How to add a custom dictionary in Word, Excel, and Outlook

You can add a custom dictionary to Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, or other Office apps without any add-in.

Now let’s assume that your business uses some terms that always get marked by Office apps. If so, you can add those words to your dictionary. That way, those apps won’t find those words wrong. However, if you have, let’s say, fifty or a hundred words that you want to include in the dictionary, it is better to create a custom dictionary. This tutorial has the exact steps you will have to follow if you want to create and include a custom dictionary in any Microsoft Office app.

In some applications, you may need to take a screenshot of the current screen. This can be useful if you want to show someone what is on your screen, or if you want to keep a record of something for future reference. A screenshot is a digital image of what is currently being displayed on a screen.

Add a Custom Dictionary in Word, Excel, Outlook

To add a custom dictionary in Word, Excel, and Outlook, follow these steps-

Open Notepad on your computer.
Write one word per line.
Save the file with a. dic
Open Outlook on your PC.
Click on File > Options.
Go to the Mail
Click Spelling and Autocorrect > Custom Dictionaries.
Select the language and click the Add
Choose the .dic file.
Click the OK

If you want to learn more, keep reading.

First, you will have to create a custom dictionary. To do so, open Notepad or any other text editor on your computer. Then, write down all the words one per line. Click on File > Save As and choose a location where you want to save it. Give it a name with a .dic extension (e.g., my custom dictionary.dic), choose All Files from the Save as type drop-down list, and click the Save button.

After that, open Outlook on your PC, go to File > Options and switch to the Mail
If you want to import the dictionary in Word or Excel, you will have to visit the Proofing
In the Mail tab, click on Spelling and Autocorrect button visible in the Compose messages
In the next window, click on the “Custom Dictionaries” button as visible in the “When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs” section.

After clicking the “Add” button, all languages (e.g., English-India, English- United States, etc.) will be displayed. It is better to choose “CUSTOM.DIC” in the “All Languages” label.

Now choose the .dic file you created earlier, then click OK to save the changes.

While creating a custom dictionary, you may encounter an error message that says something to this effect.

Files that are not encoded in Unicode cannot be added to the dictionary list. To add a file to the dictionary list, save it as a Unicode file.

If you see this error, do the following.

First, follow the directions here to create a custom dictionary. Then, make sure to show all hidden files and folders on your computer. After that, go to the following path:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof

Save the CUSTOM.DIC file in a safe location. Then, paste your custom dictionary file into the UProof folder and rename it to CUSTOM.DIC.

Now, try the same steps mentioned above to import a custom dictionary.