Are You Missing the MS Office English Dictionary Inside of Revit?

[Misteracad]

OK, so I've researched this problem to the enth degree and am finding nothing :cry: I've looked on the Autodesk Discussion Groups, as well as these Forums, and am wondering if other users even realize that this is a problem with their current Revit product! I'm currently working with Autodesk, but they claim the problem was fixed in the current build...I say it isn't. So here it is...

I have MS Office 2007 installed on my PC, as well as the latest build of both Revit MEP 2008 and Revit Structure 2008. In both Revit products, I do not have the option to use the MS Word English dictionary, however I used too. Last year I noticed this problem after installing one of the earlier builds/patches, but when I installed the latest build (latest at that time) the dictionary came back. Since then I have installed the last two builds and in both cases I have lost the English dictionary. Interestingly, two of our Revit Structure users have Office 2003 and the English dictionary is present. Therefore, I thought it was an Office 2007 problem. I tried troubleshooting this issue on another PC with Office 2003 and came to the conclusion that Office 2007 is not necessarily the issue :? You see, depending on the login I use (personal with administrative rights, or general IT use with administrative rights), I get different results. When I login myself on the PC where ALL service packs have been installed concurrently over time, I have one option under the MS Office dropdown...French. However, logging in as someone else "sometimes" gets me FOUR different MS Office dictionaries, including the English (U.S.) version :?:

Please see the attachments I have provided to illustrate what I am talking about.

FYI, I know this has been fixed in the past because it used to work on my PC during one of the previous build releases, and I thought it was resolved. But here I am again with the problem, and we are preparing to roll-out Office 2007 to our entire office along with the Revit products. Obviously we want to make sure that any issues with missing dictionaries is resolved first! Please help :roll:

Thanks in advance,

[DaveP]

Says French for me, too. Nothing else.
RAC 2008 Build 20071109_2345
MS Office 2007

[Misteracad]

Says French for me, too. Nothing else.
RAC 2008 Build 20071109_2345
MS Office 2007

Exactly! Thank you for validating my experience. You may want to try installing the latest build # 20080101_2345 and see if anything changes. That's what Autodesk already told me to do, but it didn't solve the problem here :? I'd be curious if your experience will be the same as mine.

[jeffh]

MS Office 2007 uses a different dictionary file format than previous versions of of MS Office. Upon installing Office 2007 the old format dictionary files are removed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932974 (This article specifically mentions outlook express but I believe this problem would manifest in ANY application leveraging MS office dictionaries)

This is the cause for Revit not finding the English dictionary. You would have to re-install the dictionary files from the older versions of Office in order to use this as your spell checker. I am not even totally sure if it is possible to install the old dictionary with Office 2007 running.

I am not sure about the issue when you are describing logging on with other users ids and getting other results. I am pretty sure this issue is related to MS office 2007 and the dictionary format change.

You say you are working with Autodesk on this issue, do you happen to have the SR# of the case you have logged. I can look into it a litttle more with that info.

[Andre Carvalho]

But then how come the MS Office 2007 french dictionary shows on the list?

And he said that if he logs on with another username the dictionaries will work or not depending on the administratives rights he has. If it was an issue with MS Office using new dictionaries versions, it shouldn't work at all, regardless of administratives rights, isn't it?

Andre Carvalho

[jeffh]

Yeah, I don't know about the logging on as differnet users part of the problem.

As for the French question; If you look closely at the MS knowledgebase article I linked to, it says the English, Spanish, and German spellcheckers are removed. It leaves French (from the old Office install) behind for some strange reason. ???? I had the same thing happen to a Laptop after Office 2007 was installed.

[Misteracad]

MS Office 2007 uses a different dictionary file format than previous versions of of MS Office. Upon installing Office 2007 the old format dictionary files are removed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932974 (This article specifically mentions outlook express but I believe this problem would manifest in ANY application leveraging MS office dictionaries)

This is the cause for Revit not finding the English dictionary. You would have to re-install the dictionary files from the older versions of Office in order to use this as your spell checker. I am not even totally sure if it is possible to install the old dictionary with Office 2007 running.

I am not sure about the issue when you are describing logging on with other users ids and getting other results. I am pretty sure this issue is related to MS office 2007 and the dictionary format change.

You say you are working with Autodesk on this issue, do you happen to have the SR# of the case you have logged. I can look into it a litttle more with that info.

Thanks Jeff, I'll contact you offline to discuss particulars.

Meanwhile I am not yet convinced that this is a simple Outlook issue, as a result of the login issues. I've since heard from Autodesk stating that this was a known issue and it would be fixed in the next major release. The tech told me he would attach my Service Request to help add weight to the matter. Maybe if those who are also experiencing this issue, submit a ticket as well, we'll get a faster turnaround. Personally I'm hoping for a Hotfix, or maybe even a workaround.

[Misteracad]

I thought I'd post an update for those following this...

