Custom dictionary not available

[Keyes]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

I receive the message every time I try to check a word that the "custom dictionary is not available." I have tried the fixes recommended by others and they have not worked.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

I receive the message every time I try to check a word that the "custom dictionary is not available." I have tried the fixes recommended by others and they have not worked.

Hi,

You have to activate the custom dictionary before you can use it.

Here's an Excerpt from the upcoming Office 2008 form Mac All-in-One for
Dummies (available October 16):

Before we run our first spelling and grammar check, Word has a great
feature that comes turned off by default, and we need to turn it on. The
feature lets us add new words to a custom dictionary, so that Office
will learn new words as we work on our documents. Let’s turn on our
custom dictionary right now. You only have to do this once and then the
Spelling and Grammar Add feature will remain available to you from now
on not just in Word, but in all Office applications:

1. Choose Word-->Preferences, and open the Spelling and Grammar sheet
in the resultant window.
Word’s Spelling and Grammar preferences pane opens.
2. In the Spelling section, click the Dictionaries button.
The Custom Dictionaries window opens.
3. Click the Custom Dictionary checkbox.
4. Click OK to close Custom Dictionary.
5. Click OK to close Spelling and Grammar preferences.
Once you have performed the above steps, the Add button in Spelling and
Grammar becomes available, and the Add option becomes available in the
pop-up menu when you right-click or control-click on a word that’s been
flagged with a red squiggle.

 

[kds]

I have tried these and other steps noted here and in MacTopia and still have
this problem:

I *can* use my custom dictionary with MS Word but I *cannot* use it in
Entourage; in Entourage, it's grayed-out. And, this is with the new one I
created after I followed the instructions for deleting the old one.

Any additional suggestions?

Thanks.

Karl.

 

[Diane Ross]

Any additional suggestions?

See if this link helps:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/dict.html#dict4>

 

[kds]

Jim,

I already read and followed your instructions from help you've given others,
thank you (as I noted I've tried everything I've read). That has not helped.

Karl.

 

[drrogera]

I had the same trouble; "custom dictionary" not available
I tried the suggestions listed her and they did not work.
What did work was the tips I found at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10268163
Basically - open the custom dictionary file, remove the spaces at the
beginning of each line (word) and save. So far so good for me.
R

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Basically - open the custom dictionary file, remove the spaces at the
beginning of each line (word) and save. So far so good for me.

Usually, the problem is caused by an encoding corruption in the file.
The solution is to open the file in Word, make *any* change and save.
When you save, Word saves with the proper encoding and the file is
usable again.

The big question is "what corrupts the files" but so far no one really
seems to know,


Corentin