Spell check, Spellcheck Australian English Dictionary - Preferred spellng

Australian English dictionary support for Google Chrome, Firefox and Thunderbird

2012-02-10T15:47:00.001+11:00

A number of people ask me about the dictionary files I produced for open source projects. To clarify the situation, I no longer support open source projects. I found the projects simply took my work and gave nothing back.

Firefox for example took my work, changed the licence against my wishes and then now takes donations leading people to believe they've put the work in. Google just took my work and incorporated it into their Google Chrome Browser and gave nothing back.

As a result I no longer support open source projects. Each of these projects and many others could have equally linked to my site as I made the files available. That would have helped both of us to grow. Instead by taking the work of others when it isn't necessary, they build their own projects at the expense of others.

I'm interest in working with people where we help each other.

I now only provide my work to clients. It is only with the support of clients I can support my family.

Thank you to the clients who support me and appreciate the value I bring to their homes and businesses.

Regards,

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Word Check will soon be restricted to clients only

2011-11-02T16:59:00.000+11:00

Over the past few weeks I’ve trialling Word Check making it openly available to the general public. Word Check is the only tool of its type helping people to easily determine the preferred Australian English spelling. There are thousands of words in the Australian English language which have two or more ways they can be spelt. Word Check is also an excellent online spellchecker providing a list of suggested words.

My hope was that by helping others, others would assist by promoting Word Check by either providing a link on their site or sharing via their social networks. There has been no evidence in my logs indicating people chipping in, in any way. Of the thousands who use Word Check each month all traffic is as a result of my own search engine optimisation work. I’ve trialled many other approaches which have also failed to generate any result.

In the near future I’ll implement a password on the Word Check page which will continue to be freely available to clients. It is only because of the ongoing support of clients I can continue my work and pay my bills.

It simply doesn’t make sense to continue to give to others, where others don’t think to give anything in return. I know people mean no harm from this. It is just the way we all are on the internet.

I apologise in advance for any inconvenience.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: Is it adaptor or adapter?

2011-10-16T12:02:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2174 is now available:

Is it adaptor or adapter?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Backflip on recent post. Word Check is now available for everyone

2011-09-27T13:47:00.000+10:00

I've found over the years that we all believe when you help others, others will help you. I still believe that. But I think people need a nudge, a reminder.

Open source showed me when you give to others they'll take from one person but give to someone else. For example Google and Firefox took my open source work which had involved hundreds of hours and gave nothing back to assist me. But they do make their work available to others. I've falling into the same trap.

People are helping but they don't realise they're consuming the energy of those helping them and need to think about giving something back to those helping them. People need to be reminded to help those who help them and not just give to someone else, otherwise, those who give will soon run out of energy.

For a while I'll be making Word Check open for anyone to use. No need to register or use a password.

There is a notice on the Word Check page asking others to spread the word on Word Check. At the end of the trial I'll review my logs and see if the amount of referred traffic has increased or had some other effect.

It costs no one anything but a small amount of time to help promote.

If nothing else the dictionary work has made me realise the importance of giving back to those who help you. Now if someone helps me I make the effort to find out how I can help them. Then I can help others. I think that is a good outcome.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Word Check and my dictionary work now only available to clients

2011-09-15T23:48:00.001+10:00

After eight years of providing my work to the general public I’ve had to bite the bullet and recognise the small financial return is insufficient for me to continue. Very little income has come from the hundreds of hours of work over the years and I have to accept I need to focus my energy on my clients, as they are the people who support myself and my family financially.

I’d estimate that probably over a million Australians now use my work in open source projects, but unfortunately open source for most people is about obtaining free software and I understand that. I’m pleased however whilst I may not have received much financially, it is however pleasing to think in a small way I’ve made a difference.

By refocusing on my clients I’ll now be able to continue my work as part of my consulting activities.

Thank you for sharing this part of the journey with me.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Would you like the preferred Australian English spelling to be available for Microsoft Office?

