British Spelling and Custom Dictionary

[Stan_in_London]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I have the same problems as a user reported in a closed thread but the solutions suggested in that thread aren't working for me: customer dictionary and default English (UK).

My definition of a default template and language is that all documents I open in my copy of Word use the language I set. I cannot set the default language to be English UK. It goes to Australian on its own (documents with which I work are not originating from Australia or from Australians with rare exception) and often to US English. US seems to override everything.

Secondly, I cannot access or use a custom dictionary - it is always coming up as not available. I have deleted the customer dictionary as per the forum's recommendations, tried all possible settings but no luck.

Please advise.

FYI the issue of default English is not MAC Office specific - it plagued me when I was a PC user using Windows based Office. Please someone at MS feed this into the product enhancement cycle. Once the user specifies UK English - all documents open up in UK English unless the user manually over rides through Tools menu.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Stan:

While I have been known to be extremely unkind to Microsoft on the subject
of spelling languages, that has not so far produced the slightest change in
this mechanism.

There is no good fix for this: the design is broken and will always fail.
The bugs have been unfixed since 1989.

Your understanding is not the way the mechanism works (make that "fails to
work"). There is no "Default" language: each document has a language
specified at creation, each piece of text has a language specified at
creation, and Word changes the language each time you change to a different
Mac keyboard.

At least you can turn the last one off: In Word>Preferences>Edit, turn off
"Match font with keyboard" to prevent Word switching languages each time you
go for a special character.

Also check in System Preferences to ensure that your International settings
are correct: Word sets its language from the language of the OS on launch.

Go through the styles you use in your Normal Template and set the correct
language in each.

That's as close as you can get: as soon as you paste some text in from
somewhere else, you will be bringing in strange languages, and there's no
fix in sight for this bug.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
I have the same problems as a user reported in a closed thread but the
solutions suggested in that thread aren't working for me: customer dictionary
and default English (UK).

My definition of a default template and language is that all documents I open
in my copy of Word use the language I set. I cannot set the default language
to be English UK. It goes to Australian on its own (documents with which I
work are not originating from Australia or from Australians with rare
exception) and often to US English. US seems to override everything.

Secondly, I cannot access or use a custom dictionary - it is always coming up
as not available. I have deleted the customer dictionary as per the forum's
recommendations, tried all possible settings but no luck.

Please advise.

FYI the issue of default English is not MAC Office specific - it plagued me
when I was a PC user using Windows based Office. Please someone at MS feed
this into the product enhancement cycle. Once the user specifies UK English -
all documents open up in UK English unless the user manually over rides
through Tools menu.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Stan_in_London]

And I said I don't get many documents from Australia. Thanks for that. I have amended that keyboard preference and verify that my computer has always been set for UK. Your signature suggests you know a lot about these issues and it seems like I will need to live with it. I end up continually selecting all the text and in tools set language to English UK. I cannot get my customer dictionary to work though. I guess these are unrelated issues. Thanks again

 

[CyberTaz]

What about Paste Special> Unformatted Text?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Stan:

Yes, we all know chapter and verse about this issue, it's a hardy perennial
around here.

I forgot to mention, make sure your Custom Dictionary is set to "no
language". That enables it to accept words from text regardless of which
language the text is marked with (i.e. It makes it 'work').

Once the custom dictionary has corrupted, it's quickest to simply delete it
and create a new one.

Hope this helps

And I said I don't get many documents from Australia. Thanks for that. I have
amended that keyboard preference and verify that my computer has always been
set for UK. Your signature suggests you know a lot about these issues and it
seems like I will need to live with it. I end up continually selecting all the
text and in tools set language to English UK. I cannot get my customer
dictionary to work though. I guess these are unrelated issues. Thanks again

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Stan_in_London]

I have deleted the customer dictionary but that does not seem to help - thanks. I will just live with it and maybe Word 2010 will sort it out - but as you say this is a long standing item.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Stan:

Did you follow the help topic to create a new one?

If you simply delete the custom dictionary, Word indeed can't access it,
because it's not there

And check in Word>Preferences to ensure that your custom dictionary is
actually where Word thinks it is, and named what Word is looking for. You
can put a Custom Dictionary anywhere you like, but then you need to tell
Word where it is.

Cheers

I have deleted the customer dictionary but that does not seem to help -
thanks. I will just live with it and maybe Word 2010 will sort it out - but as
you say this is a long standing item.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!