Using the Read Aloud feature in Outlook

Have you ever gotten an email from someone that looks more like a novel than a request? Have you wished you could just have someone read it to you while you focus on something else? Well, with the Read Aloud feature in Outlook, you can now do that! Here’s how…

First of all, you need to turn the feature on in your Outlook Options panel. Go to Ease of Access and select the Show Read Aloud setting:

Now when you open an email, you’ll see the Read Aloud Speech option. When you click that option in the Ribbon Bar, a speech toolbar will appear and you’ll start to hear the email being read aloud. The toolbar allows you to Rewind, Pause/Start, Fast Forward, set Options, and Stop:

With the Options setting, you can alter the speed of the narration, as well as the voice used. David is a lower-pitched male voice, while Mark has a higher-pitch. Zira is the female voice:

While this isn’t something I’d necessarily use all that often, I can see it being useful for long emails with a ton of text. It could also be extremely useful in the case of people who have vision issues that make it hard to read and/or digest longer emails.