Tools included with Help & Manual > The Spell Checker

You can define and use as many custom user dictionaries as you want. In addition to the standard function of storing words not contained in your main dictionaries these dictionaries also have two more very useful functions:

Auto-Correct for frequent errors and abbreviations:

The Auto-Correct function automatically replaces common typing errors and abbreviations with the correct words or entire phrases. See Spell checking in the Creating and Editing Topics chapter for details on using this function. This function is not available in live spell check mode!

Excluded Words for exception handling:

The Excluded Words function allows you to enter words that will always be marked as incorrect, even if they would normally be considered correct. This allows you to enter exceptions for words contained in the standard main dictionaries that you want to handle differently.

The spell checker uses the words from all user dictionaries listed in the Dictionaries tab but new words can only be added to one selected user dictionary. This dictionary is used for the Add function in both live and manual spell checking.

This dictionary is also used when you select AutoCorrect in the manual spell checker. For more details see Spell checking in the Creating and Editing Topics chapter.

1.	Select Tools > Spelling > Configure Spell Checker, then select the Dictionaries tab.

2.	Select the custom dictionary you want to use in the Custom Dictionaries: box. Click Add/New if you want to add a new dictionary or select a dictionary stored in a different location. (Custom dictionaries can be stored anywhere and can be shared by multiple users working simultaneously.)

3.	Select the dictionary you want to use from the list in the Custom Dictionary: field.

Although words are always added to the same custom user dictionary (see above) you can define and use as many custom dictionaries as you like. New words will be added to the standard custom dictionary, but the spell checker will use all the activated dictionaries for checking spelling and for the Auto-Correct and Excluded Words functions.

Activating user dictionaries:

1.	Select Tools > Spelling > Configure Spell Checker and click on the Dictionaries tab.

2.	Click on the Add/New button to add dictionaries to the Custom Dictionaries list. You can then create a new dictionary or select an existing dictionary.

All the listed dictionaries will be used for spell checking. These dictionaries can be stored in any location, also on network drives, and they can be used simultaneously by multiple users.

Deactivating user dictionaries:

To deactivate a user dictionary just select it in the list and click on Remove. This will not delete the dictionary, it will just remove it from the dictionaries list.

Normally your dictionary setup will be stored with your Help & Manual program settings and will be activated for all your projects. If you only want to use your dictionary settings for the current project select the option Selected options are used for this help project only in the Dictionaries tab.