HOW TO FIX THE ISSUE WITH 'READ ALOUD' TOOL NOT WORKING IN MY STUDENT VERS. WORD OFFICE 365

Peter Joseph S1587024 0 Reputation points
2026-08-23T08:19:31.3033333+00:00

I have a student account Office 365 which I use on my Mac desktop. It seems the read aloud function is not working as it should. The version of word is 16.89 which is compatible with Apple OS 12.76. I would appreciate your suggestions for a solution.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | MacOS
0 comments No comments

2 answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Hani-Ng 1,130 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-08-23T08:54:58.9533333+00:00

    Hi Peter Joseph S1587024

    Based on your description, you are using Word for Mac Version 16.89 on macOS Monterey 12.7.6 with a Microsoft 365 Education (Student) account. The Read Aloud feature is supported in Microsoft 365 for Mac, including Education subscriptions, so this issue is not typically caused by the license itself.

    Check the cursor position

    Before clicking Review > Read Aloud, place the insertion cursor at the beginning of the paragraph you want Word to read, or select the text first. Read Aloud normally starts reading from the current cursor position or selected text.

    Test with a new document

    Try to create a new blank document, type a few sentences, place the cursor before the text, and then select Review > Read Aloud. If Read Aloud works in the new document, the problem may be with the original file.

    Verify macOS Speech settings

    Word for Mac relies on macOS speech services. Go to: System Preferences/System Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content and ensure a voice is installed and working correctly. You may also try downloading another voice and testing again.

    Sign out and sign back into Office

    You can try to sign out of Word, restart the application, and then sign back in with your Education account. Also ensure you have a stable internet connection.

    Check for Office updates

    Open Help > Check for Updates and install any available updates for Office.

    If possible, sign in to Word with another Microsoft 365 account and test Read Aloud. If it works with another account, the issue may be related to the current profile rather than Word itself.

    Although this does not appear to be a licensing issue, but if the problem continues, I recommend contacting your school's IT administrator and asking them to verify:

    • Your Microsoft 365 Education license is still assigned to your account.
    • The license has not expired or been removed.
    • There are no organization policies restricting access to Microsoft 365 services.

    I hope this information helps and if you have any further questions, please feel free to ask via comment section.


    Note: Please follow the steps in the forum documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.  

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.

  2. John Korchok 235.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-08-23T15:08:11.2766667+00:00

    Try creating a new user account (System Settings>Users & Groups), signing in to that, then testing if the problem still exists. If it goes away, it's an issue with the user profile part of your Office installation.

    If the problem is still there, or if you don't want to switch user accounts, then try uninstalling Office using these steps: Uninstall Office for Mac Then reinstall from the Subscriptions page of your Microsoft account.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.