English UK spelling on Office Word

Amy2005 · Apr 18, 2008

Hi,
I am trying to change my Office Word dictionary to the UK English one. But whenever I seem to change it it still seems to think that I'm spelling words like 'colour' wrong and 'recognised'. Does anyone know how I can change the dictionary please?
Thankyou
Amy

mckyvlle · Apr 18, 2008

Which version of Office are you using?

In Office Word 2004, I choose the menu Tools -> Language... -> [Select English (UK)], and click Default.

Do check that you have installed the extra languages when installing Microsoft Office.

savant · Jul 1, 2009

English UK spelling on Office Word

Thank you for the post, I had been trying to get UK English to default for ages.
Very Helpful, thank you!

Diaresi · Jul 1, 2009

You can also set it so the system is British English as well (which I think some applications obey like Pages)...

System Preferences > International > Edit List... > Tick British English

kolax · Jul 1, 2009

Find it bizarre Apple hasn't made OS X automatically change to "British" English based on location, or at least ask the user when OS X is installed.

Also, really annoys me how it has become "British" english and American English is just "english".

TioLoco · Jul 1, 2009

Kilamite said:
Also, really annoys me how it has become "British" english and American English is just "english".

well, that's because they are different after 230 years.

ttopp · Jul 1, 2009

TioLoco said:
well, that's because they are different after 230 years.

lol

But it should be North American English, and "British English" should just be English. Because thats where it originates, England. Not British as us Scots, Welsh and the Irish all spoke a form of Gaelic.

MWPULSE · Jul 2, 2009

awesome!! now i can choose to spell as an american!! yaaay

MattZani · Mar 23, 2011

this still changes anything with 'ising' into 'izing' which is WRONG.

And before anyone says resurrection, this is the thread that comes up when you search about Uk dictionary word for mac.

kolax · Mar 23, 2011

MattZani said:
this still changes anything with 'ising' into 'izing' which is WRONG.

And before anyone says resurrection, this is the thread that comes up when you search about Uk dictionary word for mac.

Did you change the language as well as the dictionary?

Tools -> Language.

I still don't understand why OS X doesn't ask you when you first make an account what language you want, rather than assuming every user is an American, even if they select the UK as their location.

Also, Word should obey OS X's language selection by default, and if users want a different language in Word, they can do it by the method above.

I hate seeing "izing" on articles..

Mala · Jul 29, 2011

Kilamite said:
I hate seeing "izing" on articles..

Strictly speaking, 'izing' is correct in words that derive from Greek roots; however, when a generation of journalists and printers arrived in the 1970s or so who hadn't done Greek and Latin in school, British newspapers decided to standardi(z)se all 'ize' spellings to use 's' instead of 'z'.

I'm having this spellchecking problem randomly on Word for Mac 2011; on some documents, I can set the language, the spelling and even the custom dictionary to UK English, and it'll still screech at words like 'colour' or 'cheque' or 'furore'. I'd love to find a solution to this.

interrobang · Jul 29, 2011

ttopp said:
But it should be North American English, and "British English" should just be English. Because thats where it originates, England. Not British as us Scots, Welsh and the Irish all spoke a form of Gaelic.

Commonwealth English would be a better name...it refers to British commonwealth (former British Empire) countries, not Britain (or England.)

Mala · Jul 29, 2011

interrobang said:
Commonwealth English would be a better name...it refers to British commonwealth (former British Empire) countries, not Britain (or England.)

Leaves out a few countries that speak English (and have been an important influence on the language), though, like Ireland.

Flynnstone · Jul 29, 2011

Mala said:
Leaves out a few countries that speak English (and have been an important influence on the language), though, like Ireland.

Can't call it North American English. Canada is similar to UK with "colour", but more like US with "tire".

One way Ireland has affected English speech is .... Guinness

ScoobyMcDoo · Jul 29, 2011

Mala said:
I'm having this spellchecking problem randomly on Word for Mac 2011; on some documents, I can set the language, the spelling and even the custom dictionary to UK English, and it'll still screech at words like 'colour' or 'cheque' or 'furore'. I'd love to find a solution to this.

Not sure if it's the same for 2011, but from the help docs of 2008:

I can't check spelling or grammar in a language other than English (U.S.)
Cause: Proofing tools are not installed.
Solution: Install the proofing tools from the Office 2008 installation disk.
Print this information or write down the following steps, and then close the Microsoft Word Help window.
On the Word menu, click Quit Word.
Insert the Office 2008 installation disk into your computer's DVD drive.
Open the Office 2008 installation disk, and then open the Office Installer.
Follow the steps in the Office Installer, and on the Installation Type screen, click Customize.
In the Package Name list, click the arrow next to Microsoft Office 2008, and then click the arrow next to Proofing Tools.
Select the check boxes next to the proofing tools that you want to install, and then click Install.
Note If you do not see the language that you want, it is not available in Office 2008 for Mac.

