Create a New Custom Dictionary
Learn about Spell Check options
Learn about the Dictionaries window
- From the Options menu, select Global. The Maintain Global Options window appears.
- Choose the Spelling tab.
- Click Custom Dictionary. The Custom Dictionaries window appears.
- Click New File. The New Dictionary window appears.
- In the File Name field, enter a name for the new dictionary.
- Select a language from the Language list.
- Click OK to close the New Dictionary window. You return to the Custom Dictionaries window with the dictionary you just created in the Files list. At this point you can add words to the new dictionary, if you wish.
- When finished customizing the new dictionary, click Close.
Follow the procedure below to add words to a custom dictionary.
- From the Options menu, select Global. The Maintain Global Options window appears.
- Choose the Spelling tab.
- Click Custom Dictionary. The Custom Dictionaries window appears.
- From the Files drop-down list, select the custom dictionary to which you want to add words.
- In the Words field, type the word you want to add.
- Choose Ignore (skip) from the Action drop-down list if you want Spell Check to ignore the word you're adding.
- Click the Add Word button. Spell Check adds the word to the custom dictionary.
- Continue adding words to the dictionary using the steps above. When finished, click Close.
Note: When running Spell Check, you can add words to the dictionaries "as you go" by clicking the Add button from the Check Spelling window. Spell Check will add the word in question to the currently selected dictionary.
The Action drop-down list on the Custom Dictionaries window is used to select an action that is associated with words in the dictionary. The action tells Spell Check what to do when it finds a word in the dictionary. Select an action from the following list of choices:
- Auto change (use case of other word): This action allows you to automatically replace one word with another, using the same case as the other word. This action is useful for automatically expanding abbreviations. For example, you could enter “AR” in the Words field and “accounts receivable” in the Other word field, and then select Auto change (use case of other word) as the action. Spell Check will automatically replace “AR” with “accounts receivable” wherever it appears.
Note: The replacement is only automatically replaced if you selected the Auto correct misspelled words option on the Spelling tab of the Maintain Global Options window.
- Auto change (use case of checked word): This action allows you to automatically
replace one word with another. For example, if you often type "recieve" instead of "receive" you might enter the word “recieve” in the
Words field, and “receive” in the Other word field. Select Auto change (use case of checked word) from the Action list. Spell Check will automatically correct "recieve" wherever it appears. If you enter "recieve" with a capital letter ("Recieve")
in the Words list, Spell Check will automatically replace it with "Receive."
Note: The replacement is only automatically replaced if you selected the Auto correct misspelled words option on the Spelling tab of the Maintain Global Options window.
- Conditionally change (use case of other word): This action allows you to optionally replace one word with another, always with the same case pattern as the other word. This action is useful for expanding abbreviations. For example, you could enter “AR” in the Words field, and “accounts receivable” in the Other word field, and then select Conditionally change (use case of other word) as from the Action list. Spell Check will ask if you want to replace AR with accounts receivable.
- Conditionally change (use case of checked word): This action allows you to optionally replace one word with another. For example, if you often type "recieve" instead of "receive" you might enter the word “recieve” in the Words field, and “receive” in the Other word field. Select Auto change (use case of checked word) from the Action list. Spell Check will ask if you want to replace "recieve" with "receive." If you enter "recieve" with a capital letter ("Recieve") in the Words list, Spell Check will ask if you want to replace it with "Receive."
- Ignore (skip): This action tells Spell Check that the word is spelled correctly, and can be skipped over. This is the most common action.
- Exclude (treat as misspelled): This action tells Spell Check that the word is misspelled, even if it is listed in another dictionary. Words marked with this action will never be offered as suggestions for misspelled words, and they will be reported as misspellings when they are encountered by Spell Check. Note that Spell Check looks up words in custom dictionaries in the order in which they appear in the Files list. If you want to exclude a word, make sure it doesn't appear in a previous custom dictionary.