The Dictate service has been available, but Dictate with voice commands is now at the general-availability release status as of this month for Word for the Web, as well as for the Word for Android and Word for iOS mobile applications, according to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. However, the files are "used only to provide you with this service" and don't get stored, Microsoft's announcement promised. Microsoft receives the audio files when people use the Transcription feature.
Apparently, that's what Microsoft is saying in its support document, which outlines how to use the Transcription service. Selecting "New Transcription" will delete any unsaved work. The transcription basically has to be saved as a Word file to be kept. The recordings get saved in OneDrive's "Transcribed Files" folder. When saved, users will see the text plus a link to the audio file within the Word document. It's possible to save all of the transcribed text in Word for the Web and edit it there, or just some of the text can be saved.
Another test that I ran by playing an audio file resulted in a uselessly poor transcription. While there was just one speaker, namely me, who was identified as "Speaker 1," it nonetheless broke up the text multiple times using the Speaker 1 identifier.Īudio quality will be a big factor in getting a successful transcription. It has trouble determining where periods should appear. It took about five minutes for a transcript of those paragraphs to complete, but it correctly interpreted and properly spelled the text, which included species descriptors that were in Latin. I tried reading two short paragraphs of medical text while using the Transcription service. The application is said to be able to identify different speakers, who are identified as "Speaker 1,"Speaker 2," etc., although Microsoft likely could use Microsoft Graph user information in the future to be more specific. Next, they hit a "Save and Transcribe Now" button and they wait. The Transcription service is a bare-bones kind of application that you turn on from Word for the Web's "Dictate" option in the Ribbon menu, where there's an option to "Transcribe." Users simply let it record.
Microsoft described limits to Transcription in Word for the Web that possibly are temporary, stating that "at this time, there is a five hour limit of transcription time per month for uploaded recordings and there is a file size limit of 200mb." It's not apparent how users get alerted should they approach those limits. Alternatively, users can upload a prerecorded audio file for transcription by the service. Transcription in Word for the Web is capable of recording conversations that are within range of a PC's microphone. However, Microsoft is planning to deliver a "Transcribe in Office mobile" capability, which is expected to arrive by year's end. Transcription is just available in the browser-based Word application, and isn't available in the desktop version.
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