"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
    2025-01-13T18:07:08+00:00

    I find it interesting, but I am not surprised, that Microsoft would remove a key editing feature in Word, Smart Lookup, without notice or explanation after the customer has contracted and paid Word for a year. However, I have come to understand the manner in which these technology monopolists operate beyond any government regulation in our bribocracy. Now that Bezos, Zuckerberg, and the other oligarchs of technology are sucking up to Trump, we should be in for even more arbitrary and unregulated actions on the part of these robber-barons for at least four more years.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-14T12:51:03+00:00

    I'm a writer who switched from Scrivener to Word. This is very disappointing, taken together with constant freezing. Back I go.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-01-14T13:20:37+00:00

    According to the support 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, removing Smart Lookup is an intentional change.

    The purpose of sending feedback to Microsoft would be to let them know that you want the feature back—or that you want an equivalent feature at least.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-01-14T17:07:01+00:00

    As mentioned several times in this thread, no participant in these Communities has any control of what Microsoft does/does not do with the design of their software. This is a user-to-user forum, not a Microsoft channel of communication. We can't fix anything 🙂

    If you want to express your opinion to those who do have such control use the Feedback option provided in the Help menu to submit your comments to the development group. You will not receive a personal reply but Feedback is monitored & responsible requests often result in changes based on volume of demand as well as other factors.

    IMO this is a temporary inconvenience — the feature has not been eliminated from the main menu or the contextual menu which suggest that there are plans to restore it. Smart Lookup also continues to be available in OneNote. There must be a reason for the feature being withdrawn from the other products but, like most developers, Microsoft typically does not share such information publicly.

    Nope... you are wrong... this feature no longer works in OneNote either. I didn't find out until I was in the middle of hosting a OneNote Training Webinar for my company and found that the feature no longer works in OneNote.

    If Microsoft is going to depricate this feature, REMOVE THE MENU OPTION for it.

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