add to dictionary greyed out in word 2010

Dan and Suzanne, I'm sorry you're taking this attitude, but flaming a person with a legitimate problem isn't a solution.  The solution you proposed (the link) simply isn't the answer in this case, and any solution shouldn't require special knowledge or a person with a degree in computer science to implement.  As the original complainant said, this problem just cropped up recently, and it could easily be a software bug in a "fix" to another problem.  Lord knows, this software is complex enough.  I will agree with those who say Microsoft's support system is flawed.  Most companies will handle legitimate support requests without imposing outrageous charges, but it seems Micsosoft's attitude is a bit of "Let 'em eat cake."  Anyway, the solution I proposed works for me, a bit annoying but effective, but I'm not saying it would work for anyone else.

P.S. I was a mainframe systems programmer working on mostly big IBM mainframes for about 40 years and mostly in assembly languange.  While I don't have that level of expertise on PCs, I have been working with Word ever since it came out in the mid-80s including writing complex macros (Why, oh why, do they keep screwing around with the macro language?) and before that (beginning in 1981) I had a Xerox Star terminal on my desk, the forerunner of all things Windows and Word.

I apologize for the flames. The problem with this thread is that several people provided the standard solutions, but the OP never came back to say whether or not they helped. Then another user, ianmedia, joined the thread to say that the offered solutions didn't work for him. Since no one had any further information, the thread died.

When vicfatah joined the thread many months later, he got started on the wrong foot by writing:

"None of these suggestion, which I have previously seen online help at all. Please answer my specific problem, ie that the problem only applies to some emails and some word documents. I am using Windows 7 & Office 2010.

"I suppose this rotten customer service is what I get for being a loyal MS customer for decades!

"Answer the question you lazy people...."

I think you'll agree that this sort of diplomacy is not likely to make anyone particularly eager to try to help, but if any of us had an answer, we would certainly offer it. Apparently no one had any ideas. Sometimes that happens; we do our best, but we don't know everything, and shouting at us and being rude doesn't make us any smarter.

I hope that the solution you suggested will work for someone, perhaps even for vicfatah.

I am sorry to see there have been heated exchanges over this topic, but I do share the frustration of others. I have Word 2010 with spellcheck that worked when it was first installed on my computer last June. But earlier this year, I found I could no longer add words. As I am a professional writer it is increasingly irritating that Microsoft does not know why this has happened. To repeat what I have said before: I suspect that the problem is due to a Windows update.