How to Transfer a Word 2003 Dictionary to Another Computer

When you conduct a spell check, Word searches the standard dictionary as well as your custom dictionary before alerting you of a possible misspelling. The custom dictionary can contain user-specific words that you choose to add to the dictionary while conducting a spell check. You can also manually add (or delete) words to the custom dictionary. Following are steps to take to move a copy of your custom dictionary from one computer to another.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Microsoft Word 2003

1. The custom dictionary (you may have multiple custom dictionaries) is located under Documents and Settings off your hard drive at: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof. In this destination string, “USERNAME” is the name of your computer or the name you use to login to Windows, so replace “username” with your username when searching for the directory and the Proof file folder.
2. You can use Windows Explorer to drill down to the Proof folder in which custom dictionaries reside, or you may prefer to use the Search option from the Start button to search for the Proof folder.
3. DIctionary Location When you locate the Proof folder, you will find at least one text file. There could be more text files if you created a custom dictionary in addition to the default dictionary that is setup with the Word installation. The default name for the Custom dictionary is “Custom.”
4. Now that you have found the Custom dictionary, you can copy it to a floppy disk or zip drive. You could even email it. Right click the file and send it to the device you are using for transfer.
5. On your transfer device, rename the file (“Custom2”, for example). That way, you won’t override the custom dictionary on the second computer. You can have multiple custom dictionaries in Word. Word will search through all of them in addition to the standard Word dictionary when a spell check is conducted.
6. To make that dictionary available from Word, open Word.
7. Tools-Options Menu Click on Tools in the top menu bar, and then click on Options.
8. Options Dialogue Box On the Options dialogue box, click on the Spelling & Grammar tab, and then click on the Custom Dictionaries button.
9. Custom Dictionaries Box On the Custom Dictionaries dialogue box, click on the Add button, locate the floppy/zip drive for your renamed Custom dictionary file, click on the dictionary file you want to transfer, and then click on OK. If the box next to your transferred dictionary doesn’t have a check in it, then click the box. Now, when you conduct a spell check, your transferred dictionary will also be searched.