The custom dictionary does not appear to be damaged - it is located in C:\ i have the custom.dic along with custom00.dic, custom01.dic all the way up to custom09.dic. The custom dictionary seems to work fine for short periods of time ranging from several hours to several days but office will seemingly randomly prompt me to create a new one and it creates a new custom dictionary one number up

and yes i am using profiles on this pc the ......\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof folder is empty

I still think it's relevant for you to work thru the suggestion above...humor me

Knowing that the "......\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof" folder is supposed to be the default location for the custom dictonary i coppied the custom.dic file and placed it there - i then used my spellchecker in word and added a test word "asdfg" - it was not placed in the custom.dic in the "......\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof" folder it was however put in the custom09.dic in C:\

attempting to work your solution now

Hmmm...odd one this..I'll await your report...