Speaking the Contents of Cells

Summary: Excel 2003 includes speech synthesis abilities that can "speak" your data to you as you enter it. This tip describes how to turn this feature on and off. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 2003.)

Do you like to hear freaky mechanical voices telling you what you just entered into a cell? If you are using Excel 2003, you're in luck. You can activate this precise feature by following these steps:

Display the Text to Speech toolbar. (Choose View | Toolbars | Text to Speech, or choose Tools | Speech | Show Text to Speech Toolbar.)
Click the right-most tool on the toolbar. (The Speak on Enter tool.)

At this point, assuming you have your speakers turned on and the volume turned up a bit, you'll hear a mechanical voice announce that the feature has been activated. Now, every time you enter a new value in a cell and then leave that cell, the voice tells you what you entered. If you enter a formula, then the voice announces the result of the formula.

To turn off the feature, again click the Speak on Enter tool. The voice announces that the feature is now off, and you can go on with your work in silence.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2394) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 2003

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Speaking the Contents of Cells