Like Wikipedia on your iPhone, Word’s built-in Reference Tools are handy, easy to use, and out of the way until you need them. Because it’s electronic, it also has some unexpected features. Click the Toolbox, and then the Reference Tools tab to open the Reference Tools. Below are the most commonly used dictionary features.

To look up a word in a document, highlight the word, and then choose Tools → Dictionary (or press Shift-Option-⌘-R) or type the word into the window at the top of the Reference Tools, (If no word is highlighted, you can still click to open the dictionary.) You can also control-click (or right-click) the word right in your document and choose Look Up → Definition from the shortcut menu.

Now the word appears in the Dictionary pane with its pronunciation and definitions. Click the language pop-up menu if you’d like to look up the dictionary definition in a different language. Figure 18-5 shows some other ways to use the dictionary.

To go directly to a word, type it in the small box at the top and press Return. The word appears in the dictionary pane. The thesaurus section provides similar words and synonyms. Replace your original word with the selected synonym by clicking Insert. Choosing Look Up provides a definition of the currently selected word.

Searching the Encarta Encyclopedia or MSN provides additional information about the word. This is useful when you want additional information on a word or when the kids are working on a report. Type the word in the upper box and then click Search Encarta Encyclopedia or Search MSN.

You can copy the text of the definition to paste in a Word document, your Scrapbook, email message, and so on. Just drag to select the text in the definition window and then press ⌘-C (or Control-click the definition and choose Copy Article or Copy Selection from the shortcut menu).