can see them in the same way as a regular Outlook folder, offering you a more organized view of your emails.
Create automatic rules
This is probably the most practical function you have Outlook When it comes to customizing and organizing your inbox in depth, these rules are applied from Outlook settings Y They allow you to modify the behavior of your mailbox.
What the rules do is use filter parameters like keywords, recipients or time ranges, to select emails that will be subjected to actions determined by the user such as archiving, deleting, and transferring to another folder.