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Thunderbird Mail - how to edit my personal dictionary

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by david

LornaJ2
LornaJ2
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I regularly send emails to a colleague who has an unusual spelling of her first name (with accented characters). When I type her name without the accented characters this is not flagged up as an incorrect spelling by the dictionaries I have installed (EN & FR) so I have no opportunity to add it to a custom dictionary.

Every time I email this person I have to laboriously type out her name.

I thought it might be possible to edit my personal dictionary, but when I search using $ find persdict.dat it returns find: ‘persdict.dat’: No such file or directory

Has the file name of the personal dictionary changed, or is it missing? If it is missing, how do I create it?

Thanks

I regularly send emails to a colleague who has an unusual spelling of her first name (with accented characters). When I type her name without the accented characters this is not flagged up as an incorrect spelling by the dictionaries I have installed (EN & FR) so I have no opportunity to add it to a custom dictionary. Every time I email this person I have to laboriously type out her name. I thought it might be possible to edit my personal dictionary, but when I search using $ find persdict.dat it returns find: ‘persdict.dat’: No such file or directory Has the file name of the personal dictionary changed, or is it missing? If it is missing, how do I create it? Thanks

All Replies (4)

LornaJ2
LornaJ2 Question owner
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Since posting this, I have realised that if you select Options - Check spelling, Personal dictionary - Edit this does allow you to add or remove entries from the personal dictionary via a popup, and I have put the name in there, but it is still not showing in the list of suggestions when the incorrect spelling is highlighted.

The list of suggestions changes when I change the language for the email but this never includes the entries I have in the personal dictionary.

Is there a way to flag or re-order the list of dictionaries so that the personal dictionary suggestions will also display when you right-click on the word?

Thanks

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Just a tip on what I do: I have a friend whose name has special accents. I put the name in dictionary and when writing, I purposely misspell slightly, just enough to trigger a prompt for proper spelling, which brings up the friend's name. That may not work for you, but I offer it as a possibility.

LornaJ2
LornaJ2 Question owner
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Thanks, David, but that is what I have been doing and it isn't working.

The person's name is Laëtitia. If I type Laetitia (without the accented character), if the dictionary is set to English UK it brings up "Letitia" and "Dietitian". If the dictionary is set to English US it is not flagged as incorrect, and if it is set to French it brings up "Lætitia" (special character, unfortunately not the right one!). For some reason, none of the entries in my personal dictionary are being considered by the spell checker.

Maybe a flag is not set somewhere so the personal dictionary is being ignored?

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Okay, but the dictionary does bring up the name with accent characters, so that's a small saving. Good luck.