New Features Have Been Added to Office 365 - Olmec Skip to main content

New Features Have Been Added to Office 365

By September 10, 2020May 5th, 2022Technology News

If you’re an Office 365 user, you’ll be pleased to know that that Word for the web now has two cool new features: Transcribe and support for voice commands.

Currently, the transcription capabilities are somewhat limited, but are still robust enough to be genuinely useful. At present, it only supports transcribing audio into US English.

In order to make use of that feature, you need to be using Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or some other Chrome-based browser. The best part about the new feature is that the actual transcription takes place on the web, so there’s no need to download and install a third-party app to handle audio files.

In addition to that, the new transcription feature automatically detects different speakers in recorded conversations and transcribes them accordingly, which makes it easier to follow the flow of conversation in a transcript generated in Word.

Dan Parish, the company’s Manager of Natural User Interface and Incubation, had this to say about the new feature:

Your transcript will appear alongside the Word document, along with the recording, which enables you to leverage your transcript to create great content in the way that works best for you.”

Although these may change at any time, currently, Microsoft has placed the following parameters on use of the new feature:

  • Users are limited to five hours of transcription time per month
  • Uploaded audio files must be in one of the following formats:
    •  .mp3
    • .wav
    • .mp4
    • .m4a
  • Uploaded files may not exceed 200 mb in size.

Even given these restrictions, this is an awesome new addition.

The second enhancement to talk about here are the voice commands.

Dan Parish had a few words to say on that topic as well:

We’ve been adding voice commands to Dictate so that you can break away from the keyboard. Whether on the desktop or mobile (or transitioning between devices), you can stay in the flow and focus on your message by using dictation with voice commands to add, format, edit, and organize your text.”

Microsoft has a full list of Dictate commands the software will accept, and the system even understands a variety of symbols, which is super convenient.

Kudos to Microsoft for the amazing addition. It’s absolutely fantastic and will make your life easier.

Jason Manteiga

Jason J. Manteiga, Vice President of Olmec Systems, has been part of the company for over the past 20 years. He believes that having a great work environment and supportive team, is the ultimate key to success. Since being in the IT realm for over 25 years, Jason, along with Olmec Systems, has been on the Inc. 5000 “List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies” and Channel Futures MSP 501 “Top Managed Service Providers in North America,” along with other awards and nominations. Jason earned his Bachelor Degree in Information Systems from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He also holds certifications in Microsoft MCSE, VMWare VCP, and Cisco CCNA. In his spare time, Jason is a contributor for The Center for Social & Legal Research (Privacy Exchange) and a member of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce. His hobbies include cycling and kayaking. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, two daughters and son.