Proofing Tools in Office 2010

On Monday this week, Microsoft launched the Office 2010 Technical Preview. Thousands of customers can now download this latest version of Office to try out the cool new features and provide feedback.

Updates and Replacements

The Technical Preview includes proofing tools for English as well as for French and Spanish. We are delighted to announce that these proofing tools include brand-new spell checkers, contextual spellers, hyphenators and thesauri. We are excited about the release of these new proofing tools and eager to receive your feedback.

Improvements in the English Thesaurus

The English thesaurus in particular has seen some changes. You will now be able to find more synonyms in fewer steps. In Office 2007, if you look up the word tables, the only suggestion is table – the same as the lookup word, only in the singular. Next you have to look up the word table, select the synonym you are looking for and manually add an ‘s’ to the word to convert it back to plural. Four steps that include manual edits for one simple lookup. All of this can be done in one simple step in Office 2010. The screenshot below shows the results of the thesaurus in Office 2010 for the word tables:

 

We call this “inflectional morphology”. Try the same with the word smarter in your Office 2007 version, and you will see why we think that inflectional morphology is a big step forward. We also added additional data to provide more synonyms for your lookups.

Localized Versions and Language Packs

The current Technical Preview includes Proofing Tools for English, French and Spanish. If you install the Technical Preview, you will not be able to run proofing tools for any language other than English, French and Spanish. For this release we have made significant changes in the proofing infrastructure, therefore the Language Packs from previous Office versions including Office 2007 are not compatible with Office 2010. Proofing tools for these languages will become available with the release of the localized versions or with the subsequent release of the Language Packs for Office 2010.

Stefanie Schiller

Microsoft Natural Language Group – Program Manager

Comments

  • Anonymous
    July 24, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 13, 2009
    pls include dictionary for Greek language in proofing tools in office 2010. Is this ok? pls answer. maro

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2009
    me falta para valorar el programa ya que me es dificil en ingles

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2009
    me es dificil  valorarlo en ingles

  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2009
    pls include dictionary for Greek language in proofing tools in office 2010. Is this ok? pls answer. Nikolas

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2009
    please Include also Indonesian language pack... Office proofing tools had it in win XP, and 2003 but disappeared since 2007 versions... Thank you for your time!

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    Please remember the most importent language og then all, Norwegian. Without it beta releases are useless.

  • Anonymous
    November 25, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 25, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2009
    To continue using Office 2010, I urgently need proofing tools for Turkish. Is there any way of using tools for Office 2007 with Office 2010 or should I install back my Office 2007?

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2009
    Please tell us when a German language pack becomes available; even if it's just for the Office 2010 Beta.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2009
    This tools doesn't work, if the word you want to replace stands within a comment.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2009
    Say what?  Within a comment?  Do you mean quotation?  Please provide a screen-cast to give us a better idea of the problem.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2009
    Please include serbian language for proofing tools in Office 2010.

  • Anonymous
    December 05, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2009
    Thank you for that comment about the proofing tools. It's the first helpful comment I've read here. I feel exactly the same way you do about the language packs being equally important. I too, am not really able to fully evaluate the beta unless I have German proofing tools along with the English ones installed by default.  The language packs should always be included with the price of the Office package, and any updates should be made available through the usual Microsoft Update process.  I had to actually purchase a German language pack for my Office 2007 package, and wasn't particularly thrilled about having to do that. On top of that, the German language pack wasn't even available at the time Office 2007 was released! Now I can't even use the language pack I purchased with the 2010 beta. Something really needs to be done about that. Otherwise, Office 2010 looks to be great, but I'm not going to continually upgrade if I feel I'm been nickel and dimed without any major improvements.

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2009
    Will we get a German Proofing Tool before the final release of Office 2010

  • Anonymous
    December 10, 2009
    I absolutely agree with the last comments. Proofing tools are not an addon to Word (or other parts of Office), but rather a core part of the product. And why would you not want proofing tools (and the interface translation) tested before release? For example, the Danish translation of Office 2007 is hideous and has several serious mistranslations.

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2009
    We also need the Office 2010 Nepali language proofing tool.

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2009
    We also need the Office 2010 Nepali language proofing tool.

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2009
    I need Proofing tools in portuguese. When is the release date?

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2009
    I bag You enable us Proofing Tools in Croatian language as quick as possible, please!

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2009
    hallo graag ook in het nederlands toevoegen...

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2009
    please include dictionary for Greek language in proofing tools in office 2010 as soones you can.we can't work if we don't have a dictionary.