2011-09-03T09:40:00.001+10:00

If you’d like the preferred Australian English spelling to be made available as a spellcheck dictionary for Microsoft Office please make the effort to add your voice.

I’m currently in contact with Microsoft and to their credit, they are taking my request for assistance to make my work available with Microsoft Office and passing the request through their channels.

For Microsoft right now I’m a lone voice with a request. If you’d like my work to be available with Microsoft Office please help by adding your voice by making a comment on this blog post. I’ve tried this on a number of occasions over the last five years so this will be the last attempt at making the preferred Australian English spelling available to Australian Microsoft users. It is now or never so please make your voice heard.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Guide to Grammar and Punctuation

2011-08-16T10:03:00.001+10:00

I read this article from the University of Queensland and thought it may be of use to others. My written skills are constantly evolving. I’m not perfect by any means, but I enjoy learning to improve my written language skills.

Guide to Grammar and Punctuation... Read More

The area I would caution people are with the links provided. The final link is to The Writing Center website and that sentence alone flagged that you should be careful. The spelling of Center is obviously American and thus the site will be American. The problem is the spelling variations between Australian English, American English, and secondary Australian English spellings can be confusing. Secondly, in Australia, the preferred spelling of website is web site consisting of two words.

For me there is a lot of good information in this article. I loved the explanation of when to use I or me. I frequently used the non-parallel form of writing and more recently move towards writing in the parallel form and really didn’t understand why I previously used that as much as I did. I just now feel it is not as necessary.

I’m sure I will need to read this article a number of times to absorb the information it contains. For me it isn’t about being right or wrong, but to learn and evolve my writing skills over time.

I hope others find the article useful.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Will I be providing an Australian English dictionary for Thunderbird V5?

2011-08-13T13:17:00.001+10:00

I received the question today Will I be providing an Australian English dictionary for Thunderbird V5?

The answer is, unless I can see a change in Mozilla projects and how they use material from others the answer is no. I no longer support Mozilla projects such as Firefox and Thunderbird.

Open source projects take the work of others and consume the efforts of others for their own benefit. All an open source project needs to do is to link to the sites of others so people can get the work provided by others and then everyone wins. At the moment all that is happening is the open source projects take the work of others, incorporates that work and then the original developer becomes irrelevant and invisible.

Unless a mechanism is put into place to help those who help the projects there will be a constant of churn as people find for all the hours they put in there is no return for their efforts.

With my Australian English dictionary work for OpenOffice.org project I found that after three years I'd only been contacted by a handful of people. Almost no one contributed anything and almost no one paid anything. I recognised the situation was the same as working for a company. You're effort whilst at the company helps to build the company, but when you leave you have nothing to show for it. I recognised this was happening with open source projects. I decided to take the work outside of the project and at that point the project began to grow and I was able to build dictionaries for a wide range of projects. One by one each project came along and took my work and incorporated it into their project. First it was Firefox, then Google Chrome, next Opera let me know they were going to do the same but to their credit didn't proceed and then finally OpenOffice.org. The circle was complete and the hundreds of hours of time over the years had been wasted.

As a result I no longer support open source projects.

Each of these projects could easily link to the developers site. That way users get the latest and best version of their add-in. It helps the project, it helps the developer and it helps the community. The current approach used by projects of consuming the efforts of others only helps the project.

I apologise to those who I no longer make my work available to. I wish things were different but I need to accept the way things are.

Kelvin Eldridge

http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Driving licence or license?

2011-07-13T14:16:00.001+10:00

The words licence and license are regularly used incorrectly in Australia. The spelling licence is for the noun and license for the verb.

The correct spelling in Australia is driving licence or driver licence. A good place to check the usage of the word licence, is to visit the site for VicRoads.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oooau

Add Word Check as a search engine to Internet Explorer.

