Excel Text to Speech (Speak Cells)

Excel Text to Speech feature (also called Speak Cells in Excel) was introduced in the 2003 version of Excel.

While I believe this feature is more useful in MS Word, PowerPoint, or even Outlook, you may find it helpful in Excel in some cases.

As the name suggests, it converts text into speech and can read aloud out to you while you close your eyes, rest your head on a table, and relax.

Setting Up Text-to-Speech (Speak Cells) in Excel

Similar to the Excel Camera tool, even this feature is not readily available in the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) or the ribbon.

You can add the Speak Cells icon to the QAT using the following steps:

1. Right-click on any of the tabs and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar. It will open the Excel Options dialogue box.

2. In the Choose Commands from the drop-down, select All Commands.

3. Scroll down the list below the drop-down and select Speak Cells options. There are five options available to add to the QAT. You can add all five or only the first one.

4. With the Speak Cells icon selected, click on the Add button. If you want other speak cells icons as well, select them from the list and click on the Add button.

5. Click OK to add the Speak Cells icon to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Understanding Excel Text-to-Speech Options

There are five icons that you can add for Excel Text to Speech feature.

Here is what each of these icons can do:

• Speak Cells: When you click on this, it reads out loud the text in the selected cell or range of cells.
• Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells: When clicked, it stops the reading of the cells that’s in progress.
• Speak Cells by Column: When selected, Excel reads all the cells in the left-most column and then moves to the next column to the right. At a given point in time, only one of two options (Speak Cells by Column & Speak Cells by Row) can be active.
• Speak Cells by Row: When selected, Excel reads all the cells in the top row (from left to right) and then moves to the next row below it. At a given point in time, only one of two options (Speak Cells by Column & Speak Cells by Row) can be active.
• Speak Cells on Enter: When enabled, Excel only reads cells when you press enter after selecting that cell.

Using Excel Text-to-Speech

Select the cells you want Excel to convert to speech and click the Speak Cells button. Make sure you have the headphones or speaker plugged in.

Excel tries its best to pronounce the text you enter. If you enter numbers, it will read out the numbers.

If you enter random text that is not a word, it will read it out one alphabet at a time, but if it is something that is a word, it will read that out.

I tried making it read my name, and it did alright.

Note: The Speak Cells feature is also available in other Microsoft apps such as Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You can follow the same steps shown in this article to add it to these other apps

Hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

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