(Originally published on November 14, 2022 by Abhinav Santoshi)
Hi, Insiders! My name is Abhinav Santoshi and I’m a Product Manager on the Office Voice team. I’m excited to share with you the availability of a new Transcribe and Ink experience in OneNote on Windows.
Transcribe and Ink experience in OneNote
By bringing together Ink and the power of voice transcription to OneNote, we are enabling you to more efficiently capture and then refer to information. Now you can concentrate on delivering a speech, conducting an interview, recording a lecture, taking class notes, or attending a presentation—all while knowing you can listen back and read the transcription afterwards.
With transcription on, you can record the audio you want to capture, leaving you free to annotate content or write notes. When you’re ready to review your transcription, you can press the Play button to play back the ink strokes that were captured along with the audio recording. This new capability makes it easier than ever to take notes, focus on what’s important, and review your content later!
Transcribe and Ink in OneNote on Windows
How it works
You can transcribe speech in two ways: by recording in OneNote or uploading an audio file to OneNote.
Record in OneNote
You can capture audio directly in OneNote while taking notes in the canvas, and then transcribe the recording. You'll see the transcript after you click the Save and transcribe now button. The ink strokes you make while recording it will also be captured and replayed.
This is particularly helpful in settings like a classroom where you can record the lecture while also taking notes. Or, during an interview, when you can record your interactions with a candidate and her answers to your questions while also capturing notes.
Here’s how to start:
- If it’s your first time transcribing, give the OneNote app permission to use your mic. How to set up and test microphones in Windows (microsoft.com)
- Go to Home > Record & Transcribe > Transcribe.
Record & Transcribe menu on the Home tab in Outlook
- In the Transcribe pane, select the Start recording button.
Start recording button on the Transcribe pane
- Start talking, begin a conversation with another person, or start recording a lecture. Be sure to speak clearly and make sure the incoming audio is clear.
- As you speak or listen, you can take notes using ink.
- When finished, click the Save and transcribe now button to save your recording to OneDrive and start the transcription process.
NOTE: The OneDrive account where your audio is being uploaded will be shown in transcription pane. Currently you can only create one new transcription per page.
Upload an audio file
You can upload a pre-recorded audio file to transcribe the recording. This is useful when you want to refer to a past lecture or training session and be able to listen to the content again.
- Go to Home > Record & Transcribe > Transcribe.
- In the Transcribe pane, select the Upload audio button.
Upload audio button on the Transcribe tab
- Choose an existing audio file from the file picker, and then click the Open button.
NOTE: Transcribe currently supports the .wav, .mp4, .m4a, and .mp3 formats.
Scenarios to try
Play and Pause recording
- Pause the recording by selecting the Pause button.
Pause recording
- Resume recording by selecting the Record button.
Resume recording
Take notes with Ink while recording the audio
Use inking tools available on OneNote to annotate content or take notes. The ink strokes captured during the recording will be played back to you in sync with the audio.
Inking tools on the Draw tab of the ribbon in OneNote
Play back the audio
- Navigate to the OneNote page that contains the transcribed recording and select the Home tab, then click the Record & Transcribe button.
OneNote page that contains the transcribed recording
- Press the Play button to start playing back your recording.
Play your recording
- Press the Pause button to pause playback.
Playback pause button
Notice that the relevant transcript section is highlighted as the audio plays. You can also easily jump to a specific moment in your recording by clicking the timestamp or right-clicking ink strokes of any annotation to recall more context.
Adjust the volume and the playback speed
Volume control slider
Relabel a speaker or edit a section
- The transcription service identifies and separates different speakers and labels them "Speaker 1," "Speaker 2," etc. You can edit the speaker label and change all occurrences of it to something else. <
Edit the speaker label
- You can also edit the content of a section to correct any issues in transcription.
Edit the transcription
Add a transcript to the page
From the Transcribe pane, you can add the entire transcript, or specific sections of it, to your OneNote document.
Add to page options
Requirements
- Active Microsoft 365 subscription. NOTE: No entry point into the Transcribe and Ink experience will be available unless you are a Microsoft 365 subscriber.
- Make sure you’re signed into Microsoft 365 and using the latest version of the Windows OneNote app.
- Have a stable internet connection
- NOTE: Transcribe is not available for GCC/GCC-H/DOD customers.
Privacy
This feature doesn’t store your content or audio data. Microsoft only uses your content to provide you with audio results. For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see Connected Experiences in Office.
List of supported languages
Please visit the language availability section of Transcribe your recordings in OneNote on the Microsoft support website.
Availability
We will be rolling this feature out to Insiders running Version 2211 (Build 15729.20002) or later.
Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.
Feedback
We want to hear from you! Please share your feedback about the Transcribe and Ink experience with us right from the app by tapping the Send Feedback button in the top right corner of the OneNote window.
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