When you hear a Word document read aloud, you have the option to pause, skip back, and skip forward, just as you would when listening to an audio file. First select whether you want to hear the entire text or only parts of it:
- Cursor at the beginning of the document: the document is read aloud from the beginning.
- Cursor at a specific point in the text: The document will be read aloud from here on.
- Text selected: The selected text will be read aloud.
Click ‘Pause’ or ‘Play’ in the middle of the ‘Read Aloud’ menu to pause or restart the voice output. You can also use the ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ buttons to switch back and forth. The reading flow then resumes at the next or previous paragraph. Alternatively, you can control this with the following key combinations (shortcuts):
- [Ctrl] + [Space]: play or pause.
- [Ctrl] + [Left arrow]: jump to the previous paragraph
- [Ctrl] + [Right arrow]: jump to the next paragraph
You can also control reading speed and speaking voice when you have a text read aloud in Word. Select the speaker and gear icon on the right to open the settings. Now you can use a slider to change the reading speed. You can also do this with the following shortcuts:
- [Alt] + [Left arrow]: slower reading speed
- [Alt] + [Arrow right]: faster reading speed
In the submenu ‘Voice selection’ you can choose between different male and female voices.