Free Medical Spell Checker For Microsoft Word, Custom Dictionary
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However, with my current endeavor of extensive search on the internet, I couldn’t end up with any such free, medical spelling check software compatible with MS Word. All those that I could find all over the internet were paid ones, or shareware that would work for one month or so and then expire. The only other option left behind was to prepare a custom dictionary for medical transcription with a collection of medical words in US English that could work in tandem with Microsoft Word. A free custom medical spell checker for medical transcription in US English by a medical transcriptionist! The idea was successful. I was able to gather medical terms lists from Open Source Medical Spelling Word List having around 50,000 words with terms updated until 2007 along with the words from my own custom dictionary and around ten lists of latest medical terms that were published on MT Herald. Accommodating all these medical words, the number of words worked out close to 100,000 after filtering out duplicate entries.
New words come into prevalence in the field of medicine on a daily basis. Hence all the words may not have found their way into this medical glossary especially all those trade names and the names of all those complex surgical instruments. If you have any list of such recent medical terms or surgical equipment glossary, mail me to add them in the future versions. Now the installation instructions of our custom medical dictionary.
Installation Instructions:
- Download MTH-Med-Spel-Chek to your desktop.
- Unzip the inside content MTH-MedSpelChek.dic to your desktop.
- Copy this dictionary file to the folder where CUSTOM.DIC resides in your system. In my desktop (Windows XP), I found it at C:\Documents and Settings\intel\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof. In my laptop (Windows Vista), it is at C:\Users\Raj\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Proof. So, check where the folder “Proof” is in your system and transfer MTH-MedSpelChek.dic to that folder.
- If the folder “Proof” is not showing up, it might have got hidden as system folder. In that case, go to Tools/Folder Options/View. Click “Show hidden files and folders.”
- Now open MS Word. Go to Tools/Options/Spelling & Grammar/Custom Dictionaries.
- Check the slot MTHMedSpelChek.dic. Click OK.
- Refer the image below for which slots that need to be checked and unchecked. Make sure the slots before “Suggest from main dictionary only” and “Hide spelling errors in this document” are unchecked. Click OK.
- That’s it! Voila, enjoy working with the free medical spell checker.
Spread the word if you find it useful. Utmost care has been taken to avoid any error at my end. However, if you find any inconsistency that has crept through, feel free to bring it to my attention to rectify the mistakes in the future versions. Stay tuned by subscribing to my feed for news about the future versions.
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82 Comments on this post
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gspal said:
Interesting reading. If you are looking for free text expanders, Stedman’s MT drugs, terminology, word fingers, and Spell checker 2005 then go to http://mtshine.com. However, I find this self created spell checker here also very interesting. Is there a way to add to this spell checker?
August 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am -
JUne said:
Is it really free after all the work you put into it? I would feel bad about that but would be so glad to get it if really and truly free! But is there a catch? It’s a fair question to ask why it’s free, yes? I don’t feel I can afford to pay much because I’m not sure an injury from a car wreck is going to let me go back to transcribing.
Raj reply on August 19th, 2009 1:35 am:
It’s absolutely free. No catches now or later. So you can go ahead and grab it. I’m glad that I could help at least one person in need. Thank you for recognizing my hard work.
Why it’s free? Because to help out people like you who begin from scratch, who cannot afford to spend a few hundred bucks for starting up. Because I was like that years before and couldn’t find a freebie like this then. Because Internet is an ocean of freebies.
Hope somebody else do not encash the hard work that I have put in it!
August 18th, 2009 at 10:57 pm -
gspal said:
Raj, I already have Stedman’s SpellChecker installed and it integrates with my MS Word 2003. I do not know the name or extension of this SpellChecker. Can your spellchecker run in conjunction with this Stedman’s spellchecker or has the latter to be deleted to avoid conflict?
August 19th, 2009 at 5:17 pm -
Brenda Rutgers said:
I just wanted to write to let you know how VERY much I am enjoying using the Free Medical Spellchecker for MS Word I downloaded from your website. The download was easy to find and use, and the installation instructions, particularly with the helpful screen shots at each step of the way, made installing it a breeze, even for a “non-techie” like me!
As you know, I have my own medical-transcription company. I have been using your Free Medical Spellchecker daily for approximately two weeks now, and I have YET to find a medical word your dictionary did not cover – quite impressive, especially considering the volume and variety of medical transcription we do! In fact, I am so pleased with its efficiency and ease of use, I just forwarded it to be used by all medical transcriptionists in our other offices, as well!
