Office 2010’s “Speak feature” enables text-to-speech in OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. Speak requires a text-to-speech engine matching language of text. By default, it isn’t present on Ribbon, you’ll need to add it to either:

Add Speak to Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Launch Word, and open Backstage View by clicking on File button
2. Click Options and navigate to Quick Access Toolbar tab
3. In Choose commands from: drop-down menu, select Commands Not in the Ribbon
4. Select Speak from scroll box and click Add > >
5. Click OK, and Speak icon’ll now appear in Quick Access Toolbar

Add Speak to Ribbon:

1. Launch Word, and open Backstage View, click on File button
2. Select Customize Ribbon tab in Options
3. In Choose commands from: drop-down menu, select Commands Not in the Ribbon
4. Create custom tab or new group by clicking New Tab or New Group
5. Select Speak from scroll box and add it to your custom Tab and Group by clicking Add > >
6. Click OK, and Speak icon’ll now appear in Ribbon.

Speak is now ready for text-to-speech playback, when cursor is within a word or you’ve selected some text! Click Speak to begin text-to-speech playback. Clicking button during speech’ll cancel playback.

Download: Office 2010 Beta