English (Canadian) dictionary - where?

[coriolis]

I just noticed that the English (Canadian) dictionary available in the
Wintel version of Word is not offered in the Mac version. I've looked
on the CD and the downloads section of Mactopia without success. Is it
hidden somewhere, or was it simply deleted from the application?

I have a copy of Word 6.0 in Virtual PC, so I can access it through
there, but since the document has a few tables and other "extras", I
would like to avoid going that route in case they get stripped away or
mangle the layout.

Sebastien
Translator

 

[Gene van Troyer]

I have a copy of Word 6.0 in Virtual PC, so I can access it through
there, but since the document has a few tables and other "extras", I
would like to avoid going that route in case they get stripped away or
mangle the layout.

I don't believe that Office Mac in any version has ever had a Canadian
English spelling dictionary. At least, I've never seen one offered. Perhaps
you should contact Microsoft with a request that they port the Windows
version of the dictionary and other relevant proofing tools to the Mac
platform, stressing that it would be a strong selling point.

This isn't much help, I'm sorry to say.

Gene van Troyer

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Sebastien:

The availability of languages is dependent on the availability of
"customers". Each language costs a fortune to produce, and Mac doesn't have
enough sales in Canada to make the effort worth it (I guess because most
Canadians put up with the American dictionary).

I don't suppose you had considered upgrading Word 6 on the PC? Word XP is
in the remainder bin right now, and that or Word 2000 would bring you the
functions you need.

Of course, if you have plenty of money, Word 2003 is a much more advanced
product

Cheers

This responds to article <[email protected]>,

I just noticed that the English (Canadian) dictionary available in the
Wintel version of Word is not offered in the Mac version. I've looked
on the CD and the downloads section of Mactopia without success. Is it
hidden somewhere, or was it simply deleted from the application?

I have a copy of Word 6.0 in Virtual PC, so I can access it through
there, but since the document has a few tables and other "extras", I
would like to avoid going that route in case they get stripped away or
mangle the layout.

Sebastien
Translator

--
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

 

[Gene van Troyer]

This is probably a doltish question, but how about the UK dictionary? Or
have Canadian spelling conventions diverged significantly from the British?

Is there any way to convert the Windows Word to the Mac platform?

Gene van Troyer

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Gene:

The UK dictionary is miles apart from the Canadian one Canada generally
uses American spellings (or finds American spelling acceptable).

We used to use the UK dictionary in Australia, because the Australian
dictionary used to be full of errors and Australia generally uses the
British spelling standard.

But you won't get away with it in Canada

There is no way to "convert" PC software to run on the Mac, the processor
and memory have a completely different architecture. What you CAN do is
purchase a program that enables Windows to run on a Mac. Probably the best
of them is Virtual PC. The company was recently purchased by Microsoft.

I use Virtual PC to run Windows XP and Office 2003 System (the next PC
version) on this TiBook 667 MHz with 1GB of memory. It is quite useable for
occasional work. But BE WARNED: Computer emulation is EXTREMELY
power-hungry. Don't even attempt it with a processor less than 500 MHz or
with less than 512 MB of memory. I had it running on an iBook with a 466
processor and 380 MB of memory: barely useable.

Cheers

This is probably a doltish question, but how about the UK dictionary? Or
have Canadian spelling conventions diverged significantly from the British?

Is there any way to convert the Windows Word to the Mac platform?

Gene van Troyer

--
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

 

[coriolis]

The UK dictionary is miles apart from the Canadian one Canada generally

uses American spellings (or finds American spelling acceptable).

That's an excellent recap of the day-to-day situation; most of my
clients don't mind if I use the US proofing tools. Technically,
however, Canadian spelling is a mix of the UK and US.

There is no way to "convert" PC software to run on the Mac, the processor
and memory have a completely different architecture.

Maybe not, but I don't see why Microsoft couldn't convert at least the
spelling file. It's not as if they have to re-build the dictionary
entries from scratch -- they already have a PC version! I don't think
it would take too much work to finish the job on the Mac side, since
they already have the structure to handle variant dictionaries.

(BTW, Australia has a slightly lower population than Canada, and
therefore probably less Mac users, so the market share theory doesn't
seem to apply)

purchase a program that enables Windows to run on a Mac. Probably the best
of them is Virtual PC. The company was recently purchased by Microsoft.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a first step in eliminating
further development of a Mac version of Office within 3-5 years. MS
will simply bundle VPC/Windows/Office and sell it as an all-or-nothing
package for Mac users. The problem with that is...

