For me, if that component is installed the code works.
Uninstall it and the code fails with your error.

Not much more I can offer.

NickHK

"AP" wrote in message
...
Thanks Nick,

I've checked the box in which the software came and it says its the "full
versions of our latest Office products" (I bought it several months ago
just
before the release of Vista).

I've also gone to the control panel to re-install and could see that the
speech component is already installed. Can you think of any other reason
why
it doesn't work ? Thanks for your help.

AP

"NickHK" wrote in message
...
Text to speech is an optional component during the install. Run the
Office/Excel install again and check that component is installed.
Not sure if it's available with your version of Excel though.

NickHK

"AP" wrote in message
...
The following macro causes "Run-time error '1004': Application-defined
or
object-defined error"

Sub UseSpeech()

Application.Speech.Speak "Hello"

End Sub

I have "Microsoft Sam" installed and working in the control panel's
speech
section (the speech preview works fine). I'm using Office 2003 Students
&
Teachers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.