Spell Check Preferences
On the Spell Check preferences panel, you can set general spell check options and select or modify Dictionaries. For general information about how to start spell checking a record, see Checking Spelling.
To access these settings, go to the Edit menu, select Preferences, and then select Spell Check in the list of preferences.
Note: If you are unable to add dictionaries, or to add words to or edit dictionaries, it is probably because your Windows security settings are preventing you from making changes in the \\Program Files (x86) folder. The best option is to copy the C:\Program Files (x86)\EndNote 2025\Spell folder and all its contents to another location, then load the dictionary files from that location. This should allow you to make changes to the files or create your own dictionary files.
General Options
You can access these Spell Check Options from the EndNote Preferences Spell Check panel or from the dialog that appears when you run Spell Check.
- Click the Options button.
- Select the checkbox next to each item you want to apply during spell checking.
- Select a Main Dictionary language from the list of available dictionaries.
- For each language, EndNote uses a combination of dictionary files located in EndNote’s Spell folder. Select your primary language. If you want to apply additional language dictionaries, see Adding an Existing Dictionary below.
- Decide how fast and accurate you want spell checking to work. We suggest setting the option to at least Moderately fast and accurate.
- Click OK to save the changes.
Modifying Dictionaries
You can access the Dictionaries preferences from the EndNote Preferences Spell Check panel or from the dialog that appears when you run Spell Check.
- Click the Dictionaries button.
- Use this dialog to view or edit the content of existing dictionaries, to add existing dictionaries for use, to create new dictionaries, and to remove dictionaries. The dictionaries listed under Files are currently in use (in addition to the Main Dictionary selected under Options).
- To modify dictionaries:
- Under Files, select the dictionary file you want to view or modify.
- If it is already in the list, select it.
- If you need to locate an existing file to use, use the Add File button to locate the file on your computer and add it to the list. By default, dictionaries are kept in EndNote’s Spell folder.
- To create a new dictionary, click New File.
- To remove a dictionary, display the file name in the list and click Remove File. This removes a dictionary from use, but does not delete the actual disk file.
- The words in the selected dictionary appear in the top list.
- To add a word to the selected dictionary, type it under Words and click Add Word.
- To delete a word from the selected dictionary, select the word and click Delete Word.
- To change the Action applied to a word, select the word and then pick the new Action from the list.
Adding an Existing Dictionary
You may have selected English (or a different language) as your Main Dictionary Language, but want to apply an additional language during spell checking.
- On the Dictionaries dialog, click the Add File button.
- In EndNote’s Spell folder, locate the dictionary file you want to use and Open it. The dictionary is added to the list under Files.
Importing/Exporting a Dictionary
The Dictionaries dialog includes Import and Export buttons.
Use Import to locate and import a plain text file of terms into the current dictionary. The text file should contain a list of terms, with each term on its own line. If you are typing the list into a text file, make sure each term is followed by a carriage return, including the last term in the list. If you are creating the list in a word processor, make sure to use Save As to save the file as plain text. If your terms contain extended characters, save with the Unicode (UTF-8) encoding option.
Use Export to save all terms from a dictionary to a plain text file, where each term starts on a new line.
Dictionaries Supplied with EndNote
These dictionaries are supplied with EndNote. When you select the main dictionary language, a combination of files are loaded, including files not listed here.
When you want to add additional languages, find the Dictionary you want to use from the left column, then look for the corresponding File Name. When you Add a dictionary, look for the appropriate File Name in EndNote’s Spell folder.
| Dictionary List | |
| User Dictionary: Contains English words | accent.tlx |
| User Dictionary: Contains common English misspellings and their correct replacements for auto correction | correct.tlx |
| User Dictionary: Sample user dictionary | userdic.tlx |
| American English | ssceam.tlx |
| American English Medical | sscema.tlx |
| British English | sscebr.tlx |
| British English Medical | sscemb.tlx |
| Danish | ssceda.tlx |
| Dutch | sscedu.tlx |
| Finnish | sscefi.tlx |
| French (European and Canadian) | sscefr.tlx |
| German | sscege.tlx |
| Italian | ssceit.tlx |
| Norwegian (Bokmal) | sscenb.tlx |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) | sscepb.tlx |
| Portuguese (Iberian) | sscepo.tlx |
| Spanish | sscesp.tlx |
| Swedish | sscesw.tlx |