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Using the Writing Tools of Word (2)

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This time I would like to talk about Word's built-in 'Thesaurus', with which you may not be so familiar. In fact, it helps you quickly find the right synonym for any word as you polish your report. Besides, you can look up alternatives for words you use, let Word insert synonyms in place of selected words in your document, and even find alternatives to common figures of speech.

To look up a synonym, follow these steps:

1. Select the word or phrase for which you want to look up synonyms.

2. Choose 'Language' from the 'Tools' menu, and then choose 'Thesaurus', or press <Shift> and <F7> keys simultaneously. The 'Thesaurus' dialog box will show up.

3. Select a meaning in the 'Meanings' list for the word selected in the 'Looked Up:' box. For each meaning, there will be a different group of synonyms.

4. Select a different word or phrase if you don't like the one Word suggests in the 'Replace with Synonym' box:'.

5. Click the 'Replace' button to replace a selection in your document with the synonym.

6. Click the 'Look Up' button to see additional synonyms for the selected synonym.

If the Thesaurus contains no synonyms for the selected word, the 'Looked Up:' box is named 'Not Found:', and a list of words or phrases appears below it that are, in Word's opinion, close to the one you selected. Then you can select an alternative word or phrase from the word list and click the 'Replace' button to substitute the new word or phrase in your document.

In addition to synonyms, Word's Thesaurus also contains antonyms. When you select a word or phrase that has antonyms, you'll see antonyms listed at the bottom of the list of synonyms. To use an antonym, select it and click 'Replace'.

Moreover, you can use the Thesaurus to locate every possible variant for the word or phrase you selected by looking up one word meaning, finding the list of synonyms, and then looking up a meaning for one of the synonyms. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select a word in the synonym list.

2. Click the 'Look Up' button and Word will display synonyms for the word you selected.

Sometimes you may get lost in lists of definitions that are nowhere near what you want when using the 'Look Up' button to prowl among several synonyms. Fortunately, you can go back to words you looked up previously and display their synonyms again. Word keeps track of each word you have looked up during a given session with the Thesaurus. There are two ways to display a previous word and its synonyms:

1. Choose a word from the 'Looked Up:' list box in the Thesaurus dialog box.

2. Click the 'Previous' button to go to the last word you looked up.

We will describe another writing tool in the next issue.

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