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2423

Using the 'Speak Selected Text' function in Outlook

The instructions below were written for Outlook 2010 but are almost identical in Outlook 2013.

With Outlook, you can select a passage of text in an email, and hear it spoken through Outlook's voice synthesizer.

NOTE:  Please use headphones when using this feature if you are working near other people.

First you need to add the Speak function to Outlook's quick-access toolbar, like this:

1. Click Outlook's Customize Quick Access toolbar button on the top row of the Outlook window.
2. In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar window, click on More Commands...:
   
   
   
   
3. In the Choose commands from: list, select All Commands.
4. Scroll down the list of available commands and click on Speak, then click the
   Add >> button:
   
   
5. Click OK.
6. The Speak selected text icon should now be visible in your Quick Access toolbar:
   
   
   
   

Now if you select a passage of text in an email, then click the Speak selected text icon, the selected text will be heard:

To stop the speaking, for example during a long passage of spoken text, click on the Stop speaking selected text icon, which will have replaced the Speak selected text icon during the speaking: