Add word with pipe/vertical bar to MS Word or Office Dictionary

Question

I happen to be writing about Wolfram|Alpha in MS Word and PowerPoint, and both applications give it the red wavy underline indicating misspelling. When I right click and select "Add to Dictionary," the red line goes away momentarily but then reappears right away on the next check (immediately for Word, after clicking away from the word in PowerPoint).

I checked the custom dictionary file as described in this answer and found the term listed there (twice, actually; even removing one of those lines and restarting Word didn't help; a re-add from Word made it show up twice again).

The vertical bar or pipe character ("|") as part of the word seems to be the problem. Does anybody know why?

Answer 1

You can trick Word by using a Unicode control character called Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ). Here's how:

1. First, type the word Wolfram. When it's marked as a spelling mistake, add it to your dictionary. I assume 'Alpha' is already a valid word (if not, add it as well).
2. Type `Wolfram|Alpha'. It will be marked as a spelling mistake.
3. Place the caret before or after the pipe symbol.
4. From the Insert tab click Symbol and then More Symbols.
5. In the Character code field type 200D and click Insert (see screenshot below).
6. Close the Symbol dialog.

The phrase Wolfram|Alpha will now be treated as valid text.

To save time typing and adding the ZWJ every time:

1. Select and copy the phrase with the ZWJ character.
2. Under Options > Proofing > Autocorrect paste the phrase in the Replace as you type area and assign a shortcut (like wa).

Now whenever you type wa it will be expanded automatically to this phrase.

Here's a screenshot of the Symbol dialog box from Word 2010: