h5>This blog post is co-authored by Lauren Nicholson and Megan Dohnal.
Bring out your best writer anywhere you write with Microsoft Editor, your intelligent writing assistant. Many of us are working or attending school remotely, and with so much communication happening through writing it is more important than ever that we communicate clearly. Microsoft Editor, an AI-powered service that enables you to write with confidence in 20+ languages, can help. Write polished prose, craft impressive emails, and post on your favorite sites like LinkedIn, Gmail, Facebook, and more.
Anyone can access the essential Editor capabilities, such as spelling and basic grammar across Word, Outlook.com, and the web for free with a Microsoft sign-in. However, Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers have access to advanced grammar and style refinements. Clarity, conciseness, formal language, vocabulary suggestions, and much more are included with your subscription.
Optimized for where you write most, Editor will be available in three main places: documents (Word for the web and desktop), email (Outlook.com and Outlook for the web), and across the web (through our new browser extension). While Editor will be available to help everyone with the basics for free, for Microsoft 365 users there are some additional powerful features that vary by endpoint.
Editor in Word
Formerly known as Ideas in Word, Editor in Word now pushes beyond the basics with AI and offers a myriad of ways to help you not only quickly catch mistakes, but to communicate clearly in more than 20 languages. And, because every language and market are unique, suggestions for each language are developed in partnership with native speakers and local linguists.
In addition to the 20+ languages in which Editor can provide suggestions, the Editor pane in Word is now available in French, Spanish, English and German. It can check your document for spelling, grammar and style refinements, all while making sure you’re in control. When you want additional assistance, simply open the Editor pane by clicking on the pen icon in the ribbon. Editor can analyze your writing and give you statistics on readability, distinct words, and time to read the document. Some new Editor features unique to Word are:
Similarity Checker
The web provides every writer with a huge amount of reference material, and it can be challenging and time-consuming to properly do citations. Similarity checker helps by identifying potentially unoriginal content and making it easy to insert relevant citations. This feature will be available in the coming months in Word for the web.
Rewrite suggestions
Last year we announced rewrite suggestions for short phrases, and today we are announcing that we have expanded its capabilities to full sentence rewrites. Rewrite suggestions make it even easier to optimize your writing for fluency, conciseness, or readability. To get started, just highlight a sentence, right-click on it, and then select "Rewrite Suggestions" from the context menu. Available in Word for the web in English only.
Editor in Outlook
Today we are also announcing that Editor’s capabilities have been expanded to Outlook.com and Outlook on the web. With Editor, you can save time and press “send” confidently knowing your message is clear and concise. We are offering Editor’s spelling and grammar capabilities for free to Outlook.com users, while more advanced style-oriented capabilities will be extended exclusively to Microsoft 365 subscribers1.
Editor in the browser extension
With the release of Microsoft Editor’s standalone browser extension, Editor now moves with you across the web so you can easily write clear, accurate content anywhere you want. Whether you are posting casually on Facebook or LinkedIn or writing in depth for a site like Medium, you can create with confidence knowing Editor will flag misspelled words and grammatical errors. As with the other places Editor is available, your Microsoft 365 subscription will give you access to advanced recommendations on style, clarity, inclusive language, and much more in 20+ languages. The Microsoft Editor browser extension will release in both the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web stores in the next few weeks. When available, install and get started!
Conclusion
With the power of AI, we are bringing the Microsoft Editor experience to all the places you write, meeting you where you are, and helping you to easily bring out your best writer. No matter what language you are writing in, we have you covered. It is all part of our broader vision for Microsoft 365, a productivity experience that puts AI to work for you. Over time, Microsoft Editor will evolve, becoming more helpful and accurate as we incorporate feedback from our customers to make improvements.
Microsoft Editor will begin rolling out today, with general availability by the end of April.
1 Office 365 will become Microsoft 365 beginning April 21.