  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2009
    proofing tools in office 2010 for arabic language is required

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2010
    proofing tools in office 2010 for arabic language is required

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2010
    proofing tools in office 2010 for arabic language is required

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2010
    Why do you people bother posting ridiculous things like this? I'm sure the Microsoft Office people know which languages are missing from the beta, and that we are waiting for language packs.  We get it.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    Please include serbian language for proofing tools in Office 2010. Please Please Please Please

  • Anonymous
    January 15, 2010
    Please include ARABIC language for proofing tools in Office 2010. Please ARABIC Please ARABIC Please

  • Anonymous
    January 16, 2010
    I need English and Indonesian spelling and grammar checker. Can you help me, please?

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2010
    It's best if you include even romanian in proofing tools

  • Anonymous
    February 02, 2010
    Turkish Please proofing tools in office 2010 for turkish language is required

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2010
    please include lenguage pack for portuguese!

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2010
    include greek prooging tools please! GREEK GREEK GREEK "GREEK GREEK GREEK GREEK GREEK....

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2010
    I would be happy to be able to expand my pc to a german dictionary. I use both languages all the time and need an easy way to switch to spelling checks on my pc. I am surprised how difficult this simple task seems to be. what am I missing?

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2010
    I hear you. I don't know why Microsoft leaves this out of the beta, and final product, for that matter. I think all the languages should be included for optional download, and they should be free as well, considering there are many good free dictionaries available for Firefox and other browsers.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2010
    I think that is useless to test office 2010 without the proofing tools. That´s not a minor question. That´s a very big issue. Microsoft shoul´d think about this "little detail" before releasing the beta version. P.S. Portuguese pack needed!

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2010
    I am testing Office 2010 beta, and like Jorge Tavares said, it is a big issue the beta version of Office don't be released with proofing tools. I need Portuguese pack.

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2010
    Pls include proofing tools in German asap!!

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2010
    You're not going to get those proofing tools. Don't even bother mentioning it anymore. Microsoft could case less; that's my guess. If the roll-out is anything like Office 2007, they'll make you wait for language packs even after the release.

  • Anonymous
    March 01, 2010
    Testing Office 2010 is useless without proofing tools. German and Hebrew are a must! Microsoft should offer those for the beta, otherwise why wasting time and efford.  Office 2007 does a good job.

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2010
    Please, include Ukrainian language in proofing tools 2010! Thank's in advance!

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2010
    Google have proofing tools for Google docs.. Upload the files and let Microsoft figure out why Google is THE major player Worldwide.

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2010
    It's a share that you do not provide proofing tools with all product releases. This kind of " segmentation" is not going to increase sales but get worse customer experience, customers that will look to other solutions where they can get this feature for free and without headaches.

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2010
    German proofing tools for office 2010

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2010
    48 millions of Ukrainian will appreciate a lot support of Ukrainian language in proofing tools

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2010
    I agree that the proofing tools should come with each release. First you get us hooked on the tools in a way that we can hardly write errorless in our own language, let alone in another language. As a good little Belgian, working in the IT sector, I switch between 3 languages regularly(Dutch, English, French).

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2010
    Hi, will Office 2010 still be using the CSAPI? If so, where can I obtain the documentation for the current version of the API and license to use it to implement a custom spell check engine? (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262605 says to contact Microsoft Developer Support, but after searching the referenced websites for hours, I still haven't found the proper place to ask). Regards, Joan

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2010
    Hi, Can anyone from the MS Office team post here where we can monitor the release date for the Office Proofing Tools 2010. Please! Thanks, javier

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2010
    Finally, you need to buy additional proofing language, ~ $25 per language. No, thank you, I will continue to use 2007.

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2010
    I think Office 2010 is useless without proofing tools...I will continue using Office 2007 SP2 with Proofing tools until Microsoft releases Proofing tools for Office 2010.

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2010
    How can I inslall greek proofing tools

  • Anonymous
    July 19, 2010
    Is it too much to ask for you to put the expected release dates for each missing languages? cheers. BTW... Outlook 2010 is awesome...

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2010
    Please I need Greek proofing tool for office 2010

  • Anonymous
    August 23, 2010
    Hi @Iudi office 2007 has already released proofing tool for Indonesian, if you can spare time a bit searching it you may found that. I have one.

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2010
    plz include greek dictionary for 2010......

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2010
    Dear Microsoft Office Team, A whole island will be grateful if you develop "papiamentu" for the local and "Nederlands" for the school.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2010
    Still no sign of the release of the proofing tools? Until they're released I'm unable start deploying Office 2010. Can't someone at Microsoft give us an ETA?

  • Anonymous
    December 31, 2010
    I appreciate your post, thanks for sharing the post, i want to hear more about this in future. http://www.viaam.com

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2011
    the spell check does not work.  I even added extra w's in words throughout and "The spelling and grammar check was complete" without finding any mispelled words.

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2011
    Still no proofing tools for German?? As an MSDN subscriber, I think it is ridiculous to get Office professional as part of the subscription and then have to pay extra for the proofing tools.

  • Anonymous
    July 11, 2011
    The comment has been removed