On Monday, Microsoft announced their new text editor called Microsoft editor. This was announced days after the arrival of Grammarly – A similar text editor, on Microsoft Word as an add-in. The Microsoft Editor supposedly uses AI to help your writing and supports over 20 languages.
The editor will be available in three main places: documents (Word for the web and desktop), email (Outlook.com and Outlook for the web), and across the web (through our new Browser extension).
The new Microsoft editor will have some premium features that will be available with Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) while some basic features will remain free.
In Word, Editor (formerly known as Ideas) will use AI to help your spelling and,grammar and style refinements, all while making sure you’re in control. If you want additional assistance, simply open the Editor pane by clicking on the pen icon in the ribbon. The editor can analyze your writing and give you statistics on readability, distinct words, and time to read the document. Some new Editor features unique to Word are:
Similarity Checker:
It checks for potentially unoriginal content and making it easy to insert relevant citations. This feature will be available in the coming months in Word for the web.
Rewrite Suggestions:
Rewrite suggestions make it easier to optimize your writing for fluency, conciseness, or readability. To get started, just highlight a sentence, right-click on it, and then select “Rewrite Suggestions” from the context menu. Available in Word for the web in English only.
Editor in Outlook:
Editors capabilities now extend to Outlook on the web with features like spelling and grammar capabilities. More advanced style-oriented capabilities will be extended exclusively to Microsoft 365 subscribers.
Browser Extension:
Microsoft Editor will now have a web extension. It moves with your around the web.Whether you are posting casually on Facebook or LinkedIn or writing in-depth for a site like Medium, you can create with confidence knowing Editor will flag misspelt words and grammatical errors.
Grammarly too has similar options including a premium variant where you get extras like speech tone, word tone, plagiarism checker and more. It also has a web extension that helps you write flawlessly. It also has mobile apps to go along with its other services.
Will Microsoft Editor be able to give Grammarly run for the money, only time will tell as the Editor is fairly new.