Free Medical Spell Checker For Microsoft Word, Custom Dictionary

By Raj | Aug 3, 2009

Without a medical spell checker installed, it is irritating to transcribe with MS Word with those red underscores all over the document. You get frustrated adding such underlined words every time to the inbuilt custom dictionary of Microsoft Word by right clicking and adding. To avoid such repeated annoyance, the more permanent solution would be installing a medical spell checker itself which works in the background. So for the last one month I have been scouring the net for any available, free, self installable, medical spell checker software for Microsoft Word to try with my laptop (Windows Vista and MS Word 2003) or, why not, even for my desktop (Windows XP and MS Word 2003), after all it’s going to be free! With radiology transcription, you don’t encounter complex new medical words daily, you’ll have stereo type reports that can be done without a spell checker. So I didn’t go for a medical spell checker for my desktop all this time.

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.

Free medical spell checker for Microsoft Word

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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Tags: medical dictionary, medical glossary, medical spell checker, recent medical terms

27 Responses to “Free Medical Spell Checker For Microsoft Word, Custom Dictionary”

JUne on August 18th, 2009, at 10:57 pm 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 on August 19th, 2009, at 1:35 am said:

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!

Brenda Rutgers on August 21st, 2009, at 2:27 am 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 Services

Raj on August 21st, 2009, at 12:21 pm said:

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.

David Schneider on September 2nd, 2009, at 7:44 pm 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!

David Schneider on September 3rd, 2009, at 2:21 pm said:

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 on September 4th, 2009, at 12:59 am said:

“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.

June on September 8th, 2009, at 10:45 am 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!

Tim on November 30th, 2009, at 4:52 am 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 on November 30th, 2009, at 11:16 am said:

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 on December 3rd, 2009, at 5:30 am said:

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 on December 3rd, 2009, at 5:31 am said:

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!

Davood on January 12th, 2010, at 12:03 am 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”.

Becka on February 15th, 2010, at 5:29 am said:

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!

Brandie on February 19th, 2010, at 1:50 pm 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.

M. Burke on March 19th, 2010, at 2:02 pm said:

Thank you so much for sharing your spell checker! Your download instructions were very easy to follow, and I was able to install it with no problems. I’m using Windows 7 and MS Word 2007 – it works great with both. I’m going to school to become an MT and your spell checker has saved me a ton of time and money. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Would you mind if I shared your website with my fellow students?

Tammy on August 4th, 2010, at 6:49 pm said:

Raj
This worked for me perfect using David’s instructions above. I have Windows 7 and MS Word 2000. Works great! Thanks so much for having this available to all of us transcriptionists out there who already make too little and can’t really afford to buy a spell checker! Appreciate your efforts!
Tammy

Nate on October 21st, 2010, at 12:26 am said:

Thank you so very much good sir!

In MS word 2007 on a windows vista OS

note: the folder is UProof not proof on my laptop.

Love it! Thank you so much, I need to learn how to properly spell these words and if the word is not even in the .dic to begin with it makes it very frustrating. You sir, are a lifesaver!

-Nate

Larissa on October 24th, 2010, at 8:49 pm said:

Thank you so much!

I installed this on my mac running OS X (10.6.4) – it was a fairly similar procedure.

It was so great to see all the red underlined words in my documents just disappear! As a medical student this resource is invaluable. Thanks again.

Hannah on October 28th, 2010, at 12:37 am said:

This dictionary has been a great help. I am a veterinary student and find am so glad I can type a document now without a million red squiggly lines in MS Word.
I’m using Windows 7 and MS Office 2007, and the dictionary works great.
I’m sure this was a lot of hard work for somebody, thank you for sharing! It is much appreciated.

Ashleigh on October 28th, 2010, at 3:15 am said:

I have Windows 7, MS 2010! WORKS AMAZINGLY!! however, i couldnt find my ‘proof’ folder so i just linked the file path from my desktop then unchecked the boxes you said too. I love it, thank you. Transcribing my medical documents will be a breeze now.

Hannah on November 16th, 2010, at 1:26 am said:

Hi Ashleigh,

I am also running Windows 7 with MS Office 2010, and have installed the dictionary fine. The folder “AppData” will be hidden in your User folder. To show the hidden folder, go to the “Organize” menu on the top left. Choose “Folder & Search Options”. Go to the “View” tab at the top, and choose the button that says “Show hidden files, folders & drives”. Apply the settings, and you should be able to see everything you need to.

The location on my computer is:
C:\Users\Hannah\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof

Hope this helps!

dave on December 6th, 2010, at 9:32 am said:

thanks for providing this useful resource! it looks like some people here were confused about enabling the dictionary on mac. here are the instructions:
1. download as described in the post.
2. drag the MTH-MedSpelChek.dic file to /Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/ (the ~ is your computer username).
3. in Word, go to Preferences>Spelling and Grammar, and click on the “Dictionaries…” button. click “Add…”, and add the MTH-MedSpelChek.dic file to your set of custom dictionaries.
4. enjoy!

for reference, i’m using microsoft 2008 on a macbook pro os 10.6.
thanks again!

Lisa Inlow on January 27th, 2011, at 2:50 pm said:

I found the file where the custom dictionary was and put it there. I found the custom dictionary in:
Places – my name (whatever name you gave your computer)
Library
Preferences
Microsoft
Office 2008 (This is where I drug the file)

Then I went into the preferences for MS Word and under dictionaries, made sure the MT dict showed up and that there was a checkmark next to it.
Hope this helps.
Lisa

Danielle on February 10th, 2011, at 5:28 pm said:

for 2007 go to word options that is in the dropdown menu of office logo. Once there go to proofing and custom dictionaries. That will open a window that will give you the path where to put the new dictionary. Once you have placed the dictionary in the correct folder, click add dictionary and select it.

John on February 17th, 2011, at 11:07 pm said:

Raj,
Thank you so much for all your hard work! This is what I have spent hours looking for over the last several years! I just installed it into Office 2011 for Mac and so far it’s working flawlessly! I only wish I had discovered this when I was taking A&P….
John

I found your file through davidrothman.net, through google

Christine on May 2nd, 2011, at 6:13 am said:

Thank you so much for this fabulous medical dictionary. I didn’t think I could do it, but your directions were great! Now, I don’t have to worry if I spell a difficult medical term incorrectly. I double checked it with numerous medical words and it caught every one that I misspelled purposely. This is absolutely wonderful! Again, many thanks for your efforts. I’ve been doing medical transcription for some years now, but one cannot know how to spell every word in every specialty without going crazy! Excellent job!