Custom Dictionary

[Pedro Maldonado]

I'm using Office 2004 for Mac and cannot activate the custom dictionary and
automatic spelling features in Word. When I attempt this I receive an error
saying the custom dictionary is unavailable. Has anyone seen this before?
Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Pedro Maldonado

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm using Office 2004 for Mac and cannot activate the custom dictionary and
automatic spelling features in Word. When I attempt this I receive an error
saying the custom dictionary is unavailable. Has anyone seen this before?
Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

What language is the text?

How are you trying to activate the custom dictionary? Have you added/created
the Custom Dictionary via Word | Preferences, Spelling and Grammar tab,
click on Custom Dictionaries... Button for dialog?

Custom Dictionary and automatic spelling are two separate problems, and your
description of the problem is very vague.

If by automatic spelling you mean "spellcheck as you type" is not giving you
wavy red underlines, make sure the text has a language assigned to it.

To test this, with the cursor in a word that isn't being checked, go to
Tools | Language and see what comes up selected.

To assign a language, select all text and use Tools | Language.

This may have happened if you pasted in some text that was already set to No
Proofing, and then kept hitting enter and typing from that block of text.

If this happens in multiple documents, you may need to use a style-based
solution instead of the manual formatting solution given above. Post back
if so.

 

[Missy Zane]

I'm having a similar problem. I tried the suggestions listed below, and
the spell checker still won't run.

Missy Zane

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What suggestions listed below? If you mean my post, why don't you answer
the questions? Nobody can offer much if you don't explain *very clearly and
in explicit detail* what the problem is, and what version of Word and OS you
are using.

 

[Missy Zane]

What suggestions listed below?

Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't do message boards very often, and I didn't
realize my post would come after yours. I should have said "the
suggestions above."

If you mean my post, why don't you answer the questions? Nobody can

offer much if you don't explain *very clearly and in explicit detail*
what the problem is, and what version of Word and OS you

are using.

The operating system is OS X version 10.3.3. I'm using Word 2004 for
Mac, version 11.1. My problem is exactly like Pedro's. I "cannot
activate the custom dictionary and automatic spelling features in Word.
When I attempt this I receive an error saying the custom dictionary is
unavailable." I also get messages saying the English Dictionary is not
available. I reloaded Word, thinking I might have missed the
dictionaries the first time, but that didn't make any difference.

I'm a copywriter, and having to paste my work into my email program to
check the spelling before I send off a job is a bit awkward. But giving
a client a document with misspelled words would be even worse. So I
would really appreciate some advice, as opposed to an impatient slap on
the wrists. Thanks...

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Missy:

There's worse places she coulda slapped Daiya's an academic, you know
what they're like

I'm going to go for The Big Fix here, because the error messages you are
getting indicate to me that Spelling is not running at all. There's two
distinct conditions: one when the system cannot find the custom dictionary
you are asking for, the other when the system can't find the main language
lexicon for the language you are using.

When Word starts up, it sets its default language from your operating system
and keyboard. Word supports 13 languages all known as "English", so when
dealing with language names you have to check that the names match
character-for-character.

We need to check is that your system has the languages you want to use
installed. Go to System Preferences>International>Input Menu and ensure the
languages and keyboard you want to use are installed and enabled.

Look on your Menu Bar for the flag for the language you want to use (e.g. If
you are using "English Australian", there should be an Australian flag
there.) If either of these are wrong, Word will be asking for dictionaries
that may not exists.

Now bring up Word, and click in a sentence you want to spell-check. Go to
Tools>Language and make sure that the "Mark Selected Text As" blue selection
bar is highlighting the language you want to use. And make sure the "Do not
check spelling or grammar" box is not checked.

Word switches languages dynamically, sentence by sentence, according to the
language marking in the document. So we need to check in Tools>Language to
ensure that all of the languages you want to use appear.

Now to the custom dictionary: There can be two problems here, one that the
dictionary doesn't exist at all, the other, that it is set to a language
other than the language you want to use.

First go to Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammar> and look in the Custom
Dictionary slot on that dialog. The name of the custom dictionary Word
thinks it is looking for should appear there. The custom dictionary usually
has a file name of "Custom Dictionary", but it doesn't have to have. It can
be anything you choose.

Click the Dictionaries button. All of the custom dictionaries on your
system will appear. If the name of the custom dictionary that appears in
the custom dictionary dialog is not evident when you click the custom
dictionaries button, then your custom dictionary has been deleted. Follow
the instructions in the Help Topic "Add a Custom Dictionary" to create one
and add it.

The ones that are active have a tick next to them. Select each one in turn
and look in the Language box.

If the Language of a custom dictionary is set to (none) that dictionary can
be active in all languages. If it is set to a specific language, that
dictionary can be activated ONLY when checking text marked for that
language. If you have only one custom dictionary, and the language is other
than (none), correct the language to (none) and that will probably fix your
error. You cannot activate a custom dictionary in a language other than the
one it is set to, unless it's set to (none).

You might have a custom dictionary for yourself, one for each project, and
one for each of specific clients. You can have a maximum of ten custom
dictionaries active at any one time.

If you work exclusively in a single language, then all of your custom
dictionaries would normally be set to (no language) so that all of them are
active no matter which of the 13 flavours of English you are working with.
If you work in multiple languages, you may decide to specify custom
dictionaries for each language: I don't recommend this, because it means you
have to have a complete set of dictionaries for each language and makes
things a bit unwieldy. Either leave your dictionary or dictionaries wide
open and maintain only one set, or restrict them and maintain a set for each
language.

The last thing that can go wrong with a custom dictionary is that someone
can edit it in something other than a text editor. If you edit the custom
dictionary in Word, you have to be careful to save it back as a Text Only
file, otherwise the spelling checker can't read it. That will also produce
the error. To fix it, click the Edit button. The dictionary will open in
Word, and you will get a warning to say that Spelling has been switched off
(because you have the custom dictionary open).

Now SAVE. Word should warn you twice that you are about to save in Text
Only format, and you may lose formatting. That's exactly what you want to
do, so say Yes twice If that was your problem, that will fix the
dictionary so Word can now read it. Go back to Preferences>Spelling and
Grammar and switch Check Spelling As You Type back on after doing this.

Finally, if it's not fixed now, you will have to do a Remove and Replace.
Re-installing Office has no effect at all unless you first run the Remove
Office tool. A re-install does not replace files that already exist, in
case they are valuable. When you install Office 2004, the Remove Office
program is installed by default to the hard drive. It is located in the
following folder:
Microsoft Office 2004:Additional Tools:Remove Office

Hope this helps

Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't do message boards very often, and I didn't
realize my post would come after yours. I should have said "the
suggestions above."

offer much if you don't explain *very clearly and in explicit detail*
what the problem is, and what version of Word and OS you
The operating system is OS X version 10.3.3. I'm using Word 2004 for
Mac, version 11.1. My problem is exactly like Pedro's. I "cannot
activate the custom dictionary and automatic spelling features in Word.
When I attempt this I receive an error saying the custom dictionary is
unavailable." I also get messages saying the English Dictionary is not
available. I reloaded Word, thinking I might have missed the
dictionaries the first time, but that didn't make any difference.

I'm a copywriter, and having to paste my work into my email program to
check the spelling before I send off a job is a bit awkward. But giving
a client a document with misspelled words would be even worse. So I
would really appreciate some advice, as opposed to an impatient slap on
the wrists. Thanks...

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

There's worse places she coulda slapped Daiya's an academic, you know

what they're like

OT: Today I am going to poll my students on whether they consider my public
(but anonymous) sharing of their writing errors unkind.

Word switches languages dynamically, sentence by sentence, according to the
language marking in the document.

Only WinWord, yes? I think they didn't bring that misfeature over to Mac?

So we need to check in Tools>Language to
ensure that all of the languages you want to use appear.

DM

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What suggestions listed below?

Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't do message boards very often, and I didn't
realize my post would come after yours. I should have said "the
suggestions above."

Just by the way....not everyone is using the web version to see these
newsgroups--I'm using a newsreader and the physical arrangement of posts is
very different the way I have it set up, and others may have theirs set up
differently yet again--so "above" and "below" is not particularly
reliable--but quoted reply text is.

So I
would really appreciate some advice, as opposed to an impatient slap on
the wrists. Thanks...

And your post quoted a post, but not the post you were referring to--and
quoted a post that had already been dinged for being vague with an equally
vague statement...and it's very difficult to give advice when one is
guessing what the problem is. That's part of why John had to write an
entire essay instead of simply telling you what to do (though he often does
that anyhow

Anyhow, I hope John has sorted your dictionary problems. If not, please
respond directly to his post with comments about exactly where it goes wrong
for you. E.g., "cannot activate the custom dictionary" might mean that you
cannot activate it in the Preferences dialog, or it might mean it refuses to
activate when you are running Spellcheck. You see how difficulty arises?

And just in case you aren't aware, OS X is now up to 10.3.8.

DM

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

The last thing that can go wrong with a custom dictionary is that someone
can edit it in something other than a text editor. If you edit the custom
dictionary in Word, you have to be careful to save it back as a Text Only
file, otherwise the spelling checker can't read it. That will also produce
the error. To fix it, click the Edit button. The dictionary will open in
Word, and you will get a warning to say that Spelling has been switched off
(because you have the custom dictionary open).

Now SAVE. Word should warn you twice that you are about to save in Text
Only format, and you may lose formatting. That's exactly what you want to
do, so say Yes twice If that was your problem, that will fix the
dictionary so Word can now read it. Go back to Preferences>Spelling and
Grammar and switch Check Spelling As You Type back on after doing this.

This is not my experience at all, John. I always edit my Custom Dictionaries
in Word this way:

Word/Preferences/Spelling & Grammar/Dictionaries (button)/select a
dictionary/Edit (button),

Now in 2004, there's a new alert that tells me that after editing, go back
to Preferences/Spelling & Grammar and enable "Check spelling as you type"
(no need to quit and relaunch Word any more). Click OK.

Edit at will. Save. Now I get an alert saying that saving in Speller
Dictionary format may lose formatting, blah blah. Click Yes.


Now I'm sure this is the same thing as what you're saying (it must really be
Text Only), only the Custom Dictionary file has its own colorful icon. But
editing it it this way, in Word, where you're supposed to - in Spelling &
Grammar preferences - means the alert refers to " Speller Dictionary
format", not "Text Only", which is reassuring, since that's exactly what I'm
trying to do. There's nothing complicated about it.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Word switches languages dynamically, sentence by sentence, according to the

Only WinWord, yes? I think they didn't bring that misfeature over to Mac?

Never mind, I misread. Yes, if you mark the language differently, it does
switch dynamically. (WinWord will do the marking automatically)DM

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Daiya:

OT: Today I am going to poll my students on whether they consider my public
(but anonymous) sharing of their writing errors unkind.

Oh? And here was I thinking you were the model for The Cranky Office Lady

Only WinWord, yes? I think they didn't bring that misfeature over to Mac?

We got half of it... Mac Word dynamically changes the spelling language
according to the language tags in the text.

WinWord does that, and also "guesses" the language on a sentence by sentence
basis. WinWord can change your language tag depending on its wild guesses.
Mac Word doesn't.

Spelling is deliciously powerful and flexible, but for many folks, quite
unusable ... Most folks do not have time to make a life work of studying
the complexities and ramifications of Word's Spelling

<Soapbox> A lot of the problems are caused by the inane lack of explanation
and detail in the Help. Microsoft has some very plausible excuses for why
the Help is going rapidly backwards.

But I am a Help Author, and *I* don't buy them. Any of them. *I* think
that the real problem with the latest iterations of Microsoft Help is that
Microsoft is attempting to use Policies and Rules as a replacement for
Planning and Skill and Intelligence. It's not going to work. The
information is needed. It's hard to find. It's often missing.

That's a BUG!! </Soapbox>

Cheers

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Well, since we're splitting hairs

Spelling Dictionary format would be "compiled binary".

