Windows Speech Recognition commands - Microsoft Support (2023)

Open Start

Start

Open Cortana

Note:Cortana is available onlyin certain countries/regions, and some Cortana features might not be available everywhere. If Cortana isn't available or is turned off, you can still use search.

Press Windows C

Open Search

Press Windows S

Perform an action in an app

Right-click; Press Windows Z; press ctrl B

Select an item by its name

File; Start; View

Select an item or icon

Click Recycle Bin; Click Computer; Click file name

Double-click an item

Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-click Computer; Double-click file name

Switch to an open app

Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to program name; Switch application

Scroll in one direction

Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left; Scroll right

Insert a new paragraph or new line in a document

New paragraph; New line

Select a word in a document

Select word

Select a word and start to correct it

Correct word

Select and delete specific words

Delete word

Show a list of applicable commands

What can I say?

Update the list of speech commands that are currently available

Refresh speech commands

Turn on listening mode

Start listening

Turn off listening mode

Stop listening

Move the Speech Recognition microphone bar

Move speech recognition

Minimize the microphone bar

Minimize speech recognition

Insert a new line in the document

New line

Insert a new paragraph in the document

New paragraph

Insert a tab

Tab

Insert the literal word (for example, insert the word "comma" instead of the punctuation mark)

Literal word

Insert the numeral form of a number (for examples, insert 3 instead of the word three)

Numeral number

Put the cursor before a specific word

Go to word

Put the cursor after a specific word

Go after word

Don't insert a space before the next word

No space

Go to the start of the current sentence

Go to start of sentence

Go to the start of the current paragraph

Go to start of paragraph

Go to the start of the current document

Go to start of document

Go to the end of the current sentence

Go to end of sentence

Go to the end of the current paragraph

Go to end of paragraph

Go to the end of the current document

Go to end of document

Select a word in the current document

Select word

Select a word range in the current document

Select word range; Select word through word

Select all text in the current document

Select all

Select a number of words before the location of the cursor

Select previous 20 words; Select previous 10 words

Select a number of words after the location of the cursor

Select next 20 words; Select next 10 words

Select the last text you dictated

Select that

Clear the selection on the screen

Clear selection

Capitalize the first letter of a word

Caps word

Capitalize all the letters of a word

All caps word

Make all the letters in a word lowercase

No caps word

Change the next number of words to uppercase

Change next 10 words to uppercase

Change the next number of words to lowercase

Change next 10 words to lowercase

Delete the previous sentence

Delete previous sentence

Delete the next sentence

Delete next sentence

Delete the previous paragraph

Delete previous paragraph

Delete the next paragraph

Delete next paragraph

Delete the selected or last dictated text

Delete that

Press a key or key combination

Press keyboard key; press A; press capital B; press Shift plus A; press Ctrl plus A

Press certain keyboard keys without saying "press" first

Delete; Backspace; Enter; Page Up; Page Down; Home; End; Tab

,

Comma

;

Semicolon

.

Period; Dot; Decimal point

:

Colon

"

Open double quote; Open quote

"

Close double quote; Close quote; Close inverted commas

'

Apostrophe

'

Open single quote

'

Close single quote

>

Greater than sign

<

Less than sign

/

Forward slash

\

Backslash

~

Tilde

@

At sign

!

Exclamation mark; Exclamation point

?

Question mark

#

Number sign; Pound sign

$

Dollar sign

%

Percent sign

^

Caret

(

Open parenthesis; Open paren

)

Close parenthesis; Close paren

_

Underscore

-

Hyphen; Minus sign; Dash

-

En dash

-

Em dash

=

Equal sign

+

Plus sign

{

Open brace; Open curly bracket

}

Close brace; Close curly bracket

[

Open bracket; Open square bracket

]

Close bracket; Close square bracket

|

Vertical bar

:-)

Smiley face

:-(

Frowny face

;-)

Winky face

™

Trademark sign

¾

Three-quarter sign

¼

One-quarter sign

½

One-half sign

£

Pound sterling sign

&

Ampersand; And sign

*

Asterisk

//

Double slash

`

Back quote

<

Open angle bracket

>

Close angle bracket

±

Plus or minus sign

«

Open angle quote

»

Close angle quote

×

Multiplication sign

÷

Division sign

¢

Cent sign

¥

Yen sign

§

Section sign

©

Copyright sign

®

Registered sign; Registered trademark sign

°

Degree sign

¶

Paragraph sign

...

Ellipsis; Dot dot dot

ƒ

Function sign

Select an item by its name

File; Start; View

Select an item or icon

Click Recycle Bin; click Computer; click file name

Double-click an item

Double-click Computer; double-click Recycle Bin; double-click folder name

Right-click an item

Right-click Computer; right-click Recycle Bin; right-click folder name

Minimize all windows to show your desktop

Show desktop

Select something if you don't know what it's called

Show numbers (Numbers will appear on the screen for every item in the active window. Say an item's corresponding number to select it.)

Select a numbered item

19 OK; 5 OK

Double-click a numbered item

Double-click 19; Double-click 5

Right-click a numbered item

Right-click 19; Right-click 5

Open an app

Open Paint; Open WordPad; Open app name

Switch to an open app

Switch to Paint; Switch to WordPad; Switch to app name; Switch application

Close an app

Close that; Close Paint; Close Documents

Minimize

Minimize that; Minimize Paint; Minimize Documents

Maximize

Maximize that; Maximize Paint; Maximize Documents

Restore

Restore that; Restore Paint; Restore Documents

Cut

Cut that; Cut

Copy

Copy that; Copy

Paste

Paste

Delete

Delete that; Delete

Undo

Undo that; Scratch that; Undo

Scroll in one direction

Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll right; Scroll left

Scroll an exact distance in pages

Scroll down 2 pages; Scroll up 10 pages

Scroll an exact distance in other units

Scroll up 5; Scroll down 7

Go to a field in a form or app

Go to field name; Go to Subject; Go to Address; Go to cc

Show the mousegrid

Mousegrid

Move the pointer to the center of a mousegrid square

Number of the square; 1; 7; 9

Select a mousegrid square

Click number of the square

Select an item to drag with the mouse

Number of the square where the item appears (followed by) mark; 3 mark; 7 mark; 9 mark

Select an area in the mousegrid where you want to drag the item

Number of the square where you want to drag the item (followed by) click; 4 click; 5 click; 6 click