2011-06-23T15:19:00.001+10:00

On the Australian English dictionary page you can now find the link to add Word Check as a search engine to Internet Explorer. What that means is if you want to check a word to see if you’re using the preferred Australian English spelling, to find a list of suggestions if you can’t quite spell a word correctly, or want to check the meaning of a word, you can simply use the search field built into Internet Explorer.

The search engine is free to install and can be found on the following page.

http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oooau

You will still need a password to use Word Check. The password is provided free to clients of Online Connections, JustLocal, those purchasing the Outlook Express spellcheck add-in, those purchasing the Microsoft Exclude file for Office, and those subscribing to Word Check.

To use the Word Check search engine type in the word you want to check and then select Word Check from the list of available search engines using the arrow to the right of the search field.

Enjoy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
JustLocal (An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: Is it flakey or flaky?

2011-06-13T14:44:00.000+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2100 is now available:

Is it flakey or flaky?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it calendar or calender?

2011-05-28T19:58:00.000+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2095 is now available:

Is it calendar or calender?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Word Check (WordCheck) now has its own domain

2011-05-27T23:18:00.000+10:00

To make it easier for people to locate Word Check I've now set up Word Check with its own domain http://www.wordcheck.com.au/.

Word Check enables people to check if they are using the preferred Australian English spelling. If you ever ask the question,"is it spelt with an s or a z?", then Word Check will help. If you wonder if it should be spelled or spelt, then Word Check will help. If you need to check the spelling of a word, then Word Check will help with suggestions if you haven't spelt the word correctly, and a convenient link to check the meaning of the word or other suggested words.

You can still find Word Check on the main page of JustLocal (http://www.justlocal.com.au/), and you can still go direct to the Word Check page, but now you have a quick and easy way to remember Word Check and where it is located on the internet.

Enjoy,

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

La Trobe University shared computers set to American English

2011-05-24T11:04:00.000+10:00

It has come to my attention that some of the computers which are provided to students to do their work at La Trobe University have not been set up correctly and are defaulting to American English. If using a shared computer provided by any educational group, you should test whether or not the language is set up correctly.

If the computer isn't set up correctly you'll end up with spelling errors in your work. The problem is even if your own computer is set up correctly and you later continue the work on your own computer, the language for the work done on another computer persists.

The document I read had many errors which was a direct result of the language set up on the university's computer.

To check the language settings when using Microsoft Word, type in the words colour and color. The word color should be highlighted as being an incorrect spelling. Many academics also consider the ize spelling variations to be American spelling and will mark accordingly. The ize spelling is an accepted secondary spelling in Australia, but if you wish to only use the preferred primary spelling, you'll need to obtain the Exclude file I produce for Microsoft Office, which marks over 2,000 secondary spelling variations as incorrect. Using the Exclude file leads to a more professional document with consistent spelling. There is nothing wrong is using either the ise or the ize spelling variations in Australia, but to use both in the one document is considered incorrect.

Whilst it isn't wrong to use the ize spelling variation in Australia, if your work is read by others, keep in mind many other people consider the ize spelling variation to be an incorrect spelling variation. Whilst they aren't right, if you're applying for job and the potential employer thinks you can't spell, it won't help you and may even reduce your chances of getting that dream position.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

I wonder what they charge for bookeeping! Hopefully their rates aren't shocking.

2011-05-17T17:51:00.001+10:00

I drove past this sign on the side of the building for a chartered accountant in Thomastown, which made laugh and thought others might enjoy it. I've never seen a chartered accountant or business adviser offer bookeeping services before, but there's always a first. So if your accounts are haunting you, perhaps this is the chartered accountant for you.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

PS. If you have an interesting photo relating to the usage of Australian English and wish to share it with others, please feel free to send it on.

PPS. One reader advised me the spelling in the above for bookkeeper is incorrect, which of course is a correct observation. They had not noticed the sign, which the accountant no doubt paid some good money to have made and would have been checked by the graphic designer, printer and the accountants themselves, had all failed to pick up the spelling error of bookeeper which should have been bookkeeper. I found this amusing but perhaps that's just my ghoulish sense of humour;-)

MyAnswers: Is it Mothers Day, Mothers' Day or Mother's Day?

