How to dictate email in Gmail and Outlook

How dictating email works

Gmail in your browser and Outlook are just text boxes to a system-wide dictation tool. Click in the message body or the subject line, start dictating, and the words are typed at your cursor. For the bigger picture, see dictation in any app.

With free tools

• Windows: click in the email, press Win+H, speak. See Microsoft's voice typing guide.
• Mac: click in the email, press the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut, speak. See how to use dictation on Mac.

With Zefmi

1. Click in the email.
2. Hold your Zefmi key and say the email.
3. Let go. The text is typed with filler words and false starts removed, and punctuation added.

Zefmi types at the cursor in any app where you can type, so it works the same in your browser and in desktop mail apps.

Tips for dictated email

• Say the email the way you would say it to a colleague, then read it once before you send.
• Use Word for word mode if you are quoting someone exactly.
• Names and email addresses are easier to type than to say.

Languages

Zefmi types English, Cantonese and Mandarin on its one plan, US$5 a month.