"We are sorry, but this feature is deprecated" (Smart Lookup on Word for Mac)

Anonymous
2024-12-13T22:08:50+00:00

I just right-clicked on a word to use the "Smart Lookup" feature, and I received this message, "We are sorry, but this feature is deprecated." I am a current subscriber and logged in.

I appreciate your help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | MacOS

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2024-12-16T22:31:07+00:00

As stated in this thread and elsewhere in the forums, Smart Lookup has been discontinued. The official notice is in the article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-insights-into-what-you-re-working-on-with-smart-lookup-debf2083-5ac0-4739-8667-ae2467bec044.

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You can send feedback to Microsoft developers by using the feedback facility in your version of Word. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-365-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11#platform=macOS.

Also/alternatively, post in the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-06T18:20:16+00:00

    I hope Microsoft reintroduces this feature in Word soon. In the meantime, here is a workaround for Mac users; not sure if it's the same for Windows users: after highlighting the text you want to "Smart Lookup," right-click and select Services, then choose "Search with Google." This will automatically input your selected text into the Google search bar, providing more detailed results than "Search with Bing." Hope it helps. -Rudy Ramos

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  2. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-01-06T09:50:21+00:00

    It is the best suggestion that can be made in the forum, though.

    Forum contributors are not in a position to make decisions on behalf of Microsoft. All we can do is suggest what you can do with the features included in Word today.

    If you want something to change in the various Office products, you have to make use of the feedback facility.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-01-06T03:21:23+00:00

    This is not an answer to the question.

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  4. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2025-01-05T15:51:13+00:00

    Deborah,

    Your definition of what "deprecated" means is spot on. I'd go one step further and say that sometimes a deprecated feature no longer works at all.

    There are over 2,000 view of this thread. Hopefully, everyone who came across this problem used the Menu Bar and choose Help > Feedback > Report a Problem and reminded Microsoft that it is a problem that the feature no longer works. Microsoft uses the squeaky wheel criteria to prioritize fixes. Of course if users don't bother to tell Microsoft, then they think all the users love that they can no longer use the feature.

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