Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Editing the Custom Spelling Dictionaries.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 7, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
As you use the spell-checking capabilities of Excel, you undoubtedly have added words to your custom dictionary. Normally you do this when you run across a word that the main dictionary does not understand, but which you know is correct. When you click on the Add button in the spell-check dialog box, the word is added to your custom dictionary.
When you add a word to your custom dictionary, it is added to the same custom dictionary that is used by other Office applications, such as Word. This dictionary is nothing but a plain text file that contains the list of added words, one per line. The default name for the custom dictionary is Custom.dic, and you can search for it using the Find feature in Windows.
When you locate the custom dictionary, you can load it into Notepad and make any changes you want. The only thing to be careful about is that you put only one word per line, and that you don't save the file in any format except plain text. This is why it is preferred that you use Notepad to edit the file, rather than a program like Word or Excel.
If you are not comfortable using a text editor to make changes to the dictionary, you can use Word to make the changes. (You can't do it in Excel; it doesn't provide the ability to edit the custom dictionary, even though it uses the same one as Word.) Follow these steps from within Word:
Figure 1. The Spelling & Grammar tab of the Options dialog box, in Word.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3034) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Editing the Custom Spelling Dictionaries.
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2023-06-03 04:25:21
abby
What
About
LESTERDAY
2019-02-28 09:35:55
EDGAR CHAVEZ
NEED HELP!
I use English and Spanish with Microsoft Office 2003. The autocorrect works great in Word 2003.
If I set the spelling language to Spanish , the autocorrect language is set to Spanish, and the same goes for English.
PROBLEM: Excel: if I set the spelling language to Spanish, the Autocorrect dictionary stays ENGLISH !!
QUESTION: HOW DO I POINT EXCEL TO THE SPANISH AUTOCORRECT???
The ACL dictionaries are stored in Users/User(me)/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Office
files I use: MSO1033.acl AND MSO3082.acl
If only I knew a way to tell Excel to use MSO3082.acl NOT MSO1033.acl !!!
I urgently need this information for my job/business.
ALTERNATELY: Show me a macro that can force excel 2003 to make mso3082 the dictionary for both spelling and autocorrect.
Thank you. Let me know if you need any more information.
2016-10-26 13:03:40
George F
Thanks for the info on custom.dic ... My problem is I cannot get my old Windows Word 2000 to look back at the original English dictionary. It only looks a my mini custom What should I look for to add it to the file location under the options. I am running the antique office 2000 on windows 10 .
2015-09-27 02:07:59
Mohammad Ahmad
Thank you for the guidance. I needed it most, but was unaware of it.
Thanks,
Mohammad Ahmad
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