Tip 146: Exclude Dictionary

Today's tip is a general Office tip. Many people are unaware that the Office spell-check offers an "exclude dictionary" you can use when the dictionary contains words that you want to be flagged as misspelled. You may have a habit of mistyping a word, only to discover spell check missed it because it is a correctly spelled word. The exclude dictionary works with Outlook when Word is your e-mail editor, but unfortunately, not all Office applications support it.

In Word Help, look for the topic titled "Specify a preferred spelling for a word".

In Office 2002/2003, the short version is create a plain text file containing your words, one per line, in C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof
Save it using the same name as the main language dictionary, using the .exc extension. For example, the US English dictionary is called Mssp3en.lex, so you'll name the exclude dictionary Mssp3en.exc.

See Word's Help if you need the complete instructions.

Users of Office 97 and 2000 can visit //word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/ExcludeWordFromDic.htm for instructions.