Microsoft Word’s Researcher feature is being retired

If you are a user of Microsoft Word and you rely on the Researcher feature in that application, here’s a heads-up that the feature is being retired by Microsoft starting towards the end of December 2024 with a complete retirement by the end of January 2025. Here’s what that feature looks like…

You can find the Researcher feature under References > Researcher. The right-side panel allows you to search for source material to incorporate into your document:

Microsoft’s statement on “why” is that they occasionally remove features and benefits that duplicate equivalent offerings. They then recommend Copilot as a good alternative to Researcher… which is fine if you’re willing to pay the extra cost for Copilot. 😦

So… if you have any reports that are going to require you to use this feature, make sure you get those projects done in the next couple of months…