Word 2003 Installation

Installing the Bislama Spelling Dictionary - Microsoft Word 2003

Note: This installer will not work for later versions of Microsoft Word.  (see Word 2007/2010 instructions)

Install the software:

  1. Download the automatic installer here and then simply run the install program.
  2. Download a .zip file here. (if you cannot download a .exe file).  Double click the .zip file and then run the install program.

To test the installation:

Open a new Word document, enter the word lukim and press the spacebar. You should not see a red squiggly line under the word if you have installed the dictionary file correctly. 

 

Word 2007/2010 Installation

Installing the Bislama Spelling Dictionary - Microsoft Word 2007/2010

Note: This install process will not work for earlier versions of Microsoft Word.  (see Word 2003 instructions)

There are different locations for storing the custom dictionary files, depending on the Operating System and version of Word you are using.

To install the Bislama Spelling Dictionary you will need to:

  • Locate the folder Word uses to store your dictionary files
  • Copy the Bislama dictinary file to that folder
  • Change the Word settings to include that custom dictionary
  • Test that you have installed the dictionary correctly

1. Locate your Dictionary Folder

Perhaps the quickest and easiest method is to do a search for *.dic. This will locate the folder that contains any existing dictionary files on your system. Alternatively, check below for Operating System standard locations.

Windows XP

Windows XP stores the custom Dictionary files in:
c:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof

Where %username% is the logon account that you wish to add the dictionary to (your username).

Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8

Vista and Windows 7 stores user accounts under c:\users so the path to the custom dictionary becomes:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof

Where %username% is the logon account that you wish to add the dictionary to (your username).

2. Copy the Bislama Dictionary File

Download the file below and copy into the folder that holds your dictionary files (as identified above). This file is just a simple text file with one word per line so you can edit it with Windows Notepad and other text editors.

Download the Bislama Spelling Dictionary file for Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 (UNICODE format)

3. Change Word Settings to include the new dictionary

Start Word 2007/2010

For Word 2007: - Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
For Word 2010: - Click File then Options
Click Proofing
Click the Custom Dictionaries button.
Click the Add button and select the bislama-unicode.dic file.
Click OK several times until all the options boxes are closed.
You have now finished the install.

4. To test the installation:

Open a new Word document, enter the word lukim and press the spacebar. You should not see a red squiggly line under the word if you have installed the dictionary file correctly. 

 

Word for Mac

Installing the Bislama Spelling Dictionary - Word for Mac

There are different locations for storing the custom dictionary files, depending on the Operating System and version of Word you are using.

To install the Bislama Spelling Dictionary you will need to:

  • Locate the folder Word uses to store your dictionary files
  • Copy the Bislama dictinary file to that folder
  • Change the Word settings to include that custom dictionary
  • Test that you have installed the dictionary correctly

1. Locate your Dictionary Folder

Perhaps the quickest and easiest method is to do a search for *.dic. This will locate the folder that contains any existing dictionary files on your system.

2. Download the Bislama Dictionary File

Download the file below and save it somewhere safe (eg in your documents folder). This file is just a simple text file with one word per line so you can edit it with a text editor.

Download the Bislama Spelling Dictionary file for Microsoft Word.

3. Start Word and change settings

Open MS Word 
go to
-> Preferences
-> Grammar and Spelling
-> Dictionaries
-> add
browse to your local folder where you saved the .dic file and select it.

(if you're unable to select it then choose the option to select ALL files, not just the verified dictionaries or the personal one.) 

You have now finished the install.

4. To test the installation:

Open a new Word document, enter the word lukim and press the spacebar. You should not see a red squiggly line under the word if you have installed the dictionary file correctly. 

Thanks to Willy Zamler for these instructions.

 

Firefox

Installing the Bislama Spelling Dictionary - Firefox

1. Download the bislama.txt file

This file contains all the Bislama words. It is a simple text file with one word per line.

