[Sorry, long-winded answer]
In Word, the text has a separate language tag, and the default setting for
this may or may not be picked up from the OS settings. However, I don't see
English Canadian listed as an option (checking under Tools | Language in
both Word 2004 and Word 2001), and I suspect Word doesn't have proofing
tools for Canadian English, although that seems ridiculous and I can't
believe I've never heard a complaint about it before. Just to make sure,
please check Tools | Language in your version and see if anything is listed
as English Canadian. Someone please post and tell me I'm wrong.
Your only option may be to set the language to either UK or US English
(whichever is closer) and then use a custom dictionary to add the words you
want, and an exclude dictionary to tell Word to mark as misspelled the words
you don't want. Help on "exclude dictionary" should produce a topic
"specify a preferred spelling" which you want, also "create a custom
dictionary". Alternatively, pay for something like SpellCatcher, a
third-party dictionary/auto-correct utility that works in all programs,
although apparently they charge extra for Canadian English.
Google research suggests that indeed, there is no English (CAN) dictionary,
and I am further amazed that nobody has compiled the necessary custom and
exclude dictionaries and posted them somewhere for public use.
To set the language for the text (as you might find UK better than US), it
is best to modify the style, although you can also select the language and
use Tools | Language to apply it. To Modify a style, go to Format | Style,
make sure the correct style is selected in the left column, click Modify.
In the next dialog, check ³add to template² but do *not* check
"automatically update." Use the dropdown Format menu at the bottom of the
dialog to access the various options, or in Word 2004, some options are
duplicated in the Modify dialog. Modifying a style will not have a
retroactive effect on documents already created.
