Add Words to your Custom Dictionary

Works with Windows XP and Office 2003
When you run spell check, does your dictionary keep checking for words that you know are spelled correctly?

Here are some examples:
Your last name
Blog
LinkedIn
Facebook

When you run spellcheck within any Microsoft Office 2003 program (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) you have the option of adding mis-spelled words to your custom dictionary.


Wouldn't it be nice, though, if you could just add all of the words to the custom dictionary at once?

Here are the steps.

• Find the Custom.dic file.
  In Windows XP, Type CTRL + ESC, then S.
  Click All files and folders.
  In the box called "All or part of the file name" type custom.dic.
  
  Run the search, and Windows should find the file (Custom.dic) in your Proof subdirectory.
  
  
• Open Custom.dic (use the Notepad program).
  
  
• Copy and paste (or type) all of the words you'd like to add to your custom dictionary. Make sure there is one word to a line.
  
  
• Save and close Custom.dic.

Now, any Office 2003 program (Word, Outlook, etc.) will recognize the words you've added to your Custom Dictionary.

Remember, as you add words to your custom dictionary, don't forget to add the word "blog."

Outlook Tip: Change Subject Line

Let's say you received an email from someone with a blank subject line, or a subject line that doesn't match the email's content. You'd like to edit the subject line so that the email message is easy to find.

Simply double-click in the grey subject line area, type in your new subject, and it's done.

Outlook Tip: Quickly Add Items to Categories

When I teach an Outlook class, students are always thrilled to learn about Outlook's Categories feature. Outlook allows you to assign items (ex., contacts) to a specific category (ex., Prospects). You can then perform activities such as send emails to everyone in your Clients category, generate mailing labels for everyone in your Prospects category and more.

Students usually cannot wait to get back to their offices and start assigning their Outlook items to categories.

Assigning Categories can be time-consuming, however. Imagine you have 1,000 contacts you'd like to add to your Prospects category. Assigning Categories the long way could take hours. You'd have to open each Contact, click the Categories button, check off the Prospects Category, close the Category box, Save and Close the Contact.

Fortunately, there's a much quicker and easier way.

• Select the contacts you want to add to a category.
• Right click.
• Select Categories.
• Click the check box next to the category (ex., "Clients").

In one step, all of the contacts you've selected are added to that category.

Access Tip - Automatically Convert Text Fields to Uppercase

To automatically convert the text in a field to uppercase, no matter how someone enters the data, set the Format property to >.

Select the table from the list of tables in your database.

On the list of tables in your Access database, select the table. Click Design View. Move your cursor to the field you are formatting (the field has to be a text field). In the Field Properties section of your screen (bottom half of screen), make sure the General tab is selected.

Type > next to Format, as shown below.



For additional information: Access Database Design Bootcamp