Where did 'Search' in right click menu in Office 365 go?

Question

When reading or creating new email in Outlook 365 we used to be able to select text > Right Click > Search for definitions, etc. Can't do that anymore?

This may have coincided with changing our privacy options to prevent Office apps AI from 'learning' from my documents... e.g.

Outlook Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > uncheck "Turn on optional connected experiences"

Whew, talk about buried.

In any event, I went back and 'checked' that box, closed and restarted Outlook and Word, but no change.

TIA for any help.

Cheers.

Answer 1

Hi,

I didn't find the Search option when right click list in Outlook or Word when select the text.

As far as I know you can search text by shortcut key: Ctrl+F

Please be a bit more precise to explain your requirement or you can upload a screenshot so that I can get more accurate solutions to this problem. I’m glad to help and follow up your reply.

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Answer 2

PS: This is apparently now the case in all Office products.

Answer 3

Thanks Emi but I wasn't referring to general text searches. Specific example:

• In Outlook while reading or creating a new email, select/highlight a word in the message body.
• Right Click on the highlighted word.
• The context menu that pops up used to have options to search on that word. That would take you to various online dictionaries, Wikipedia, etc.
• This process can be seen in MS Edge where the pop-up options include "Search the web for ___" and "Search Bing in sidebar for ____"
• Chrome browser is similar where you can select "Search Google for ____"
• Used to be able to do this in all MS Office apps (Word, Excel, PPT,) but don't see in any app anymore.
• Even Windows Notepad app has this function.

Best regards

Answer 4

Hi,

I think your problem is related to the smart lookup feature in Office.

I suggest you refer to this support article, as the article said "Important: Smart Lookup will be retired starting on January 1, 2025."

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/get-insights-into-what-you-re-working-on-with-smart-lookup-debf2083-5ac0-4739-8667-ae2467bec044

Hope the information is helpful.

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