Apple's Do Not Disturb feature advertisement spelling of Favourites incorrect.

I noticed on television recently the Apple advertisement highlighting their Do Not Disturb feature. What caught my eye was the spelling of Favourites as Favorites.

Where possible I like to set my user interface to use Australian English. The iPhone doesn't directly support Australian English, so the next best option is to select British English. At least this way the American English spelling isn't used.

The ad caught my attention because I hadn't seen the ability in the iPhone to set the Do Not Disturb feature further than turning it on and off. The ad showed there were more settings, so where were they, and was the spelling really Favorites.

A bit of investigation showed the options for the Do Not Disturb feature were hidden under Notifications. I often find Apple rearranges the user interface over time and having the settings for Do Not Disturb in a separate area isn't quite logical, so I suspect this will be rearranged in time. However once you know the feature is under Notifications you can then change the settings.

Since I've set my iPhone to use British English spelling I was pleased to see the spelling was the correct spelling of Favourites. Looks like Apple simply reuses the ads they created for America on Australian TV.

What started as checking the spelling on the Apple iPhone user interface ended up being a useful diversion, as it showed me there were more options behind the Do Not Disturb feature. I'm always amazed when an interest in the Australian English spelling takes me on journey.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
Creator and maintainer of the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.

Herald Sun article contains the spelling license instead of licence.

Spelling a word such as licence correctly can be quite difficult. What I find doesn’t help is when a newspaper uses the incorrect spelling of a word. This article in the Herald Sun uses the American spelling of licence instead of the Australian English spelling.

A DRINK-DRIVING P-plater has had his car impounded and license suspended after police discovered two teenagers in the boot of the overloaded vehicle. ... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problem.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Article on when to hyphenate words

The use of hyphens was pretty much of a mystery to me, but more recently due to the Australian English dictionary work, they make a lot more sense. One contributor to my now obsolete open source work many years ago provided a list of hyphenated words which I included in the dictionary. With later versions of the dictionary I completely removed the list of hyphenated words and only included those hyphenated words which were documented in the authoritative Australian dictionaries. Those questionable hyphenations are still more than likely included in Firefox and Google Chrome browsers plus many open source projects, but not in Internet Explorer 10.

When using a word processor the problem is you can hyphenate anything and it will be treated as correct. For example: “I purchased a pre-dog for Christmas.” There is no error flagged by the word processor and a pre-dog doesn’t really make much sense, it should of course be a puppy.

In the online tool I call Word Check (www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au), I provide the documented hyphenated words to assist people when they are trying to determine if a word is normally hyphenated or not. However ultimately to use hyphens correctly requires a better understanding of the rules of grammar.

Thank you to Renée Purdie of Rising Star Designs and Communications (www.risingstardesigns.com.au) for providing the following links to articles which people may find interesting. My goal with writing is to gradually improve. I don’t ever expect my writing to be perfect, but it doesn’t hurt to improve my writing skills over time and Renée’s feedback over the years has helped me quite a bit.

http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/compadjterm.htm

I’ll always remember as a result of communicating with Renée how my spelling changed. I previously used the spelling “co-operate” as that is how I believe I was taught in school, but now realise the style has changed and the hyphen is no longer present. Thanks Renée.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
Creator and maintainer of the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.

Internet Explorer 10 - The preferred Australian English spelling now available

I’m pretty excited to announce I’m now making available the preferred Australian English spelling file for Internet Explorer 10 running on Windows 8.

Internet Explorer 10 has Australian English spellchecking built in, but like Microsoft’s Office products, the spellchecker accepts thousands of secondary spelling variations such as words with “ize”, American spelt words such as “mom” and some errors. The preferred Australian English spelling file corrects these issues.

If written communication matters to you the preferred Australian English spelling file is a must have. If you’re a student, applying for jobs, or write reports or sales material, the preferred Australian English spelling file is a must have.

You can find the preferred Australian English spelling file for Internet Explorer 10 at www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
The creator of the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.

New site for The Preferred Australian English spellcheck dictionary

Recently Google changed their algorithm which significantly impacted the position of the Australian English spellcheck dictionary in the Google search results. From number one position to nowhere to be found. In essence traffic to the site dropped 80% overnight. This should be a warning for anyone who puts a lot of time and money into obtaining a position in Google. All your time, energy and money could be wasted overnight by decisions Google makes in terms of generating traffic to your site.

The preferred Australian English spellcheck dictionary is the only free service available to Australians to assist them with using the preferred Australian English spelling. Over a thousand people a week used the site and Google simply changed their algorithm making the page almost impossible to find. The original page will remain (www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oooau), but in addition, you can now find the main page at www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au.

 

The site www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au will become the main site for my dictionary work.

 

You can still find the main page if searching (“Australian Dictionary”) using Bing, where the site is positioned in first position and in Yahoo where the site is positioned second. My apologies for any inconvenience. What Google does is outside of my control.

I hope you find my work to be of assistance.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au   

Misogyny. Did the Prime Minister perhaps use the wrong word. Why did Macquarie dictionary say they were going to change the meaning?

The word misogyny has certainly received a lot of airtime recently. I personally didn’t know what the word meant and when I ask others, they didn’t know either. Macquarie has decided to broaden the meaning of the word but you have to ask the question why?

If I check the Oxford online, British and American language editions, there is no broader meaning. If I check the Merriam Webster online for American use there is no broader definition there either. Just that misogyny is the hatred of women.

Could it be in the thrust and pary of politics perhaps Julia used a word that wasn’t most appropriate.

If you want to check the meaning (or spelling) of words in Australian English you can use the page I provide http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/oooau/. If you’d like the check the American English meaning or spelling I now provide a free online American English spellcheck dictionary which provides a link to enable you to look up the meaning of a word at www.american-dictionary.com.

Please enjoy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
The creator of The Preferred Australian English Spellcheck Dictionary.

 

Australian dictionary online

If you’re looking for a free online Australian dictionary, visit the Preferred Australian English dictionary page. Enter the word you wish to check. The spelling is checked and you’ll be presented with a list of suggestions where you can click on a link and check the meaning for a word.

The preferred Australian English dictionary is the only free online dictionary which provides the preferred Australian English spelling. Don’t fall into the trap of using a free online American dictionary as the local primary school has done. That doesn’t help anyone. Use the preferred Australian English spelling.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Creator of the preferred Australian English dictionary.