Keep Your Job at Christmas with a Typo Trap

At this time of year, with Nativity plays and office parties abounding a last minute festive greeting sent by email to your boss could go seriously wrong if you address it to the Senor Pubic Manger, as opposed to your Senior Public Manager. An exclude dictionary made for Word could save you all kinds of embarrassment if you’re typing is a little shaky the morning after the night before.

I didn’t know it until this morning, but Microsoft Word allows three different types of dictionary files. Three you say? Yes, as well as the main dictionary and any custom dictionary you add (a medical or science dictionary, for instance), you can have an exclude dictionary. The purpose of such an exclude dictionary, explains Productivity Portfolio, is as an “Exception file of words, which prompts the spell checker. These entries override the main dictionary.” PP provides several other potentially embarrassing common typos, suing/using and patent/parent, for instance. But, more importantly, the site explains how to find your main dictionary and how to add and customize an exclude dictionary.

But it’s not just about preventing your spellchecker from not registering typos where the typo is a real word (like manager and manger). If you have the typographical equivalent of Tourette’s and are wont to litter your electronic missives with profanities, just add all those swear words and other taboos to your exclude dictionary and they’ll be flagged next time you write a memo to your boss when you’re in an angry mood. This little tip could one day, especially around Christmas, save you your jab job.

Speaking of linguistic oddities find out why male semen is redundant over on Sciencebase in a brief interview with Harvard Steven Pinker.