Microsoft Word is a great writing tool that comes with a host of features to make writing, notetaking, documentation and the like an overall better experience. With that said, one very useful feature that comes with it is the ability to transcribe audio. If you’re looking for ways on how to convert your audio recordings such as meetings or personal notes into text, there’s a very easy way to do that on Microsoft Word.

Why Transcribe Audio in Microsoft Word

There are many reasons why you would want to transcribe audio in Microsoft Word. Meetings are generally transcribed to have a readable format so there’s an easier way to make minutes. If you also have works that you need documented into text, that’s also one option. Or, if your hands are full and you need to record something into text, it’s a quick solution. Of course, one of the most useful applications of it are for the deaf or hard of hearing so they would have more ways to communicate.

How to Transcribe Audio in Microsoft Word

There are three on ways to transcribe audio in Microsoft Word. One is to upload a recording that you have done prior, the second one is where you can start recording and Microsoft Word will transcribe the audio for you once you finish recording. If you would prefer doing it on the go, you can also use dictate and it will transcribe audio as you speak.

1. Open Microsoft Word.

2. From your main screen, click on “Dictate” or click on the arrow below it and choose “Transcribe” from the dropdown menu.

3. For Dictating, a red circle will appear to indicate that it is transcribing audio. You can also change the settings, and it’s very useful to have enable auto-punctuation on so you don’t need to go into your physical keyboard and type in each punctuation marks.

4. For audio transcribing, once you click on “Transcribe,” you are given two options: “Upload Audio” and “Start Recording.”

5. Uploading audio will let you use your prerecorded audio file and transcribe it into text. “Start recording” will basically let you record, and Microsoft Word will transcribe the audio for you after you’re done recording.

Here’s a sample of a generated transcription for an audio recording.

And below is how it looks when it’s inserted into a document.

Transcript

The transcribe feature converts speech to text transcript with each speaker individually separated. After your conversation, interview, or meeting, you can revisit parts of the recording by playing back the time tempted audio and edit the transcription to make corrections. You can save the full transcript as a Word document or insert snippets of. Into existing documents.

Notice that there are some inaccuracies with the transcription from words to punctuation marks. There are many factors that can cause this such as mispronunciation of words and delayed speaking. It’s important to take context into consideration if you’re reading from a text document that came from a transcribed audio.

Final Thoughts

Audio transcription is a very useful tool for professionals, students, and anyone who needs audio converted into text. In that regard however, it’s also important to note that nothing is perfect, and it’s best to always check for errors in the transcription. We hope this guide has helped you in using the Audio Transcription feature in Microsoft Word.