In closing, Raj, I thank you very much for your kind and generous offering of this Free Medical Spellchecker for MS Word for download, and I encourage everyone with a need for accuracy and efficiency in medical transcription to download and install it in their MS Word programs, too. Believe me, you’ll be glad you did! (-:
Thanks again,
Brenda Rutgers, Owner
Rutgers Transcription ServicesRaj reply on August 21st, 2009 12:21 pm:
Thank you very much for the very valuable feedback. All these days I was totally blank about the performance of this “free dictionary for medical transcription.” All I could see on my dashboard were statistics of hundreds of downloads but nobody didn’t even bother to give a feedback (not even a thanks, hehehe!).
As a valuable power user, I further welcome you to suggest any word that may have got missed to get through or any new word that you may come across.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:27 am -
Adena said:
Raj,
Will this work with Office 2007 and will there be any problems installing it with Vista?Thanks,
AdenaAugust 24th, 2009 at 5:35 am -
Doug said:
I am a 1st year massage student and my course contain alot of anatomy and physiology and i input all my notes on my laptop.
I just downloaded the spellchecker into my MS Office 2007 which I use for taking notes and I run Vista on it and your spellchecker does work.
I am also going to download the stedman’s also
August 27th, 2009 at 2:00 am -
suda said:
could u plz help me i could’t install my spell checker
August 31st, 2009 at 11:52 am -
David Schneider said:
I found it easy to add to Word 2007 by:
Download to desktop.
Open Word.
Open Spelling and Grammar.
Open Options.
Open Custom Dictionaries.
Open Add.
Copy MTH-MedSpelChek.dic from desktop.
Paste into the add window.
Close all Spelling and Grammar windows, then open again to Custom Dictionaries and make sure MTH-MedSpelChek.dic is checked.Thank you so much Raj, although I haven’t used it yet, it shouldn’t be a problem!
Raj reply on September 3rd, 2009 3:47 am:
However, I think with this mode of installation, if you delete the dictionary from the desktop, it will cease working.
David Schneider reply on September 3rd, 2009 2:21 pm:
Hi Raj – I deleted this file from my desktop after following my above instructions for Word 2007. Your file still appears in Spellcheck. To verify it there in the custom dictionaries, I am able to open the word list for your file, see all your words, and add words, etc. So it does work, at least on my computer, even if you delete the original file from our desktop. Of course, you need to COPY the file to your Spell Check, not just shortcut it.
Raj reply on September 4th, 2009 12:59 am:
“You need to COPY the file to your Spell Check, not just shortcut it.” In that case, it should work. Thank you for the update.
David Schneider reply on September 4th, 2009 6:53 pm:
My wife, Lin, also installed it to her laptop with Vista and Word 2007, and the above instructions worked beautifully.
David
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:44 pm -
Karen said:
That install for medical spell checker does not work for word 2007.
Any ideas?Raj reply on September 3rd, 2009 5:37 am:
Please patiently read the entire installation instructions that I have given on this page from the beginning and follow that appropriately.
You have to go to Tools/Options/Spelling and Grammar.
Instead you have gone to Tools/Spelling and Grammar.
Becka reply on February 15th, 2010 5:29 am:
FYI with Word 2007 you have to go to Review/ Spelling & Grammar/ Options/ Custom Dictionaries.
Also with Word 2007, the “Proof” folder might be named “UProof” in the Microsoft folder. It took me awhile to find out where my Proof folder was and ended up finding it when I looked at the file path in the custom dictionaries pop up window.
Fortunately it works and I’m so thankful!
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:47 am -
Diane said:
This is working perfectly with my Word 2007. I thank you for your clear instructions for installing this. It was a wonderful site to find and has saved me a lot of money by not having to make yet another medical transcription software purchase.
Raj reply on September 5th, 2009 2:29 am:
Stay tuned by subscribing to RSS feeds or email alerts for information on any future updates of this free spell checker.
September 4th, 2009 at 6:49 pm -
Linda said:
Will this medical spell check work with Word 2000?
September 7th, 2009 at 1:40 pm -
em said:
Thank you very much!
September 7th, 2009 at 4:54 pm -
June said:
I wonder if this will help with installing the speller? Maybe some people wonder what it means to “open Word”? That means just bring up any document you already have that was typed in Word, that’s all. (Which means go to My Documents and click on something that ends with “.doc.”) Then follow the steps to get to custom dictionaries.
