Spelling Macro

[PieOPah]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The American way of spelling centered is centered.

A lot of books I have been running through spell check have centreed - that is why it annoys me so much!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

A lot of books I have been running through spell check have centreed - that is why it annoys me so much!

So then just replace centreed with centered.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Actually, the UK spelling of those words are "centred" and "aluminium".

And US uses centered, not centreed which is not a word.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We already had Harry Potter being changed for the US market and I think that was a really bad idea.

I've also seen "The Pillars of the Earth" with UK and US spellings, and some Wodehouse books, and "The Prince and the Pauper" (it seems the version in PG has UK spelling, while the scanned copy I'm using to check it has US spelling).

Personally, I prefer to read what the author originally wrote, but English is not my mother language...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

centreed (US)

I don't know that word and can't find it at dictionary.com either?

BOb

[pilotbob]

I have been reading the Sherlock Holmes stuff that HarryT put up.

Many times I see the following:

yo for you

and

al for all

Are those just older spellings of those, or are they mistakes in the ebook?

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

And again, with the ability to do so, isn't it MY choice as to whether I read american spelling or UK English?

Certainly it's your choice, but American English differs from British English by a lot more than just spellings - there are huge numbers of grammatical and stylistic differences to: eg, to name but a few:

- Americans "write" someone. Brits "write to" someone.
- Americans go to "the hospital". Brits go to "hospital" with no article.
- Americans "visit with" someone; Brits merely "visit".
- Americans (absolutely correctly) use the past participle of get, "gotten", which has totally fallen out of use in British English.
- Americans generally regard a company as singular ("Sony is..."), Brits as plural ("Sony are...")

Changing the spellings doesn't affect any of these - or virtually limitless numbers of other - differences between the two versions of the language.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Personally, I prefer to read what the author originally wrote, but English is not my mother language...

I really like to know what edition I am reading. So I am really missing that information in books available here and in other places. If you make a new edition by changing things I thing this should be noted in the book.

What the author wrote is nearly always different from what was published due to editing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

I really like to know what edition I am reading. So I am really missing that information in books available here and in other places. If you make a new edition by changing things I thing this should be noted in the book.

Most of our books come from PG sources, and PG specifically say that they do not aim to make their books conform to a specific edition or source, and that often they use multiple sources. It's generally, therefore, not easy to answer the question "what edition does this come from".

When I proof-read books against a specific edition, I generally say in my comments what that edition is. When I've been proof-reading Dickens (my favourite author) using "Google Books" scans, I've been surprised to see just how very different the different editions are in terms of punctuation, spelling, and even, on occasions, the actual text itself.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Certainly it's your choice, but American English differs from British English by a lot more than just spellings - there are huge numbers of grammatical and stylistic differences to: eg, to name but a few:

- Americans "write" someone. Brits "write to" someone.
- Americans go to "the hospital". Brits go to "hospital" with no article.
- Americans "visit with" someone; Brits merely "visit".
- Americans (absolutely correctly) use the past participle of get, "gotten", which has totally fallen out of use in British English.
- Americans generally regard a company as singular ("Sony is..."), Brits as plural ("Sony are...")

Changing the spellings doesn't affect any of these - or virtually limitless numbers of other - differences between the two versions of the language.

Actually Harry,we sometimes "write to" & "visit".

PieOPah, along the lines Harry stated do you plan to change;

apartment to flat,
elevator to lift,
truck to lorry,
trunk to boot,
hood to bonnet,
bathroom to WC,
a "dead" battery to a "flat" battery,

just to name a few? And will you change the dialect in a dialog, e.g. some westerns would use "shootin' " instead of shooting when part of a western person's speech?

To me it's like trying to make over an apple into an orange just because I'm more accustomed to the flavor of an orange. Also I enjoy seeing the differences between our "same" language. It makes me wonder about how they managed to evolve as they did.

[PieOPah]

Geez, I wish I had never asked such a straight forward question.

I merely wish to change a few spellings. I have no desire to change the grammar. I have no wish to change dialect.

A few words just annoy me and I wanted to know if I could optimise a macro.

I f I knew that it would annoy so many people, I wouldn't have bothered asking!

Why would I want to change apartment to flat or hood to bonnet? Unless they are misspelled then I have no desire to change them!

Why is this such an issue for people? If it offends you all so much how I want to enjoy my books, then please don't read the thread!

For those of you that attempted to help me, your help is appreciated.
For those that came here to flame, I have no interest in your comments!

[HarryT]

Nobody's "flaming" anyone - just interested to know your motivation for wanting to do this .

[PieOPah]

Originally Posted by HarryT

just interested to know your motivation for wanting to do this .

When I run a spell check on the books, I always use the UK dictionary. As a result, American spellings are always caught. I have no desire to start using an American dictionary and since for some reason, 'replace all' in the spell check never does replace all occurrences.

To speed up my spell check, I thought it would be simpler to first run a macro to change all of the American spellings. This would then allow me to correct genuine spelling errors and save me a lot of time preparing my books.

The alternative solution was to add the American spellings to my dictionary, but I would prefer to read the UK spelling.

This is a PERSONAL PREFERENCE.

Spelling also depends on where a book was published. I have 2 versions of my favourite book - one published in America, one published in the UK (having lost my original, my wife found a copy but could only get it in the US - a few yers later I found the original copy). In this, spellings differ based on the country rather than the (BRITISH) author's original language!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

Spelling also depends on where a book was published. I have 2 versions of my favourite book - one published in America, one published in the UK (having lost my original, my wife found a copy but could only get it in the US - a few yers later I found the original copy). In this, spellings differ based on the country rather than the (BRITISH) author's original language!

You're right - quite a few books are "edited" for local markets, a practice which I personally don't like. I have an American edition of "Harry Potter" and for me it "grates" to see things like "parking lot" (instead of "car park"), "mail slot" (rather than "letter box"), "sneakers" (instead of "trainers") and so on, in which is so obviously a book with a "British" atmosphere.

As you say, though, it's all a matter of personal preference.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have an American edition of "Harry Potter"

Not to mention the different title!