Change Mac to English (UK) instead of English (USA)?

Changing the language in the System Preferences is apparently just instructing Mac OS X which language resources to use with apps and such.

You can change which dictionary the spell checker uses;
1. Highlight a word and right click on it.
2. In the contextual menu that appears go to Spelling and Grammar>Show Spelling and Grammar
3. In the bottom left corner of the window that will open is a pull down menu where you can select the language dictionary of your choice. I see four different dictionaries for English!

Do all of you lot use the same language but all spell it differently? How does that work amigo?

Dah•veed

Normally if you go to system prefs/international/languages and put British English at the top of the list (use the Edit button if necessary to add it), the your default spell checking should always be in that language.

So I guess a Snow Leopard answer to the OP is to go to SysPrefs/Lang&Text/Text and set the Dictionary to British English there and then it would be set universally throughout the system.

Dah•veed

So I guess a Snow Leopard answer to the OP is to go to SysPrefs/Lang&Text/Text and set the Dictionary to British English there and then it would be set universally throughout the system.

Yes, that should work.

I was wrong about Leopard. It works right in Pages but it seems the connection between the OS language and the dictionary is broken in TextEdit.

I gathered from his first post where he mentions setting preferences and the word color that that did not work for him. Perhaps he did it incorrectly.

But I just did a number of tests with changing the preferences in Sys Prefs/Int'l/Languages, logging out and logging in and I did not find that the setting has done anything to change the dictionary used for spell checking. Not between the different versions of English, and not when I switched to Spanish.

Dah•veed.

But I just did a number of tests with changing the preferences in Sys Prefs/Int'l/Languages, logging out and logging in and I did not find that the setting has done anything to change the dictionary used for spell checking. Not between the different versions of English, and not when I switched to Spanish.

That's odd. You should not even have to logout/login. Normally just restarting an app like TextEdit after moving Spanish to the top of the languages list should put the app interface into Spanish and also result in the dictionary in Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar being switched to Español. Does at least your TextEdit change to Spanish interface?

The logout & login was because after dragging a different language to the top of the list the language switch will occur in the Finder with the next login. It will occur in apps when they are next opened.

Using TextEdit I am not getting the behavior you expect. If I set the Dictionary to English, go change the Preference and open TextEdit, the Dictionary has reset to Automatic by language and it recognizes words I type in US English or Spanish as correct, but not words I spell in British English. It underlines them in red.

If I drag British, Canadian or Australian English to the top of the list, open TextEdit, it still recognizes words typed in US English and Spanish as correct, but in the others as incorrect.

The only way to get the Dictionary to recognize British English is to manually set the Dictionary to British English.

(I am used to testing such things, I am a seed tester.)

Then I wonder what you lot are doing to my countrymen? We have English language schools and bi-lingual junior & senior high schools by the dozens here in Monterrey. Some are run by the Statesonians, some by the Canadians, even a few run by Australians and New Zealanders. I obviously learned Statesonian English.

So we poor step children of North America will all speak English, but all spell it differently. And to top that, we are all learning it with a different accent. Recently I was out with friends for an English night out. We could only speak with each other in English. It is good practice. I can write perfect English. Speaking it is another matter. But the two folks who went to the Australian bi-lingual school were almost impossible to understand!

BTW, Statesonian English uses healthy and healthily. Healthy is an adjective, while healthily is an adverb. We would say, "I am making healthy food selections because my goal is the eat more healthily."

The spelling is the same, the language a tiny bit different throughout Latin America with the Spanish influenced by the local indigenous languages, as English was influenced by French and Spanish by the Moors. And, of course, Spain itself is a nation of regional dialects.

Using TextEdit I am not getting the behavior you expect.

Are you still able to run 10.5? It should behave the way I have described.

In 10.6, I think it depends on what you have done in the new settings in system prefs/language & text/text/spelling. Instead of Automatic, put that on US English. Then I think you should find that the default dictionary changes to Spanish when the Spanish goes to the top of the list and TextEdit is restarted.

same for me!

Thanks for your solution. Worked like a charm.

For English, it's just evolution. I'm sure spanish in Spain and Mexico varies as well.