SOLVED: Add To Dictionary Greyed Out in Word 2013

Actually ‘Add To Dictionary’ is greyed in all Office products including Word and Outlook… but I digress.  The solution is to change the CUSTOM DICTIONARY to something else, typically to CUSTOM.DIC

FILE > OPTIONS > PROOFING > CUSTOM DICTIONARIES button >
set CUSTOM.DIC to be default

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  • Found a simple fix. In 'Word Options' > 'Proofing' under 'languages' I changed from English UK - which I'd set myself at some point - to All Languages. Apparently this is the default and everything works better with this setting. No more greyed out 'Add to dictionary'.
    I know this is an old post but the problems never age so I hope it helps someone.

  • Unfortunately, these fixes didn't work for me. But I just noticed something odd: The "Add to Dictionary" button is grayed out but when I then click the "Autocorrect" button and a messages comes up and says that the word was not found in the dictionary and asks if I want to use the word and continue anyway and I click "no," then the Add to Dictionary options becomes active.

    This all started last week. None of the fixes I've found fixes it.

  • I found that it was enough to copy the custom.dic file, delete the original, then replace it with the custom.dic file. This resets permissions on the file, which I believe were causing the problem. You can find the custom.dic file at:
    %appdata%\Microsoft\UProof

  • I'm not being given the option to change default - this too remains greyed out - can you advise?

    • I would try running a REPAIR on your Office installation. Go to PROGRAMS AND FEATURES (which is now named APPS & FEATURES in Windows 10 1703), find your MS Office install and select MODIFY, then REPAIR.
      You also may want to confirm that your Office is Activated. Let us know how it goes.

  • My issue was actually in Outlook 2013 not Word but on checking this articel I found out problem existed in both. Not now though, as workaround fixed both. Had to restart Outlook2013 though. So thanks

Published by
Ian Matthews

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