Free medical dictionary for Microsoft Office

Download and install a free dictionary for common medical words.

My newest project is Pharm450.com, the easiest way to learn pharmacology for USMLE Step 1. Pharm450 packs an entire course on medical pharmacology into a set of entertaining videos that leverage your visual, spatial, and emotional memory so you learn faster and retain more.

Getting tired of seeing red squiggly marks under your diverticula and granulomas? Install a free medical dictionary for Microsoft Office.

This one change handles all the Office tools: Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel.

Mac OSX

1. Download the free dictionary and save the unzipped file *.dic where Office puts all its own dictionaries: /User/ <user>/ Library/ Application Support/ Microsoft/ Office/ Preferences/ Office 2011/

2. Open up Word and any document (blank or existing).

3. Add the dictionary: Preferences → Spelling and Grammar → Custom dictionary → Dictionaries … → Add …

   Note, if the dictionary is grayed out, use the ‘Enable’ dropdown to filter ‘All files’.

4. Quit and restart any Office programs.

Windows

For Word 2013, follow these steps.

Watch a video following these the steps.

For earlier versions of Word, follow the steps below:

1. Download the free dictionary and save the unzipped file Raj&Co-MedSpelChek.dic where Office puts all its own dictionaries: C:
   Users \ <user> \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ UProof

2. Add the dictionary: Tools menu → Options → Spelling & Grammar → Click Custom Dictionaries → Add

3. Activate the custom dictionary. In the Custom Dictionaries dialog box, make sure the check box beside the dictionary’s name is selected. On the Spelling & Grammar tab, clear the Suggest from main dictionary only check box.

4. Quit and restart any Office programs.

If the above didn’t work for you, please use the comments below to post issues or fixes.

Adapted from Microsoft Help.