Troops89 · Nov 2, 2011

Hi everyone,
apologies to revive an old thread but I've been using Word for 8+ years and have never figured out how to fully change the language settings to UK English, it's driven me nuts. I've always had the same problem of it changing back, but I have finally managed to settle this, so for anyone else who's interested here's how...

This is for Word 2011.

1.Copy and paste some text into a new word document.
2.Select the text and then go: Tools>Language.
3. Select 'English (UK)' and hit the DEFAULT button.

Every document you write up after this will now be checked against UK English, so no more red lines under colour, honour, etc!

Hope this helps.

pcypert · Dec 9, 2011

Troops89 said:
Hi everyone,
apologies to revive an old thread but I've been using Word for 8+ years and have never figured out how to fully change the language settings to UK English, it's driven me nuts. I've always had the same problem of it changing back, but I have finally managed to settle this, so for anyone else who's interested here's how...

This is for Word 2011.

1.Copy and paste some text into a new word document.
2.Select the text and then go: Tools>Language.
3. Select 'English (UK)' and hit the DEFAULT button.

Every document you write up after this will now be checked against UK English, so no more red lines under colour, honour, etc!

Hope this helps.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I took a copywriting job with and Aus based company and kept getting criticized for using US spelling. I told them I had changed it in preferences but was still seeing the wrong prompts. Now I know why.

philipstevens · Sep 30, 2012

Troops89 said:
Hi everyone,
apologies to revive an old thread but I've been using Word for 8+ years and have never figured out how to fully change the language settings to UK English, it's driven me nuts. I've always had the same problem of it changing back, but I have finally managed to settle this, so for anyone else who's interested here's how...

This is for Word 2011.

1.Copy and paste some text into a new word document.
2.Select the text and then go: Tools>Language.
3. Select 'English (UK)' and hit the DEFAULT button.

Every document you write up after this will now be checked against UK English, so no more red lines under colour, honour, etc!

Hope this helps.

Been trying for months to get this to work. Now, thanks to you, all working as should be for British English.

There was note concerning other English speaking countries. Aussie has its own version of English, closely related to US English, while Kiwi is more akin to UK English.

MonkeyGirl8 · Apr 9, 2013

Troops89, thanks heaps.

I tried changing the dictionary and the language and it was driving me nuts. I'm an English teacher in Australia, so this was seriously irritating me. Finally the default language has actually changed.

As to the person who said that Australian English is more akin to US English, do you mean there's evidence of this in the Word dictionary? What are you basing this on? Australian English is definitely not like American English. We only use dictionaries with UK English or Australian English. ... Though, of course, Kindle English and iBooks English are probably creeping into usage!

Troops89 said:
Hi everyone,
apologies to revive an old thread but I've been using Word for 8+ years and have never figured out how to fully change the language settings to UK English, it's driven me nuts. I've always had the same problem of it changing back, but I have finally managed to settle this, so for anyone else who's interested here's how...

This is for Word 2011.

1.Copy and paste some text into a new word document.
2.Select the text and then go: Tools>Language.
3. Select 'English (UK)' and hit the DEFAULT button.

Every document you write up after this will now be checked against UK English, so no more red lines under colour, honour, etc!

Hope this helps.

lyra27 · Feb 15, 2014

Hi,

Try going to: Apple - System Preferences - Language and Text - Text, and under Spelling select "Australian English"

That solves it for me so hopefully it will for you.

Also the "language" feature in work works the same as "bold", you need to select the text first and it will then apply that language filter over the top of it.

augustya · Feb 16, 2014

Uh! Seriously !! Makes me think what is the Irish contribution to the English Language just besides they speak their own way The Irish Way with an Irish Accent !

Cambrinus · Feb 1, 2016

Ahh… a considerable amount of English words are imports from Irish/Gaelic, 'whiskey', for example (which just means 'water', short for 'water of life'). The Irish dialects try to hibernicise English, with phrases such as 'at all, at all' which is not a simple repetition, but an attempt to retain the rhythm of the Irish equivalent of 'at all' 'ar chor ar bith' dee DAH dee DAH, as it sounds. I could go on, but I doubt you'ld be able to follow me…………. ;-)

English UK spelling on Office Word

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