2011-04-29T14:26:00.001+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2094 is now available:

Is it Mothers Day, Mothers' Day or Mother's Day and should it be in capitals?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it dependant or dependent?

2011-04-07T14:54:00.001+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2087 is now available:

Is it dependant or dependent? These words catch me out all the time and I found the answer unexpected and quite fascinating. Anyone who thinks our language doesn't change over time should keep an eye on these words.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

How bogus bottles of Jacob's Creek were caught out by poor spelling

2011-04-06T23:47:00.000+10:00

I read the following article recently which I thought I’d share with others. Even, or perhaps it should be especially, if you’re a criminal, if you make a make a spelling error, people will notice.

I find most people are polite and will overlook a spelling error, but it looks like if you’re a crook, you could be fair game. For our friends in Northern Ireland, the word crook is used in Australia to mean criminal.

Hundreds of fake Jacob's Creek bottles were seized by authorities in the UK because of a misspelling on the label.... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: Is it detoxify or detoxicate?

2011-01-21T11:46:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2064 is now available:

Is it detoxify or detoxicate?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Apple iPhone web app provides the preferred Australian English spelling

2011-01-05T22:05:00.001+11:00

For those with an Apple iPhone you can now use Word Check to check if you have spelt a word correctly and are using the preferred Australian English spelling. You can also add the web app to your home which makes Word Check incredibly convenient to use.

To add Word Check to your iPhone home page, open up Safari on the iPhone. Now go to the web page www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/australian-dictionary/iphone.php. Now click on the forward icon and then select Add to Home Screen. Word Check will now be added to your home screen.

The advantage of using the web app over the normal Word Check page is it runs in the full window just like an app you download but there is no need to download anything. As the web app is upgraded you don't need to download anything as the next time you run Word Check by clicking on the icon on your home page you'll see the latest version of Word Check.

Kelvin Eldridge
Word Check for Apple iPhone

Word Check updated to provide spelling suggestions for misspelt words

2011-01-03T03:06:00.001+11:00

Word Check provides the preferred Australian English spelling for words and until now provided the word was either found or not found. When a word is misspelt I've always wanted to provide a listed of suggestion words to help people using Word Check.

I've now completed an update to Word Check and now Word Check provides a list of suggested words which will often include the correct spelling of the word you've entered.

For the meaning or definition of words, I've now removed Wiktionary and provide links to a more authoritative resource. Using Word Check is still the best option to check words, as Word Check provides the preferred Australian English spelling. Spelling includes plurals and possessives, which are often not provided with many dictionaries, but often give us the most grief when it comes to spelling.

Please let me know if you find any problems. The dictionary is still evolving so if you find anything you feel needs to be reviewed, please don't hesitate to write to me and let me know.

Word Check is available via the main dictionary page and also directly at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/australian-dictionary/.

Thank you,

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

MyAnswers: Is it misspelt or misspelled?

2010-12-24T15:23:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2052 is now available:

Is it misspelt or misspelled?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it focused or focussed?

2010-12-24T15:22:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2051 is now available:

Is it focused or focussed?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it email or e-mail?

2010-12-24T14:41:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2049 is now available:

Is it email or e-mail?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it airconditioner, air-conditioner, or air conditioner?

2010-12-24T14:35:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2048 is now available:

Is it airconditioner, air-conditioner, or air conditioner?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it web site or website?

2010-12-24T14:26:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2047 is now available:

Is it web site or website?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it software licence or software license?

2010-12-24T14:20:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2046 is now available:

Is it software licence or software license?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it Internet or internet?

2010-12-24T14:12:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2045 is now available:

Is it Internet or internet?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it dialogue or dialog?

2010-12-24T14:10:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2044 is now available:

Is it dialogue or dialog?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it ones or one's?