Download it from here by Right clicking and selecting "Save As" (or it will open in your browser), save to your desktop or anywhere you can find it easily. 

2. Locate your persdict.dat file

To install the Bislama Spelling Dictionary, you have to modify the persdict.dat [a text file with dat extension] located in the profile folder of your Firefox installation.  This is the file that contains your personal dictionary.

Windows XP Location

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile name> persdict.dat holds the personal dictionary entries used by the spellchecker that have been added by you.

Windows Vista/Windows7/Windows 8

C:\Users\<username>\App Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile name>persdict.dat

If you can't find this file, search for "persdict.dat".  If you still cannot find this file, it may not have been created yet (as you may have not added a word to the personal dictionary). To create the file, go to www.google.com (Using Firefox!) and in the search box type the word "aaaa", right click and select Spellcheck this field. The word should now be underlined and you can right click it and select Add to Dictionary. This will create your new persdict.dat file with just aaaa in it. Remember to delete this word from persdict.dat in the next steps.

3. Shut down Firefox.

4. Open the persdict.dat file using Notepad or any text editor.

5. Copy all the words from bislama.txt into persdict.dat

With persdict.dat open inside Notepad, open bislama.txt in another Notepad window. Copy all the words from bislama.txt and add them to the end of the persdic.dat file. Make sure every word is on it's own line.  Remember to delete that "aaaa" word that you added at the start.

6. Save and close the persdict.dat file, close bislama.txt

7. Restart Firefox.

8. To test:

Go back to www.google.com and enter lukum in the search box, right click in the search box and select Spellcheck this field. If you have installed it correctly, lukim should not be highlighted with a red squiggly line. Try some other Bislama words and they should work too.

 

Bislama Spelling Dictionary

This dictionary is a collection of over 6,500 words in the Bislama language.  While it has been carefully checked for accuracy, there are no guarantees it is 100% correct.  There are variations in how to spell many words and where there is a discrepancy we have used the reference "A New Bislama Dictionary" (2nd Edition) by Dr Terry Crowley to determine the correct spelling.

Bislama Spelling Dictionary for Microsoft Word

Install the Dictionary in Firefox

Download in other formats

Copyright and Licencing

This dictionary is copyright by the Government of Vanuatu, 2007. This dictionary is licenced under the GNU General Public Licence, version 2. This allows any one to freely use, distribute and make derivative works. See the GNU Public Licence for full deails of the licence conditions.

Credits

Curriculum writers of the Vanuatu Community Certificate (Vanuatu Institute of Technology and the TVET Sector Strengthening Project). Supported by the Vanuatu National Language Council.
Proofreaders and assistants: Dr Robert Early, Arthur Edgell, Angela Williams, Eddie Etul, Marian Loughman.
Programming and Project Management by Daryl Moon.

Reference

"A New Bislama Dictionary", 2nd edition, Terry Crowley, Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, Vanuatu, 2003. ISBN: 982-02-0362-7

How we made the dictionary

This was a great team effort - first, we extracted all the text from the Vanuatu Community Certificate teaching and learning materials (written in Bislama) and produced one large list of words. The list was sorted and duplicates and English words were removed. A couple of computer programs were then written in the Perl programming language to help identify new words. This was done by reading in a new document and comparing words to the existing list of Bislama words and a list of 120,000 English words. Any word that did not appear in the Bislama or English list was identified as a possible new word to be checked before adding to the Bislama list. A list of words was also received from the Vaunutu National Language Council and these words (which also contained a number of Bible words) were also added. A list of all village names and island names was provided by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. A large number of abbreviations from various sources was also added. The Bislama list was then checked against the Bislama Dictionary by Terry Crowley (ref. above). Some experienced Bislama teachers and speakers checked the list of words as we found many words that did not appear in Crowley's dictionary. Finally, Dr Robert Early from the University of the South Pacific checked the entire list of words. Thanks to all those that helped!