More recently Google brought mobile commenting to Sheets and Slides and made it easier to add people to documents. Voice dictation without voice editing, however, has always been an awkward and disjointed affair, forcing users to lurch between talking, typing to edit and then speaking once again. Using voice commands for editing text never struck me as all that convenient (using the keyboard is simply faster for issuing these commands), but if you have an impairment that keeps you from using the keyboard, these new commands may now make using Google Docs an option for you.
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The new features, like voice typing launched back in September, work in Google Docs on the web when using Google’s Chrome web browser, and they are only supported in English for now.
Google today announced updates to Google Docs that builds on the speech recognition capabilities it introduced a few months ago. And while voice typing is available in dozens of languages, voice commands to edit and format are available only in English.
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After enabling voice typing in the tools menu, you can say commands like “copy” or “insert table” to do those things without touching your keyboard. You can use your voice to type, but there are also a wide variety of commands you can use to edit and format. You can give voice formatting a try today. The full list of supported voice commands is available on Google’s Help Center.
