Use cases

Dictate emails in Outlook and Gmail

Last updated 2026-11-01 · by Venu Gopal Reddy Muvva, founder

To dictate emails in Outlook or Gmail on Windows, click into the message body, hold Ctrl+Win, say the email, and let go. DictationDesk types clean text at your cursor: fillers are removed, your corrections are applied, and because it sees you are in an email app it puts the greeting and the sign-off on their own lines.

The problem

Most of a working day goes into email, and most emails are short replies you could say in twenty seconds but take two minutes to type. Built-in voice typing gives you a raw transcript full of “um” and missing commas, so you end up fixing it by hand.

How to do it with DictationDesk

1. Set up your account. Create a free account, then add the names you write most (clients, colleagues, products) to your dictionary so they are always spelled right.
2. Connect the app. Make a device token under Devices and paste it into the Windows app's Account tab. Your dictionary syncs to that PC.
3. Click into the email. Open a reply in Outlook, or a compose window in Gmail in your browser, and click where the text should go.
4. Hold Ctrl+Win and speak. Say the email the way you would say it to a colleague: “hi priya comma the proposal is ready, I'll send it by thursday, no wait, by friday morning. thanks”.
5. Release and check. Let go of the keys. The email appears with “Hi Priya,” on its own line, the correction applied (“by Friday morning”) and “Thanks” as the sign-off.

Tips

• Say “new paragraph” to start a new paragraph; say “comma” or “full stop” when you want exact punctuation.
• Make a snippet for your signature, for example “my signature”, so one phrase types the whole block.
• Use command mode on a draft: select it, hold Ctrl+Win+Alt and say “make this more formal”.

When DictationDesk is not the right tool

DictationDesk is not an email client and does not write emails for you from a one-line prompt; it types what you say, cleaned up. If you want an assistant that drafts replies from your inbox automatically, use an email drafting tool instead. It also works only on Windows today; on a Mac or phone use another dictation app for now.

Questions

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