The following are a few situations where it is useful to be able to force the spelling checker to flag a word as misspelled, even though it is listed in the main dictionary as a correctly spelled word.

• Obscene or otherwise embarrassing words   While working on a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation, you accidentally type pubic instead of public.
• Style guidelines that you or your department wants to follow   For example, theater is a correctly spelled word, but the style guidelines of your department require the word to be spelled theatre.

How the exclusion dictionary affects the spelling checker

After you add a word to the exclusion dictionary, whenever you check the spelling on a file, the spelling checker:

• Flags the word whenever you check spelling
• Does not suggest the word as a correction to a flagged word.

 Note   Learn how to use custom dictionaries to add new words to the spelling checker.

Find and modify the exclusion dictionary for a language