Word - custom dictionary lower case words considered misspelled when caps

Asked By Raul Queiroga

13-Dec-09 06:59 PM

Hi all,
in Word 2003 as well as Word 2007 (SP2), which are installed in diferent
machines, when I add word, not present in the main dictionary, to the custom
dictionary, I assumed (and read in several web articles actually), one only
needs to add it lower case and Word would consider it correct even if written
capitalized. But in neither machines this happens, only if I add the
capitalized form (editing the file for Word 2003 ou through the Word options
UI in Word 2007) I get it to work "correctly"...is this by design or am I
having some problem in both machines...?

Thanks,

13-Dec-09 07:30 PM

It is by design. You have to add every form you expect to use, I think
(including plurals and possessives).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

14-Dec-09 09:59 AM

Thanks for the quick reply, in the article "Mastering the Spelling Checker"
it is stated the contrary:
lowercase, Word will recognize it when capitalized, but if you capitalize it
in the custom dictionary, it will not be recognized when lowercased...."

Which is what I am tryng to do, just add a word all in lowercase and expect
Word will recognize it when capitalized, or am I understanding it incorrectly?

14-Dec-09 12:16 PM

Well, shoot, that is my article, so I would hope it is correct. I have just
tested again and find that it still seems to be true (even in Word 2007).
What can be misleading, however, is that if you type a word twice in
succession, once lowercase and then capped, Word will mark the capitalized
word as incorrect just because it is repeated. Could that be what is going on
here?

I also found some other interesting anomalies. I have a chunk of lorem ipsum
text saved as an AutoText entry with the name "lorem." When I type "lore"
(in Word 2003), I get an AutoComplete tip. If I ignore it and continue
typing "lorem," I get that, and it is AutoFormatted (if at the beginning of a
paragraph) to "Lorem." But if I add "lorem" to the spelling dictionary, I
still get the AutoComplete tip, but if I continue typing, I get "lorem," and
it is not automatically capitalized. This is especially confusing because
ordinarily (IIRC) Word will not perform AutoFormats on words marked as
misspelled, but this seems to operate backwards! Now I am really confused!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

15-Dec-09 06:52 PM

Nop that is not the case, here is the test I did:
1-wrote "teste Ixcola teste ixcola" (it is in portuguese) and the words
2-added the word "ixcola" to the custom dictionary
3-the word "Ixcola" staid marked as misspelled and "ixcola" did not.

The test resulted the same results im both machines (win7 + englished office
2007 sp2  and win xp + portuguese office 2003)

I can send you screen shots or try on another pc if you would  think it would
help...

15-Dec-09 09:37 PM

Perhaps not a fair test. Did you try typing "Ixcola" from scratch after
adding the word? Often markings remain on "misspelled" words after they are
added to the dictionary. Word sometimes seems to need a kick in the pants to
remove the markings. it is also possible that what is true of the English
custom dictionary is not true of the Portuguese one.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

16-Dec-09 01:04 PM

Yes, I tried try typing "Ixcola" from scratch after adding the word, that was
one of my first tests as you might expect...Regarding the language, as I
stated before, it happens the same way in 2 different Office instalations:
-Win7 + English Office 2007 (sp2)
-Win XP + Portuguese Office 2003

16-Dec-09 02:12 PM

All I can say is that it works as advertised in both Word 2003 and Word 2007
under Windows XP here.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

23-Dec-09 08:56 AM

Can you tell me then your build version of your Word 2003 to see if it is
diferent from mine.

Thanks

23-Dec-09 10:16 AM

11.8313.8221

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org