InDesign 2.0: Automating Adding Words to the Dictionary

InDesign 2.0: Automating Adding Words to the Dictionary

Updated for InDesign CS: Import Words into InDesign CS Dictionary

A question from a customer: how do you import dictionaries into InDesign 2.0?

There are two real axioms about working for Adobe. (a) there is always someone smarter than you who can help (b) InDesign is scriptable.

By doing a Euclidean join of these axioms, I was able to solve the problem. Thanks to Olav from Adobe in Seattle for the coding. What Olav turned around in hours would have taken me days. Essentially what he has created is a little Visual Basic application that will import a text file of words into the exception dictionary of InDesign. This dictionary is attached to a specific language dictonary.

Download the ZIP file containing the IDAddWords application: InDesign 2.0 Dictionary Script

This .zip file contains the source code (frm) and Visual Basic Project (vbp) If you do not have Visual Basic, it is also supplied as a .exe. Just Unzip the contents anywhere.

Double clicking on the .exe, you will see the following screen:

The Language: popup allows you to select which language dictionary you would like to insert the words into.

The Add Words button allows you to select a text file that contains a word per line, this file contains the extra words you would like to add to the currently selected Language: InDesign dictionary. It will prompt you for a text file, and the words inside this file will be inserted as exceptions into the Language: InDesign dictionary.

The text file would look like the following in Notepad or similar:

Remove All removes all exception words (not the original words supplied by InDesign in the Dictionary).

View Word List allows you to view the exception words in the current Language: InDesign dictionary in the scrolling panel.

Save Word List will save a text file; a word per line, of the current exception words in the dictionary.

Please note (from the InDesign 2.0 Online Help Files:)

By default, hyphenation and spelling rules are based on the dictionary for the language specified for the text. When you customize the words in a dictionary, you actually create exception lists of added words (words that aren’t already in the dictionary) and removed words (existing dictionary words you want InDesign to ignore).

By default, hyphenation and spelling exceptions are located only in user dictionary files stored outside the document on the computer where InDesign is installed (dictionary filenames end with the extensions .udc and .not). However, you can also store exception lists inside any InDesign document. In addition, you can specify that the text-composition engine composes text using the word list stored in the external user dictionary, the word list stored in the current document, or both. Specify storage and composition settings in the Dictionary panel of the Preferences dialog box.