Custom Dictionary format is ASCII (and NOT Unicode...)

So while the dialog box may use a different term: it's ANSI/ASCII that we're
talking about.

The .lex files (the main dictionaries) are compiled (largely, I suspect, to
prevent other manufacturers from stealing them...) but it also produces a
substantial performance benefit that enables Spelling as you Type without
bogging the machine down.

Cheers

This is not my experience at all, John. I always edit my Custom Dictionaries
in Word this way:

Word/Preferences/Spelling & Grammar/Dictionaries (button)/select a
dictionary/Edit (button),

Now in 2004, there's a new alert that tells me that after editing, go back
to Preferences/Spelling & Grammar and enable "Check spelling as you type"
(no need to quit and relaunch Word any more). Click OK.

Edit at will. Save. Now I get an alert saying that saving in Speller
Dictionary format may lose formatting, blah blah. Click Yes.


Now I'm sure this is the same thing as what you're saying (it must really be
Text Only), only the Custom Dictionary file has its own colorful icon. But
editing it it this way, in Word, where you're supposed to - in Spelling &
Grammar preferences - means the alert refers to " Speller Dictionary
format", not "Text Only", which is reassuring, since that's exactly what I'm
trying to do. There's nothing complicated about it.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Missy Zane]

I removed and reinstalled Office, and now the spell checker is working
perfectly. Thanks so much for your help.

Missy

 

[Pedro Maldonado]

Hello to all,

I apologize for not replying quicker; after posting I phoned MS help since I
had deleted Office and reinstalled using the Remove Office application. I
have not had success.

I have OS 10.3.8 on 2 machines: PowerMac MDD G4 and a Powerbook G4, both
with Office 2004. They both show the same problem.

If I choose to make the custom dictionary in Spanish only, then attempt to
spell check, I get the error: "The custom dictionary ""Custom Dictionary""
is not available". I'm then unable to add words to that dictionary that are
not spanish. I can however choose the text language before doing the check.

If I change the custom dictionary to "none" then I can add any word I want.

Strange thing is that MS help tells me that I cannot use a custom dictionary
in Spanish. According to him this is true in several other languages.

BTW, I have spanish listed in my system preferences, but I don't want to
change my keyboard layout to spanish ... Frankly I get lost doing that..
Even though I live in Puerto Rico, the keyboards available here are english
layout ones..

Anyway, is this true, that I can't use the custom dictionary in any other
language than English or none?

I guess I've found a way out of my problem as long as I keep my dictionary
in "none" but it would make it a very large one if I mix English and Spanish
custom words...

Pedro Maldonado

 

[Tony]

Pedro,

Welcome to the club.

I have been reporting this and other serious issues with the Spanish
custom dictionary since Office 2004 was released on May 2004.
Eventually Word 2004 even wipes out the content of all your custom
dictionaries. Shocking! For more information, just search this forum
for it.

No problem with other custom dictionaries like English, French or
German. Only with Spanish. And only with Word 2004 (not previous
versions)

I am shocked to learn that Office 2004 updater to 11.1.1 does not fix
this issue and in fact leaves Word at version 11.1 (not 11.1.1).

The option to select the custom dictionary language as "none" is not
good for us, since we must keep different custom dictionaries for each
language that we use. We cannot mix languages in the custom dictionary.
Thus, we need to create an English custom dictionary and also a
Spanish custom dictionary.

Why Microsoft does not listen to customers?

This is frustrating.

---

 

[Tony]

Any help on how to fix this issue most appreciated:

I'm using Office 2004 for Mac and cannot activate the custom dictionary
and
automatic spelling features in Word. When I attempt this I receive an
error
saying the custom dictionary is unavailable. -- Pedro Maldonado

Thanks.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Tony,

Eventually Word 2004 even wipes out the content of all your custom
dictionaries.

Can you also remind us what you are talking about here--how did Word erase
the content of the custom dictionaries?

The option to select the custom dictionary language as "none" is not
good for us, since we must keep different custom dictionaries for each
language that we use. We cannot mix languages in the custom dictionary.