2010-12-24T14:03:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2043 is now available:

Is it ones or one's?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: What are your thoughts with cooperation versus co-operation?

2010-12-24T13:46:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2042 is now available:

What are your thoughts with cooperation versus co-operation?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it its or it's?

2010-12-24T13:39:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2041 is now available:

Is it its or it's?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it spelt or spelled?

2010-12-24T13:19:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2039 is now available:

Is it spelt or spelled?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Word Check hints and tips

2010-12-23T12:51:00.000+11:00

This blog entry aims to provide a collection of hints and tips for using Word Check. Word Check is an online service which enables you to check if you are using the preferred Australian English spelling of a word. Word Check is based on the Kelvin version of the Australian English spellcheck dictionary (also known as Kelvin's dictionary).

Kelvin's dictionary aims to:

Include only the preferred spelling of Australian words. Where there are two or three ways to spell the same word, only the preferred spelling is included.
In general, American spelt words are not included. For example mom is not included, as mum is the preferred spelling in Australia. The word ranch however is included, as it is not considered a non-preferred spelling variation of an Australian English word.
Archaic and obsolete words are not included.
Many words which should have a space, such as "ice cream", are included.
Many words which should have a hyphen are included.

Word Check is still evolving and many hundreds of hours of work on the Kelvin dictionary are still required before it reaches the general release stage. Word Check has been released early, as even now, it is providing a very useful tool for Australians and those wishing to write for an Australian audience.

Word Check is not a spellchecker. It should be kept in mind most spellchecking programs and word processing programs, are not as accurate as Word Check. They introduce errors in their implementation. For example, enter the word non-non in most writing programs, and you will find non-non is a correctly spelt word, which is obviously not correct. Word Check only contains correctly spelt words (subject of course to our own errors and omissions). By limiting Word Check to a single word, words which contain spaces or hyphens are included in the Kelvin dictionary and are now correctly handled. In a program performing spellchecking, hyphenated words and words with spaces (such as deja vu, which allows typing vu as a word) are often mishandled.

Please feel free to suggest words, or to challenge existing words (in a nice way of course). The Kelvin dictionary is a growing and evolving resource. As I find evidence of word usage change in Australia backed by an authoritative reference, the Kelvin dictionary will be updated.

Word Check can easily be added to your browser as a search engine, so you can use the search field in your browser to check a word. In Opera and Internet Explorer it is fairly easy to add Word Check so you can highlight a word on a web page, check the word and then check the meaning of the word.

I accept Word Check is not yet comprehensive enough to be live and I apologise in advance for any inconvenience. If you feel a word should be spelt in a certain way and it is not being found, the word may not have yet reached the dictionary.
Please enjoy the fruits of my labour.

- Kelvin Eldridge

TIPS:

Word Check does not offer a list of suggested words.
Word Check in many instances is more accurate than a spellchecker as it allows you to check against the list of actual words, which can include spaces, hyphens, periods and apostrophes.
Word Check doesn't allow you to create words using prefixes and suffixes which may not be actual usage. For example typing non-non as a word is often valid when using a spellchecker, as the word non has been included in the spellchecker, as have many other partial words. This does mean many more correct variations need to be identified and entered into the Kelvin dictionary.
Word Check is case sensitive. Enter the word as you would write it. For example Anzac can also be ANZAC, but it is never anzac. Type in Australia and not australia. If you type in australia without the first letter being capitalised, the result will be Not Found.
In general enter words in lower case and with the letters correctly capitalised. For example enter Melbourne and not melbourne. Entering melbourne will result in the message Not Found.
If you enter a word in all capitals, as would be used in a heading, the word will be compared with the words in the dictionary converted to capitals. You should avoid entering words in capitals so you can determine the correct capitalisation. You shouldn't assume that if you now use the word which was in capitals in lower case it will be correct. For example AUSTRALIA will be found, but australia will not be found.
There is quite a bit of confusion as to whether some words should be a single word, a hyphenated word, or contain a space between two or more words. Word Check aims to provide the correct variation. Try all three variations to determine the correct spelling. For example "ice cream" is the preferred spelling, but to determine which is the preferred spelling, you may wish to try "icecream" and "ice-cream". This is not an easy area, since in many instances, the two or more words will only be in the dictionary as separate entries that you can test separately.
You may wish to check the meaning of a word. Many words which are very similar, only differ by one letter, yet mean very different things, such as meter and metre, or confirmation and conformation.
Word Check aims to provide the correct spelling variations for a word, including possessives and plurals. These are not readily available in other dictionaries and can often be the hardest to determine as being correct. For example Word Check includes: dog, dogs, dog's and dogs'.