Now that you’ve done that, you want to copy it into custom dictionaries but what does it look like on your desktop? It looks like a paper file-folder. Click on that, click on Copy, then go to where you have custom dictionaries on your screen and click on Paste. So, copy-paste. That should do it! Oh, I believe you also have to hit Save when done or it won’t stay there.
Then close custom dictionaries and close that Word document. You can check to see if you did it right by opening a new blank page in Word and typing some medical terms like Pfannenstiel or gastroesophageal. Finally, send a thank-you to Raj! Isn’t he wonderful!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am -
dave said:
you’re a godsend. this is the best medical .dic file i could quickly find for free, so i’m just giving you props. many many thanks!
now off to find a scientific (physics/chem/non-med bio) .dic file…
a repository for these files would be great. if you’re really into this stuff, raj, you could probably make some money by ad revenues setting up a central file exchange for all .dic files.
Raj reply on September 13th, 2009 7:23 am:
Thank you Dave.
A repository of all available free dictionaries on all subjects is a good idea. However, it requires complete dedication and time to spare which I’m lacking now. Money is not at all my prime motive here. The ads on this blog fetch revenue to keep the blog live, and I’m taking my readers along with me in my journey, sharing my thoughts and the resources that I could share.
September 12th, 2009 at 9:33 pm -
Ava said:
Raj, YOU ROCK! You are my hero. You’re instructions were brilliant and I was up and running, or I should say spell-checking, in no time. You have my many thanks and undying admiration for all your hard work.
September 17th, 2009 at 3:23 pm -
gspal said:
I too have now installed your spell checker that has no problem working in conjunction with the Stedman’s SpellChecker 2005 with my MS Word 2003. Do let us know whenever there is an update.
Now Raj why do you not come up with a comprehensive Drug dictionary that would include OTC, creams, ointments, etc.?
Raj reply on September 21st, 2009 3:26 am:
I will be updating the spell checker with the latest terms at regular intervals as and when I have sufficient data. Hence stay tuned by subscribing to the updates of this blog.
Yes, a free, desktop, comprehensive drug reference is indeed a good idea. However, since becoming an addict to Google and Internet, though I update my Quick Look Drug Reference to the latest version whenever available, I still haven’t used/opened it for the past few years. Google gets you whatever information available on the recent/latest drugs that even the latest version of a drug reference fails. So I doubt a free desktop drug dictionary can be as much successful and have the similar impact as this spell checker for the effort that should be poured in.
September 20th, 2009 at 4:45 pm -
Debbie said:
I got an error saying the file is too large. Is there a way to divide the file in half? I am using Word 97.
Thanks
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm -
Rick said:
THANKS! I am nursing student and this rocks. I was sick of having to add all the med terms to my dictionary! WOO, now all the drug names and Side Effects are all not spelled wrong!!! AMAZING!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!
October 9th, 2009 at 2:27 am -
Steve said:
Hey just wanted to say thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for (and very relieved that you use the “proper” spelling i.e. haem not heme)! Thanks again!
October 17th, 2009 at 3:22 am -
June said:
Steve, you must be British. I believe that in US English it’s heme. If we put “haem” doctors and nurses, and office workers at insurance companies, would go “duh…” Anyone else care to chime in on this? One big, big problem editing US doctors’ reports done in India is this British vs US English problem. Please don’t make it worse!
October 17th, 2009 at 10:38 am -
Ed Middleton said:
I too would just like to say thank you for this excellent piece of free software. It was easy to use and works great. Just a shame some of the spellings are American and not English, but I think I can forgive you that.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm -
Kathy said:
Thanks a million!! My daughter’s studying to be a nurse, and this will help tremendously! It works with Word 2007 on Windows 7, by the way!!!
October 26th, 2009 at 11:55 pm -
Corinna said:
That one did not, so I guess I must start again.
Okay, Hi Raj
This is not a complaint. After all how can one complain when someone has worked so hard on something and then offered it for free!
I was sent an email today suggesting downloading of your invaluable sounding medical dictionary, but, having tried clicking on the Download MTH-Med-Spel-Chek link above I cannot get the link to do anything. It makes a half hearted show at starting a connection and then just disappears.I need to install it on both my laptops as I use one that has XP loaded and the other which is Vista. I have only tried downloading it on the Vista machine so far.
Any ideas Raj?
regards
CorinnaNovember 10th, 2009 at 2:54 pm -
Corinna said:
That message has just disappeared too! I give up! Sorry Raj. I would have loved your dictionary, but it is too time consuming writing messages and have them disappear.
