There are a number of ways that you can look up definitions, synonyms and translations in the Microsoft® Office System. The easiest for you may be the quickest — press ALT and then click after you select the word or phrase you want. This is a new lookup method in the Office System, and the results appear in the Research task pane.

However, others might prefer taking the Tools, Research menu to open the Research task pane and look up information. To discover all the methods (and caveats), see the following summary below.

Happy researching!

ALT & Click

When you press ALT and then click after you place the cursor on a word, or highlight to select a word or phrase, the Research task pane opens and shows a list of results. The default search scope looks in all reference books installed on your computer. See the note at the end of this article for more about search scope.

Auto Lookup

Automatic Lookup is available in Outlook and in Reading Layout in Word only. You can use it after you first look up a word or phrase using ALT and Click. Then, just click on words in your document or e-mail message to automatically run another search (it is not required that you press ALT thereafter).

The Shortcut Menu

The shortcut menu opens when you right-click a selection. When using Research services, you want to place the cursor on a word, or highlight to select a word or phrase to make lookup options active. Shortcut menu options for researching are available in all seven products listed above, but those options vary.

Toolbar Button

The Research toolbar button is available on the Standard toolbar in most Office products and in Internet Explorer. Simply click it to open or close the Research task pane. In Outlook, there is also a Translate toolbar button in read/write mode that opens the Research task pane with Translation as the search scope. You must have at least two languages enabled for editing to use this Outlook feature.

From the Tools Menu

From the Tools menu, some products in the Office System have more ways to open the Research task pane than the Tools, Research option:

In Word, from the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Translate or Thesaurus. In PowerPoint, from the Tools menu, click Thesaurus. In Publisher, from the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Thesaurus.

Notes

Not all languages support all options.

After you close the Research task pane, the last search scope you used to research is saved. For example, if you closed the Research task pane with the search scoped to Thesaurus, then clicked Look Up on the shortcut menu to get a definition, you need to change search scope after the task pane opens (which will automatically run your search again).