L
Lil
Dear people:
Since one or two months I've been experiencing an annoying trouble in my
CUSTOM.DIC. I have MS Office 2003 on XP, and I use it a lot to write
technical reports for my job and university. So I wrote many entries in
my own dictionary (called then BioChem.dic), but never as many as 5.000
(which is the maximum size, as far as I know after visiting in some
troubleshooting forums). One day, after adding a new entry, all
dictionary, everyone of the approx. 300 entries, disappeared. I was not even
able to restore using restoration tools, like Handy Recovery or so. I
definitely lost
that dictionary.
I've tried several ways to fix this recurrent problem. Note that:
- I did not installed anything new.
- I have my PC up to date and with no malware at all that could be
corrupting my dict.
- I have already tried to re-install and repair all MS Office: first
"detecting and repairing", later reinstalling it from the beginning.
- I have already tried the posted solution consisting in renaming
MSSPELL3.DLL to MSSPELL3.OLD ... and the rest of the solution steps
[published in MS official page].
- I have already changed the default dictionary language.
- I have already changed the path where MS Office saves and reads the
dictionaries.
In my case, it was in: C:\Documents and
Settings\_MYUSERNAME_\Configuración local\Datos de
programa\Microsoft\Proof
(which in Spanish stands for: C:\Documents and
Settings\_MYUSERNAME_\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof )
I then placed the dict (and told Word to do so) to the following
independent-of-user directory:
C:\Archivos de programa\Archivos comunes\Microsoft Shared\PROOF
(in Spanish that stands for C:\Program Files\Common Files\MS Shared\Proof)
- I tried everything: adding one word, erasing it, editing the ___.dic
(CUSTOM.DIC, PERSONAL.DIC, WHATEVER.DIC...)
in Notepad, in Wordpad,
via Word application, and also via Power Point,
- I tried erasing every dic and then restore them, ... almost every
"trivial" solution in my hands and capabilities, and also every suggest
found in the web, in wiki, in google, in your forums, in MS support
page... result: NOTHING. All the entries disappear after adding the 21st
(or 23rd... really unpredictable) word.
I explain in detail the strange behaviour I detected:
For some reason, now, my *.dic (no matter the name; custom.dic or any
other one) cannot hold more than 20-25 entries... and the longer are
the words, then, when adding a new one, the earlier it eliminates
everything. I have a hypothesis, but no idea on how to solve it (or even
if it is true). I think that, fore some unknown reason, my dict has a
minimum size established somewhere else (not in Word; maybe in the
Win Registry? not in normal.dot, as far as I know) of about 1KB (and... why
so little? if it were at least 64 KB, as it should be, I could hold a
"respectable amount of entries" dict).
So, after adding the first 10-15 words, depending on the length (if
they're short --2 letters-- I guess I can add 100 entries). Then, when it is
reaching
the maximum size limit, suddenly, (some times with an error msg,
sometimes WITHOUT warning msg), the whole wordslist disappear. As if it had
never existed. No tracks. Nothing.
And this "erased file" it's "unrestorable" (I mean, one can erase files,
but then use a restoration utility that totally or partially recovers
the file).
No matter if I hide the folder containing it (changing its folder
attributes), no matter if I set the dict file as read-only (in this case, the
dict would be static and its functionality, quite limited).
I wouldn't be writing to you if I hadn't search by myself long enough...
but at this moment it seems impossible to me. And (i know it is not of
your matters), but I have to submit an important paper for my research
group and also for a University Proffessor... and having a dict is quite
effective for that kind of technical texts. Hummm... it is essential.
The only relevant issues I found on the web that are related with this
specific behavior are the following. One person who referred the same
problem as me, much more synthetic, I recognize
____________
I think the fix to this problem is in:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813996 ; (if it could help you).
Apparently, this person followed the solution provided by one member of
your MVPS group and worked for him/her (obviously NOT for me). The
solution was provided, by Suzanne S. Barnhill (as published in that MS
newsgroup); thank you, Suzanne, and thank you all people for being there
and try to help us, to help all the community, with your vast knowledge
and easy explanations.
Do you think it will be a solution for this 1KB-limit-size problem? It's
just exasperating editing a big dict and then see that it is destroyed
without leaving traces... (it is completely ERASED, ANNIHILATED, no
restoration utility could help me...)
I know, (and that is what I'll do in the future), that I should backup
my dict files... but I think that's worthy when one has at least a 200-word
dict,
but, not for 20 (the largest one I can opt for)...
And the other reference I found in the web to my problem is found in the
following google.book:
"Word Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your
Favorite Word Processor"... Autor Guy Hart-Davis (pag. 113:
"Protect your Custom Dict"; there is the referred problem, but for a
standard size of 64KB)
but the only solution provided in the mentioned book is to keep frequent
backups of the dictionaries. It is not really a solution; it would better be
an unefficient,
uncomfortable and annoying patch (it is unpredictable when a dict is
going to erase previous words... it does not give even the posibility of
UNDO).
I have been thinking about the problem and... does anyone know if the cause
could be having installed several IME Keyboard configurations? I have done so
(Japanese, Chinese and more), and, considering that the "character
repertoire" of these languages is much bigger than the latin ones, could it
(I don't know, I am just guessing; I can't stand lacking explanations) be
possible that, whenever I edit my custom.dic (even using only the spanish
configuration), the system would consider that I am "overloading" it with too
many bytes (every single character then would have a "bigger information
content" since the total repertoire is much more extensive) and that would be
the reason for erasing all the previous words?
I think this is a "nice problem" (at least, it is challenging so I
address it to you. Could anyone of you help me? It would be great for
me...
