How would I make a custom dictionary in OpenOffice?

[Melvin_LL]

Writing fantasy and sci-fi, I grow a sizeable specialised vocabulary per story (names, locations, fantastical things, etc.) I grow tired of the autocorrect grumbling at this vocabulary, and would much rather have it poke me when I misspell those words.

At the same time, I do not want to pollute the standard dictionary with made-up words. I would be most comfortable with a dedicated dictionary per novel. Is there an easy way to do it in OpenOffice?

[RoryOF]

The answer is to make a custom dictionary.

In Writer go to /Tools /Options /Language Setting /Writing aids : User defined dictionaries and press the New button. Name the dictionary as you wish. When you have a word in your text flagged as misspelled, right click on it and Add it to your new user dictionary.

If you already have a wordlist, you can add that to your user dictionary outside of OpenOffice by using a plain text editor.

Edit: For each work you can select a number of custom dictionaries - say a general one and perhaps one specific to that work.

[robleyd]

See also Modifying a custom dictionary which links to this topic