Turn Read Aloud on or off in Outlook

1. Select File > Options > Accessibility.

2. Under Application display options, select or clear the Show Read Aloud checkbox.

   

Let Outlook read your messages to you

On the Home tab, select Read Aloud. The Read Aloud controls appear in the upper right and is playing by default.

• To pause Read Aloud, select Pause.

• To move from one paragraph to another, select Previous or Next.

• To exit Read Aloud, select Stop (x).

Change Read Aloud settings 

Select the gear icon in the controls at the top right.

• Use the Reading speed slider to change the reading speed.

• Under Voice Selection, select the voice you want.

Keyboard shortcuts 

You can easily control Read Aloud using the following keyboard shortcuts in Windows: 

Increase reading speed 

Listen to your documents with Speak 

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Speak reads aloud only the text you select. Read Aloud reads the entire document starting from your cursor location like an audiobook.  

To use Speak:  

1. Select a word or block of text in your document.

2. In the Quick Access Toolbar, select the Speak selected text icon

Supported languages 

Read Aloud uses the proofing language set for the document. To change the language, see the help article Fix text-to-speech reading in wrong language.  

Voices 

Depending on your platform, text-to-speech (TTS) uses software that comes built into your device or through a Microsoft service. The voices available will differ between TTS services. If you’re using Immersive Reader, see the help article Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud for more information. 

Our team is working on making voices sound more natural, so keep looking for improvements. 

Troubleshooting 

If you don’t see Read Aloud available, make sure that you’re signed into your Microsoft 365 account, and then try restarting Outlook or logging out and back in.