The Best Free Add-Ins for Microsoft Office
Ever wished there was an encyclopedia in Word to touch on, or dummy numbers generated in Excel? Office Add-ins provide such additional functionality for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft Office applications. Here are some of the most handy add-ons you can install for Office 2013 and later to get the most out of your office suite.
Previously, we highlighted Office add-ins and applications for Office 2013 and earlier , but since then Microsoft has renamed “Office Applications” to “Office Add-ins”. There are now several such plugins that you can install to improve Microsoft Office, whether you’re using Office 2013 or 2016, Office Online, or Office on iPad.
To install any of the plugins below, click the link. You will need to sign in to your Microsoft account to add it. Then, in an Office program, go to Insert> My Add-Ins and select the add-in you want to use. You may need to refresh the screen a couple of times if you recently added it, but after installation, you can use the add-in from the Insert menu.
Wikipedia
Word 2013 or later, Excel 2013 or later, Excel Online, Word Online, Excel for iPad, Word for iPad. From Microsoft
The Wikipedia Office Add-in puts the help source in Microsoft Word or Excel, so you don’t have to switch windows to find something. When you choose Insert> My Add-ins and insert a Wikipedia add-in, you can select text in your document or spreadsheet and get the Wikipedia search results sideways. If you want to quote Wikipedia in your document, you can simply select the content in the sidebar and then click to paste it into your file. Ideal for both researchers and students.
Random number generator
Excel 2013 or newer, Excel Online. Author: Abilebits
The random number generator is similar to Lorem Ipsum for spreadsheets. Instead of generating dummy text, it generates random numbers in Excel, so you can create a spreadsheet layout without having to create your own data. Select the cells you want to fill and you can choose between adding integers, real numbers, dates, or random boolean (true or false) entries.
Translator
Word 2013 or later, Word Online, Word for iPad. From Microsoft
The Translator for Office add- in does what you’d expect: it translates selected text from your document into another language. Use it as a reading aid or insert the translation into your document with one click. He works with: English, العربية, български, katala, čeština, dansk, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, español, eesti, euskara, suomi, français, galego, עברית, हिंदी, hrvatski, magviyar, Bahasa, Italian, latviešu, Bahasa Melayu, norsk (bokmol), Nederlands, polski, português, română, Russian, slovenčina, slovenščina, srpski, svenska, ไทย, Türkçe, Ukrainian, 中文, Tiếng Việt
Search on the Internet
PowerPoint 2013 or newer, Excel 2013 or newer, Word 2013 or newer, Excel Online By The App Refinery
Don’t leave your document to search for anything on the Internet. With the Web Search add- in, you can use Google directly in your Office application. Open the add-on panel and select a phrase to search on Google. Clicking on one of the search results will open a browser window with that web page.
People schedule
Excel 2013 or later, Excel Online, Excel for iPad. From Microsoft
If you are working with data, such as consumer surveys or polls, or other statistics based on the people , the People Graph can help you transform the data into a beautiful chart. Pick your data, choose a chart type, theme, and shapes, and have a simple infographic in your spreadsheet that conveys information better than raw numbers.
There are many other add-ons available in the Office Store. Many of them are from the company that developed them. For example, there is the MailChimp add-in for creating email campaigns in Word and the DocuSign add-in for signing documents in Outlook. Some of them, like Boomerang for Outlook and FindTime for Outlook, look promising but seem to require a company or university account. Others, like AP Stylebook for Word and Gantt Chart for Excel, aren’t free, but still look useful. However, the above add-ins may come in handy for most people working with Microsoft Office. If you need a specific add-in, you can find more in the Office Store .