Dictionary Add-in for Word 2003?

August 10, 2010 9:29 AM

The default dictionary in Word 2003 is burdened by slow response time from the query server @ Microsoft. We're fed up with it in our corporate environment. Does anyone know a third-party app that integrates well with Word 2003?
posted by iam2bz2p to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Really? The dictionaries should be local as .lex files. Not sure what your company has done, but the default doesn't involve any network communication.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2010

I've never heard anything about Office downloading dictionaries either. I think your corporate IT has misconfigured something.
posted by sbutler at 10:08 AM on August 10, 2010

(Tools > Research and Tools > Language allow you to add online dictionaries. )

Are you using it for translation? Is the default internal dictionary insufficient? Try turning off the online dictionary (Tools > Research > Research Options in the sidebar) and see what happens.
posted by zamboni at 10:08 AM on August 10, 2010

Response by poster: hmmm... in the Research option Task Pane-- we have "Encarta Dictionary: English" and "Thesaurus: English" selected. The Encarta is the problem. The Thesaurus is fast, but Encarta just says "Searching" and will return a result in 2 minutes or more. FRUSTRATING!

We do have the "MSGR3EN.LEX" dictionary file in C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\PROOF. Are the .Lex files for spell checking or dictionary lookups via the Research Task Pane?

As far as I can tell, the Encarta lookup via the Research Task pane uses: http://office.microsoft.com/Research/query.asmx as its online lookup, not the local .lex files.

I assume from your experiences, an Alt+click is fast?
posted by iam2bz2p at 10:19 AM on August 10, 2010

Response by poster: Just to clarify-- we need a solution for a dictionary/thesarus LOOKUP (not a spell checker) that is fast.
posted by iam2bz2p at 10:30 AM on August 10, 2010