Excel 2007: Have Your Data Read Back To You

Contributed by Rob Rogers  
Tagged: Microsoft Excel  

After taking the time to input a large amount of data, you will want to double check to make sure you entered everything correctly. It can be quite time consuming to have to constantly look back and forth from your printed list to your spreadsheet. A better way is to have Excel read your data back to you, allowing you to check the printed list while listening to the spreadsheet values.

Before we can use the Speak Cell functionality, we will need to add it to Excel’s Quick Access toolbar.

1. Open Excel 2007 and go to the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of the window.

2. Click the downward point arrow to the right of the toolbar and select More Commands.

3. From the dropdown menu, select Commands Not in the Ribbon.

4. Scroll down the list and find Speak Cells, Speak Cells — Stop Speaking Cells, Speak Cells by Columns, Speak Cells by Rows, and Speak Cells on Enter. Add each of these by selecting them one-by-one and clicking the Add button. Click OK after all 5 commands have been added.

Now your Speak Cell commands are added to your Quick Access toolber.

Now go to your spreadsheet and select the cells you want Excel to read by performing a simple click and drag. Once the data is selected, go to the Quick Access toolbar and select either Speak Cells by Columns or Speak Cells by Rows. When you are ready for Excel to begin reading off the data contained in the selected cells, select Speak Cells and Excel will begin reading out the data to you.

If you need Excel to stop reading, simply select Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells.