cannot add words to the word for mac custom dictionary

I too often see the "Add" button greyed out. Try (temporarily) changing the language being used. In my old version of Word that setting is in the "Custom Dictionaries" panel accessed from "Dictionaries..." in the "Spelling and Grammar" prefs. I then find that the "Add" button is activated, and after making the addition I can revert to my language of choice.

Probably irrelevant to you but my language is set to "English (UK)" and the temporary change I make is to "English (US)".

Rather strangely, I find that after making that 'temporary' change and reverting to "English (UK)" the "Add" button remains available for the rest of that session - and often remains so after quitting from and re-launching Word several times. That's something I haven't bothered to investigate, just being happy that I discovered an easy, if not totally permanent, fix.

That would appear to be a Word issue. It's their dictionary. Same occurs with Word 2008.

I think that is almost alwats caused by a file, like a .plist, not being readable at Startup/Login, yet can be changed where it holds those settings in Memory by using Preference settings.

If you want to fix it, change the setting, then use EasyFind, search for .plist, sort by Date Modified... see if something shows up for the time you tried it.

Excellent idea, BDA - I tried it immediately. No .plist modified at the time shows up in EasyFind (in particular com.microsoft.Word.plist hadn't been 'touched'), so I scanned with BaseLine. Word hadn't been running; all I had done was launch it, go straight to Prefs to make the change, and quit. BaseLine found SIX files (yup, 6) that were modified at that exact time, all in ~/Lib/Prefs/Microsoft/:


Word settings
Microsoft Component Preferences
Microsoft Office Settings
<a secondary/inactive custom dictionary>
Proofing Tool Preferences
Office Font Cache


Please don't be offended - your idea was first class, but I am chickening out of delving into any of those files. +No way, José!+

So thanks (sincerely) - but I'm sure you will understand my cowardice. 🙂

I feared it'd be something special MS wise, always has been! 😟

Still you could just move them to the Desktop with no MS running, then reboot, I'd bet Wooden Nickles to 3 cent pieces, that they regenerate...

Can always move the originals back if need be!

Here, let me experiment... I like taking things apart! 😉

Well, I don't have those files, but deleted my MS folder in Prefs... and the Office 2004 Test Drive is still expired from never using! 🙂

The permanent fix is to launch Word. From the menu: Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammar. Select the Dictionaries button. Check the Custom Dictionaries box. Click OK. Click OK. Now you will be able to use 'Add'.

sig

Don't be so sure! If that were all that were required I doubt if 'thouse1' would have needed to post his question. For some of us in spite of doing what you suggest "Add" remains greyed out; hence the 'temporary fix' that I suggested.

BDAqua

I have used Word fairly extensively, including the text for two ~500 page books a few years back, which I then laid out in PageMaker (that dates me!) for sending to the publisher/printer. I have more than a score of VB macros set up, some simple, some complex, some self-contained, some linked to QuicKeys macros. My 'Word Settings' file is 752KB.

Word works superbly for me, and is blisteringly fast. It is in use every day as I deal with clients, using a variety of rather specialised templates, again some simple, some quite complex. I will not take the minutest risk of putting any of that in jeopardy. The occasions when I want to add a technical/medical term to a custom dictionary are infrequent; if the "Add" button is greyed out it takes me 2 seconds to "fix" it. As far as I am concerned it ain't bust and... there are times when I opt for cowardice and sloth! I fondly (pig-headedly? euphemistically?) call it risk assessment. 🙂

So, "thouse1" is any of all this proving to be of any help to you?

Thanks, BDA, for your input.

I've had problems with this for a while in Word 2008 so I thought I would post my solution (not normally one for doing that, but this turned out to be a really annoying problem).

The word template language (saved in a word NORMAL document) is preferentially set for English US.
If you choose language under tools and set the default language as English UK then any new dictionaries created (Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammer>Dictionaries) that are further refined to be English UK dictionaries, will be modifiable.

I.e. Microsoft word will not allow anyone running an English US word document to modify an English UK dictionary.
I hope this helps.

Jon

PS Thanks to all the above posts, as they helped greatly in fixing this problem for me. The key was just figuring out what permissions Microsoft was allowing/disallowing and why.

Hi, and a warm welcome to the forums Jon! 🙂

Great first post & tip... keep up the good work.

Microsoft word will not allow anyone running an English US word document to modify an English UK dictionary.

For a first post, Jon, that's excellent. Thank you.

Hey,
Thanks for the warm words!
I was just throwing my two 'pence' in there, hoping to make someone else's life less frustrating 😀.

Jon

Whenever I open MS Word 2008, it says the "Custom Dictionary" is not available. What is it? How do I fix this?

Chris
chrisdl25@xsinet.co.za

i have the same problem but i found if you navigate to the custom dictionary file ie. users/%username%/library/preferences/microsoft/office 2008 and edit the file in textedit you can manually add the words you want to.

I still would like to fix the greyed out add option though.

And the post before me i reckon the custom dictionary has been deleted. Try creating a plain text document in the location i mentioned with "#LID 1234" at the beginning of the first line. call it Custom Dictionary. Hope this helps.