If needed, use the dropdown menu to change it. Your active microphone will show in the Input section. For Windows 10 and 11, you can quickly do this by right-clicking on the volume icon in your taskbar, then selecting Open Sound settings. If your microphone isn't picking up your voice, verify that your input is set to the correct device. (Google sometimes completely botches its interpretation of what you say, no matter how clearly you enunciate.) Once you're done, click the microphone or use the keyboard shortcut again to turn off the service. Also speak slowly and clearly to reduce the number of mistakes you'll have to correct. When you see that color, you can start speaking your text.Īs you talk, don't be afraid to pause and think about what you're saying-Google will wait for you. If you instead used the keyboard shortcut, the pop-up window will show up already red.

Click the microphone and it will turn red. If you navigated to Tools Voice typing, a small pop-up window will appear to the left of your document with a dark microphone icon inside it. Once you're in the new document, go to the top menu and select Tools Voice typing, or press Ctrl+Shift+S on your keyboard. To start, go to create a new Google Docs file in either Google Drive or Google Docs. Not a fan of Chrome? This feature works in Microsoft Edge as well. Getting startedīefore you can use voice typing, you're going to need a couple things: the latest version of Google Chrome and a functioning microphone connected to your computer. But it's a solid tool for creating documents like notes, agenda items, meeting summaries, or even first drafts of emails. Still, there's an inherent lag between the issuing and execution of a command that makes the feature less than ideal for longer forms of content, where there could be lots of text or formatting changes-unless you have unlimited patience. There's a reason Google's offerings remain a mainstay in our roundup of the best free Office suites. The service is actually very accurate and quite flexible, thanks to Google's inclusion of basic formatting and editing commands. Voice dictation wasn't used to create this article on how to use Google Docs' voice typing, but it could have been.

Google voice dictation online