# Saving/Upgrading MS Word Spell-Checker Word List

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-upgrading-ms-word-spell-checker-word-list/254430>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 10, 2004, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-upgrading-ms-word-spell-checker-word-list/254430 "2004-07-10T13:43:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-upgrading-ms-word-spell-checker-word-list/254430/1 "2004-07-10T13:43:15Z")

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Over the last year, I’ve added hundreds of technical terms to my spellchecker.

If I ever have to do a fresh OS install, I 'd like to keep these modifications and not start again from square one.

Two questions:

1. Can I save a backup copy of this list? How?

2. Can I dump, say, a list of 1,000 technical terms into the master list–and get Spellchecker to recognize them?

thanks.

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**Author:** ![JimMacMillan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7bcc69/32.png) [@JimMacMillan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimMacMillan)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-upgrading-ms-word-spell-checker-word-list/254430/2 "2004-07-10T15:07:37Z")

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Carnac,

The file you are looking for is named “CUSTOM.DIC”. It is a text based file; each word must be on its own line.

In Windows XP the file can be found in  
“C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\Application\Microsoft\Proof”.

Change the drive letter and USER NAME to match your particular instance. Unfortunately I don’t know what the limits of the file size are.

Jim

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-upgrading-ms-word-spell-checker-word-list/254430/3 "2004-07-10T15:29:57Z")

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Size is essentially unlimited, maybe a few hundred thousand words.

As well, you can define multiple dictionaries. I do this because I write in several very different domains, where common jargon or acronyms in one domain would be spelling errors in another. All this is controlled by:

Start Word  
Select Tools | Options from the menu.  
Click the “Spelling and Grammar” tab.  
Click the “Dictionaries …” button.

From there you can add new dictionaries, edit them, or remove them. This is where you’d give your new Word installation a copy of your old dictionary.

You can also have multiple dictionaries to deal with multiple languages. Good English spelling is lousy French spelling and vice versa.