Adobe InDesign CS3 - Manual (Page 163)

INDESIGN CS3
User Guide
156
When you customize the words in a dictionary, you actually create lists of added words (words that aren’t already in
the dictionary) and removed words (existing dictionary words that you want to be flagged as a potential misspelling).
The Dictionary dialog box lets you display and edit added words, removed words, and ignored words (words that are
ignored for the current session because you clicked Ignore All).
If you want to use the language dictionaries from a previous version of InDesign or InCopy, use your system Find
command to locate the user dictionary files (.udc), and then add them to your list of dictionaries in Dictionary
preferences.
Where dictionary words are stored
By default, hyphenation and spelling exceptions are located in user dictionary files stored outside the document on
the computer where InDesign is installed (dictionary file names end with a .udc or .not extension). However, you
can also store exception lists inside any InDesign document. In addition, you can store word lists in an external user
dictionary, in the document, or in both. The location of existing dictionaries appears in the Dictionary preferences.
Storing hyphenation and spelling exceptions inside a document makes it easier to treat text consistently when you
move that document to other computers. For this reason, you can merge the user dictionary into the document in
Dictionary Preferences. You can also control the location of exceptions from the Create Package Folder dialog box
(see “Package files” on page 563). In contrast, storing an exception list outside the document makes it easier to use
the same list of exceptions for multiple documents.
Note: If the user dictionary is merged into the exceptions list, the entire user dictionary is added to the document, even
if the words are not used, thereby increasing the document’s file size.
Applying languages to text
You can use the Language menu in the Control panel or Character panel to apply a language to selected text. You can
also specify a default language for an entire document, or for all new documents. (See “Assign a language to text” on
page 219.)
Exception word lists
You can exclude words from being considered. For example, if you want to use an alternate spelling for a common
word such as “bicycle,” which you may need to spell in a different way for your company name or for a specific
document, add the word to the list of excluded words so that it will be flagged during a spell check. InDesign can
maintain a separate set of added and removed words for each installed language.
Create or add user dictionaries
You can create a user dictionary, or you can add user dictionaries from previous InDesign or InCopy versions, from
files that others have sent you, or from a server where your workgroup’s user dictionary is stored. The dictionary you
add is used for all your InDesign documents.
Note: You cannot associate user dictionaries with languages that do not use Proximity dictionaries. These languages
include Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Slovak.
1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Dictionary (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Dictionary (Mac OS).
2 From the Language menu, choose the language with which you want to associate the dictionary.
3 Do one of the following:
• To create a new dictionary, click the New User Dictionary icon below the Language menu. Specify the name
and location of the user dictionary (which includes a .udc extension), and then click Save.