Raj reply on November 10th, 2009 3:06 pm:
Hi Corinna,
I tried downloading the spellchecker from three different locations, with three different operating systems, Windows XP, Vista and 1998, and with four different browsers, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, FireFox, and Safari. I was able to download at all these instances.
There might be something wrong with your internet connection.
Anyway, I’m mailing you a copy. Follow the installation instructions as said above.
Thanks for your interest.
Raj reply on November 10th, 2009 3:11 pm:
Sorry, all of your comments were trapped as spam and held for moderation; hence all of them disappeared. You could have tried reaching me through the contact form.
Anyway, finally solved your need my mailing you the spell checker. Check your inbox.
Have a good one.
Corinna reply on November 10th, 2009 3:47 pm:
Hi Raj
aaaaggghhhh, now I am spam! shades of Monty Python!I would just like to say on here, so that others can read it who visit, how helpful you have been.
Raj emailed me directly with the dictionary. No if’s, and’s or but’s. He tried to download via known links and it worked on his side, but he did not, as some sites do, say, sorry, but we are not having any problems – tough.
Thank you once again. I still have to load it, but I am sure it will be fine.
Corinna
November 10th, 2009 at 2:56 pm -
jes said:
Thanks. Great job! Keep up the good work.
November 21st, 2009 at 6:40 pm -
LVG said:
Thank you sooo much Raj………switching over to word from wperfect……and your dictionary has been a great help…….now if I can only figure out my autotext and all the other function keys….I’ve been using wperfect for over 18 years…….so it’s quite a challenge for me…….but once I finish my dictation knowing that I can run the spellcheck and all the terms are there is a blessing…. thanks a million!!!!
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 pm -
LVG said:
I tried adding it in the same manner I added it to Word but it’s not accepting it…….
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 am -
RJ said:
Hi Raj,
This is so much help having such a spell check but i tried installing it and is not able to do so.
i tried ways from the comments posted by other users but still could not use it .
Mine is a laptop with windows vista and office 2007.
Please help
RJ
Raj reply on November 24th, 2009 5:26 am:
My laptop too is having Windows Vista and MS Office, and it is working fine. I’m unable to get where you are going wrong. I’m willing to help you out but how could I help you? Why not try the installation instructions that David Schneider said above for MS Word 2007?
November 24th, 2009 at 4:34 am -
R. Shanmuganathan said:
Dear sir,
I have installed the spell checker in my system. But, it does not work with my word 2007.
November 28th, 2009 at 2:04 am -
Tim said:
I absolutely love this dictionary, and THANK YOU for making it available. It’s with great appreciation that you made it free. Again, I’m very thankful for it, and Thank you for your work.
Great instructions, great package, and it works like a charm on MS Office 2007.
Tim
Raj reply on November 30th, 2009 11:16 am:
Thanks Tim for the feedback regarding compatibility with MS Office 2007. Couple of our friends here were reporting being unable to make it work with MS Office 2007. If you could come again on how you installed the spell checker on your system, it will be helpful for them too.
Tim reply on December 3rd, 2009 5:30 am:
Hi Raj, Certainly!
I downloaded this .zip file, which is the link that you began with on the “Installation Instructions”. http://mtherald.com/download/MTH-Med-Spel-Chek.zip
- Next, extract the file ‘MTH-MedSpelChek.dic’ and copy it into the location where Microsoft keeps it’s ‘CUSTOM.DIC’. That path for me is (WinXP) C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof
- Next, open MS Word 2007, and go into the MS Word Options area and select the left-menu item ‘Proofing’.
- Next, click on the button that says ‘Customer Dictionaries’, and click the ‘Add…’ right-menu item to add the dictionary to your office program.
- Next, click ‘OK’, and click ‘OK’ again, to get out of the MS Word Options section.
- Next, close and reopen MS Word 2007 and give it a try.
Works like a charm!
You can also download the TXT version and simply edit the CUSTOM.DIC and add the words into that list. However, adding the new dictionary was a way to keep them organized.
Hope that helps… and, Thank you – again!
Tim reply on December 3rd, 2009 5:31 am:
Ps. Where my path was: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof
Others path would be C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof
To clarify!
November 30th, 2009 at 4:52 am -
britt89 said:
Thank you so much! I stumbled upon your blog as I am an aspiring MT and am so glad! Thank you so much for this spell checker/dictionary, it will be invaluable. I will continue to visit this blog and thanks again!
