Note:
Updated: 4/27/2017
We’ve got some exciting news! The Editor Pane is now available for Office Insiders Slow in
version 16.0.8067.2018. We’re rolling this out gradually to Insiders Slow users over the next couple of weeks, so some of you may not see it yet.
Your participation in the Insider FAST, trying out the Editor Pane early preview, and sending us feedback have all been invaluable for us as we made improvements to this feature. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve fixed some issues related to accessibility and stability. We invite you to try it out once again and let us know if there are any other improvements we should make.
-Alfredo
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Hi Insiders –
As you may recall, we recently released Editor, a set of new and improved proofing tools, to Office 365 subscribers. We’re received some fantastic feedback on the Editor feature from Insiders. This has been invaluable as we continue to refine the feature.
In order to get more feedback, we’re pleased to offer you a first look at the new Editor pane. This pane replaces the Proofing pane and complements the existing Editor right-click menu by:
- Providing even more context and explanation for figuring out the right word choice
- Letting you scan and proof your entire document at once
What's improved?
It's also redesigned from the ground up to be more accessible to people of all abilities. Key enhancements in the Editor pane include:
- Showing the proofing issue in the context of the original sentence within the pane itself (that is, it's much easier to reconfirm the original sentence than to hit F6 key and go back to the document canvas).
- Ensuring that all contextual information to aid understanding of the issue or to facilitate choice of the right suggestion is accessible via screen readers and keyboard navigation.
- Making the interaction model in the Editor Pane more similar to the Right-click Context Menu, so people can comfortably use them interchangeably.
You can get a quick overview by watching this video:
Watch Editor pane feature in action
Availability
To see the Editor pane, you must:
- Be an Office 365 subscriber on the Insider Fast level
- Have Version 1704 (Build 7920.1000) or later installed
- The Editor pane is available in languages with, at least, spell checking. Editor-specific Gold flags are only available for English at this time (more languages forthcoming)
Getting started
To open the Editor pane, do any one of the following:
- Press F7.
- Click Review > Spelling & Grammar.
- Right-click any blue underline (grammar flag) or gold dotted line (style flag), and click See More:
Try the following scenarios
Here are a few things we’d like you to try:
- Try it on an existing document, better on a draft document. Open your document in Word and either press F7 or from the Review tab in the ribbon click the “Spelling & Grammar” button, you will be taken to the first issue Editor finds. Fix that one and you will be automatically taken to the following issue.
- If you want more information on an issue Editor finds, click See More:
Now is the perfect time to help us improve the way the Editor pane works! If you hit any rough spots, or if you have suggestions for improvement, let us know. You can leave a comment on this post, or on Twitter, via the @OfficeInsider handle. You can also submit feedback in Word by clicking File > Feedback. We closely monitor each of these feedback channels, so do what works best for you.
Thanks!
Alfredo & team