Office 2010 Features: Read-Out-Loud & Quick Translation

Using Office 2010 has been an entirely new adventure for me. While finding new features, I’ve found some handy ones that have been in older versions of Office but I missed them. Today, I came across two features in Office 2010 that are new to Office. Till Office 2007 one needed a 3rd party add-on to enable Read-Out-Loud functionality, something a lot of us have wondered as to why Office hasn’t had it despite Windows having Narrator. Anyway, with Office 2010, you have built-in Read-Out-Loud capability but for some reason Microsoft decided to hide it. Office 2010 is big on collaboration via the Internet and as such language plays an important role, for this Office 2010 has a Mini Translator that allows quick translation of highlighted text. Enable Read Out Loud & Mini translator:

Add Read Out Loud To The Ribbon:

1. File –> Options –> Customize Ribbon
2. Under Choose Commands from, select Commands Not in the Ribbon
3. Scroll down to “Speak”
4. Select a Main tab where you want to add Read Out Loud
5. Click New Group –> Rename it
6. Press Add

Screen shot:

To add Read Out Loud to the Quick Access bar:

1. File –> Options –> Customize Ribbon
2. Choose Commands from –> select Commands Not in the Ribbon
3. Scroll down to “Speak”
4. Add

Screen shot:

Mini Translator:

Another neat addition to Office 2010 is regarding language translation. Once you enable Mini Translator, on selecting some text, Office 2010 will show a small dialog box with the text translated to the language you’ve set. Screen shot:

To enable Mini Translator:

Review –> Translate –> Mini Translator

The first time you try this option it’ll ask you to choose a language. You can change this later from:

Review –> Translate –> Mini Translator –> Choose Translation language

Screen shot:

NOTE: If the Mini Translator icon is enclosed in yellow, it means that Mini Translator is enabled.