UK/US Software differences

[ruggerlad1]

I am off to SF for a few weeks and thought I might buy some nice cheap US software for my Mac. I'm looking at OS 10.3 and Adobe CS Suite... but are there any differences/disadvantages when buying US software over UK versions? Are there UK versions? Or are they all "International English"? The obvious differences I can think of (esp. in Indesign) involve metric versus imperial measurements......

Any advice gratefully received....

[Brad]

For most software (unless explicitly stated otherwise), the version is all the same. Languages are stored in .lproj subdirectories in the application bundle and they load automatically depending on your system settings.

I just peeked in my copy of VLC, for example, and it has folders for the following:

de
es
en_GB
English
es
fr
hu
it
ja
nl
no
pl
pt_BR
ru
sv

The "en_GB" you see there is the entry for UK English. Here's Apple's explanation of the language codes:

Language Designations (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/Concepts/LanguageDesignations.html)

[Gabid]

I just installed InDesign CS (bought in Canada, which I'm sure is the same as the US version) the other day and the first time I ran it it asked me if I wanted to run in "International" or "US" English.

How big are the differences? Dunno. But I just took a look, and my "Colour" pallet has a "u". I'm guessing this isn't there if you choose US English. Mind you, Panther's spell check here doesn't seem to quite know what to make of "colour" ;)

[Brad]

Originally posted by Gabid
Mind you, Panther's spell check here doesn't seem to quite know what to make of "colour" ;) Edit -> Spelling -> Spelling... -> Dictionary: British English.

You'll notice there are also options for Australian English and Canadian English.

[Barto]

I've used Mac OS X as my primary OS since the Public Beta, and I've NEVER noticed that!

Finally, Mac OS X will no longer tell my I'm misspelling colour! :D

[Gabid]

Originally posted by Brad
Edit -> Spelling -> Spelling... -> Dictionary: British English.

You'll notice there are also options for Australian English and Canadian English.

Foolish me. I honestly never noticed this before. Now I can write colour, neighbour and honour without squiggly little red lines. Weeeeeeeeee! Seriously though, much obliged.

[ruggerlad1]

Thanks, everyone, for your help - it looks like I may be able to save a few pennies...

Actually, the difference in price (based on prices from the Adobe websites - US and UK) is over $430 for Creative Suite Premium!