But BE WARNED: Computer emulation is EXTREMELY
power-hungry.

Don't I know it! Since I bought VPC, I've only kept the strict minimum
configuration for my usage; I installed Windows 95, Word and
PowerPoint. I haven't installed anything else on it (and in fact I
even tried to remove parts I wouldn't use in emulation, such as IE),
and it's still a bit jerky, and certainly not as responsive as Word X.

Just FYI, what I ended up doing was copying and pasting sections from
the Mac Word document to VPC Word, running the spellcheck, then
returning the corrected segment into the original doc. Tedious, yes,
but I was able to retain all the boxed text, tables and inserted
graphics in the same place.

Sébastien

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Sébastien:

This responds to article <[email protected]>,

Maybe not, but I don't see why Microsoft couldn't convert at least the
spelling file. It's not as if they have to re-build the dictionary
entries from scratch -- they already have a PC version!

Neither did I, until I learned that it's not a list of words, it's a
program. The "dictionary" part is easy, but the way it works is not, and it
has to be re-coded, line by line, to run under Mac OS.

The problem is that the dictionary is grammar and syntax aware: it analyses
the phrase to try to deduce the correct spelling. Very sophisticated, but
there's a lot of work in making a new one.

(BTW, Australia has a slightly lower population than Canada, and
therefore probably less Mac users, so the market share theory doesn't
seem to apply)

Well, *I* don't know how we got an Australian version either. These
decisions are not *entirely* rational. However, I can tell you that the
Australian dictionary is produced automatically: it's actually an extra
"column" in the main English dictionary (English US, in this case)
containing "exceptions". I also know that the Australian word-list was
obtained very cheaply in exchange for a favour. But I suspect the real
reason is that Microsoft Marketing and Apple wanted to do a big push into
Australia. To do this, they chose to move Mac Office into educational
establishments. And that was never going to happen if it couldn't spell

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a first step in eliminating
further development of a Mac version of Office within 3-5 years. MS
will simply bundle VPC/Windows/Office and sell it as an all-or-nothing
package for Mac users. The problem with that is...

No. Not even close. The reason they wanted to get their hands on VPC was
to provide Windows emulation on Windows! For large corporate sites, being
able to run multiple flavours of Windows (or simply, multiple 'systems' of
the same flavour) on the same box has some compelling advantages

Microsoft Office, Mac Business Unit, and Microsoft Windows are separate
fiefdoms in Microsoft. The Office guys are very fond of telling everyone
that THEY are the reason people buy computers, and anything they can do to
sell more of Office, they will do. And if it hurts Windows' sales, oh what
a shame Mac Business Unit benefits nicely from this arrangement. Think
about it: where else can Office Business Unit sell more of Office? Every
Windows box already has one!

We'll be around for a while yet, I think you'll find

Don't I know it! Since I bought VPC, I've only kept the strict minimum
configuration for my usage; I installed Windows 95, Word and
PowerPoint. I haven't installed anything else on it (and in fact I
even tried to remove parts I wouldn't use in emulation, such as IE),
and it's still a bit jerky, and certainly not as responsive as Word X.

Yah! Go up to Windows XP if you can: it is a lot smoother. Windows XP has
true pre-emptive multi-tasking, Windows 95 does not. And throw memory at
it: 256 MB and it will move along quite nicely. Don't give it much more or
suspend and resume take forever. But at less than 128 MB of memory, Word is
going to run like a wet week.

Just FYI, what I ended up doing was copying and pasting sections from
the Mac Word document to VPC Word, running the spellcheck, then
returning the corrected segment into the original doc. Tedious, yes,
but I was able to retain all the boxed text, tables and inserted
graphics in the same place.

I have been known to do lots of similarly laborious workarounds. Most of my
VBA programming is done under VPC, then I test it under Mac Word. You want
to see slow? Fire up the VBA compiler in VPC

Cheers

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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

 

[coriolis]

Neither did I, until I learned that it's not a list of words, it's a

program.

Interesting. I assumed the grammar/syntax checker and spellchecker
were separate subprograms, with the spelling being simply a larger
version of a Custom Dictionary.

Well, *I* don't know how we got an Australian version either. These
decisions are not *entirely* rational. [snip]
To do this, they chose to move Mac Office into educational
establishments. And that was never going to happen if it couldn't spell

This does not seem the case here, from what I know of the education
sector in Canada. Most educators or university employees I know are
content with buying or copying the US version.

