h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The dictionary on my newish shiny seems to be ste to american english.Ho do i change it to uk english?

Im on a mMacBook Pro running the latest versions of everything (this computer is less than 2 months old)

mini

Not sure I can help much, as I have an old ibook, but let's see...

Can you be more specific about 'the dictionary'? Is it, say, the spellchecker in a specific application?

I believe but am not quite sure that if you go to the "international" system preference, and then change the language from US English to British English that it will change the default dictionary as well. You may have to change both the "language" and the "input menu".

Other than that, it may depend on the specific software that you are using. When and how are you accessing the dictionary?

Looking at the preferences in the "Dictionary" application itself reveals that it only offers the "Oxford American English" dictionary as a choice (other than Japanese). That may only be for definitions, not spell-check.

its the dictionary in general. so whether i am typing here in safari, on msn or in text documents, the whole system seems set to a dictionary of USA English

mini

And which OS is on it, mini?

I guess that Mini is talking about the Dictionary app in 10.5

t.

it is 10.5.6 apparently. cant remember what large cat it is named after.

mini

Hokay, that's the same as mine, then. (Leopard, fyi)

If nobody has come up with a definitive answer by the next time I fire mine up, I'll have a look for you.

Well, I've had a look, and I'm as puzzled as you are. I expected to find some obscure link under "International" in the Control Panel, but no sign anywhere.

Mine only flags spellings in British English. I suspect it means you got a US copy of 10.5.6, possibly with a machine that came in as a "grey import". I vaguely recall that "Language" was one of the first questions I was asked when installing.

Unless somebody has a better idea, you may just have to move to the US.

No,no.no... don't move to the US. Not with swine flu such a global catastrophe.

My iMac was bought in the UK from the online Apple Store so the OS is UK spec. It has the same dictionaries as Mini describes and picks up British spellings all the time. It doesn't like words ending in ...ise and insists that they should end in ...ize. I tell it to learn the UK spelling but that does not help when I want to look something up.

I'll keep rooting round and see if there are some fixes or a British English dictionary available.

It might be worth asking in Apple Discussions in the Leopard section here - http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235

t.

I also bought mine in the UK, form the apple store in Glasgow actually. it doesn't like "ise "endings either or the 'u' in colour. you would think there would be a simple fix!

mini

Yes you would think Apple would allow for the original version of their language wouldn't you?

Two nations divided by one language...

t.

I think my original suggestion is the one - go to the "International" system preference and do two things:
1. On the "Language" tab, make sure "British English" is at the top of the list. You may need to click "Edit List" to add it.
2. On the "Input Menu" tab make sure "British" has a check mark and that "U.S." does not. You might want to check the "show input menu" option, then use that new menu (upper right corner of your screen) to make sure "British" is selected, but I don't think that is necessary.

When I do that, correctly spelled words like "color" get flagged, as does "standardize" (I did need to quit and restart Safari before that noticed the change though, apparently it doesn't affect currently running applications).

And you don't have to worry about the H1N1 virus if you have a Mac

Yes that seems to have done the trick. Thankyou muchly, i can now write colour and standardise without them being underlined in red.

mini

Pass the salt and pepper for my hat. I'll eat it whilst you read the following...

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/ize?view=uk

t.

Hi Mini and Peet

I asked a question on this at Apple Discussions and as a result I got this reply: -

"For some info on more dictionaries:

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-dictionaries-for-leopards.html " I went to this link and then I went here - http://davidtse916.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/adding-dictionaries-to-the-built-in-dictionary-application-in-leopard/ and downloaded DictUnifier and followed David's instructions.

Not sure yet whether it will solve the British English conundrum because I can't see an OED on StarDict.

Ho Hum

t.