>Despite my adding contactions such as "don't", and "'phoned" in
>autocorrect, the spell check keep giving the normal expressions, and
>also the "ADD" button does not appear.
>        What can be done about this?
>                Siva Lokanathan

I'm not entirely certain what you mean by "normal expressions"...do you
mean that it suggests "do not" for "don't"? Two suggestions:

1. Change your spell checking options so that aren't so fussy. If you go to
Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar tab > Settings... > Grammar and style
options, and scroll down this list, you'll see where you can tell Word to
check or not check for a number of things, by adding or removing the check
mark next to them. One of the options down the list is called "Style -
contractions". If you uncheck this option, it shouldn't bother you anymore.

2. Edit your custom dictionary directly. Also under Tools > Options >
Dictionaries... > Edit (for custom.dic). Once this window is open, you'll
see any special words you've added to your dictionary. Just enter each new
word on its own line. This is also a good place to delete words you may
have added in error with the "add" button. Once you're done playing with
these options, you might want to click "recheck document" so that your new
settings will take effect right away. Otherwise, if you run spell check
again for an already open document, it tends not to work as you'd expect.

If you don't have a "custom.dic" listed there in your options, click the
"dictionaries" button, then click "new" and just create one called
custom.dic. It can be empty to start off with. Word will recognize this as
the place that your specially added words should be stored. (Most of the
time, "custom.dic" shows up by default, but I have seen situations where it
wasn't there yet.)

Susan Sutherland