Medical Dictionary for Pages

Here are the steps to get the medical spelling dictionary setup for Pages 7.1 (or later).

1. Download as a zip file. The linked site will have a green button that you click once to get the following panel. Choose the Download ZIP option.
   
2. In the 10.13.6 Dock, I have a Downloads alias set up as a fan. You single-click the .zip file, and it will open a Finder window on the resultant folder (hunspell-en-med-glut-workaround-master) in the Downloads folder. It has four UTF-8 text documents in it. The actual dictionary files end in .aff and .dic.
   
3. The en_US.dic file should contain the count of items (line count), directly followed by the individual dictionary items. In this case, the authors violated the document format by placing other informational text between the count (150728), and the first dictionary entry (0/nm). The informational text inside the red rectangle must be removed before the dictionary will function correctly:
   
4. Launch the Terminal application from Dock : Launchpad : Other
   1. The Terminal opens to your home directory. Copy/paste the following commands, and end each with a return:
      1. cd ~/Downloads/hunspell-en-med-glut-workaround-master
      2. sed '2,17d' ./en_US.dic > ~/Library/Spelling/en.US_Medical.dic
      3. cp ./en_US.aff ~/Library/Spelling/en.US_Medical.aff
   2. You have just removed the informational text from the .dic file and copied functional medical dictionary into your local Library/Spelling directory, along with its .aff file.
   3. Quit the Terminal application.
5. Now, onto System Preferences : Keyboard panel : Text tab
   1. Click the Spelling: Automatic by Language selector, and at the very bottom of the menu, click Set Up…
   2. In the English section, you should see an unchecked entry named English (United States, Medical) (Library). Click the check box. If you want, you can press the command-key as you click on this entry, and move it up just below U.S. English. Looks like this, and you can then click Done.
      
   3. On the Keyboard : Text tab, I have Correct spelling automatically checked.
   4. Quit System Preferences
6. Launch Pages 7.1 with a new blank document.
   1. Edit menu : Spelling and Grammar
      1. Sub-menu settings:
         
      2. Now, from this menu select Show Spelling and Grammar item, or just shift+command+: because command+: does not work! The following panel appears:
         
      3. Click on Automatic by Language, and select the item English (United States, Medical)(Library). You must select this for medical mispellings to be flagged as you type, as Automatic by Language does not invoke the medical spelling dictionary.
   2. Medical spelling dictionary configuration is complete.
7. In Pages 7.1, correct medical spelling will not be flagged with these settings, and misspellings will get the red underline treatment. To see the correct spelling, you place the insertion point immediately behind the misspelled text, and a floating selector of possible spellings will appear. Click the proper spelling entry to automatically correct the flagged word:
   
   or, by pressing shift+command+:, you will get the alternate replacement panel, where you select the correct spelling from the alternatives, and then click change:
   
   

Even when one integrates one of the free, open source medical spelling dictionaries with Pages, there is no automatic spelling correction. The best that you can hope for is the red squiggly line, placing your insertion point behind that word, and then pick the correct spelling from an array of similar words found in the medical dictionary. The following is a capture from Pages v7.1 on macOS 10.13.6:

The other option is to press shift+command+: (Pages 7.1) to bring up the Spelling and Grammar panel:

Notice how the entire name sequence is not marked as misspelled.

Clicking the first alternative spelling in the list, and then clicking Change would automatically make the replacement — but in this example, it would incorrectly duplicate the 1,2 entry after the colon. In either case, the results shown here for both examples will not occur unless the medical spelling dictionary is explicitly selected in advance for this panel. Simply leaving it set to its default of Automatic by Language does nothing after the red squiggly misspelling lines appear in the body text.

This is as good as it gets, and if you are hoping for automatic spelling correction, then you had better use a medical spelling dictionary purposely designed to integrate with MS Word for Mac (or Windows). These will may cost $100 or more per machine.

Let me know if you can live with the above, and I will add another post reply that shows how to implement the medical spelling dictionary into macOS, and make it available to Pages.

Yes, if one sets Edit menu : Spelling and Grammar menu items as:

Then correctly spelled items that are in the medical spelling dictionary are not flagged, and misspelled words are. Again, one must not use the Automatic by Language setting in the Show Spelling and Grammar panel, but use the medical dictionary entry for the preceding behavior. This is what you want.

In contrast, If Automatic by Language is used in the preceding Show Spelling and Grammar panel, then each medical term is flagged as a spelling error, and positioning the insertion point behind each mispelling will float the correct spelling beneath it for selection and replacement.

You are running a beta of macOS 10.14, and that may/may not cause some issues with the configurations that I have shown previously for macOS 10.13.6.

In System Preferences : Keyboard panel : Text tab : Spelling: Click on that selector, and then choose Set Up… at the bottom. What does the Set Up screen show for the medical dictionary entry, and is it checked? In my screen shot, I moved the entry from a lower position in the English category.

Do not mess with the System Preferences : Keyboard panel : Text tab : Spelling: Automatic by Language.

Are you using Pages '09, or Pages v7/7.1? The setup instructions are different based on what you are using.

I am uncertain why the entry does not appear as I have shown it in the Spelling list of dictionaries. This dictionary is an amalgam of a couple medical dictionaries that date back to 2007, and there are no guarantees that spelling, or terms are accurate. Attempting to combine this dictionary with any other would be problematic as it must be in the same format, sorted, and the first line must reflect the total records (lines) in the file. I would not recommend any merging attempt.

As I originally mentioned, the commercial medical spelling dictionaries for Word, whether for Windows, or Mac, are likely more current, and better maintained (as your primase example shows). These will cost some money, and there would be no Pages integration.

Ok. Due to the late hour, I will get you the setup information first thing in the morning.

I feel your pain.

I think one of the easiest way to do it is by following the video

How to add medical terms | medical dictionary to your Mac - YouTube

I hope it is helpful 🙂

Regards