Put the Research Pane to Work

The Research pane is one of the lesser-known features of Outlook 2003 and 2007. Here's what you need to know to start using it:

Sometimes it helps to be able to do some research while you are working with a message. Maybe the message contains a word you don't understand, or a phrase in a different language.

Or maybe you're composing a message to that someone special and wish you had a thesaurus handy to choose just the right word. Outlook's Research pane can help. The Research pane comes ready to work with a set of basic reference tools that are available as long as you have an Internet connection.

Using the Research Pane

1. While in a message window select the word or phrase you want to research.
   
   
2. Right-click it. A shortcut menu appears.
   
   
3. Select either "Look Up," "Translate," or "Synonyms." The Research pane appears.
   
   
   
   The Research pane

4. Ignore all the buttons and controls, and scroll through the list to find the information you need.

That's how simple it can be to use the Research pane. Most of the time, this will be all you need to know about using the pane. But you can do much more with it if you wish. Once the Research pane is open, you have a multitude of options, including:

• Choosing which reference sources the pane uses
  
  
• Running searches for additional information
  
  
• Adding more reference sources
  
  
• Setting parental controls on what content appears
  
  
• Even buying additional services at the online Office Marketplace

As you can see, this little-used feature of Outlook has a lot of potential value. I hope you will experiment with it.

NOTE: For more on configuring the research pane or exploring its full power, check out the "Research Services" section of Outlook help, or read chapter 19 of "How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003"