Speaking the Contents of Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 1, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2003

1

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:

  1. Display the Text to Speech toolbar. (Choose View | Toolbars | Text to Speech, or choose Tools | Speech | Show Text to Speech Toolbar.)
  2. 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 blissful silence.

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

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Index Number for the Active Table

For some programming needs, it is important to determine the index of an object within a collection of such objects. This ...

Discover More

Printing Field Codes

Field codes allow dynamic information to be included in documents and can be a great boon. At some point you may want to ...

Discover More

End-of-Month Calculations

Don't want to use the EOMONTH function to figure out the end of a given month? Here are some other ideas for discovering ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Searching a Workbook by Default

When you display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box, you'll notice that any search, by default, will be on ...

Discover More

Adding and Using a Combo Box

Combo boxes can be a great way of getting user input in a worksheet. Here's how to add a combo box to your worksheet and ...

Discover More

Deleting a View

When you no longer need a view, you can get rid of it by deleting it. Deleting unnecessary views is a good idea because ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 3 + 2?

2020-08-01 10:20:43

Sharon Bennett

I was able to turn the speech feature off by right clicking my speakers and click on mute for excel

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.