Custom Dictionary

[rmstow]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I just started using Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) in conjunction with MS Office 2008 for Mac, version 12.1.1.

The first two weeks went well, but now I am receiving a message: "The custom dictionary in "Custom Dictionary" is not available and all words that I have added to custom dictionary are no longer recognized. However, when I go into Word-Preferences-Spelling and Grammar-Dictionaries, the custom dictionary is checked and I can edit it. All the added words are in it.

I have tried all the solutions given so far in the forum, but nothing has worked thus far. Please help. Also, please be very specific as I am new to the Mac operating system and I am not quite sure where everything is located.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Becky

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

The first two weeks went well, but now I am receiving a message: "The
custom dictionary in "Custom Dictionary" is not available and all words
that I have added to custom dictionary are no longer recognized.
However, when I go into Word-Preferences-Spelling and
Grammar-Dictionaries, the custom dictionary is checked and I can edit
it. All the added words are in it.

Try the following: locate the file in the Finder and open it in Word.
Make a modification there (any modification) and save it.
Do it make it come back to life??

Corentin

 

[Guest]

I did as you instructed (I had also done this before) but it did not help. I can edit misspells with the right click of the mouse, now, though. I still cannot add new words to the dictionary and it will not correct as I type.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.
Becky

 

[Diane Ross]

The first two weeks went well, but now I am receiving a message: "The custom
dictionary in "Custom Dictionary" is not available and all words that I have
added to custom dictionary are no longer recognized. However, when I go into
Word-Preferences-Spelling and Grammar-Dictionaries, the custom dictionary is
checked and I can edit it. All the added words are in it.

Is the problem in Entourage or just in Word?

Entourage uses the Office custom dictionaries, but it can only use the top
one. This is inserted to guarantee Outlook compatibility.

Check in Word to ensure that you have a custom dictionary selected and your
Custom Dictionary is the top one in the list. If it isn't, use the buttons
to move it up to the top. Make sure language is set to none

 

[rmstow]

All of that is A-OK. The dictionary works in Entourage. It seems to be just a Word problem. If you have any more ideas, I very much need to fix this.

Thanks.
Becky

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

All of that is A-OK. The dictionary works in Entourage. It seems to be
just a Word problem. If you have any more ideas, I very much need to fix
this.

You could create a new dictionary to start fresh. You can even open the
old and new one in Word to copy over the words from the old one to the
new one.
Make sure you never copy any word that looks weird (eg: weird characters
inside).

Corentin

 

[rmstow]

Thanks for the advice. I did start a new dictionary and I guess I will have to go from there. What a pain as I had 29 pages of words in the non-working one. I appreciate your assistance.

Becky

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

rmstow <> wrote:

Hi Becky,

Thanks for the advice. I did start a new dictionary and I guess I will
have to go from there. What a pain as I had 29 pages of words in the
non-working one. I appreciate your assistance.

As I was saying, you could open both the old and new dictionary in Word
to copy the words from the old one to the new one.

Corentin

 

[gerlach velthoven]

I have tehe same problem as Becky, tried al the advice above and within about six new items in my custom library it becomes unfindable. Any more possibilities?

 

[John McGhie]

Yep:

What I did was"

1) Quit ALL Office applications (you must do this, they all hold the Custom
Dictionary in memory)

2) open the Custom Dictionary in TextEdit.

3) Force the Custom Dictionary into Plain Text in Text Edit (Using "Make
plain text")

4) Ensure the custom dictionary has only one word per line.

5) Ensure there are no empty lines (NO empty lines at all!!) in the Custom
Dictionary.

6) Save the result to your desktop (or somewhere you can find it)

7) Delete the existing Custom Dictionary

8) Start Microsoft Word and create a new Custom Dictionary

9) Edit the new custom dictionary

10) Copy the list of words from Text Edit

11) In the Word new custom dictionary, use Edit>Paste Special>Plain Text

12) Save and close

13) In Word Preferences, turn your Spell Checking back on (it will have
automatically switched off when you edited the Custom Dictionary).

That should fix it...

I have tehe same problem as Becky, tried al the advice above and within about
six new items in my custom library it becomes unfindable. Any more
possibilities?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]