Word displays the shortcut menu items that appear when right-clicking on standard text.
All this does is open the normal Thesaurus dialog box-definitely not the same thing as a fast-access shortcut list of synonyms. It simply suggests adding the "Thesaurus." command to any shortcut menus where one wants to provide access to synonyms. The suggested workaround is not particularly helpful, either.
#ANOTHER WORD FOR ADD ON COMPUTER HOW TO#
The article points out that right-click shortcut menus are context sensitive but what it doesn't say is why there isn't a Synonyms > command in the Customize dialog box nor how to add this feature to shortcut menus where one wants this feature to appear. However, the article hides Microsoft's potential embarrassment over this short-sighted omission by being overly brief and skirting around the issue. The Knowledge Base touches on this subject in article Q229749. Because this synonym list is created dynamically through built-in programming, there isn't a single Word command that exists to drag onto the shortcut menu. Each synonym listed on the fly-out "Synonyms >" menu is actually a temporarily added shortcut sub-menu item. The synonym list is actually built on-the-fly and the fly-out menu is then customized on-the-fly by the built-in code. The problem here is that the "trick" used in the synonyms shortcut list feature works by using some special built-in programming. What makes it worse is that Microsoft didn't provide an easy-to-use "synonyms list" command that could be dragged out of the Customize dialog box to customize other menus. text in a table, text in a list, text in a footnote, etc). It doesn't show up on right-click shortcut menus for any other text item (e.g. This means the synonym list is only available on a right-click shortcut menu when the user right-clicks on standard text. Also, Microsoft didn't go far enough with the implementation because the right-click synonyms list feature only got added to the "Text" set of shortcut menus.
But that person used a clever trick to implement the idea. Whoever thought up the idea of providing a right-click shortcut access to a synonym list was a bright person. Before getting to the answer, a short side trip is in order.įor users of Word 2000 and later versions, the synonym list that is available when right-clicking on regular text is a very handy feature. She noted that some of her users had the option in Word 2000 and some did not. Recently, subscriber Debbie Galle wrote and asked how to add the Synonyms option to the shortcut menu that pops up when you right-click on text.