InDesign

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Hyphenation and spelling dictionaries

InDesign uses Proximity dictionaries for most languages to verify spelling and to hyphenate words. You can add words to each dictionary to customize it. You can assign different languages to text, and InDesign uses the appropriate dictionary to handle spelling and hyphenation. You can create additional user dictionaries, and you can import or export word lists saved in a plain text file.

When you customize the words in a dictionary, you actually create lists of added words (words that aren’t already in the dictionary) and removed words (existing dictionary words that you want to be flagged as a potential misspelling). The Dictionary dialog box lets you display and edit added words, removed words, and ignored words (words that are ignored for the current session because you clicked Ignore All).
If you want to use the language dictionaries from a previous version of InDesign or InCopy, use your system Find command to locate the user dictionary files (.udc), and then add them to your list of dictionaries in Dictionary preferences.

Where dictionary words are stored

By default, hyphenation and spelling exceptions are located in user dictionary files stored outside the document on the computer where InDesign is installed (dictionary file names end with a .udc or .not extension). However, you can also store exception lists inside any InDesign document. In addition, you can store word lists in an external user dictionary, in the document, or in both. The location of existing dictionaries appears in the Dictionary preferences.

Storing hyphenation and spelling exceptions inside a document makes it easier to treat text consistently when you move that document to other computers. For this reason, you can merge the user dictionary into the document in Dictionary Preferences. You can also control the location of exceptions from the Create Package Folder dialog box (see Package files). In contrast, storing an exception list outside the document makes it easier to use the same list of exceptions for multiple documents.

Note: If the user dictionary is merged into the exceptions list, the entire user dictionary is added to the document, even if the words are not used, thereby increasing the document’s file size.

Applying languages to text

You can use the Language menu in the Control panel or Character panel to apply a language to selected text. You can also specify a default language for an entire document, or for all new documents. (See Assign a language to text.)

Exception word lists

You can exclude words from being considered. For example, if you want to use an alternate spelling for a common word such as “bicycle,” which you may need to spell in a different way for your company name or for a specific document, add the word to the list of excluded words so that it will be flagged during a spell check. InDesign can maintain a separate set of added and removed words for each installed language.