More dinky-di words for Microsoft Office

Microsoft Australia has given a panel of Australian experts the task of identifying unique local words that could be included in the next version of the Office suite.

The panel includes founding member of the editorial committee of the Macquarie Dictionary, David Blair, sports writer Peter FitzSimons, radio host Adam Spencer, columnist Ruth Wajnryb and the director of Microsoft Australia's information business group, Tony Wilkinson.

Other candidate words include: ridgy-didge, trackies, woomera, Bradman, Phar Lap and sheila.

"While Office features an already comprehensive Australian spelling option, based on the Macquarie dictionary, we felt that many commonly used Aussie words were being left out. We approached the Office 2007 development team and they agreed to include a selection of new Aussie words. So we called together a panel of leading experts on Australian language to help us start to make our selection," said Wilkinson.

The public can vote on the words suggested by the panel via www.microsoft.com.au. The words to be included will be announced in June, according to Microsoft.