Word Dictate keeps inserting the word 'open'

Anonymous
2022-10-20T18:57:38+00:00

A few days ago, Microsoft Word started randomly inserting the word ‘open’ into what I speak. I never say that word, it just automatically appears. I've looked through all the threads about similar issues in the past with words like ‘hey’ and have followed every single suggestion in those threads, including reinstalling Word. Nothing has worked. Most of the threads were from 2020 but I never saw if there was a final resolution. I've been using dictate and this version of Word for over a year now and have not had any issues until a few days ago. Please advise.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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Anonymous
2023-01-04T20:00:37+00:00

Hi CKGhostwriter!

Sorry for the delayed response.

We've just deployed a change that should fix the "open" issue. If you are still using the product, it would be great if you could use the dictation feature again to see that it fixed your problem. (Although deployment sometimes takes a few days).

If within the next week, you still don't see a fix, please report the issue through the office app with Help>Feedback. If you include the word "dictation" in your feedback, someone on the team should be reviewing your feedback in a timely manner.

This goes for anyone else reading this with the same issue.

Sorry about the experience. We are working hard to make it better for everyone!

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  1. Charles Kenyon 171.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-12-05T03:59:44+00:00

    To all of those experiencing this headache of a problem,

    I came up with a temporary work-around for this problem. It seems to me that the microphone is picking up on some ambient sound nearby (typing, flipping a page, etc.) and interpreting it by default as the word open. The trick is to change the hotkey that engages the dictation to something easy for you to reach. Then it can be toggled on and off rapidly during any pauses in speech, I know this is a bit of an arduous work-around, and it may not work with all workflows, but it works for me while transcribing audio dialogue.

    P.S.

    Microsoft, please fix this soon. It is wildly annoying.

    For me, an external headset microphone works.

    Generally I do not dictate, though. My typing is faster and less prone to error. I sometimes do use the transcription for recorded voice.

    Note, this is not the place to get any changes made in Word nor the attention of developers at Microsoft. This is an independent user-to-user support forum. MS does not see anything you post here. The way to get their attention is through the feedback mechanisms.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-12-04T21:18:15+00:00

    To all of those experiencing this headache of a problem,

    I came up with a temporary work-around for this problem. It seems to me that the microphone is picking up on some ambient sound nearby (typing, flipping a page, etc.) and interpreting it by default as the word open. The trick is to change the hotkey that engages the dictation to something easy for you to reach. Then it can be toggled on and off rapidly during any pauses in speech, I know this is a bit of an arduous work-around, and it may not work with all workflows, but it works for me while transcribing audio dialogue.

    P.S.

    Microsoft, please fix this soon. It is wildly annoying.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-12-01T20:28:42+00:00

    Thank you for the information MGS 111.

    Could you also let us know which language/locale you usually use dictation in? Which app and platform you usually use (for example, Word on a windows desktop)?

    For the language, you can click on this gear button in the toolbar and look at the menu to see which is the currently selected dictation language.

    Image Knowing the language helps us narrow down the language model(s) this error is appearing in. I think everyone here is dictating in English, but there's actually multiple versions of English based on country. So it would really help us to know which versions of English to look at for this issue.

    Alternatively, it would be really helpful if you could use dictation again (with the problem reproduction) and then use our built-in feedback system (help>feedback) to report the problem to us. If you use the keyword "dictation" in your written text, our team will receive the feed back and we will also have more information to work with.

    Thanks again for using Dictation! And so sorry for all the frustration this issue is causing you. /:

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-12-01T14:30:13+00:00

    I have been having the same problem starting a couple of months ago. The word “open” appears usually when there is any type of extraneous sound like a click on the keyboard or a mouse or even when my phone rings, while I am in dictation mode. It starts in gray and turns black when it finishes. Sometimes the word appears in gray but does not go black if I speak quickly after the word “open” appears. Open

    As an example, the highlighted word above appeared when I finished the sentence. It was in lower case when it appeared in gray and capitalized itself when it finalized. open This one appeared when I clicked the off the dictation button.

    ( I added the bold after he fact)

    Sure hope you can fix this, I rely on dictation and it is very frustrating.

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