Canadian Spell-checking Dictionary

Canadian spelling is all about choice - US or British, we don't care, just don't force us to use just one or the other. But that is exactly the choice we are typically forced to make by most computer spell-checkers! This custom dictionary file contains alternate Canadian spellings for words that can be added to your word-processor's US spell-checker to put a stop to the ongoing "choose US or UK spelling" anti-Canadian tyrrany!

To use this custom dictionary with MS Word, download it (click here) and save it to your hard drive. (Note: Be sure to remember where you saved the file! If you have trouble with this sort of thing, pick something simple like My Documents.) Then open MS Word, and, from the Tools menu, select Options... and then the Spelling and Grammar tab. Click on the Custom Dictionaries... button, and then the Add... button, find the CanadianCustomDictionary.dic file you just downloaded and saved (e.g., in My Documents, if you followed my suggestion earlier), select it, click OK, OK, OK, and voila! You're done! Now at long last you can use our wonderful Canadian spellings without running into all those annoying red underlines...

So, to recap: in MS Word, select Tools > Options > Spelling and Grammar > Custom Dictionaries > Add > [select dictionary file] > OK > OK > OK. Or, if you prefer to do things the hard way, you can download the text file instead and follow my original instructions here.

This file is my personal selection from a variety of word-lists for spell-checkers on the internet that I believe to be in the public domain. I forget now where exactly I obtained the lists, so I am unable to credit the original authors of the lists I used, nor I am able to ascertain with 100% certainty that the original word-lists are in fact public-domain. If anyone knows them not to be, or wants credit for compiling the original lists I used, or has suggestions for how my selection of alternate Canadian spellings should/could be improved, please let me know in the comments.

Canadian Spell-checking Dictionary

Canadian spelling is all about choice—US or British, we don't care, just don't force us to use just one or the other. But that is exactly the choice we are typically forced to make by most computer spell-checkers! So, in an attempt to address this problem, I've created a text-file (available here) which contains alternate Canadian spellings for words that can be added to your word-processor's US spell-checker. Put a stop to the ongoing "choose US or UK spelling" anti-Canadian tyrrany!

To use this file with MS Word, set up MS Word to use the US spell-checker, then copy the contents of this file to MS Word's CUSTOM.DIC file. In other words, search for the file CUSTOM.DIC on your hard drive, open it in Notepad or WordPad, open this file in Notepad or WordPad (if it isn't already open in your web-browser), select and copy all the words in this file, then paste them into CUSTOM.DIC and save the modified CUSTOM.DIC file without changing its name.

This file is my personal selection from a variety of word-lists for spell-checkers on the internet that I believe to be in the public domain. I forget now where exactly I obtained the lists, so I am unable to credit the original authors of the lists I used, nor I am able to ascertain with 100% certainty that the original word-lists are in fact public-domain. If anyone knows them not to be, or wants credit for compiling the original lists I used, or has suggestions for how my selection of alternate Canadian spellings should/could be improved, please let me know in the comments.