60+ of the best add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft 365 Word, free or not

Microsoft Word is without a doubt among the most used software in the entire world, used to write simple letters, create contracts, write academic papers or reports and many other uses. As other Office applications, Word is open to third-party tools adding features to it to make the Word experience easier and more complete. Here is a list of 60+ add-ins, plugins and apps that will save you time and effort when working on Word documents.

An add-in is an extension that brings new features into another application. Add-ins for Microsoft Word typically add new buttons that help Word users perform additional tasks.

There are dozens of add-ins for Word, and here is a list of 60 of these tools which can increase your productivity when working with Microsoft Word.

Our add-in for Word, PowerPoint and Excel will give you some great superpowers to save countless hours. Here are some of the main features it offers:

Grammarly is one of the most famous solution for helping you improve your writing process. It will check your text's grammar, spelling but also suggest alternatives to improve the style, clarity and precision of your speech. It works with Word on Windows, Mac iOS or the web.

ProWritingAid is an interesting tool that lets Word users improve their writing. The add-in needs an Internet connection to work, and highlights overused words, displays a grammar report and sentence length report, analyzes your writing style, and other useful feedback for you to improve your writing. Starting with $40 a year (or $140 for a lifetime license), the premium version will let you also improve on writing with Gmail, Wordpress, Google Documents, etc. and will work faster. This add-in is not available on Mac.

This add-in helps you manage internal and external links within your documents. It provides you with a tree view of those links, can find suspicious links, and let you edit or remove them. Link Checker works with Word 2003 to 2013 on Windows, but is not available for Mac.

This add-in helps write faster thanks to the AI's capability to rewrite sentences and paraphrase in order to improve your writing style and clarity, find synonyms, improve your vocabulary and more. QuillBot works on Windows 2013 and above on PC, Mac and Word online.

This add-in works as a contract and proposals assistant for Word. It helps you manage business documents such as proposals, quotes, bids, contracts, etc. It also provides some features to help you manage multiple proposals. The software works on Word for Windows 2003 to 2019, but is not available on Mac computers.

This tool works with Word as well as PowerPoint, Excel, and and JPEG or PDF files. NXPowerLite compresses files and optimize them for screen, print or mobile devices. You can also enable it to automatically compress your email's attachment files. NXPowerLite works on Windows but not on Mac iOS.

How often do you need to compare several Word documents, or multiple versions of a document? Well, this add-in lets you compares two strings of text and will show you what the differences are. If you are working on a document where someone did not use Track Change, you will still be able to avoid the terrible pain of manually identifying the differences. Selection Diff Tool works on Word and Excel 2013 and later. It is not supported by Mac computers.

Use this tool for Word and PowerPoint to create word cloud images in your document or presentation. Word clouds are a great solution to introduce a word into a conversation by showing how it is related to other ideas. The more frequent a word is, the more prominent it will be on the image. There are multiple size, fonts, layouts and colors you can use. Word cloud are based on your own text, and can be used and shared freely. Pro Word Cloud works on Word and PowerPoint 2013 and later for Windows. It does not work on Mac computers.

This app gives you access to millions of icons, graphics, illustrations etc. to insert in your Word documents. It runs on Word and PowerPoint 2013 and later on PC, Mac or Online.

If you are tired of moving between your Office windows this add-in is made for you. Office tabs creates a simple interface to switch between open windows of a Microsoft 365 application. It creates a tab bar on your standard Word, Excel or PowerPoint window, with all the currently open documents of the same kind. You can click on a document's title and it will switch the window to this document. Also, you can save all currently open documents with just 1 click, instead of saving them one by one. Office Tabs works on Office 365 and all versions of Office from 2003 to 2019, but does not work on Mac.

Nota Bene: this is comparable to the Tab Explorer feature included in the Power-user add-in alongside dozens of other tools for PowerPoint, Excel and Word.

Microsoft Dynamic is a great CRM solution provided by Microsoft. You can use this add-in to work on Word templates that will be updated with data directly coming from Microsoft Dynamics. You can also connect your Excel spreadsheet to your Microsoft Dynamics data, read it, analyze it or feed your dashboard, and publish data changes back into Microsoft Dynamics. If your company uses Dynamics, you will probably enjoy this app. It works for Word and Excel 2016 and later, on Windows computers only.

Epsillion helps you create reports with a professional design in very little time. Upload some unformatted text with Epsillion, define a few parameters like the number of columns, do the same with some charts and get a great-looking PDF or HTML. This tool also lets you sync figures with Excel to save time refreshing your reports. It integrates with Word and Excel.

Insert icons directly into your documents with this add-in. It provides 600 icons for you to illustrate your words. Icons can be searched using keywords you can just pick them up from the library. vIcons works with Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013 for Windows. It is not available on Mac.

This great plugin for Word allows you to update content from Excel in Word and PowerPoint, such as text, tables, charts, pictures and lists. It can save you a considerable amount of time, sparing you the effort of manually copy-pasting your content in Word every time you need to update. It works with Word 2016 and later on Windows, Mac and Online.

Access the Vertex42 library of over 150 professionally designed templates for Word and Excel. Those templates include calendar, planners, budgeting, inventory, invoices or financial statements. The Vertex add-in works on Word and Excel versions 2013 and later for Windows. It is not available for Mac.

Everyone in an organization has been in one of those countless meetings and needed to write minutes. This tool actually offers a solution to generate minutes from the meeting agenda, access minutes templates, create and assign tasks synced with Planner, To Do or Excel and share minutes for review. It works on Word 2013 and later on PC, Mac and Online.

Create QR codes on your documents or slides with this app. The QR code will open a url of your choice. You can use QR4Office to make more engaging and interactive documents or presentation, have your audience use their smartphone to check a website or vote for a poll, for instance. QR4Office is available for versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel later than 2013 on Windows. It is also available on Mac starting with version 2016.

This add-in for the Office suite provides a cloud template management solution for organizations. Templates are stored online on a SharePoint website. Template Chooser requires a Microsoft 365 subscription and works with Word, PowerPoint and Excel for Windows. It is not available on Mac iOS.

If you often need to make some quick calculation aside from your work, you might love this add-in. It provides a calculator next to your Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. It even makes it easy for you to directly insert the the results in your documents with a Select button. Handy Calculator is available on Office applications starting from version 2013. It also works on the Mac 2016 version.

This Office plugin lets save words, sentences or paragraphs that you believe you will use frequecalcuntly. It also enables web searches without opening a browser, directly from your document. Sticky Text is available with Word and PowerPoint 2013, 2016 and 2019for Windows and 2016 on Mac.

This tool lets you translate documents in Microsoft 365 Word or Excel. You can select words and sentences, and then use it to understand content from another language or insert the translation in your document. This app can integrate with DeepL, Google, Baidu and other services so you can choose the best translation. It works with Word 2013 or higher, as well as Word on Mac, iPad or Online.

This is an interesting add-in that allows you to send files to a network platform of freelance translators to review or translate your documents. Once your account is created, you just need to select a language and level for the translation, and copy-paste your text. Professionals will make the translation at a given price. You can then ask them to make changes if you need before validating the order. The plugin allows you is available directly from SharePoint so you can send any file directly.

Although initially designed for Excel, Spreadsheet123 is now a Word add-in as well. Instead of starting a document from scratch, pick up a template in their library. The templates include financial statements, budgeting, payroll, invoicing, time sheets, checklists or inventory management templates. Spreadsheet123 works with Word and Excel 2013 Service Pack 1 or later as well as Word and Excel online. This add-in is however not supported on Mac computers.

This Word add-in lets you update information such as author, brand name, organizational unit or legal disclaimer of a document with just a click. Documents need first to be configured for working with the Document Wizard. This tool works only on Word 2016 and later versions, for Windows and for Mac., as well as Word online.

DocuSign lets you send documents for eSignature. You can securely sign yourself documents, or send it for a colleague or client to sign it. You can also store all your signed documents in a dedicated OneDrive folder. DocuSign meets legal standards. Although DocuSign claims to be an Office App Award 2015 Winner of the Most Business Value, the reviews for this app are really negative and people complain about errors when trying to connect. DocuSign is compatible with Word 2013 and later on Windows, Word 2016 on Mac, Word for iPad and Word Online.

As the name suggests, this add-in lets you search for citations without leaving your Word document. If you are writing academic documents such as thesis or publications, you will love this tool. Just type your keywords and the add-in will search in your Mendeley Library. This tool works with Word and LibreOffice on Windows, Mac and Linux.

The Image Vault Connect for Office add-in lets you search or browse in your existing media library with ImageVault. You can then insert your resources in your document with a single click. You need an existing ImageVault server and credentials before you can use it. This app works with Word and PowerPoint 2013 and later on Windows, as well as Word Online.

This app for Office lets you quickly access Wikipedia content for your Office documents. It also makes it simpler to reference text and images. Search results will appear in a task pane, and you can choose to show text and images, or just images. The Wikipedia app works with Word and Excel 2013 or later, on Word and Excel 2016 for Mac, on Word and Excel for iPad as well as on Word and Excel Online.

The RefWorks app lets you insert in-text citations directly from your Word documents, move and remove citations and auto-generate or update your bibliography. This is clearly meant for students, academics or researchers who are writing papers with many references. You need to be a subscriber of RefMe Plus and RefMe Institute before you can actually use it. The app is available on Word 2016 on Windows and Word for iPad.

This app can be used to generate Word documents from Microsoft CRM. Typically, you can use it to bring customer data from your CRM into a mail or contract template in Word.

With this Adobe add-in, you can electronically send Word and PowerPoint documents for electronic signature to colleagues, partners or clients. A subscription is required to use the service. It does not work on Mac and is available for Word and PowerPoint 2013 or later on Windows.

The Qorus add-in lets you save time when working on Word documents, with features to automatically generate new documents, searching and inserting existing content from your SharePoint site, ensuring documents are up to date or cleaning them before sending. Qorus requires a subscription to use the service. It is available on Word 2013 or later for Windows. Qorus is not available on Word for Mac.

This add-in from the famous law services firm LexisNexis helps create and review legal documents. You can use this tool to make searches, get cited documents, verify quotes, manage citations format and more. It works with Word 2016 and 2019 on Pc, Mac, iPad and Online.

This tool can read your Word documents, using text-to-speach technology so you can hear the content of your file without even looking at it. The app works with Word 2013+, Word Online and Mac iOS.

Pickit Presentation Images is an add-in that lets you browse for images from Word and PowerPoint. Images can be previewed from a task pane, and you can search pictures, icons, 3D or moving images without leaving your application. Although the app is free, you will need a subscription if you want pictures to be in HD. Pickit works with Word and PowerPoint 2013 and later on Windows, as well as Word and PowerPoint 2016 on Mac and Word and PowerPoint Online.

Nota Bene: A feature comparable to this tool also exists within the Power-user suite, allowing you to browse over 1 million high-quality pictures and it's 100% free, without requiring a subscription.

This Office add-in helps you insert special characters and symbols in your Word documents. Contrary to the native Symbols button in Office, it uses contextual information to suggest relevant symbols based on your selection. It can be very convenient to easily find currency, mathematical, copyright or language-specific symbols. The app works with Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2013+, on PC, Mac and Online.

If you have the mind and soul of a poet, this app is definitely made for you. It lets you go through a rhyming dictionary to find the rhymes that will sound just right with your words. You can search by senses as well. Rhymes.net works with Word 2013 and later on PC, and 2016 on Mac.

With this app you can easily format your text as code in Word 2013 on PC or Mac iOS.

This Word add-in is great for citing easily in research papers. This tool will help you manage references, can suggest citations and will easily format your bibliography. It works for Word 2016 or later on Windows, Mac or Word Online.

Microsoft Mathematics is an add-in that lets you plot charts, solve equations or inequalities in Word and OneNote. The add-in works with Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010, as well as OneNote 2010 on Windows.

This ADobe add-in lets you easily create templates for documents with consistent branding using Adobe Document Generation API. Such templates can be invoices, contracts, reports and more. It works on Word 2016 and later on Windows, Mac and on the Online version.

If you are beginning with Word, this GoSkills add-in will help you learn some tips & tricks to improve your command of the software with Word cheat sheets. Subscribing will give you access to training as well. The plugin works with Word 2013 or later on Windows, as well as the 2016 Mac version and Word Online.

Writer is meant for companies wanting a unified style, voice and terminology on all their documents. It can check the usual grammar and, but also approved terms, pronouns, compliance and more. It is compatible with Word 2016 and later on Windows, Mac and Online.

Make sure you don't use an unwise word that will cause some incident, by getting the exact definition with this add-in. The dictionary also provides translations with multiple choices of words, and translations can be inserted in your documents with just a click. The app supports English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. It requires an Internet connection to work, as well as Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Project version 2013 or later, or the 2016 Mac version.

This add-in is made for legal teams and can help drafting legal advice, identify legal citation and case law validity, get recommendation and more. The app works on Word 2013 and later on Windows, Mac, iPad and Word Online.

If you are developer, this plugin will let you edit your code in a Word document following the properly formatted syntax. Highlight your code and select the coding language, and your code will be formatted to look just like in any code editor. This app works with Word 2013 on Windows, and on the 2016 version for Mac and Online.

Insert visual content to your Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook). Use this to add a design layer to your work and illustrate it with vivid visuals. Pictographr works with Office 2016 and later on Windows and Mac.

The Pixabay add-in lets you search for online pictures available on Pixabay, without leaving Word or PowerPoint. And the best of it is that all pictures are available under Creative Common CC0, i.e. they are in the public domain and you don't have to pay nor to give attribution to the author. Pixabay Images works with Word and PowerPoint 2013 or later on Windows as well as Word and PowerPoint 2016 on Mac and Online.

Nota Bene: this is comparable to the Pictures library included in the Power-user add-in alongside other tools and which includes over 100,000 pictures.

Once you have inserted images in your document, you might want to rework them a bit to give them nice visual effects. This free tool can apply 15 different effects to images in your documents. It works on Word 2013 or later on Windows only.

This plugin lets you detect and correct 250 types of grammar mistakes within Word documents, but also improve your style by avoiding repetitions for instance. The app works with Word 2016 or later on Windows and on Word 2016 on Mac.

This tool lets you open and edit files stored on OneDrive as printable PDFs. This add-in requires Word 2013 or later on Windows or Word Online. It is not supported by Mac iOS.

Let this app guide you into designing your resume. Enter your data and let it make the design part for you. You can also import your Linkedin profile to get a CV in a matter of minutes. This Word app requires version 2016 or later on Windows or Word 2016 on Mac.

This app designed by famous SEO website Semrush will help you optimize your Word content for high performance on search engines. It will offer suggestions based on best performing content on Google's SERPs, based on competitors and defined target audience and keywords. This is a great idea for copywriters and anyone writing on Word content that will end up on a website. This tool works with Word 2013 or later on Windows, Mac and Word Online.

Woodpecker is a Word app made to help small businesses save time by providing a templates creation and management solution. Templates can be shared with a team so that people can collaborate on it and Woodpecker provides automated formatting. Woodpecker works on Microsoft Word version 2013, 2016 and 2019 for PC, Word 2016 on Mac and Word Online.

This funny app lets you insert smileys for various emotions in your word document with a single click. The app works with Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2013 and later on Windows, as well as the 2016 Mac version.

This add-in will let you hire professional editors around the globe to proofread your text. You can get your document read in real time. The app requires a Microsoft 365 account attached to OneDrive, and works on Word 2013 or later on Windows or Word Online.

This add-in scans your document and detects consistency mistakes in your text. It looks into hyphenation (e.g. ‘part time’ and ‘part-time’), spelling (e.g. ‘color’ and ‘colour’), use of numbers in sentences, etc. It's always good to run a little consistency check before you submit your document! The app works on Word and Excel 2013 or later, the Mac 2016 and the Online versions.

This add-in lets you insert HTML5 diagrams, flowcharts, UML, wireframes, Mind maps, org charts, etc. The app works on Word 2013 or later on Windows and on Word 2016 on Mac.

Dolphin Compose is a common phrase library. The idea behind it is great: you or your organization often use and reuse the same phrases, contract clauses or commercial arguments. This add-in will let you search, edit or reuse such phrases, ensuring correctness, brand consistency and up to date content. You will need to host your library on SharePoint, OneDrive or Dolphin365, and the app will run on Word 2013 or later on Windows, as well as the Mac 2016 and the Online versions.

Conclusion:

Although not exhaustive, this list of add-ins for Microsoft Word provides a wide range of useful tools that will enhance you experience of working with Word. Add-ins have the potential to save you a tremendous amount of time and give you new perspectives.

If you are interested in PowerPoint add-ins as well, check our list of 40+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft PowerPoint.

If you are also interested in Excel add-ins, check our list of 75+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft Excel.