Look up words in the English Assistant

The English Assistant is a Microsoft Office Online service designed to help Microsoft Office users for whom English is a second language write professional English text. The service provides an integrated reference guide that provides assistance for spelling, explanation, and usage as well as suggestions for synonyms and collocations (the association between two words that are typically or frequently used together).

Note The feature or some of the options described in this Help topic are only available in the Simplified Chinese, Japanese, or English language version of Microsoft Office, with Simplified Chinese or Japanese enabled as the primary editing language through the Microsoft Office Language Settings.What do you want to do?

Learn more about the features of the English Assistant

Look up words in the English Assistant

Learn more about the features of the English Assistant

The following are the features of the English Assistant:

• Chinese Explanation (English to Chinese dictionary) Provides the Chinese translation, explanation, and related example sentences to help you understand the meaning of an English word or phrase and its usage.

  Note Chinese Explanation (English to Chinese dictionary), appears only in the English Assistant (PRC) service.

• Japanese Explanation (English to Japanese dictionary) Provides the Japanese translation, explanation, and related example sentences to help you understand the meaning of an English word or phrase and its usage.

  Note Japanese Explanation (English to Japanese dictionary) appears only in the English Assistant (Japan) service.

• English Explanation Provides an accurate explanation of an English word or phrase in English using the latest Encarta English dictionary.
• Collocations Provides the common collocations of an English word or phrase, and related example sentences that show correct usage within context.
• Synonyms Provides many different expressions to improve your English expression.
• English Explanation (Chinese to English dictionary) Provides the English translation and example sentences of a Chinese word or phrase.

  Note English Explanation (Chinese to English dictionary) appears only in the English Assistant (PRC) service.

• English Explanation (Japanese to English dictionary) Provides the English translation and example sentences of a Japanese word or phrase.

  Note English Explanation (Japanese to English dictionary) appears only in the English Assistant (Japan) service.

• Spelling Suggestion Helps you to correct spelling mistakes by suggesting what the spelling should be.
• Word Prompt Helps you to get the full spelling of a word through word prediction when you only remember the initial part of a word.

Look up words in the English Assistant

1. Do the following in these Microsoft Office system programs:

   Outlook

   • In an open message, click the message body, and then on the Message tab, in the Proofing group, click Spelling, and then click English Assistant.

     Note In Microsoft Office Outlook, the English Assistant task pane is available from any open Outlook item, but not from the main Outlook window.

   Tip To quickly see the English Assistant, in the Reading Pane, right-click the message body, and then click English Assistant on the shortcut menu.

   Word

   • On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click English Assistant.

   • Tip To quickly see the English Assistant, right-click anywhere in the document, and then click English Assistant on the shortcut menu.

   Excel or PowerPoint

   • On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (PRC) or English Assistant (Japan).

   Publisher, OneNote, or Visio

   • On the Tools menu, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (PRC) or English Assistant (Japan).
2. Do one of the following:
   • To look up a single word in the document, press ALT, and then click the word that you want to look up.

     Note Using ALT+Click is not supported in Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Instead, type the word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching .

   • To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.

     Note Using ALT+Click is not supported in Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Instead, type the word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching .

   • Type a word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching .

   • Tip To look up a word or phrase in a document or e-mail message, select the words that you want, right-click the selection, and then click English Assistant on the shortcut menu. This is supported only in a Microsoft Office Word document or in the Reading Pane in Outlook.

   Results appear in the Research task pane.