Tardis:Spell checking with Chrome
Spell checking using the Chrome browser is easy to set up and requires no add-ons or extensions. It's important to be spell checking in British English while editing this site, because that's the way we roll on this site.
Setup
Chrome has fairly intelligent British spell checking included by default. Selection of the target spell check language is often done seamlessly.
Windows
During Windows installation, you're prompted to select a language. If you choose British English at this point, you'll be spell checking in British English. If you didn't choose British English at installation, then you'll have to manually change it by going to
- Settings > Show advanced settings > Languages and spell-checker settings
and follow the intuitive menus you see there. If you need more help, search your Chrome help files, looking for the term "spell-check".
Mac
In Mac installations, Chrome simply grabs the primary language from OS X's Language & Text preference pane, and assumes that you'll want to spell check in whatever language OS X itself believes is primary. In other words, if you've already set up your machine to work in British English, you won't have to do a thing to be spell checking in British English with Chrome.
If you're not set up to spell check in British English read this explanation of how to make the necessary changes.
Safari has better spell checking for Mac users — but not by much
The best British spelling available for Mac users is with Safari. That's why we generally recommend that Mac users edit with Safari only.
However, because Chrome is mostly integrated with OS X, most users will have British spell checking by default with Chrome, as long as they've followed the instructions at Help:Spell checking with a Mac. Again, if your OS X installation is set up such that British English is the preferred flavour of English, Chrome will automatically spell check in British English. And the quality of British spell checking is far superior to that which Firefox offers.
Nevertheless, although Chrome offers a solid British spell checking environment, we still recommend that you edit with Safari, especially when you're making larger edits. Why? Chrome doesn't auto-correct or auto-suggest like Safari does. So although it flags misspellings accurately enough, you'll still make fewer British spelling errors with Safari than Chrome.
More info
Probably the best single resource for additional details about this subject is Chrome's own help files that are stored locally on your machine. Just go to the help menu and search for the term "spell check". You'll also