Change you default spell check dictionary in MacOSX

It's a silly little thing, but it's taken me years to figure it out. That is: How do you set the default dictionary for spell check in Mac OSX?

Most people won't ever need to do this, but it's always sort of annoyed me that spell check in Mac OSX mail and every other program would try to force the American spelling of words on me. It was a very slight slight against my national pride, and being Canadian I just lived with it.

The Canadian dictionary is somewhere between American and British dictionaries. Sometimes we use the Britsh spelling and sometimes the Americans use the Canadian spelling.

I knew Mac OSX had a Canadian Dictionary but wasn't sure how to set it as the default? It turned out to incredibly simple.

I had been rooting around in system preferences which turned out to be the wrong place. Instead just control click (or right click) in a text editor that uses the system spell check (like Mac OSX) mail. Select "Spelling and Grammar" from the contextual menu and then "Show Spelling and Grammar" in the sub menu. This will open a tool panel window in which there should be a select box that will let you change the dictionary.

Once changed it continue to use the selected dictionary in any program that uses the system spell check.

Now everything I write and every email I send will contain a subtle hint of understated ambiguous patriotism, that anyone not in the know will misidentify as a typo or poor spelling. A very Canadian way to wave a flag I think.

Oh yeah, if you use Firefox (which doesn't use the system spell check) you can get the Canadian dictionary for it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3