Microsoft Word to get Bing-powered plagiarism checker

Microsoft announced that the similarity checker tool bundled with the AI-powered Microsoft Editor writing virtual assistant will also be available within Microsoft Word, the company's word processor.

The newly announced Microsoft Word similarity checker feature can already be tested by Microsoft 365 EDU A3 and A5 customers running Office preview builds.

Microsoft is planning to roll out the new feature and make it generally available to all Microsoft 365 customers starting July 2020 (Education customers in July, Consumer and Enterprise later this year), with support for English but with other languages to be included at a later time this year.

"Powered by Bing Search, the Similarity checker can identify and help writers with originality in their writing and learn more about appropriate attribution through tools that facilitate the easy insertion of relevant citations," Mike Tholfsen, Principal Product Manager for Microsoft Education, said.

"This can aid writers in focusing less on the mechanics of writing, and more on the content."

Once generally available to all Microsoft Word customers, the similarity checker tool will allow them to always know when a citation is needed and quickly add them with a couple of mouse clicks when the tool identifies similarities with online sources.

Users can choose their preferred citation style between MLA, APA, or Chicago, and Word will automatically add the citation right after the text passage. While the text will also be surrounded by quotation marks automatically, users can also choose to delete them.

Text blocks longer than 40 words found to exactly match online sources will be formatted as block-quotes that need a user introduction and commentary.

More details on the inner-workings of the similarity checker tool available to all Microsoft Editor users and ready to be tested by Office preview customers are available here.

Microsoft Editor is a newly added Microsoft 365 writing virtual assistant that can be accessed across Word, Outlook.com, and the web as a standalone browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Editor provides users with spelling and basic grammar corrections and refinements, and rewriting suggestions to allow for more impactful writing in over 20 languages.