How do I turn off speak cells in Excel?

Reg 20 Reputation points
2026-06-11T23:45:15.49+00:00

The Speak Cell on Entry and Stop Speaking buttons will not turn it off.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Windows
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Sophie N 18,175 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-06-12T00:59:51.9933333+00:00

Dear @Reg,

I understand you are trying to turn off the "Speak Cells" feature in Excel, and the standard buttons (Speak Cells on Entry and Stop Speaking) are not working. This is a known issue that can occur when Excel's settings become stuck.

Here is the most reliable solution to resolve this immediately. It uses a single line of code in Excel's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor to force the setting off.

This method directly changes the specific Excel setting controlling the speech feature.

  1. Open the VBA Editor: In Excel, press the keyboard shortcut Alt + F11 on your keyboard.
  2. Open the Immediate Window: Inside the VBA Editor, press Ctrl + G. A small window called "Immediate" will appear at the bottom.
  3. Enter the Command: In the "Immediate" window, carefully type or copy/paste the following line of code:
    Application.Speech.SpeakCellOnEnter = False
  4. Execute the Command: Press the Enter key on your keyboard. The code will run instantly.
  5. Close the Editor: Click the 'X' in the top right corner of the VBA Editor window to close it.

Excel should now be silent. This command directly sets the speech property to False, turning it off even if the toolbar buttons are unresponsive.
I found a similar post on the forum regarding your issue, I hope it proves helpful to you: Stop Excel from Speaking on Cell Entry - Microsoft Q&A (I hope you understand that, as this article was written by other members, it adheres to the original information and language of the post)

In very rare cases where the setting is corrupted, you may need to take one more step.

Repair Office: Sometimes a quick repair of your Microsoft 365 installation can fix underlying issues that cause settings to become stuck. You can do this by going to Windows Settings > Apps > Microsoft 365 > Modify and choosing "Quick Repair". Please refer to this document: Repair an Office application - Microsoft Support

I hope this helps you resolve the issue quickly. Please let me know if you have any other questions.


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  1. cynthia white 205 Reputation points
    2026-06-12T01:15:10.4266667+00:00

    You can try forcing it to turn off with a Visual Basic command. Follow these steps:

    1. Open your Excel workbook. 

    2. Press Alt + F11 on your keyboard to launch the Visual Basic Editor.

    3. Press Ctrl + G to open the Immediate window pane at the bottom.

    4. Copy and paste the following exact string into that bottom window:

    Application.Speech.SpeakCellOnEnter = False

    5. Place your blinking cursor anywhere inside that line of code and press Enter.

    6. Close out of the Visual Basic window.  The feature is now deactivated

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