How do I delete a custom dictionary?

Question

I've been trying to delete a couple of custom dictionaries that I no longer need, but they won't STAY deleted. I tried just in a blank document to go through Word Options - Proofing - Custom Dictionaries - Remove (after selecting dictionary). I also tried the same from the Normal template. I also tried going directly to the directory (uproof) and deleting them from there. They always come back.

I need to create another new Custom Dictionary, but can't because of this. Yes, I've deleted the entries in one of the old ones (without deleting the line with #LID at the top) and used that, but Word doesn't seem to acknowledge any of the new words I added to this dictionary at all.

Any ideas??

Answer 1

My approach to the requirement for exempting specific words in a given document is to create a "No Proofing" character style defined as Default Paragraph Font + Do not check spelling or grammar. Apply that to any words you don't want marked as errors.

I found this very helpful when I was working on a client's novel that used a lot of street slang and colloquialisms.

Answer 2

Hmm...thought I wrote this is the opening post, but it's not there so I probably accidentally cut it when editing....

Apparently, you CAN'T have as many custom dictionaries as you want, I'm sorry to say. When I went to create a new dictionary, I got an error message saying that I had already reached the limit of 10 custom dictionaries and couldn't create any more. Not even 10 per language.

Answer 3

You can have as many custom dictionaries as you want, and you can have any selection of them loaded or not for any given document. But you can set only one of them as the default, and when you add words to the dictionary, they will be added to the one selected as the default.

In Word 2007, you access the custom dictionaries via Office Button | Word Options | Proofing | Custom Dictionaries. The list shows all the available dictionaries. Those that are checked are the ones in use. The one marked as "(Default)" (usually CUSTOM.DIC) is the one to which words will be added. In this dialog you can edit the word list in any of these dictionaries, create a new dictionary or add an existing one, or remove a dictionary that is listed.

Answer 4

Hmm, no, I hadn't tried that...but won't that delete the words that are in that dictionary?

Would deleting that dictionary let the other dictionaries in the other directory to be deleted? It's not the words, but the actual dictionaries that I need to get rid of. Maybe I'm not understanding correctly what you mean?

Answer 5

Have you tried deleting the CUSTOM.DIC file from

C:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Proof