Heard back from Jeff Hanson at Autodesk and he spoke to the technical rep who is dealing with my support ticket. Both of them still think that this is a problem related to the dictionary files coming out of Office. They can't really explain all of the different scenarios having different results, so they are at a bit of a loss with that. However, what they do know is that the dictionary format and locations change in Office 2007. That being said, if you are setting Revit to use MS Office dictionaries and something is different than expected, problems are going to arise, which is what we are seeing here. The Revit user can only choose to look at Office dictionaries because the location is hard coded, so if Microsoft has changed the pathing in Office 2007, Revit needs to recognize this at the program level. The other problem is the fact that the format of the dictionary has also been changed, so Revit also has to read this newer format from Microsoft...again a change at the program level. Unfortunately he said both options are not good from a user standpoint :cry:

Meanwhile the Autodesk technical rep working on this has escalated the ticket and attached it to an existing Change Request being looked at by the development team. They will look at coming up with a resolution, although I have no ETA.

Thanks Jeff, for giving this your personal attention. I appreciate the added assistance as well as just knowing that I'm not going crazy!

[Alex Page]

I Have two seperate problems:
1. My 'Microsoft Office' button is completely grayed out...
2. Does anyone know how to change the Additional Dictionaries? On some of our PC's is using our MS Office Custom dictionary, on others its using a Revit dictionary...I can edit it but cannot change the dictionary. Tried copying across the revit.ini but that didnt work...

[Misteracad]

I Have two seperate problems:
1. My 'Microsoft Office' button is completely grayed out...
2. Does anyone know how to change the Additional Dictionaries? On some of our PC's is using our MS Office Custom dictionary, on others its using a Revit dictionary...I can edit it but cannot change the dictionary. Tried copying across the revit.ini but that didnt work...

Hi Alex. You don't mention what flavor of Revit you are using, or the version. However, even without that knowledge, I can tell you that we're now using the latest 2009 version of Revit MEP and Structural with WU3, both in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors [Build 20081118_1045 & 20081118_1045(x64) respectively]. I can say wholeheartedly that the issue previously reported with the missing dictionaries is still there, in each of these versions. Interestingly, in my personal version of 32-bit RMEP, the option to choose the French Word dictionary exists, but in a recent install of the 64-bit RMEP on another PC, the Word option is grayed out. Whatever the case, the preferred method of choosing the current Word dictionary is still not doable to my knowledge. At least not the 2007 version of Word...it was mentioned previously that one can reinstall the Word 2003 dictionary, but I doubt that is the solution most of us are looking for :(

I should also mention that my co-worker found a White Paper of known issues in RMEP 64-bit, and it specifically mentions this dictionary problem. This may or may not be a sign of an acknowledgement from Autodesk with regard to all versions/flavors...can't say since I haven't read any other White Papers for those apps...but it's worth sharing nevertheless. See attached...it's the LAST item on the final page :p

[Alex Page]

Revit 2008 and 2009 in our office, latest build of each - all of them have defaulted to different dictionaries.

But the Office 2007 dictionaries problem doesnt answer my second questions - how do I change the 'Additional dictionary"?

On my PC with MS Office 2007 loaded, the 'Microsoft Office" button is greyed out, but the additional dictionary is our MS Office custom dictionary!!
Which is perfect, but on some other PC's its not and I cant change it to be.

[eldad]

anymore news in regard to this?

[Misteracad]

Revit 2008 and 2009 in our office, latest build of each - all of them have defaulted to different dictionaries.

But the Office 2007 dictionaries problem doesnt answer my second questions - how do I change the 'Additional dictionary"?

On my PC with MS Office 2007 loaded, the 'Microsoft Office" button is greyed out, but the additional dictionary is our MS Office custom dictionary!!
Which is perfect, but on some other PC's its not and I cant change it to be.

Alex, we haven't had a need to change to a custom dictionary, so I don't have any experience to compare. However, I can attest to the results you posted that my Microsoft Office option is grayed out like yours.


anymore news in regard to this?

Eldad, nothing new to report on this front...still dealing with the only option we feel we are left with...to use the Revit dictionary and customize it as we go.

For anyone else following this thread, I will mention that I have failed to follow-up with Autodesk on the open ticket I placed in February of last year, but based on their response (see below), I really did not expect to hear anything and therefore am waiting for the next major release to see the fix. See below for the actual text from that message:

"The issue is that the new paths for the dictionaries in MS Office 2007 are not recognized by Revit Architecture or Revit MEP. Only if you upgrade MS Office from a previous installation, and keep the original dictionary, Revit will see the original dictionary. It will not recognize the new dictionary."

"This is a known issue and a fix has tentatively been scheduled to be implemented in the next major release of Revit Architecture and Revit MEP. I am going to link your case to the existing Change Request to add weight to the issue."

For what it's worth, I hope this helps...

[Jshaver]

I too have the same problem with the lack of MS dictionaries. I believe in my particular case is because I had Revit installed with the previous office products and then upgraded office to 2007. Regardless we are using our own "custom" dictionary but Autodesk does not offer the option to turn off the "building industry" dictionary and therefor we are left with conflicting abbreviations and punctuation if you attempt to create a custom dictionary...so until Autodesk lets us omit the building industry dic I recommend editting it instead of creating a custom dic file ;).

[Misteracad]

NEWSFLASH!!!

I guess the developers decided not to "fix" the problem we were all having with the MS dictionary in Revit and remove the option all together! I just loaded Revit MEP 2010 and the option to choose the Microsoft Office dictionary is completely gone from the interface. See attached...

I guess it was just easier to remove the problem than to fix it :?

[Alex Page]

Our last chance of having a company wide dictionary just flew out the window....