Outlook Express British and Australian English spelling

2010-12-23T12:01:00.000+11:00

Many people still use Outlook Express as their email client and really it makes sense. Whilst as a product development stopped years ago, it was only very recently that Windows XP computers stopped selling and Windows XP comes with Outlook Express. At one stage I read over 60 million netbooks were sold and most of those would have been purchased in the last couple of years and ran Windows XP. The computer I'm using is a netbook which runs Windows XP. There really was no choice because Vista would have been a terrible experience because of performance and Windows 7 didn't exist.

My logs show about 50% of people are still using Windows XP. There is however a problem As people upgrade Microsoft Office to 2007 or 2010 the spellchecker stops working in Outlook Express and Microsoft don't provide a solution. They could if they wanted to but choose not to. When the upgrade is performed the only option they have is to spellcheck using French and that doesn't really suit many people.

To help those in this situation I provide a solution to add British English spelling to Outlook Express. For those who have an earlier copy of Office and can extract the required file, they can even have Australian spelling. I explain in the documentation I provide how this can be done.

So if you have Outlook Express and your spellchecker is no longer working as a result of upgrading to Office 2007 or 2010, or never had spellchecker because you didn't have a Microsoft product like Word or Words installed, the software I provide will provide American or British spelling, and with access to the right files, Australian English spelling.

This means you can continue to use Outlook Express until you are ready to move to another email client.

You can find the Outlook Express spelling solution using the following link.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Microsoft Office

2010-12-23T11:23:00.001+11:00

The Microsoft Office spellchecker is a very good product, and I suspect you might be thinking, "what's the but", and yes there's a but.

There are thousands of words in the Microsoft dictionary which can be spelt two and perhaps more ways. Whilst the variations are generally considered correct, most people consider the secondary spelling variations to be incorrect and that can detract from your writing. Worse though, is if you include material you've copied and paste you could easily introduce inconsistent spelling into your document, where you use the two different spelling variations and that is always considered incorrect. For example to use both organise and organize in the one document is considered incorrect, but is quite possible with Microsoft Office. Many people also flip flop between ise and ize spelling variations in a document not really knowing which spelling variation they should use and going on gut feel. This detracts from the quality of their document or writing which reduces the impact of the message the writing aims to get across.

If you've ever sat in a Microsoft seminar to see them use the spelling license for their software in Australia, you'll realise how important spelling is. The message Microsoft sends to an Australian audience is they don't care enough to localise their product, or even the presenters slides for the audience and that severly reduces their perceived sincerity.

In addition Microsoft Office includes words which are incorrect for Australian usage. The most obvious example is mom.

To overcome these issues I've provided an Exclude file you can install which will mark over 2,400 words as incorrectly spelt. The words are either words which shouldn't be in the Microsoft spellcheck dictionary or they are a secondary spelling variation.

If you prefer consistent spelling in your documents, if you prefer to use the preferred Australian English spelling in your documents and emails, if you really value your audience, then my Microsoft Exclude file is a great investment for you.

You can obtain the Microsoft Exclude file using this link.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Word Check provides an easy tool to check the preferred Australian English spelling of a word.

