How to open the Research pane

Do any of the following:

• Click Research on the Tools menu.
• Press ALT and click a word in a document.
• Right-click a word and click Look Up or Translate, or point to Synonyms and click Thesaurus.
• Click the Research button on the Standard toolbar.
• If a task pane is already open, click the Other Task Panes arrow at the top right of the task pane and click Research on the drop-down menu.

The Research task pane is in the 2003 version of the following Microsoft® Office System programs: Word, Excel, Outlook®, PowerPoint®, Publisher, Visio®, OneNote™. And, if your browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later, the Research pane travels with you and is displayed on the left side of your screen as you view Web pages.

How to search

1. Enter what you want to know about in the Search for box.
2. Click the arrow in the drop-down box to select where you want to search from. This starts the search.

   The results show up in the Research task pane.

Tips   

• If you make a selection in the drop-down list and then enter a word in the Search for box, click Start searching to start the search.
• Remember to select a category or a source within a category in the drop-down list under the Search for box. By default, the All Reference Books category is the first category you'll see each time you turn on your computer and open the Research task pane.
• To update search results, click Start searchingagain.
• In Outlook 2003, once the Research pane is open, you can click anywhere in the message and the word you click will automatically be searched for in the pane. You can do the same in Word 2003 in Reading Layout view.
• Most information is free. But Web providers that normally require a fee will still be fee-based when connected to from the Research pane. The premium content icon is beside the link to anything for which a fee is required. You will not be charged for simply clicking the link.
• If you don't get what you're looking for, see Can't find it? at the bottom of the pane for help.

How to look up financial information about companies

To search for basic facts about a company, such as number of employees, revenue, revenue per employee, and so on:

1. Type the company's name in the Search for box.
2. Click the arrow in the drop-down box and then click Gale Company Profiles.

To search for a stock, index, or fund price:

1. Type the ticker symbol of a company in the Search for box.
2. Click the arrow in the drop-down box and then click MSN Money Stock Quotes.

To insert a price in your document:

• Click the Insert Price button.

In Word 2003 and Excel 2003, you can insert additional financial information by downloading an add-in:

1. Click the arrow on the Insert Price button.
2. Click Check for New Actions.

   You will be taken to the Microsoft Web site to download the Office 2003 Stock Actions Add-in. Follow the instructions on the page to install the add-in.

In Excel the add-in will install the Insert Refreshable Stock Data command on the Insert Price button drop-down menu. In Word the add-in will install the Insert Concise Stock Table and Insert Complete Stock Table commands on the Insert Price menu.

Note    Not all versions of Office 2003 contain the Check for New Actions link in these programs.

To see these new commands, quit the program from which you've connected to the download (either Word or Excel), close Outlook if you are using that also, and then start Word or Excel again. The commands will also appear, without these steps, whenever you next restart your computer.

Note   Not all versions of Office 2003 contain the All Business and Financial Sites category.

How to add your intranet to the Research pane

If you use an intranet site where you work and you also have Microsoft Office SharePoint™ Portal Server 2003, you can add sites based on SharePoint Portal Server to the Research pane so that you can use the pane to search your intranet:

1. Click the Research options link at the bottom of the Research task pane.
2. Click Add Services in the Research Options dialog box.
3. In the Address box, type http://your root directory/_vti_bin/search.asmx.
4. Click Add, select the appropriate check box, and then click Install, which will add another category to the list of places you can search from: All Intranet Sites and Portals.

Other options in the Research Options dialog box

Click the Research Options link at the bottom of the Research task pane.

• If you don't want a particular item to be searched, clear its check box in the Services list.
• Click the Update/Remove button to remove a service provider and all of its research services.
• Click the Parental Control button to turn on filtering that tells service providers to block potentially offensive content.

How to look for new things in the Research task pane

• Over time, more services may become available, which you'll know about if the New services are ready to add link appears at the top of the pane. Click the link and follow the instructions to add services.
• Also look for Get updates to your services at the bottom of the pane. This link appears when a service provider has updates to offer.
• Click the Get services on Office Marketplace link at the bottom of the pane to see what new services may be available.