Word 2004 SP1 Custom Dictionary not available

[Tony]

Hi,

Cannot make the Spanish custom dictionaries to work on Word 2004 SP1
with Mac OS X 10.3.5. When I try to use it I get:

"Dictionary not available".

I have created both English (US) and Spanish custom dictionaries.

Can anyone test this on his/her system?

Any idea?

Thanks.

 

[Tony]

This is driving me nuts!

YOUR HELP MOST APPRECIATED. THANKS !

I have completely uninstalled Office 2004 SR1 and re-installed it.

The problem persists both on Word 2004 and after updating to Word 2004
SR1 on Mac OS X 10.3.5.

Could someone please do this testing? This is important to determine if
this is a consistent Word bug or is it just my system:

1 - Open Word 2004 or Word 2004 SR1.

2 - Go to "Word/Preferences/Spelling & Grammar/Dictionaries".

3 - Click New and save the new dictionary as "Custom Dictionary (US)-Test".

4 - Set its Language to "English (US)".

5 - Make sure that it is selected (tick inside a blue box on left) and
its language shows as "English (US)" when you click on its name.

6 - Click New again and save the new dictionary as "Custom Dictionary
(SP)-Test".

7 - Set its Language to "Spanish".

8 - Make sure that it is selected (tick inside a blue box on left) and
its language shows as "Spanish" when you click on its name.

9 - Click "OK" on the "Custom dictionaries" windows to close it.

10 - Click "OK" on the "Preferences" windows to close it.

11 - Do you receive now the following error message?

"The custom dictionary "Custom Dictionary (SP)-Test" is not available"

12 - In any case, type some text or select previous text on the open
Word document and set it as "Tools/Language/Spanish".

13 - Select "Tools/Spelling & Grammar".

14 - Do you receive now the error message indicated above?

15 - When the spelling reaches the text set as Spanish, does the "Add"
button remain black or is it dimmed and grayed?

I get all errors described above. As far as I know this is a bug of
Word 2004 and Word 2004 SR1.

No problem with other languages like English, French or German. Only
with Spanish.

No problem with previous Word versions for any language including Spanish.

Thanks.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Tony,
Now that I finally have Word 2004, I wanted to do your testing, but didn't
know how, so it was gonna take me a while to get around to it. Thanks for
the exact instructions.

See in-line. Using Word 2004 (11.1, with SP 1 applied), running OS X.3.5

Could someone please do this testing? This is important to determine if
this is a consistent Word bug or is it just my system:

1 - Open Word 2004 or Word 2004 SR1.

2 - Go to "Word/Preferences/Spelling & Grammar/Dictionaries".

3 - Click New and save the new dictionary as "Custom Dictionary (US)-Test".

4 - Set its Language to "English (US)".

5 - Make sure that it is selected (tick inside a blue box on left) and
its language shows as "English (US)" when you click on its name.

Yep, I had done that wrong first time around, good save.

6 - Click New again and save the new dictionary as "Custom Dictionary
(SP)-Test".

7 - Set its Language to "Spanish".

8 - Make sure that it is selected (tick inside a blue box on left) and
its language shows as "Spanish" when you click on its name.

9 - Click "OK" on the "Custom dictionaries" windows to close it.

10 - Click "OK" on the "Preferences" windows to close it.

11 - Do you receive now the following error message?

"The custom dictionary "Custom Dictionary (SP)-Test" is not available" No error message here.

12 - In any case, type some text or select previous text on the open
Word document and set it as "Tools/Language/Spanish".

Aha! Now I've got the error message--"The custom dictionary "Custom
Dictionary (SP)-Test" is not available"

13 - Select "Tools/Spelling & Grammar".

14 - Do you receive now the error message indicated above?

Got the same error message again.

15 - When the spelling reaches the text set as Spanish, does the "Add"
button remain black or is it dimmed and grayed?

My Add button remains black. I added a couple of words. I quit Word and
restarted. I went back to Preferences to edit the Custom Dictionary and the
words had not been added to any Custom Dictionary, neither SP Test, US Test
or my regular custom dictionary.

So I'm getting slightly different errors, but it is certainly not working.

 

[Tony]

Hi Daiya,

Thank you very much for your testing. You made my day!

Finally, after months of trouble someone can reproduce this issue. This
demonstrates that Word 2004 and Word 2004 SR1 have a real problem with
the Spanish Custom Dictionary.

Actually, I have been shocked that after reporting this problem on
these problems and to Microsoft web site feedback many times since May
2004, the problem persists on Word 2004 SR1.

It really makes me wonder if all this trouble and work sending feedback
was worth it!

With regards to the "Add" button that you say remain black (ie.,
active) instead of dimmed and grayed (ie., inactive), please make sure
that the custom dictionary name showing on the spelling window
corresponds to the custom Spanish and not the custom English. Such
button goes dimmed when checking text set as Spanish and remains black
when checking text set as English.

I hope someone from Microsoft reads these forums and fixes this issue asap.

Besides, when making all these tests Word wipes out the contents of the
custom dictionaries (both English and Spanish). And also if you change
their language setting between English, Spanish and "none". I lost this
way my long custom dictionaries built during years or work. Fortunately
I had a backup, yet it was some years older.

Thanks again.
Regards,

---

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Tony,

With regards to the "Add" button that you say remain black (ie.,
active) instead of dimmed and grayed (ie., inactive), please make sure
that the custom dictionary name showing on the spelling window
corresponds to the custom Spanish and not the custom English. Such
button goes dimmed when checking text set as Spanish and remains black
when checking text set as English.

Okay, I was definitely checking text tagged as Spanish, but it was black for
me because my regular custom dictionary has no language set, and the words
got added to that. When I changed my custom dictionary to US, and checked
the Spanish text again, the Add button remained grayed out.

By the way, since there is a workaround of setting the custom dictionary to
no language, and it seems most people do that and never notice this problem,
I doubt this will be a high priority for MS to fix. But I'll help you
complain anyhow.

Besides, when making all these tests Word wipes out the contents of the
custom dictionaries (both English and Spanish). And also if you change
their language setting between English, Spanish and "none". I lost this
way my long custom dictionaries built during years or work.

Don't know how that happened. Neither adding to it nor changing it's
language seem to have damaged my regular custom dictionary.

Daiya