DANGER - PowerPoint 2016 for Mac spell checker does not change custom dictionary to Add words!!!

Hi MacTop,

Based on your description, the issue is related to add word to the custom dictionary in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

I would like to explain that you only need to add the word to the custom dictionary in Word, then you can see the changes in PowerPoint.

You can refer to the following article:

Use a custom dictionary in Office for Mac

Thanks,

Qing

Thanks, but I did not mean that. I meant that when you are spell checking a PowerPoint document containing text in two languages and you click "Add" to add words to the custom dictionary, PowerPoint does NOT select the appropriate custom dictionary (it shows the previous one). So, you may add the word to the wrong custom dictionary. For instance, a Spanish word to the English dictionary, or vice versa.

That is extremely dangerous if you have a long custom dictionary with thousands of entries, because later on when you notice the bug (if you ever notice it), you may have forgotten the words added to the wrong custom dictionary and they will stay there for ever, ruining future spell checking.

As said, no problem in Word. The bug is only in PowerPoint. BTW, all Office applications should share the same interface and code whenever possible, to avoid these bugs, empower them all and streamline the interface. For instance, just compare the "Edit - Find" of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. They should be identical, yet are completely different and limited in many ways.

Hi MacTop,

To narrow down the issue, could you please provide the following information?

1. Confirm if you right click word and add the word to dictionary when the word has red wavy lines.

2. What do you mean “select the appropriate custom dictionary”?

3. The screenshot of “add the word to appropriate custom dictionary”.

4. The screenshot of “not add the word to appropriate custom dictionary”. As we need the two screenshot to contrast.

5. The steps about how do you check if the word add to the appropriate custom dictionary.

Thanks,

Qing  

Let me explain it again. When I have a document in Word containing text of two different languages (say, English and Spanish) and I select "Tools - Spelling & Grammar", I can click "Add" when Word does not find a word and shows it in red. Such word is added to the appropriate custom dictionary (English or Spanish), depending on the language in which such word was set by "Tools - Language". I do not have to selet such custom dictionary when I click "Add" and in fact it is not possible to do it because the custom dictionaries do not show in such window. That is great (transparent to user).

But when I try to do it in PowerPoint and select "Tools - Spelling" (note the difference with Word interface), the custom dictionaries show there to select manually (note also the interface difference with Word) and if I click "Add", the word is added to the custom dictionary displayed, even when such word was previously selected in "Tools - Language" as belonging to other language. Therefore, you must be extremely careful to manually check the selected custom dictionary and selecting the correct one before clicking "Add". That is particularly tedious and frustrating when you are spell checking a document with both languages, since the words to add change from one language to the other all the time. That should not happen. PowerPoint should behave like Word.

And all interfaces for spelling (and other features) should be exactly the same across Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Hi MacTop,

Thanks for your patience.

However, I would like to explain that we have no the add option when I follow your steps as below:

To understand your issue better, could you please provide the screenshot of the option “add”?

Thanks,

Qing

Thanks. I meant the

PowerPoint "Tools - Spelling"

and

Word "Tools - Spelling & Grammar"

windows.

Hi MacTop,

Thanks for your reply.

I need to confirm if you click review to use tool-spelling and tool-spelling&grammer.

If so, I would like to explain that it is an expected behavior as follow:

Given this situation, we welcome and encourage you to share your ideas through PowerPoint User Voice. Your providing feedback is the best way to perfect our products and services.

Thanks for your understanding,

Qing  

Hi MacTop,

The Tool > Spelling you opened when you are in the Home tab is not different from when you in the Review tab.

We welcome and encourage you to share your ideas through PowerPoint User Voice. Your providing feedback is the best way to perfect our products and services.

Thanks for your understanding.

Tisky