Microsoft Office contains a useful feature - Read Aloud. This function is helpful in freeing up your hands or having trouble looking at the screen. But you may receive an error message that Read Aloud isn't available because something is preventing it from starting. MiniTool can help you to figure out this error and resolve it.
Read Aloud is able to read all or part of your document to help you make proofread or multitask. You can find and use it on its own or within Immersive Reader, another tool for listening to your Word documents.
You can read this passage to know something about PDF voice reader:
How to Fix Read Aloud isn’t Available in Word
You may receive an error message that Read Aloud isn’t available because something is preventing it from starting. How could this error happen? Probably, this error is caused by corrupted add-ins, out-of-date Microsoft Office, or a language package missing from your computer. When facing this problem, you can use the following methods to resolve Read Aloud not working in Microsoft Word.
Method 1: Run Microsoft Word in Safe Mode
Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type winword.exe /safe into the text box and hit Enter.
Then, Microsoft Word will open in Safe Mode. The Safe Mode will disable all third-party add-ins. You can check whether the Read Aloud feature can work normally. If yes, you can try the next method to remove the problematic or corrupted add-ins.
Method 2: Remove Corrupted Add-ins
Step 1: Open a Word document in a normal way.
Step 2: Click on the File button on the top left toolbar.
Step 3: Select Options and switch to the Add-ins tab on the left menu.
Step 4: Select the COM Add-ins option and click Go.
Step 5: Uncheck all the add-ins and press OK to save the change.
Step 6: Reopen the Word, then you can enable add-ins one by one to find out which one has a problem or is corrupted.
You can disable or remove the add-ins to fix the Read Aloud not working in Microsoft Word error.
Method 3: Update Microsoft Word
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word normally.
Step 2: Choose File from the top toolbar.
Step 3: Select Account and click on Update Options on the right pane.
Step 4: Choose Update Now.
After the update process is completed, you can check if the problem is solved.
Method 4: Reset Microsoft Word
Before you start the following steps, please back up registry keys to avoid mistaken deletion which may cause adverse effects on your computer.
Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type regedit into the text box and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.
Step 3: Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > SOFTEARE > Microsoft > Office > 1x.0 > Word. (x refers to the version of Microsoft Word.)
Step 4: Right-click on the Word key and choose Delete from the context menu. Then restart the computer to fully apply the changes.
If, unfortunately, your files are lost after this operation, please recover them as soon as possible. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is designed to rescue deleted/lost files under various situations. You can try the free edition first to scan and recover up to 1GB of files.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
How to Get Read Aloud to Work in Word
The Read Aloud feature is only available in Microsoft 365, Office 2019, and Office 2021. If you use one of these editions, you can use the Read Aloud feature with the following guide.
To find Read Aloud, you can switch to the Review tab on the toolbar. Then play, pause, stop, or change to another paragraph by clicking on the corresponding button.
Besides, you can change the settings of Read Aloud with the keyboard.
- Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar means to start the Read Aloud.
- Ctrl + Spacebar means to play or pause the Read Aloud.
- Ctrl + Left arrow key means to skip to the start of the current paragraph.
- Ctrl + Right arrow key means to skip to the start of the next paragraph.
Bottom Line
It is possible to meet any kind of problem when using a computer. If you receive the error message that Read Aloud isn’t available because something is preventing it from starting, you can try the methods expressed above to solve it.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Additionally, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is powerful enough to recover your files safely. If you are finding free data recovery software, please try MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Andrea graduated in English and has a keen interest in the IT industry and questions that arise when computers are used. She is passionate about new things and challenging things and has a wide range of interests like playing guitar, gaming, and crafting.