December 21st, 2009 at 8:37 pm -
kevin said:
thank you so much! you wont believe how much easier it is now to make my notes. best new year’s gift i’ve had so far ha. wish i found you earlier.
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm -
Andrew said:
Absolutely fantastic. Used to use SciProof which I paid for and then they never updated and now they have basically gone out of business. This dictionary is the best! You really should charge for it.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:11 pm -
Elsie said:
Will this work with Word 2000? Just upgraded to Windows 7 and lost my Stedman’s spellchecker. I lost my back up too.
January 10th, 2010 at 3:52 am -
Davood said:
Hi!
Solution For MS Word 2007:
In MS Word 2007, The folder named “Proof” is exchanged to “UProof”. So, Download “MTH-MedSpelChek” and then, copy to “X:\Documents and Settings\XXXXX\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof”.January 12th, 2010 at 12:03 am -
Mohammad Ali said:
Thanks. it is very nice, keep the good work.
January 17th, 2010 at 5:30 am -
Jen said:
What can I say but…WOW! Thanks sooo sooo much! I’ve been in the biz for quite a while now and just hate the thought of paying so much $$$ for MT-related software, especially when they “require” you to renew every year or so. My PC recently crashed and I lost my spellchecker and expander registration codes so my only other option was to pay $100 each for another one, which just isn’t feasible these days.
This is absolutely wonderful and works like a dream. Keep up the great work!
P.S. Gonna put a link on my site for this great dictionary, if you don’t mind.
Raj reply on January 22nd, 2010 12:46 am:
Thank you, I appreciate the link and let me know when it is live.
Jen reply on January 22nd, 2010 2:05 am:
Just letting you know I just posted a link back here on the MTStars main board.
Raj reply on January 22nd, 2010 3:32 am:
Oh ok. I thought you will be keeping your word by putting a link from “your site” as promised by you.
Wondering if you are the owner of MT Stars!
Jen reply on January 22nd, 2010 4:04 am:
I will still put it on my site as soon as I get the chance.
I wanted to put it on that board since there are a lot of newbies that go there looking for things. (No, I’m not the owner.)
January 21st, 2010 at 11:44 pm -
Collegestudent said:
Raj,
I love the Med spell checker, thank you.
Is there any way to add a medical Dictionary to Word 2007, not just to spell check but to look up actual terms?
TIA:)
February 15th, 2010 at 6:24 pm -
Brandie said:
This is the way to get to the “proof” section in Microsoft 7/ Office 2007
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof
or type in “uproof” in the windows search bar.
February 19th, 2010 at 1:50 pm -
Botser said:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
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Ken said:
I have it working on vista 64 with ms word 2007. You can put the dict. file into either uproof or proof folders. You just have to point MS Word to the proper folder. For that matter I think you can probably put it in any folder you want anywhere as long as you point MS Word to it.
Thanks for all of the effort. I was just getting ready to purchase Stedmans until I saw this. I think you should put up a small Paypal Donation form up for 10.00 dollars. This is so much help that I think many of us would pay.
Thanks again
Raj reply on March 4th, 2010 3:40 am:
If I start accepting donations, the sanctity of my intention of providing it for free to the medical transcription community will be lost.
If anybody is still very much keen on returning the favor, why not write a couple of articles here on MT Herald which could be of help for other medical transcriptionists on topics like:
1.) How to find a job after completing a medical transcription course?
2.) How to prepare for CMT exam?
3.) How could an offshore MT find an onshore job?
4.) How to find a livelihood online?
5.) How to train yourself to adapt to the future needs of MT profession?The topics are not limited to these alone. Anything that could be of very much useful for the MT/healthcare community which we have not covered here on MT Herald. Interested? Use my contact form to reach me.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm -
gspal said:
I have intalled Firefox 3.6 but find its spell checker very, very primitive. Their prescribed Add-ons are no better. Is it possible to update its spell checker with MS Word custom dictionary or MTH-MedSpelChek or any other good spell checker? Else, I will have to just switch off its spell checking module.
March 7th, 2010 at 9:26 am -
Tom said:
Thank you, thank you and once again thank you!
I’ve been tearing my hair out looking for a free medical dictionary and I’m so happy to have found it. I’m using it with MS Word 2007 by the way and it works perfectly. Thank you Raj for all your hard work, my clinic lectures are going to be happy with my work now that all my terminology is spelt correctly!
Again thank you so much
God Bless.March 11th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Raj reply on August 18th, 2009 1:37 am:
Thank you for bringing it to our notice.
Reply