SOLVED: Add To Dictionary Greyed Out in Word 2013

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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

Categories: Office: Word, Excel, Outlook...

Tags: add to dictionaryGreyed OutMicrosoft Word

16 Comments

Jerri · September 26, 2022 at 5:24 am

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.

Tom · August 30, 2017 at 7:36 am

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.

Ian Matthews · December 28, 2017 at 11:43 am

I would try a full repair at that point. This post from MS will help you repair all versions on all modern OS’ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Repair-an-Office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b

Tom · August 30, 2017 at 7:27 am

Unfortunately, these fixes didn’t work for me.

Shawn · July 23, 2017 at 8:44 pm

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

Hanif · August 17, 2017 at 8:59 am

Thank you. Worked for me. 🙂

cheryl · April 7, 2017 at 6:49 am

I’m not being given the option to change default – this too remains greyed out – can you advise?

Ian Matthews · April 25, 2017 at 7:09 pm

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.

tony · April 5, 2017 at 6:21 am

Thanks. This really helped me out.

MO · October 20, 2016 at 8:10 pm

wooooooooow. great

Abdullah · January 24, 2016 at 11:20 pm

Thanks

brian · November 22, 2015 at 11:29 am

more thanks! Word “help” 2013 has a lousy entry on how to find the dictionary. they need you!

Pedro Stephano · August 4, 2015 at 4:47 am

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

Dinesh · May 26, 2015 at 1:10 pm

Wow. You saved me. Thanks lot. It is working now.

Dinesh · May 26, 2015 at 1:09 pm

Thanks a lot. It is working.

rick · May 20, 2015 at 1:45 pm

Thanks! Worked for me…
rick

Published by Ian Matthews on May 6, 2014May 6, 2014