Google chrome now available, but no Australian English.

As the creator and maintainer of the Australian English dictionary files now used by an estimated million Australians, when I see new software I think you can probably guess my main desire is to see if it has a good Australian English dictionary. Even better is if the software can use the dictionaries I provide.

In this case Google Chrome does not currently have an Australian English dictionary. The next best option for Australians is generally to select British English. This is done as follows:

Select the spanner (Customize/Customise) icon at the right.
Select Options.
Select the Minor Tweaks tab.
Click Change font and language settings.
Select the Languages tab.
For Google Chrome language select English (United Kingdom).
For Spell checking language select English (United Kingdom).
Click OK
Click Close
Restart Google Chrome

This now allows the word "colour" to be spelt correctly. Sadly the word "color" appears as correct as well, but this is still better than the default US English language. The good thing is words like "canceled" and "mom" now appear as an error. The British dictionary is better, but not as good as the dictionaries I provide. I will continue to check out Google Chrome and see if it is possible to provide the Australian English dictionary files for those who wish to use them.

Interestingly, even though Google Chrome now provides in-line spellchecking, the in-line spellchecking is not available when creating a blog entry using Google blogger. The best option (although it is still not that good) is to use Internet Explorer 7 with IE7Pro with the Australian English dictionary and force a spellcheck.

Happy Chroming, or for the rest of us, browsing.

- Kelvin