Excuse for my English, and thank you for being out there and for helping
so much people. And, of course, thanks for having reading up to this
sentence
My best regards,
Lil
Since one or two months I've been experiencing an annoying trouble in my
CUSTOM.DIC. I have MS Office 2003 on XP, and I use it a lot to write
technical reports for my job and university. So I wrote many entries in
my own dictionary (called then BioChem.dic), but never as many as 5.000
(which is the maximum size, as far as I know after visiting in some
troubleshooting forums). One day, after adding a new entry, all
dictionary, everyone of the approx. 300 entries, disappeared. I was not even
able to restore using restoration tools, like Handy Recovery or so. I
definitely lost
that dictionary.
I've tried several ways to fix this recurrent problem. Note that:
- I did not installed anything new.
- I have my PC up to date and with no malware at all that could be
corrupting my dict.
- I have already tried to re-install and repair all MS Office: first
"detecting and repairing", later reinstalling it from the beginning.
- I have already tried the posted solution consisting in renaming
MSSPELL3.DLL to MSSPELL3.OLD ... and the rest of the solution steps
[published in MS official page].
- I have already changed the default dictionary language.
- I have already changed the path where MS Office saves and reads the
dictionaries.
In my case, it was in: C:\Documents and
Settings\_MYUSERNAME_\Configuración local\Datos de
programa\Microsoft\Proof
(which in Spanish stands for: C:\Documents and
Settings\_MYUSERNAME_\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof )
I then placed the dict (and told Word to do so) to the following
independent-of-user directory:
C:\Archivos de programa\Archivos comunes\Microsoft Shared\PROOF
(in Spanish that stands for C:\Program Files\Common Files\MS Shared\Proof)
- I tried everything: adding one word, erasing it, editing the ___.dic
(CUSTOM.DIC, PERSONAL.DIC, WHATEVER.DIC...)
in Notepad, in Wordpad,
via Word application, and also via Power Point,
- I tried erasing every dic and then restore them, ... almost every
"trivial" solution in my hands and capabilities, and also every suggest
found in the web, in wiki, in google, in your forums, in MS support
page... result: NOTHING. All the entries disappear after adding the 21st
(or 23rd... really unpredictable) word.
I explain in detail the strange behaviour I detected:
For some reason, now, my *.dic (no matter the name; custom.dic or any
other one) cannot hold more than 20-25 entries... and the longer are
the words, then, when adding a new one, the earlier it eliminates
everything. I have a hypothesis, but no idea on how to solve it (or even
if it is true). I think that, fore some unknown reason, my dict has a
minimum size established somewhere else (not in Word; maybe in the
Win Registry? not in normal.dot, as far as I know) of about 1KB (and... why
so little? if it were at least 64 KB, as it should be, I could hold a
"respectable amount of entries" dict).
So, after adding the first 10-15 words, depending on the length (if
they're short --2 letters-- I guess I can add 100 entries). Then, when it is
reaching
the maximum size limit, suddenly, (some times with an error msg,
sometimes WITHOUT warning msg), the whole wordslist disappear. As if it had
never existed. No tracks. Nothing.
And this "erased file" it's "unrestorable" (I mean, one can erase files,
but then use a restoration utility that totally or partially recovers
the file).
No matter if I hide the folder containing it (changing its folder
attributes), no matter if I set the dict file as read-only (in this case, the
dict would be static and its functionality, quite limited).
I wouldn't be writing to you if I hadn't search by myself long enough...
but at this moment it seems impossible to me. And (i know it is not of
your matters), but I have to submit an important paper for my research
group and also for a University Proffessor... and having a dict is quite
effective for that kind of technical texts. Hummm... it is essential.
The only relevant issues I found on the web that are related with this
specific behavior are the following. One person who referred the same
problem as me, much more synthetic, I recognize
____________
__________
I think the fix to this problem is in:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813996 ; (if it could help you).
Apparently, this person followed the solution provided by one member of
your MVPS group and worked for him/her (obviously NOT for me). The
solution was provided, by Suzanne S. Barnhill (as published in that MS
newsgroup); thank you, Suzanne, and thank you all people for being there
and try to help us, to help all the community, with your vast knowledge
and easy explanations.
Do you think it will be a solution for this 1KB-limit-size problem? It's
just exasperating editing a big dict and then see that it is destroyed
without leaving traces... (it is completely ERASED, ANNIHILATED, no
restoration utility could help me...)
I know, (and that is what I'll do in the future), that I should backup
my dict files... but I think that's worthy when one has at least a 200-word
dict,
but, not for 20 (the largest one I can opt for)...
And the other reference I found in the web to my problem is found in the
following google.book:
"Word Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your
Favorite Word Processor"... Autor Guy Hart-Davis (pag. 113:
"Protect your Custom Dict"; there is the referred problem, but for a
standard size of 64KB)
but the only solution provided in the mentioned book is to keep frequent
backups of the dictionaries. It is not really a solution; it would better be
an unefficient,
uncomfortable and annoying patch (it is unpredictable when a dict is
going to erase previous words... it does not give even the posibility of
UNDO).
I have been thinking about the problem and... does anyone know if the cause
could be having installed several IME Keyboard configurations? I have done so
(Japanese, Chinese and more), and, considering that the "character
repertoire" of these languages is much bigger than the latin ones, could it
(I don't know, I am just guessing; I can't stand lacking explanations) be
possible that, whenever I edit my custom.dic (even using only the spanish
configuration), the system would consider that I am "overloading" it with too
many bytes (every single character then would have a "bigger information
content" since the total repertoire is much more extensive) and that would be
the reason for erasing all the previous words?
I think this is a "nice problem" (at least, it is challenging
so Iaddress it to you. Could anyone of you help me? It would be great for
me...
Excuse for my English, and thank you for being out there and for helping
so much people. And, of course, thanks for having reading up to this
sentence
My best regards,
Lil