I’m trying to add a word to my personal word list, but I can’t find it anywhere. Words that were once in my personal word list are still there, but I can’t add a new one. All the help and forum tips say it can be found in File - Options - Corrections - Spelling - Personal Word List but Scrivener 3 for Mac doesn’t have that, it has Scrivener - Settings - Corrections…and no Spelling - Personal Word List. I can’t find it in Project Settings either. Has it been removed?
Many thanks!
File - Options - Corrections - Spelling - Personal Word List is
where the personal dictionary is found on the Windows version of Scrivener.
On the Mac, the personal word list is part of the System, not Scrivener. It is found at ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary.
I have no idea why you can’t add any new words to it through the spelling dialog, nor do I know if words can be entered in it using a plain text editor like BBEdit, but that’s where it is.
Mark
Thanks for replying. I can’t right click and tell it to unlearn now either. I used to be able to do that too.
Have you by any chance installed Grammarly? I think that blocks the Apple spelling system from working properly.
Mark
No, I don’t use Grmmarly. However…I’ve found it. By accident, I think. But it’s in Apple - System Settings - Keyboard - Text Replacements. (In case anyone else is wondering too.)
Thanks again for replying. You forced me to go and check my Apple Mac settings. (Forty years a PC and 7 months a MAC, I’m still learning!) 
For the record, Apple moves the actual spelling dictionary file around from time to time. As of macOS 15, I found it to be located here.
Now, when you say you can’t have it learn new words, are you using the method you did before, or right-clicking on a spelling error and selecting “Learn Word”, but it has no effect? If so, then the thread I linked you to is actually where this discussion should be taking place, and I’ll go ahead and close this duplicate thread.
It’s a known Apple bug of sorts, but we aren’t entirely sure of how it happens, so we’d appreciate any further info you can provide on why or how it doesn’t work, in that thread.
@poetswife : But it’s in Apple - System Settings - Keyboard - Text Replacements. (In case anyone else is wondering too.)
Unless I’m misunderstanding what you were looking for initially, this is something else entirely. The spell check system that underlines words in red, and how you would have it “learn” words, uses the file described above.
The Text Replacements tool is more like a simple word expansion utility. For instance you can set it to look for “lnlwww” as you type it in, and turn it into “https://www.literatureandlatte.com/” automatically. It’s completely different than spell checking, and if you put spelling errors into it, they’ll be marked as errors after replacing what you typed.
I’m glad you found it. And welcome to the Mac community. There will be many things, I don’t doubt, which are different from what you are used to on a PC, so just ask if you need help or elucidation at any point.
Mark
That’s awful. On Windows, Grammarly actually defers to the Scrivener dictionary, switching itself off. The Grammarly icon disappears, doesn’t turn to grey, actually disappears.
The quickest way to get it back is to click in a field/text area in the Inspector, even a Bookmark preview window, and back into the Editor, which is a very well-considered and considerate implementation by their developers.
It all works in the blink of an eye, not taking you away from editing, even while it reasses the document and its error counter increases.
Originally accidentally posted this against the other thread!
Funnily enough, on my M1 MBA running MacOS 15.4.1, my LocalDictionary is in the latter as I said above. The ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.AppleSpell/… Local Dictionary is empty on this machine. I’m away from home so I can’t check the Mac Mini. I guess it is inherited from a previous machine; I don’t think I’ve added any new words on this machine (not that there are many anyway).
Mark
Given the localisation aspect, and the unpredictability of where this file might be, or what it is even called (seriously Apple, it can’t be that difficult), that is why I recommend the troubleshooting steps in the other thread. Looking at one file and noting it doesn’t seem to “learn” words is not enough, because that file may not even be what the system is using.
But no worries on posting here or there, this will almost certainly be merged over there anyway. I only hesitated over the confusion of whether we are even talking about spell checking, or text replacements.
Thanks again for the replies!
I updated my Scrivener to 3.5 and now the learn and unlearn options are back. So that’s one thing resolved.
I started to use Scrivener on Windows many, many moons ago, and was very jealous of everything the Mac version could do that the Windows version couldn’t do. But then I had to re-find special characters, and now I don’t have a personal words list, so maybe there are pros and cons to both.
On Scriv Win, I could tell Scriv to learn a specific spelling and to auto-correct it where necessary. I can’t seem to do that on Scriv Mac. This is a pity as every time there’s a Mac update, I have to hunt for my user or local dictionary, or whatever they’re calling it.
I definitely don’t have LocalDictionary on Mac Sonoma 14.5, on the MacbookAir I’m currently using while on a roadtrip, and I can’t even find Spelling in the Library. When we get home, I’ll have a look at the Mac Mini M2, which uses a Sequoia OS.
If Scriv for Mac came with its own dictionary attached, like the Win one seems to do, I wouldn’t have this problem every time I use a different OS.
For info, the word it remembered was originally added to the Personal Words List on Scriv Win. So I seem to have carried that across. I don’t remember adding it to the laptop, but when I found the Text Replacements option in Keyboard, it was already there. So maybe I did stumble on it before too.
I’d asked it to auto-correct Coilin to Cóilín, an old Irish name, and that still works. This time I wanted it to auto-correct Citroen to Citroën, which now also works.
AND, since updating, I can now ask it to learn and unlearn spellings.
So I’m happy for now, but it would be so useful if Scrivener had the option of its own user specific dictionary, if possible. Aside from the existing language dictionaries it does have, if you get my drift.
Thanks again for all the replies. We’re still on our 3-week roadtrip around the Highlands of Scotland in a campervan and we don’t often get a working signal. So I’m not ignoring any responses! 
Diane
On Scriv Win, I could tell Scriv to learn a specific spelling and to auto-correct it where necessary. I can’t seem to do that on Scriv Mac.
Auto-correction needs to be enabled. You will find it listed as, Correct spelling errors as you type, at the very top of the Corrections tab. This can be turned on (or off) independently from the system-wide setting in Keyboard: Input Sources, but it’s the same engine. It’s not technically a Scrivener feature on Mac.
This is a pity as every time there’s a Mac update, I have to hunt for my user or local dictionary, or whatever they’re calling it.
That doesn’t seem right to me. Granted if you’ve only experienced the Mac for the past year or two, maybe it seems more chaotic and unreliable. It more recently that have they made a mess of spell check in general (and other notable aspects of text editing, like redrawing lines under some conditions which can cause overlapping or invisible text).
If Scriv for Mac came with its own dictionary attached, like the Win one seems to do, I wouldn’t have this problem every time I use a different OS.
Yeah, but then instead of zero lines of code we’d have to have thousands of lines of code, and use downloaded community/volunteer created dictionaries that everyone complains about (like on Windows). Never mind the malaise that comes from knowing you spent half a year reinventing a wheel that was already pretty good, and will have to continue reinventing it and updating it and bug fixing it for all of your days to come… instead of having zero lines of code! 
For info, the word it remembered was originally added to the Personal Words List on Scriv Win.
That must have been something you did a while back and not made note of. There are ways to migrate your word list by hand, but it’s not the sort of thing you’d do for one word.
I see red-underlining for words (like latin or a name) in documents. Yet, I can edit some with a learn spelling option while others have the options greyed out? Or it shows as a look up and/or translate but all I want to do is here also learn the spelling?
Hi @Grlandgraff , welcome to the forum! Your topic has been merged on a thread with others experiencing similar issues. Please read upthread for explanations and solutions.