Spell Checkers in word processors are a great invention. Of course, they can’t catch everything and sometimes they don’t have all the words used, but they are nice to have nonetheless. I do not know about other word processors, but in OpenOffice, you can edit the dictionary and even create special dictionaries for your spell checking.
Adding a Word to the OpenOffice Standard Dictionary
It is extremely easy to add a word to the OpenOffice standard dictionary. There are two ways to do this. That is either by right clicking on the word that is underlined in red, then selecting “Add” from the pop up menu and scrolling over to the right and selecting, “standard.dic.” You now will have added the word to OpenOffice’s standard dictionary.
The second way is when spell check is run. Start running the spell checker by selecting “Spelling and Grammar” from the “Tools” menu in the tool bar, clicking the button that has ABC in black and a blue check underneath on the graphic tool bar, or by pressing F7. When a the spell checker selects a word that says is misspelled, but you know that is how you want it spelled and will be using it again, go to the right and click the third button down that says “Add.” Select “standard.dic.” and you will have added the word to OpenOffice’s standard dictionary.
Deleting a Word from the OpenOffice Standard Dictionary
Deleting a word from the OpenOffice standard dictionary is more complicated than adding a word, but it still not difficult.
Go the menu option that says, “Tools.” Once there is a pop up menu, scroll all the way down to the last line where it says “Options.” Select “Options” and wait for a dialogue box to appear.
There are eight main categories in that dialogue box. You want to open the third one down that says “Language Settings.” Click on the arrow next to the words “Language Settings” if it is not already pointing down and there are no subcategories under that category.
Select the subcategory “Writing Aids,” and to the right you should see three different dialogue boxes. The middle dialogue box that has “User-defined dictionaries” written above it is the one on which to focus.
In this middle dialogue box, highlight “standard
Once the box has a check and “standard
You will see another dialogue box. Keep the drop down menus just as they are. There will be a text field where you can enter a word, but if you can see your word in the next text field, you do not have to type the word.
Find the word that you accidentally added to the standard dictionary and highlight it. Then press the button to the right that says “Delete.” Now the world will be removed from the standard dictionary.
If you cannot see the word in the bottom text box, type the whole word as it got added and then his “Delete.” The word that you did not want in the standard dictionary will now be removed from OpenOffice.
Sources:
Personal Experience
“Tutorials for OpenOffice: Spellcheck and Thesaurus”. Tutorials for OpenOffice. June 22, 2010 .
