In this article, I would like to share my solution on how to disable Read Aloud in Outlook and how to remove the shortcut key in Word that turns this feature on.
Disabling Read Aloud in Outlook
To disable Read Aloud in Outlook, go to File > Options >Accessibility and clear the Show Read Aloud checkbox.
That’s it. By doing so, not only will the Read Aloud icon disappear from the program’s ribbon, but the feature itself will not be triggered by the keyboard shortcut as well.
Removing Read Aloud shortcut key in Word
This one’s trickier. There’s no checkbox in Word that you can use to disable the Read Aloud functionality. However, what worked for me perfectly was a simple removal of the Alt+Ctrl+Space shortcut key, mentioned above in the article. To do so, first go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon and click Customize at the bottom of the window.
In the Customize Keyboard window that opens, select Review Tab under Categories and ReadAloud under Commands.
Next, select the shortcut key under Current keys, click Remove and close the window.
Once done, the Read Aloud option will no longer be started by striking these keys accidentally. However, you can still turn this function on by clicking the Read Aloud button on the Review tab in Word.
Now, without being disturbed by David (one of the available narrator voices) any more, I can finally concentrate on more serious topics. Hope you’ll find this article useful, too.
For more Outlook tips, see also:
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Thank you for your comprehensive, clear, and useful advice.
omg – saved my sanity ! Thank you :-)
Thank you so much. I actually removed the shortcut in 2020 (it was Alt Gr + space), and I see that Microsoft sneakily has added yet another shortkey to it. Gotta love Microsoft.
Finally got rid of just another annoying function in Outlook.
Thanks!
Thank you very much! This was so annoying when my usual ctrl+arrow pattern was interrupted by a feature I’ve never used.
Oh great sigh of relief! The darn thing was driving me nuts. Thank you for that.
Dziękuję :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH OMG IT MADE ME SO ANGRY
Thank you so much! This thing has been annoying me for years, finally I googled around and found your excellent article – and got rid of it! Horray!
Thank You very much!
My word doc doesn’t have the read aloud as a option. I don’t even have it available in my commands. How do I add it? I have the latest version updated as well.
The latest version of which Office suite? Read Aloud is available in Office 2019 and Microsoft 365 only.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Hi
I just wanted to say thank you for this neat tip which also, by the way, solves the problem of the Ctrl+ArrowKey shortcut being disabled in Word (as Read Aloud does for some reason).
All the best
Kerry Underwood
Thanks, I’ve solved some of my issued. I had been trying out a program called GT4T, that is intended to help someone use Google Translate in their workflow. Interesting effort but ultimately not suitable for my work. Anyway, that’s where the female voice came from and it’s also what had hijacked the Ctrl-E command. All fixed.
Next: I was not using Narrator, but the one built into Word. Thank you for the clarification.
Finally, I’ve changed Alt-Ctrl-space to do nothing, for now. (Mapped to a do-nothing macro.)
Thank you for your suggestions.
Some time in the past few weeks Word has changed the Ctrl-E shortcut so that it no longer centers the selected text. Instead, it sometimes starts to read the text aloud. But it uses a female voice.
As an experiment, I added the Speech control to the Quick Access bar. That one turns on a male voice. This voice also starts if I press Alt-Ctrl-Space.
I have wondered whether there are two different features: one in Word and one in Windows. But the feature in Windows also shows the same voice.
How can I find out what app is being activated by Ctrl-E and how can I turn it off??
Hi Steven,
Those two features (Read Aloud in Microsoft Office and Narrator in Microsoft Windows) are separate, with their own settings. The Narrator’s settings can be accessed in Control Panel > Ease of access > Narrator and that’s where you can turn it off.
The Ctrl+E key combination, by default, is still reserved for aligning text to center. If you follow the steps from Removing Read Aloud shortcut key in Word above, you should be able to turn off the Ctrl+E key combination if it was assigned there by mistake. Additionally, you can use the Press new shortcut key option to press “Ctrl+E” – a prompt will show which action the shortcut is assigned to.
To assign Ctrl+E back to aligning text to center, go to Customize Keyboard > Home tab > CenterPara and add it there.