Excluding words from Dictionary

[Guest]

I want to exclude some words from the MS Word dictionary. I found this topic
in the MS Word Help "Specify a preferred spelling for a word" and followed it
but it did not work.

Can someone tell me what I need to do?

System details: MS Word 2002, UK region

 

[Jay Freedman]

I want to exclude some words from the MS Word dictionary. I found this topic
in the MS Word Help "Specify a preferred spelling for a word" and followed it
but it did not work.

Can someone tell me what I need to do?

System details: MS Word 2002, UK region

Try http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/ExcludeWordFromDic.htm.

 

[Guest]

Jay, hi there,
Thank you for the link.
I followed that (couldn't see any major difference from the MS Word Help,
though).

I have two folders containing the Word dictionary (MS Word came as part of
MS Works Suite 2003):
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Works

So just in case:
a) I put the .EXC file in both folders,
b) I restarted my PC.

Still no luck. MS Word still accepts the word "thx" .
I must be doing something wrong but I cannot see what.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think you misread the article. The path you cite is the one for the .lex
file; the only reason you are looking for that is to determine its name.
Your .exc file must be in the same location as your Custom.dic and must have
the same prefix as the .lex file. For example, my exclusion dictionary
(which works) is Mssp3en.exc and is in C:\Documents and Settings\Suzanne S.
Barnhill\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Besides Suzanne's advice, I think you're going after the wrong mechanism.
The word "thx" is not included in the main dictionary in any version of
Word, so there shouldn't be anything to exclude. That misspelling is
probably in your custom dictionary, where it might have been placed by
mistakenly clicking Add instead of Ignore during a spelling check.

Go to Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar. Click the Custom Dicitionaries
button. In the next dialog, you'll probably see only one custom dictionary
in the list, Custom.dic. Click the Modify button. If you see "thx" in the
list, select it and click the Delete button. Click OK, OK, Check Document,
OK. The spell checker should now flag "thx" as a misspelling.

 

[Guest]

Suzanne,

You were right. I had mis-read the article and had put the .EXC file in the
same place as the main dictionary.

I have now put it alongside the custom dictionaries and the words in it are
excluded.

@Jay
Yes, I was surprised that "thx" was allowed. I have double-checked the
custom dictionaries and they do not contain the word "thx". So that is a
mystery. Anyway I added "thx" to the .EXC file and it is now reported as a
spelling error.

Just what I wanted to do.
Thank you both.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, thx is allowed here, too.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[gingerpeach123]

I have been trying to build an exclude dictionary with the help instructions
in Word 2003 and the file
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/ExcludeWordFromDic.htm, but so far I
cannot get it to work. I have placed my file of words to exclude, called
MSSP3EN.exc, into the folder C:\Documents and Settings\(myname)\Application
Data\Microsoft\Proof. (The file custom.dic is clearly there as well.) When I
close Word, reopen it, and type a document with the excluded words, none of
them are picked up. If I type a few nonsense words, they are picked up as
always.

I'm guessing there's something simple that I'm doing wrong but I absolutely
cannot figure out what! Any thoughts as to what I should check?

Thanks!
================

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I assume you have quit and restarted Word since creating the exclusion
dictionary?