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Look up words in the English Assistant
The English Assistant is a Microsoft Office Online feature that is available only in the Chinese (Simplified, PRC), Japanese, or English language version of Microsoft Office with Chinese (Simplified, PRC) or Japanese enabled as the primary editing language through the Microsoft Office Language Settings.
It is designed to help Microsoft Office users, for whom English is a second language, write better English text. The service provides an integrated reference guide that provides assistance for linguistic explanations and usage in addition to suggestions for synonyms and collocations (the association between words that are typically or frequently used together).
If you want to check the spelling of words in another language, see Check spelling and grammar in another language. For assistance translating text, see Translate text.
What do you want to do?
Learn more about the features of the English Assistant
Depending on which language version of Microsoft Office that you have installed on your computer, the following English Assistance services are available:
Chinese (Simplified, PRC) version of Microsoft Office
- Chinese explanation (Chinese-English 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.
- English explanation (English-Chinese dictionary) Provides the English translation and example sentences containing the Chinese word or phrase.
- Synonyms Provides many different expressions to improve your English usage.
- Collocations Provides the common collocations of an English word or phrase, and related example sentences that show correct usage within context.
Note The English Assistance: Simplified Chinese Reference Books (the Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries) only appear in the All Reference Books list in the Research pane if the English Assistance: Simplified Chinese Reference Books service is added. To learn how to add this service, see Add an English Assistance service.
Japanese version of Microsoft Office
- Japanese explanation (Japanese-English 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.
- English explanation (English-Japanese dictionary) Provides an accurate explanation of an English word or phrase in English using the latest Encarta English dictionary.
Note The English Assistance: Japanese Reference Books (the Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries) only appear in the All Reference Books list in the Research pane if the English Assistance: Japanese Reference Books service is added. To learn how to add this service, see Add an English Assistance service.
- Synonyms Provides many different expressions to improve your English usage.
- Collocations Provides the common collocations of an English word or phrase, and related example sentences that show correct usage within context.
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Look up words in the English Assistant
Which 2007 Microsoft Office system
program are you using?
Excel
- On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (in the Chinese Simplified, PRC version)
 or English Assistant (in the Japanese version).
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- Type a word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching
 .
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page OneNote
- On the Tools menu, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (in the Chinese Simplified, PRC version) or English Assistant (in the Japanese version).
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- Type a word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching
.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page Outlook
- In a new 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 Research task pane is available in any new Outlook item, such as a message that you can compose in or the Reading Pane, but not from the main Outlook window.
Tip To quickly see the English Assistant, right-click the message body, and then click English Assistant on the shortcut menu.
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- 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 Microsoft Office Word documents or in the Reading Pane in Outlook.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page PowerPoint
- On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (in the Chinese Simplified, PRC version) or English Assistant (in the Japanese version).
- Type the word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching
.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Note ALT+click is not supported in PowerPoint.
Top of Page Publisher
- On the Tools menu, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (in the Chinese Simplified, PRC version) or English Assistant (in the Japanese version).
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- Type a word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching
.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page Visio
- On the Tools menu, click Research, and then in the All Reference Books list, click English Assistant (in the Chinese Simplified, PRC version) or English Assistant (in the Japanese version).
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- Type a word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page Word
- On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click English Assistant .
Tip To quickly see the English Assistant, right-click anywhere in a document, and then click English Assistant on the shortcut menu.
- 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.
- To look up a phrase in the document, select the words that you want, press ALT, and then click the selection.
- 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 Microsoft Office Word documents or in the Reading Pane in Outlook.
The results appear in the Research task pane.
Top of Page Add an English Assistance service
Important Before you can add the English Assistance service, you must have the Chinese (Simplified, PRC), Japanese, or English language version of Microsoft Office with Chinese (Simplified, PRC) or Japanese enabled as the primary editing language through the Microsoft Office Language Settings installed on your computer.
- Open the Research pane in the program that you are using, and then click Research options
 . To learn how to open the Research pane, see Look up words in the English Assistant.
- In the Research Options dialog box, select English Assistant: Japanese or English Assistant: Simplified Chinese, and then click Install.
- In the Research Options dialog box, click Update/Remove.
- In the Update or Remove Services dialog box, click Update.
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