If you explain why you need different custom dictionaries and why you cannot
mix languages, MS might pay more attention to this known bug. I suspect that
they consider there's a reasonable workaround, so it's not high priority.

DM

 

[Tony]

Daiya,

1 - We cannot mix custom dictionaries because there are words that are
correct in one language and not correct on other language. If you mix
dictionaries you would not correct such mistakes. A particular and very
same word is correct or not depending on the language considered. I am
surprised that people are using "none" as language for their custom
dictionary to mixing all their custom dictionaries. That is dangerous
because many typos will not be detected! For us this is a very
important issue indeed.

Additionally, our custom dictionaries are really big and having two or
more languages mixed would fill the file beyond an acceptable size for
Word to use it as custom dictionary file.

2 - With regards to losing all the contents of the custom dictionaries,
that happens when you play with them trying to fix this problem. For
instance, changing the languages of the custom dictionary causes that.
I have lost that way years of work! This is another amazing bug. Word
2004 cannot find the Spanish custom dictionary, crashes and when does
it, wipes out all the contents of the custom dictionary. This happens
even after a full uninstall and full install of Office 2004 SR1 +
11.1.1 updater. There are TWO SCENARIOS for this bug.

Amazingly these issues only arise when using the Spanish custom
dictionaries. No problem when using custom dictionaries for other
languages like English, French or German. This problem did not arise
with versions of Word previous to Word 2004.

SCENARIO 1. The bug shows even if you do not create your own custom
dictionary, but use the one supplied by default by Word 2004 ("Custom
Dictionary"). The issue arises when you select in "Tools/Language" part
of the text as English USA and part of the text as Spanish. When Word
is spell checking and you select "Add" for new words, eventually Word
2004 crashes. Usually when the word to add was set as Spanish. Even
more: the full contents of the custom dictionary have been wiped out
after the crash!

And the above happens if in "Word/Preferences/Spelling and
Grammar/Custom dictionary/Dictionaries" the supplied "Custom
Dictionary" is set as "none" in Language. Because if you set it a
Spanish, then it is worse: The same bugs and issues reported previously
show then also, and besides, you get the following warning if try to
spell check text in Spanish: Custom dictionary "Custom Dictionary " is
not available.

SCENARIO 2. The bug --more severe-- arises also if you create your own
custom dictionaries. I created one for English USA and other for
Spanish in the Finder (just duplicating the one supplied by Office 2004
and renaming them accordingly: "Custom Dictionary ENG" and "Custom
Dictionary SPA"). I then selected them at "Word/Preferences/Spelling
and Grammar/Custom dictionary/Dictionaries". I removed the supplied
"Custom Dictionary" and activated "Custom Dictionary ENG" as English
language and "Custom Dictionary SPA" as Spanish language. After that
the nightmare started. The same bugs and issues reported on SCENARIO 1
show also here, and besides, you get the following warning if try to
spell check text in Spanish: Custom dictionary "Custom Dictionary SPA"
is not available.

Should you need further information, please let me know.

Thanks,

---

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

1 - We cannot mix custom dictionaries because there are words that are

correct in one language and not correct on other language. If you mix
dictionaries you would not correct such mistakes.

Right, I semi-guessed that but am not solid enough in Spanish to be sure.

Additionally, our custom dictionaries are really big and having two or
more languages mixed would fill the file beyond an acceptable size for
Word to use it as custom dictionary file.

I think you can have multiple custom dictionaries, just by the way.

2 - With regards to losing all the contents of the custom dictionaries,
that happens when you play with them trying to fix this problem. For
instance, changing the languages of the custom dictionary causes that.

The MacBU should see your Bug Scenarios posted here, thanks for reposting
them.

DM

 

[Tony]

You can certainly have several custom dictionaries. And they all work
fine except the Spanish custom dictionary. No problem with other
languages like English, French or German.

This is really frustrating. Why Microsoft does not fix this issue? It
arose with Word 2004 (not in previous versions) and I have been
reporting it since May 2004.

---