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Credit: Mark Hachman / IDG
Microsoft’s conversion of Office 365 subscriptions to Microsoft 365, starting Tuesday, will be accompanied by features to be implemented in the coming months. But there is an exception that is already available: the new Microsoft Editor for the online version of Word, which provides a handy suggestion panel to improve your writing.
As the name implies, the new Editor feature is not available for the downloadable version of Word, either in Office 365 / Microsoft 365 or in Word 2019. You will have to load Word Online to use it, as well as subscribe to Office 365 / Microsoft 365 (Microsoft sometimes refers to it as Word Online, Word for the Web, or Office Online.)
Editor is a rebranding and improvement over similar tools previously found in Word Online: the added context of Insights 2014 through Bing, while Ideas for Word 2019 integrated much of the functionality included in Editor. However, the editor consolidates much of this into a new dashboard format, allowing you to go through individual words and phrases and make the necessary changes.
Mark Hachman / IDGThis is where the new Editor button for Word Online lives. Remember, if you have your window compressed below a full screen view, the “Editor” part can be removed to save space, leaving only the icon.
The editor is part of the Word toolbar and appears by default when you open a new document. The editor is also accessible when you click on the House tab on the Word toolbar. Either way, you can use the Editor as you write, or cut and paste a finished draft into the Word Online Editor to assess its quality. Just click on the Editor And Word’s artificial intelligence tools in the cloud will process your draft in just a second or two.
How the editor helps you write
A large purple marker counts your obvious mistakes (“Corrections”) as well as the suggested Refinements. Interestingly, clicking the marker does not start the editing process. Instead, by clicking on each subtitle:Orthographyfor example and Grammar—He will begin to highlight words or phrases that could be improved.
Click at the top of your document to tell the Editor to start your suggestions from the beginning. At each suggestion, you must click the small left or right cursor (“>”) to proceed to the next suggestion. Clicking on the small ellipsis menu offers additional options, such as deliberately ignoring a misspelled word throughout the document.
Mark Hachman / IDGYou can find some useful tips, like this one to vary your language.
At each step, the Editor helpfully explains why he makes each suggestion. While it does not expressly follow any particular style guide, the Editor prefers short sentences to improve readability, while implicitly rewarding rich and diverse language. It also assumes you are writing formally, and often recommends eliminating informal contractions.
Finally, the editor is also politically correct. The editor takes it away from excessively gender language or “sensitive geopolitical references,” such as referring to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar as “Burma.” It will also suggest that you double-check the position of the score on or off dates, knowing that this may vary between the Queen’s English and American conventions.
Mark Hachman / IDGYou may want to ignore other suggestions for various reasons, such as a technical choice of words.
Please note that the Microsoft Editor is not the final arbiter of how you should write. As my editor points out, language evolves. Professional writers cheerfully plunge into passionate attacks (and defenses) on the Oxford coma. I remain convinced that “Mbits / s” transmits “megabits per second” more effectively than “Mbps”. Running William Faulkner’s “The Bear” through the Editor will likely crash Microsoft’s server. I found it interesting, for example, that the Editor’s recommendation to avoid contractions contradicts Microsoft’s own online style guide. No matter. The Word Editor function is a quick and useful reference to improve your writing.
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