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Read Aloud Voices in WORD (they disappeared)

Anonymous
2021-11-30T00:39:13+00:00

After upgrading my laptop to Windows 11, I tried Read Aloud in Word. To my surprise there were several voice options that were not there when I was using Windows 10. Then, after a week of using it to proofread my manuscript, I rebooted my laptop (something I do regularly to ensure updates) and the Read Aloud was ****. I tried to change back to the good voice and there were only the standard three voices (David, Zira, Mark). I worked with Microsoft support, who reinstall my Office 19 twice before finally saying there were only the three voices and I had to live with it.

Was I in some weird twilight zone for a week and not in the real world? What happened to my good Read Aloud voice? and how can I get it back?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-09T23:02:16+00:00

    So, yes a recent upgrade caused Word to lose the voices. The repeated suggestions to change the Narration settings is bunk. My narrations settings say Zira and have lots of options. But Word 365 has really bad "Male" and "Female" as the only settings. I have it all installed correctly and was correct before a recent program upgrade.

    So, without going to the Narration settings (as that won't work), any other suggestions as to how to get the voices back. I have seen many posts about this problem and the answer is always the same, one that doesn't actually work

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-01T17:26:42+00:00

    This... I've used the Male and Female voices from read aloud and all the sudden, they are both gone. David, Zira and Mark couldn't sound any more mechanical. not to mention they read as such

    "The 1st popup"

    as

    "The one'st popup"

    Microsoft, quit messing with stuff that isn't broken.

    give me back my male and female default options in Office. David Zira and the other one are horrible.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T22:06:19+00:00

    Same thing happened here. Male & female voices were fantastic for as long as they lasted. Robots Mark & company came back and they sound awful. Please bring back the male and female voice option. Word is a great program, but this back and forth is frustrating and does not inspire trust.

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T21:17:40+00:00

    After windows 11 was installed, the text to voice voices in the uk changed to "male" and "female" and were brilliant. Now it has changed back to those three **** voices which are as far as being smooth as it can get. The only way to change the voice from these three, as far as I can tell, is to change the language. This also changes the spelling opperation. Why can't I just have those two male and female options back!!! hey worked. These others are awful.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T14:20:48+00:00

    I've been using the 'Female' voice in word since at least the beginning of Nov 2021. There's no way they didn't know they were out in the wild.

    Microsoft, please, just put'em back. You can keep moving stuff around in the Microsoft365 admin centers and confusing us on where to go on a daily basis when we try to access one of the 6 different Exchange Admin Centers, but give us back our voices in word.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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