Spell check another language

[chulling]

I’m trying to run a spell check in Word 2007 for Australian English.
Previously, in Word 2003, I was able to run a spell check on documents
written in Australian English by installing a supplemental dictionary on my
computer that enabled Word 2003 to find words spelled with English U.S. and
show them as misspelled. For example, the American spelling of the word
“analyze†is spelled “analyse†in Australian English.
Now that I’m using Word 2007, spell check doesn’t stop at these words, even
though I’ve applied Australian English to my text under Review/Set Language.
I’ve been told that Word’s Australian language dictionary includes both –ise
and –ize as permissible spellings. In order to keep Word from recognising the
–iz variations, you would have to manually exclude each variation of each
word, such as:
Visualize
Visualized
Visualizes
Visualizing
Visualization
It’s also been suggested that the best way to approach this when working on
Australian English documents is to run a find and replace for iz (vs. -is)
and or (vs. -our).
This seems cumbersome. Does anyone know of another way to handle this
problem?

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

The simple fact is that usage is not settled on how to spell -ise/-ize
in non-US English countries. It would thus be wrong for the
spellchecker to consider one or the other as incorrect.

If your style guide insists on doing it one way or the other, you
could Find/Replace all the varieties of the suffix, inserting the one
you prefer.

 

[Pesach Shelnitz]

Hi,

My knowledge of Australian English is very limited, but I do know something
about the differences between US and UK English, and from my testing of the
Word spell checker on Australian English, it seems to me that the spelling of
Australian English is very close to the spelling of UK English.

For most words that end in -ize or -ise, the accepted US and UK English
dictionaries tell us which is preferred and when an alternative is also
acceptable. In both US and UK English, both -ize and -ise are used in
different words, so a global replacement would not give correct results in
either of those versions of English.
With regard to visualize, the Oxford Dictionary (UK English) lists visualize
as the correct form and visualise as also acceptable. See
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/visualize?view=uk. Is there an authority
of Australian English that lists visualise as the only correct form?

With regard to other differences, I find that Word accepts only "colour" and
"centre" as correct in both UK and Australian English, so I don't see that
there is any problem with the -or versus -our issue.

 

[DeanH]

In addition to Peter's and Pesach's comments; you may wish to create an
Excluding Dictionary, which works very well with the -ize and -ise issue, in
the respect that once you have made your personal choice you can ensure your
documents have the versions you want.
I use my Excluding dictionary to also hold other words that are in all
dictionaries and even though correctly spelt, you would rather not appear in
your documents, namely obscene words and the like - need I say more ;-)
With the Excluding Dictionary you will need to enter all variants of the
-ize words, such as -ization, -izing, -ized, -izes, etc. This will take time
but once completed and maintained this because a very powerful tool.
For 2003 and prior: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/ExcludeWordFromDic.htm
For 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101473031033.aspx
Hope this helps
DeanH

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Oxford University Press (London office) lists about half a dozen words
(with their relatives) to be spelled with -ize, all others with -ise.
Other UK publishers do not accept this. The Australian standard may be
the Macquarie dictionaries (or is that NZ?).

 

[Character]

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
...

If your style guide insists on doing it one way or the other, you
could Find/Replace all the varieties of the suffix, inserting the one
you prefer.

Peter -
I don't think that would be wize.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

  ...


Peter -
   I don't think that would be wize.

-ise isn't a suffix in wise ...

Note I didn't suggest using Replace All!