Dear Mr Maxey,
As an Australian user of Word who has frequently encountered the same problem as Dannyg, even though I've gone through all the steps suggested in this forum a number of times. This certainly causes frustration, as it tells us the Australian spellings--which are based for the most part on Standard English. This standardisation came about in part as a response to the habits and conventions then developing in the US - for example the word colour was spelled with both a u, and without a u, in England and Australia BEFORE the Americans started spelling it without a u. For better or for worse, we Australians like to spelling behaviour with a u, Colour with a u, and judgement with an extra e. As a nation founded by convicts, impoverished opportunists, and establishment outcasts and their sycophantic hangers on, the idiosyncracies of our idea of being embedded in a rich and subtle linguistic tradition are all we've got, especially as you Americans have so outdone us in your bravado. Our only defense - like the French and the English - is to point out how your very success, with its dependence on the homogeneous banality of mass production and its compulsive promotion, only highlights how much subtler and richer our own cultures are, no matter how many Hemingways or Steins (Gertrude, I mean, you should look her up) you produce. In our very silence, we feign sublimity. And after all, the greatest American of all time was of course Australian Peter Finch, who was mad as hell, as we all are.
Which brings me to my main point (at last!). Word is an excellent American product which we all like to use, because there simply is nothing better and now there is not likely to be unless someone can make it entirely compatible with Word and all the nuances of detail that would entail. However, it being a prime example of the genius and excellence of the United States as a supremely creative and productive society deserving dominance in a global meritocracy is seriously undermined by the oversight this feature, which deeply irritates a great many Australians, reveals. The oversight is that the best way to promote all that is good and American is to, like with the ongoing colonial conquests of the Roman Church from the beginnings of its history, is to incorporate the cultures of those being colonized to such a degree that they see the dominating system as something that is in fact entirely their own (Alexander the Great and the Romans really got this idea rolling). The last thing you want to do is, not only at the bottom of the cookie jar, but embedded in each cookie just as you bite into it, a feeble little label saying "made in America" which makes the entire experience, well, not entirely digestible. The terrible thing is, that this is the criticism we have always leveled at you--that if you're really so great, why the constant need to advertise it? Out of our own insecurities and attachments, we expose yours. All in all, both are weakened as a result. And Australia has not yet had its day of glory, but we may still come to rival the states as a nation, which could only be a good thing.
So my proposal? Not to wait for someone else to make an Australian friendly word-processor, but to demand that Microsoft fix this incredibly annoying feature that taints what could be seen as the world's single greatest piece of computer software. Only then will it truly stand as a piece of American excellence. The idiosyncracies and foibles of your customers matter, even the small but vocal minorities (although I'd be careful here, as Indians, making up so much of the world population, tend to use lots of computers, and tend NOT to use American English). Become better, Microsoft. Become better, America. And so shall we. Don't be satisfied with anything less.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Maxey
I suppose you can figure out how to use the program or wait around grumbling
until some Austrialian firm comes alongs and develops a word processing
application that you don't feel is so "pro" American. Good luck.
--
Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.
Dannyg wrote:
Is there a simple way of keeping English (Australian) as the default
spell checker. I change it for one word and it just keeps going back
to the US version. What is it with the US can't they accept anything
else??? |