How can I set my spellchecker to Australian English?

by George Skarbek 6th December 2005

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Q: I use Outlook as my email client, which uses MS Word for composing emails. The spellchecker keeps reverting to English (US), which I don't want (as Americans really can't spell English properly). When I run the spellchecker, I select language, select English (UK) and click on default and it says: "Do you want to change the default language to English (UK)? This change will affect all new documents based on the Normal template." I click OK. But the next time I use Outlook it has reverted to English (USA). I've been into Word itself and set the default to English (UK) but Outlook keeps ignoring that. I was wondering if you'd have any suggestions.

A: To fix your problem, Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Regional and Language Settings. You will find there are three tabs: Advanced, Languages and Regional Options. You need to have English Australia (or UK if you prefer) selected under all three tabs. Note that you have to include the Details option in the Languages window. If this does not fix the problem then from Start, click Programs, Microsoft Office Tools, select Microsoft Office XP Language Settings and then you will be able to select Australian (or UK). Caution: When you change the installation language as in the last step, your Normal.dot file is replaced and any changes you have made will be lost. You will have to re-customise your settings in Normal.dot.


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Q: I have just bought a new computer with Office 2003. When I open Word, the Task Pane opens, taking up space on the right-hand side. It is annoying to have to close that pane each time. How do I stop this?

A: From Word click on Tools, Options and then open the View tab, and then remove the tick from the Startup Task Pane at the top. If you have looked at the other options, one that I always set is to show the last nine files used, as the default is only four, and I often open a prior file for editing or updating. This figure is set from the General screen.

Q: I have a USB drive that I use to back up my files via a BAT file that I have written. My only annoyance is that whenever I insert that drive, Windows Explorer pops up because at one stage I selected that's what I want. Can you tell me how I can stop that from happening?

A: Having inserted your USB drive, close that annoying window and open Windows Explorer and right-click on to the USB drive. Select Properties, click on the AutoPlay tab, then click on “Select an action to perform” and highlight the Take No Action icon. Now click on Prompt Me each time to choose this action.Now Windows will always let you choose the action when your USB drive is inserted.


Q How can I stop the QuickTime Player icon appearing on the bottom task bar every time I start up my computer?

A: Programs that decide for themselves that they need to start when the computer starts annoy me, as I wish to decide what is important to me. QuickTime is one such annoying program and, worse still, it also puts an icon to the desktop during installation. The disadvantage of having unwanted programs starting automatically is not only that they increase the start-up time but, more importantly, because they then reside in memory, they take up some of this important resource and all they save you is a couple of seconds when you click on a MOV file.

To prevent QuickTime from starting, click on Start, Run, enter MSCONFIG and remove the tick from QuickTime. This will not remove the program, just prevent it from starting automatically.

In Version 6 there are two steps: Start, Settings, Control Panel, then double-click on QuickTime icon and on the QuickTime Settings panel, choose Browser Plug-in and, in the dropdown menu, uncheck QuickTime System Tray Icon. Then also delete it from the Startup menu.

If you never click on the QuickTime icon to open a movie but double-click the file from Windows Explorer, then remove that icon from the desktop.
Other icons that are placed on the desktop and probably never used there are Adobe Reader and WinZip. Although they are both good programs, I never start then by clicking on the desktop but by double-clicking the appropriate file from Windows Explorer. They can also be started from the Programs list, so there is no need to clutter your desktop with unnecessary icons.

To look at the book, Computer Guide, based on these columns click here