Despite all the effort that has gone into bringing about a spelling reform for German, astonishingly little research has been done into the use of spelling dictionaries. The present study sets out to test the utility of generally available dictionaries of this kind (including the DUDEN). Can spelling dictionaries be made more user-friendly? The findings of the study are crystallized in 14 suggestions for improvement pertaining both to the dictionary section proper (the handling of the entries themselves) and the sections on spelling rules.