2. Writing and proofreading by voice

Dictation and reading aloud use the browser’s voice features: they are free and use no credits. They work best in Google Chrome. Both work in French, the language of the editor.

2.1 Dictate

1. Click in the document where the text should appear.
2. Click Dicter (Dictate — the microphone) in the toolbar, then speak normally.
3. The text is written as you speak, at the cursor position.
4. After a few seconds of silence, dictation stops on its own. You can also click the microphone again to stop it.

Dictating a sentence at the end of a paragraph

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To replace a passage, select it before dictating: the dictated text takes its place.

Proofread after dictating

Speech recognition doesn’t always add capitals and final punctuation. Fix them with the keyboard, or select the sentence and use Régénérer (part 3) to rewrite it cleanly.

The microphone doesn’t respond?

• The first time, the browser asks for permission to use the microphone: accept it.
• If you refused it, the editor shows « Accès au microphone refusé » (Microphone access denied): allow the microphone for this site in the browser settings (the icon to the left of the address), then reload the page.
• Outside Chrome, a message tells you that speech recognition isn’t supported.

2.2 Read aloud

1. To read a passage, select it. To read from a given point, simply click there.
2. Click Lire à voix haute (Read aloud — the speaker).
3. Each word is highlighted as it is read.
4. Reading stops at the end of the selection (or of the document). Click the speaker again to stop it earlier.

Reading a selected paragraph (video without sound)

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Once reading is finished or stopped, your selection or cursor position is restored: another click reads the same passage again.

It’s a good way to proofread a letter before sending it, or to let someone who struggles to read French listen to a document.