Quickly find a synonym for a word in your document by going directly to the full thesaurus or by Control+clicking a specfic word and then clicking Synonyms. Applying a three-fingered tap on any word in a modern Mac app brings up this handy pop-up dictionary, thesaurus, Wikipedia summary. If the summary isn’t enough information, you can select to read more directly from the QuickLook-esque popup. This is a students dream, but it should be useful.
I'm using Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 on OS X El Capitan. How do I use a zero width non-joiner character? AKA a no-width/zero-width space? I've attempted to find it in the 'Insert' 'Symbol' 'Symbol Browser.' In Word, and via the OS X Keyboard Emoji and Symbols dialog. These can be used for breaking really long URLs or paths at the end of a line so the entire path is not pushed to a new line leaving a gap on the line above.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Essentially this ismyproblem.com/it/is/really/annoying/to/read/a/document/and/come/across /this. In Word (on Windows) you can insert Unicode characters by typing the code-point value and pressing Alt X. The Unicode codepoint value for ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER is U+200C, so you would do the following: Find where you want the ZWNJ: Enter and select the Unicode code-point value: Press Alt X: This can be done with arbitrary Unicode characters, so it's quite a useful trick. Edit: Using the Option key in place of Alt apparently doesn't work. However, on Mac you should be able to accomplish this by holding down the Option key, pressing the keys that correspond to the digits of the code-point, and then releasing Option.
If that doesn't work, you might be able to use the 'More Symbols.' Dialog, but I've had mixed results using this. You can enter a code-point into the box in the window: This will move the selector in the window to the code-point value you enter. By 'mixed results,' I mean that it won't work if the code-point isn't in the window.
The zero width space and zero width non-joiner are available in the OS X Emoji & Symbols dialog, or you can copy it from a webpage that employs the HTML code. Tl;dr To insert the symbol, place your cursor in the correct place in the document, open the Emoji & Symbol dialog, find the zero width space, and double click on it.
Finding the Emoji & Symbol Dialog In OS X El Capitan, the keyboard shortcut to open the dialog is control + command + space. Older versions of OS X option + command + T. Note: the keyboard shortcut does not work in Word.
Instead, you need to show the button in the menu bar and click it open. Finding the Zero Width Space or Non-Joiner Character Search for 'space' and choose the zero width space option.
Or search for 'joiner' and choose the zero width non-joiner option. Option 2: Copy it Go to and copy the symbol then paste it where you want it.
Using the Proofing Tools Word includes a spelling/grammar checker and a thesaurus that you can use to help with writing and editing. Spelling and grammar can be checked on the fly (as you type) or run as a traditional full-document or selected-text check. If you want to see a word’s meaning, there are several free dictionaries that you can easily install. To install a dictionary (to check word definitions). Right-click any word in an open Word document and choose Define from the context menu that appears. The Dictionaries task pane appears. You can open the dictionary task pane by clicking Define.
The word’s definition is displayed in the task pane. To find a synonym for a word. Do either of the following:. If the word is in the current document, select and right-click it, and open the Synonyms submenu in the context menu.
To replace the word, choose a synonym from the list. (If you’d rather use the Thesaurus task pane, choose Thesaurus.). Click Review: Proofing: Thesaurus.
In the Thesaurus task pane, type or paste the word into the search box. Click the search icon or press Enter. (If the word is preselected in the document, it will automatically appear in the search box.).
Right-click a marked spelling error and choose an option from the context menu. To accept a suggested correction (if any are listed), choose a replacement spelling from the listed words. Choose Ignore or Ignore All to ignore this or every instance of the flagged spelling in the current document. If the spelling is correct, choose Add to Dictionary to record the word and ensure that it’s never flagged again. To correct or dismiss a marked grammatical error (blue), right-click the underlined text. Choose one of the following from the context menu. Right-click a blue grammatical error to view possible corrections.
Choose the suggested fix to let Word make the correction. Choose Ignore if you believe that the grammar is correct or if you want to manually make the correction. To check spelling/grammar for selected text or the document. Optional: To restrict the check to a specific portion of the document, select the text to be checked. Click Review: Proofing: Spelling & Grammar (F7).
If suspected errors are identified, the Spelling or Grammar task pane opens. The Spelling and Grammar task panes.
(Be sure to review the explanatory text under the list box.). To accept a suggested correction, select it in the list and click Change. To accept a suggested correction and apply it throughout the document, select it in the list and click Change All. To accept the flagged word as correct, click Ignore to skip this instance or Ignore All to ignore all instances of this word found in the document. To accept the flagged word as spelled correctly and add it to the Office user dictionary (so it isn’t flagged in later checks), click Add.
Correcting Letter Case Errors Has this happened to you? You accidentally press Caps Lock instead of Shift and now your newly typed text reads SUSAN JONES. Or while entering mailing addresses, your assistant decides not to bother with capitalization. You can fix many such errors by selecting the text and choosing a correction from the Home: Font: Change Case menu. To handle a suspected grammar error, do one of the following:. If you believe the grammar is correct or you intend to rewrite the text, click the Ignore or Ignore All button.
Select the correction in the list box and then click the appropriate button, such as Change or Change All.