Microsoft Office, Mac Business Unit, and Microsoft Windows are separate
fiefdoms in Microsoft. [snip]
We'll be around for a while yet, I think you'll find

I'm not sure your argument totally invalidates my bit of speculation.
Compared to the MS Office and MS Windows Department, the Mac Business
Unit must not weigh very much. Bundling Office, Windows and VPC would
still accomplish the objectives of the two larger departments, to the
detriment of the MBU.

Yah! Go up to Windows XP if you can: it is a lot smoother. Windows XP has
true pre-emptive multi-tasking, Windows 95 does not.

I held off upgrading because I assumed that the newer versions would
require a chunk of additional memory (RAM and ROM) for very little
improvement in performance. Price was also a minor factor -- why pay
$300+ for something that I only use about once a month? But I'll
certainly reconsider based on what you said.

Thanks for all the background info

Sébastien

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Sébastien:

This responds to article <[email protected]>,

I'm not sure your argument totally invalidates my bit of speculation.

Oh, it doesn't. But I consider that outcome to be very, very unlikely.
There's a few things I can't talk about: if you knew them, I think you would
be convinced that Mac Office is here for the long haul.

I held off upgrading because I assumed that the newer versions would
require a chunk of additional memory (RAM and ROM) for very little
improvement in performance. Price was also a minor factor -- why pay
$300+ for something that I only use about once a month? But I'll
certainly reconsider based on what you said.

OK: Windows 95 is certainly faster when it is running a single application,
because, like Mac OS 9, it has a co-operatively multitasking application
management model. This can enable a single application to take 100 per cent
of the available processor.

However, the applications we're running these days are usually too big for
it: Win95 was designed as an exemplar of "lean and hungry" to enable it to
fit in the 32 MB boxes that were around at the time. I have seen it running
in 16 MB! However, many of the compromises made to do that mean the thing
gets progressively slower as you add more applications and memory to the
box.

Windows XP, on the other hand, is a very nice piece of work indeed. There
were many important changes under the skin: the most important of them from
a speed point of view are that it is the first Windows to be specifically
tuned for a single model of processor, and thus the first Windows whose
memory model can be totally enhanced for the WinTel memory architecture.

Windows XP can appear less speedy than Windows 95 in starting up (although
it's a hell of a lot faster than it's Windows NT predecessors). However,
once it gets itself going, you will find it is between ten and 20 times
faster to do real work.

It has a really silky multitasking model: this means it is really really
responsive when you want it to change its mind about what it's doing.
Err... You may not actually see this benefit under VPC, but it is a lot more
responsive than Windows 95

However, the real reason I suggest that you go up soon is because the next
version of PC Word will not load on Win95. And Word 2003 is a major leap
forward in Word!

As a side benefit, you get a Windows that actually does never crash (well,
mine hasn't done so in the past two years...) and a file system that
actually does survive if VPC goes bang (which it does, from time to time...)
Regardless of what a certain well-known commentator with whom I got into a
flame-war says, the experience on the ground indicates that WinXP really is
rock-solid

Hope this helps

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All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

 

[Gene van Troyer]

There is no way to "convert" PC software to run on the Mac, the processor
and memory have a completely different architecture. What you CAN do is
purchase a program that enables Windows to run on a Mac. Probably the best
of them is Virtual PC. The company was recently purchased by Microsoft.

I use Virtual PC to run Windows XP and Office 2003 System (the next PC
version) on this TiBook 667 MHz with 1GB of memory. It is quite useable for
occasional work. But BE WARNED: Computer emulation is EXTREMELY
power-hungry. Don't even attempt it with a processor less than 500 MHz or
with less than 512 MB of memory. I had it running on an iBook with a 466
processor and 380 MB of memory: barely useable.

Ah-ha, so that's why why I always had a weird sensation being two places at
once whenever I read Canadian newspapers and magazines and tried to figure
out which spelling conventions were being used.

I have VPC. It works best on a G4 with 1 GB RAM, giving VPC between 256 MB
to 512 MB RAM. It's a memory hog, but in this case it's understandable.

I have a tough time with Ozzie newspapers--too many hanging indents in too
many of them. Does funny things to my eyes. Maybe that's just the Daily
Australian...

Gene van Troyer

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Gene:

I have a tough time with Ozzie newspapers--too many hanging indents in too
many of them. Does funny things to my eyes. Maybe that's just the Daily
Australian...

Yeah, well we don't read it either -- that's the pretentious scandal sheet
owned by United States Citizen Murdoch...

Try www.smh.com.au

And yes, VPC runs OK on a G4 with 1 GB of RAM, but I hesitate to recommend
such excess to normal folks: it makes me seem greedy

Cheers

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All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs