Microsoft brings “highly anticipated” Transcribe feature to Word for Windows

Microsoft 365 premium subscription charges users a monthly fee; despite that, it does not offer all the features you can find in Microsoft 365 apps on the web. However, Microsoft is working to bridge the gap by adding new features that are “highly anticipated.” Its efforts have come to fruition in the form of the Transcribe feature finally rolling out to Word for Windows.

Microsoft Word for Windows is now finally capable of converting speech to a text transcript with each speaker individually separated. This was limited to Word for the web and the OneNote app until Microsoft announced it for the Word Windows client a couple of days back.

With the Transcribe feature, you can revisit parts of the recording by playing back the timestamped audio and edit the transcription to make corrections. You can also save the full transcript as a Word document or insert snippets of it into existing documents. This feature can benefit users in conversations, interviews, or meetings.

You can transcribe your speech by recording directly in Word or uploading an audio file. For those who have not tried it on Word for the web, you can follow the below steps to transcribe your speech:

1. Navigate to Home > Dictate > Transcribe.
2. Select the Start recording button in Transcribe pane.
3. Start talking or recording, but make sure the incoming audio is clear.
4. Once finished, you can click the Save and transcribe now button to save your recording to OneDrive.

If you want to transcribe a pre-recorded audio file using Word for Windows, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to Home > Dictate > Transcribe.
2. Select the Upload audio button in the Transcribe pane.
   Note: The uploaded audio file should be in .wav/ .mp4/ .m4a/ .mp3 formats.
3. Choose an existing audio file from the file picker, and then click the Open button.

Transcribe feature works with more than 80 languages across different parts of the world. It is currently being rolled out for Microsoft 365 Beta Channel users running Version 2302 (Build 16107.20000) or later.

Microsoft brings “highly anticipated” Transcribe feature to Word for Windows