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Spell checking in Word is a lifeline for many people, but what if you have trouble finding the right word or phrase. Let’s turn to the thesaurus and dictionary in Word 2007 and 2010.
It happens that while writing a document, you fall into a verbal stupor and cannot find the right word or phrase. Using a thesaurus to select synonyms and a dictionary to make sure the meaning of the chosen word is correct can be a powerful tool in writing.
Thesaurus in Word 2010
To launch a thesaurus in Word 2010, click the Review (Review). Select the word for which you want to find synonyms, and press the command Thesaurus (Thesaurus).
The panel will open Research (Reference Materials), in which you can see all the synonyms available in the thesaurus for the current word. Find a suitable synonym and choose one of the possible actions: Insertion (Insert) into the document, Copy (Copy) or lookup (Search) synonyms for the selected word.
Another easy way to find synonyms for a word is to highlight it, right-click, find the item in the context menu Synonyms (Synonyms) and choose one of them.
Dictionary in Word 2010
To use the dictionary in Word, right-click on the word you want to find a description for. In the context menu that appears, find the item lookup (Define) and you will receive a list of various resources that allow you to find a definition for the desired word.
We decided to select the Encarta dictionary, after which the panel opens Research (Reference Materials) where you can see the definitions for the selected word.
In this example, we have selected text in the document Quick Style gallery and tried to find it in Bing. Panel reopened Research (Reference materials), where you can see the results. Clicking on one of the links will open the page in a separate browser window. This is quite handy when you need to do an Internet search on the topic you are writing about.
Check spelling and punctuation
Usually, when you enter text, Word tells you if there is a spelling or punctuation mistake. The final step before sending the finished document is to go to the tab Review (Review) and run Spelling & Grammar (Spelling).
When creating large documents, you may miss some spelling or punctuation errors. This tool will check your text, show possible errors and suggest corrections.
Thesaurus in Word 2007
Access to the thesaurus in Word 2007 is generally the same as in Word 2010. Right-click on the word you are interested in, in the context menu that appears, select Synonyms (Synonyms) and then Thesaurus (Thesaurus).
Or you can go to the tab Review (Review) and in the section Proofing (Spelling) press command Thesaurus (Thesaurus). In addition, here you can use the command Spelling & Grammar (Spelling) to check the completed document for possible errors.
The panel will open Research (Reference materials), where you can find synonyms for the desired word.
Just like in Word 2010, here you can enter the desired terms in the search field and use links to various resources, such as the Encarta dictionary or Bing.
If you don’t want to wander through the Microsoft Word menus to open the Research (Reference materials), click on the word or phrase you are interested in with the key pressed Alt. Panel Research (Reference Materials) will immediately open.
Conclusion
Even in Word 2010, this tool is far from perfect. Many times you will come across a situation where, when using technical jargon and even explaining in simple terms, Word will consider it a mistake. If you wish, you can right-click and add the word to the dictionary in the context menu that appears, or give the command to ignore all repetitions of such text in the document. These simple tricks will help you create professional, accurate and creative documents in Microsoft Word.