Can't make the dictionary remember words

[Purpendicular]

I am trying to add words to the US English dictionary. However, if I add a word such as "Wrangham" or "erectus" (from Homo erectus), the red markings showing it to be misspelled disappear for a few minutes, and then return.

I understand that Nisus uses the the built-in Apple dictionary, but my searching for help with that one did not turn up anything useful. It is as if I as a user does not have write privileges for the dictionary.

I am using the latest version of Nisus, a development version that you provided me with (thanks!) due to crashes, but I have had this issue for several years, always running the latest MacOS and the latest Nisus.

Erik

[Þorvarður]

I am trying to add words to the US English dictionary.

This is your custom dictionary. It can be found here:
/Users/YOU/Library/Spelling/en

My English custom dictionary is just called "en". Perhaps yours has the same name too. Anyway, select the file in Finder and choose Get Info from Finder's File menu. Check whether your account has 'Read & Write' privilege. "Staff" and "everyone" can be 'Read only'.
The enclosing folder itself (called "Spelling") should also have 'Read & Write' privilege, but the folder's 'everyone' has 'No Access', at least that's how it is by me.

Custom dictionaries are just text files, and they can be opened with TextEdit and Nisus. Thus you can easily remove words from the custom dictionary in case you accidentally added them. You can also open your English custom dictionary and paste a long (vertical) list of new unknown words into the file, all in one go. After you save and close the file, Nisus spell checker should recognize the new words. This can be extremely useful in combination with the macro "MisspelledWordList". The macro creates a list of all misspelled words from the active selection(s) or the whole document. You can then delete the tabs and the page numbers from the list and paste all the words into the custom dictionary. Very practical and can save a lot of time.

One last idea. In case your custom dictionary has got corrupt somehow, you can replace it with a new, pristine TextEdit file.

[Purpendicular]

Thanks for the help! The read and write were set correctly, but the file was "locked". I unlocked it, and now my added words appear in it.