Adding Custom Dictionaries

The package uses Hunspell to perform spell checking and comes with several dictionaries for various languages. Since Hunspell makes use of Open Office dictionaries, you can download additional dictionaries for other languages. Dictionaries for OpenOffice versions 2, 3, and 4 are supported. To make them available to the spell checker, do the following:

  • Go to the Open Office Extensions dictionary page and download the dictionaries for the languages you need. If the downloaded file has a .oxt extension, rename it to have a .zip extension. Extract the content of the file and locate the .aff and .dic dictionary files.
  • Another source for Open Office dictionaries is the LibreOffice dictionary repository. Locate the language you want to use and download the .aff and .dic dictionary files for it.
  • To make the dictionaries available to all solutions and projects, the .aff and .dic file pairs will need to be copied into the local application data folder which equates to one of the following folders based on your operating system:
    • Windows Vista or later: %LOCALAPPDATA%\EWSoftware\Visual Studio Spell Checker
    • Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\EWSoftware\Visual Studio Spell Checker
  • Dictionaries can be stored in another location of your choosing. If you do this, you will need to edit the global configuration and add the folder to the Additional Dictionary Folders list in the Dictionary Settings category.
  • Dictionaries can be added to solutions and projects and checked into source control so that they are local to each project. To do this:
    • Add the .aff and .dic files to the solution or project to which they will apply.
    • Add a spell checker configuration file based on how you want the dictionaries to be made available and used.
    • In the configuration file, add the folder location to the Additional Dictionary Folders list in the Dictionary Settings category. When prompted, make the path relative to the configuration file so that the dictionary files can be found if the project is moved.
  • Note that the .aff and .dic files must be named after the language they represent with no other text in the filename and the language parts must be separated with an underscore or a dash. If necessary, rename the files to match the required format. For example:
    • de_DE.aff and de_DE.dic or de-DE.aff and de-DE.dic for German.
    • sr_Latn.aff and sr_Latn.dic or sr-Latn.aff and sr-Latn.dic for Serbian (Latin).
  • Adding dictionary files to the local application data folder or a solution, project, folder, or file configuration for a language that matches one of the default languages supplied with the package will effectively replace the default dictionary files supplied with the package for that language.
  • Once the files are in the chosen location and are named correctly, you will be able to select the related language in the Dictionary Settings category of the configuration editor. Custom dictionaries are noted with a value of "Custom dictionary" in the left-hand label below the user dictionary list box on the Dictionary Settings category page. Hovering over the label will show a tool tip containing the location of the custom dictionary.

  Note

After installing the custom dictionary files and adding their location to the additional folders list when necessary, if the language does not appear in the configuration editor, the files may not be named correctly. If the language is selected but spelling is still occurring in English, there may be a problem with one or both of the dictionary files. Search the issues page to see if the problem has been reported and solved already. If you are not able to resolve the problem, open a new issue asking for help.

See Also