Microsoft OneNote is one of the most popular tools for managing large digital notebooks. Even though OneNote has supported voice dictation on some platforms for years, it hasn't been available in the classic Windows app --- but it will soon.
Microsoft released a new beta version of OneNote for Windows on Friday, with a build number of 15227.20000. The new version adds a 'Dictate' button, which uses your computer's microphone to type out notes.
Microsoft added the voice dictation feature to other versions of OneNote years ago. The Windows 10/Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version of OneNote received a Dictate button in June 2018, at the same time as the normal Windows versions of Word and PowerPoint. OneNote Online added the feature later that year. Microsoft announced last year that it was phasing out the Windows 10 OneNote app, after it updated the regular Windows application to have all the features from both versions --- voice dictation being one of them.
Just like the web and UWP apps, the Dictate feature on Windows can input punctuation with certain phrases. You can say "period, full stop" to insert a period, "semicolon" to add a
;
symbol, "open parenthesis" and "close parenthesis" to place text inside parenthesis, and so on. The full list of commands is available in a support article.
Voice dictation is still not available on OneNote for Mac or the mobile OneNote apps. Most keyboards on Android and iOS/iPadOS have voice input support, but they can't insert all the formatting options as the built-in Dictate feature on Windows and the web.
Source: Microsoft