Convert spelling from English (US) to British, in a new file?

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Level 1

25 points

Convert spelling from English (US) to British, in a new file?

I have a book written in US English for the American market.

I wish to convert it to British spelling and then sell this book in the UK too.

I have reset the computer spelling in Apple Mac Book Pro preferences.

I then reset the preferences in IBook Inspector, as suggested in a previous thread for a new iBook file using Inspector/Text/More/Language

I then copied and pasted my chapters across.

The text still is in US English...

I am wondering what is the best way ahead....

Have I missed out a vital step or is there another step to do for each page?

Ken

iBook

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 11:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,882 points

Jan 23, 2013 11:30 AM in response to kenfromUK

I don't think there is anything in iBooks Author which is going to change your text automatically. If you do select all and set the language to British English, it should underline all the mistakes in red and you can fix them manually, or you could do find/replace for all the words you want to change.

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Answer 2

kenfromUK Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 23, 2013 12:22 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks for the idea of 'select all'.

It unfortunately did not pick up fueled as a mis-spelling, in the highlighted text for British, so this technique will have to be abandoned.

I will just have to read each word and then do the correction, highlight the red underlined word and convert to British.

Seems to work...

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,882 points

Jan 23, 2013 12:49 PM in response to kenfromUK

kenfromUK wrote:

Thanks for the idea of 'select all'.

It unfortunately did not pick up fueled as a mis-spelling, in the highlighted text for British, so this technique will have to be abandoned.

Oddly mine does pick up fueled but not traveled.

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Answer 4

Mac_fool

Level 2

153 points

Jan 24, 2013 5:10 AM in response to kenfromUK

I think it has to be done manually, as there are too many differences to be able to cathc them all by mere search and replace operations.

Do the search/replace stuff, make a pdf, and then sit there and read through it.

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Answer 5

kenfromUK Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 24, 2013 7:05 AM in response to Mac_fool

Good ideas!

My wife is better at spotting errors so she sits with the iPad and suggests what to change on the Mac Book.

The -er in theatre etc are easy to pick up manually but the odd words that have one l rather than two are more difficult to spot.

Not that many words really to change manually but will check, check and double check.

Thanks,

Ken

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Answer 6

kenfromUK Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 24, 2013 9:17 AM in response to kenfromUK

I came across this site that might help other authors.....

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/BritishCanadianAmerican.htm

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Answer 7

Mac_fool

Level 2

153 points

Jan 24, 2013 1:42 PM in response to kenfromUK

That's really useful, but we should also take into account differing uses of punctuation, such as the Oxford (or serial) comma.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

In some workflows, you could hold the text in InDesign, and use the GREP search and replace tool to create a script to do the horsework.

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Answer 8

kenfromUK Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:12 PM in response to Mac_fool

I tried 'find and replace all' but got some unwanted results......

I now use 'next' and then 'replace' ..... Much safer.

The tip about commas in the UK .....

"Portugal, Spain, and France" (with the serial comma) or as "Portugal, Spain and France" (without the serial comma)

We use the second option and I have never seen the former in publications in the UK.

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