2010-12-23T10:47:00.001+11:00

Word Check provides access to my latest work in providing the preferred Australian English spelling. My work when complete will provide the following:

Australian English spelling. Not British or American.
Check words with spaces such as deja vu.
Confirm if a word should be hyphenated such as email and not e-mail.
Confirm you are using the preferred Australian spelling such as mosquitoes and not mosquitos.
Avoid using American spelling.
Avoid using archaic and obsolete words.
Easily check the plural of a word.
Easily check the correct prefix and suffix usage.

Currently Australians do not have access to a tool which provides the preferred Australian English spelling.

My preferred Australian English spelling work is an ongoing development effort requiring many hundreds of hours of research. I've released Word Check at this stage to enable people to benefit from my work.

You can find Word Check via this link, Australian English Word Check.

I trust you will find Word Check to be a handy online facility.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.OnlineConnections.com.au/

Welcome to my Australian Dictionary blog

2010-12-22T23:18:00.001+11:00

Hi,

I've been building dictionaries since 2003 and my work is now the basis of dictionaries used by projects such as Google Chrome, Firefox and OpenOffice.org. A couple of years ago I decided since there really wasn't any involvement by others short of taking my work, that I'd start again. To provide the dictionary I'd always wanted but didn't realise it didn't exist. I wanted a dictionary which provided the preferred Australian English spelling.

Now most people don't even realise this is a problem. The most common statement people make is they don't like American spelling. Getting rid of the "ize" spelling variations was easy, but it was just the beginning. The problem was my early work was based on a UK dictionary. I culled over 30,000 words from the UK dictionary before starting to rebuild it. My main tool was the Microsoft spellchecker. Whatever limitations the Microsoft spellchecker contained wouldn't have picked up the errors and I've since identified the Microsoft spellchecker contains over 2,400 words which aren't the preferred spelling. I find many words which should be in the dictionary and many that need to be included. The only way I could ensure a quality product was to start again.

So start again I did about two years ago. This time however, so others didn't just take the work and contribute nothing in return, my work became closed source and copyright. My belief is if people value what I do then a fair exchange of energy shows it is of value. The first product of this work is available online as Word Check. Word Check already contains nearly 60,000 words. Progress is slow as the work is very labour intensive. A single word can take hours to review. Ultimately for me, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing to the best of my ability.

So far I've released three products as a result of my dictionary work. Word Check, which is an online tool enabling people to check if they're using the preferred Australian English spelling of a word. The second product is a patch for Outlook Express to provide Australians with at least a UK dictionary, but if they have an older copy of Word or Office, the ability to use Australian English spelling. The patch doesn't use my word list. The third product is a file which provides Microsoft Office users with the preferred Australian English spelling. Any Australian user of Microsoft Office products would benefit from using this work, but usually they aren't even aware they need it. Others know from their writing because they use inconsistent spelling. Others know because they often appear to be using American English. It does affect how others see them through their written word, whether it be in a resume, a report, or a web site. People do notice, but the writer is usually never aware. For example type in mom into a Word document and you'll see no spelling error. The obvious words such as organize or summarize are easy to recognise, but a copy and paste from another source, or a merge of documents can easily lead to inconsistency with both spelling variations contained within a single document. There are many other words which slip under the radar. None of us would consider writing to-day as was done in the past, but a great number write co-operate without realising the preferred style has changed over time. Our habits from school show others a lot more than we realise. My work helps those who are interested in nudging their written work to the next level. A better level.

I will be using this blog to share interesting aspects of words in our language. I'm not a language expert. I make plenty of grammatical and punctuation mistakes like everyone else. What I do, is to take each word and systematically check the word against authoritative resources and determine the preferred Australian English spelling when there is more than a single spelling variation.

I hope you enjoy my journey as I explore the Australian English spelling. My aim on this journey is to provide Australians with the preferred Australian English spelling.

Kelvin Eldridge
The Preferred Australian English spelling