Convert UK English to US English

[Robtowler]

Hi all, I have an InDesign document that is all in UK English, and I need to make a US version.

What's the best way to do this please? I've changed the Paragraph and Text styles to English: USA, but it isn't flagging up with the usual red underline existing text to change to US. Such as "colour" and "organisation"...

Any help much appreciated. Thanks.

[SJRiegel]

Once you have changed the Language of the text in the docuement, run the spell-check.

[Robtowler]

Yes, that's doable, am looking for a quicker way to do this though, thanks for the tip though 🙂

[rob day]

Language is a character level attribute—you could have two languages inside of a single word. If you are on OSX this AppleScript should get everthing:

set lang to "English: USA"
tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
	set pstyles to all paragraph styles of active document
	repeat with i from 1 to number of items in pstyles
		try
			set applied language of item i of pstyles to lang
		end try
	end repeat
	
	set cstyles to all character styles of active document
	repeat with i from 1 to number of items in cstyles
		try
			set applied language of item i of cstyles to lang
		end try
	end repeat
	try
		set applied language of every paragraph of every story of active document to lang
	end try
	try
		set applied language of every paragraph of every cell of every table of every story of active document to lang
	end try
end tell

[Robtowler]

Damn, I'm using PC !

[rob day]

Here‘s a JS version

var theLanguage = "English: USA";


var pStyles = app.activeDocument.allParagraphStyles;
var cStyles = app.activeDocument.allCharacterStyles;
var pg = app.activeDocument.pages;

for (var j=pStyles.length-1; j > 0; j--){
    pStyles[j].appliedLanguage = theLanguage;
}

for (var k=cStyles.length-1; k > 0; k--){
    cStyles[k].appliedLanguage = theLanguage;
}

for (var i = pg.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
    for (var h = 0; h <= pg[i].textFrames.length-1; h++) {
        app.activeDocument.pages[i].textFrames[h].parentStory.appliedLanguage = theLanguage;
            if (app.activeDocument.pages[i].textFrames[h].tables.length != 0) {
            for (var q = app.activeDocument.pages[i].textFrames[h].tables.length-1; q >= 0; q--){
                app.activeDocument.pages[i].textFrames[h].tables[q].cells.everyItem().texts.everyItem().appliedLanguage = theLanguage;
            }
        }
    }
}

[Robtowler]

Tried, saving this to a JS file, can see it in the Scripts folder in InDesign, but it's showing errors.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I found a similar discussion on the community, please refer to the below discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/change-spelling-of-uk-document-to-us-english/td-p/10187461

Regards

Rishabh

[Barb Binder]

I've changed the Paragraph and Text styles to English: USA, but it isn't flagging up with the usual red underline existing text to change to US. Such as "colour" and "organisation"...

Is it flagging any misspelled words? The red/green squiggles are visible when Dynamic Spelling is enabled under Edit > Spelling, and it is not on as a default. If the paragraphs have been assigned US English and Dynamic Spelling is enabled and if you are in View > Screen Mode  > Normal, those words should be flagged.

~Barb

[Robtowler]

Hi, thanks for the response.
I have Dynamic on already and certain words are highlighted in red, just not the UK/US ones.

[jane-e]

Go to Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary

• Check the Language and confirm it says English: USA
• Check the Dictionary List for Added Words, Removed Words, and Ignored Words. Do this for the User Dictionary and for the Document Dictionary. If words are there that ought not to be, take them out. 

~ Jane

[Robtowler]

Thanks Jane-e, appreciating all your help here 🙂

[SJRiegel]

I've changed the Paragraph and Text styles to English: USA,

To make sure that all text in the document is changed, use Find/Change (GREP). Put just a Period in the Find field and $0 in the Change to field. In the Change format, choose Advanced Character Fomats, adn choose English : USA

This will find every bit of text in your docuement and change its language to US English

[Robtowler]

This seems good, just a quick question - What do I put in the 'Find what:' field ?
thanks

[jane-e]

The period [ . ] is a wildcard for "Any Character".

[Robtowler]

ah great, thank you 🙂

[Robtowler]

It's still missing out words even with the GREP info in, very strange.

[jane-e]

In addition to what's been said, you will need to read the document after you have run spell check. There are some words that the Brits use that will be spelled correctly but will be the wrong word in American English.

A few examples:

• Crisp
• Biscuit
• Suspenders
• Football
• Indicator

These are just a few (very few) of the words that won't make sense in American English.

~ Jane

[SJRiegel]

Also 

• Lift (elevator)

• Boot (car trunk)

[jane-e]

And a few more that won't be found by Spell Check:

• A-L: 
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_American_and_British_Englis...)

• M-Z:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_American_and_British_Englis...

[Laubender]

Hi Rob,

you assigned the name of a language to appliedLanguage wheras you need an [object LanguageWithVendors].

One could handle this easily if Robtowler, our OP, is selecting a character with US English applied for language and work like that:

// Select one single character with the language you like to use:
var theLanguage = app.selection[0].appliedLanguage;

The rest of the code should work like intended.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[rob day]

Thanks