Word Check will soon be restricted to clients only

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?

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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

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

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?

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

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?

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?

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.Australian-dictionary.com.au

Add Word Check as a search engine to Internet Explorer.

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?

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Is it flakey or flaky?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

MyAnswers: Is it calendar or calender?

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

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

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.

I drove past this sign on the side of the building for a chartered accountant in Thomastown, which made me laugh and I 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 good money to have made. The sign would have been checked by the graphic designer, printer and the accountants themselves and all had failed to pick up the spelling error of bookkeeper, 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?

This article has now been superseded by the post http://australiandictionary.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/should-it-be-mothers-day-mothers-day-or.html.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

MyAnswers: Is it dependant or dependent?

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

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?

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

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 Word Check. 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

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 Word Check page.

Thank you,

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