Language dialog box word

To change the text language, select the text for which you want to change language and do one of the following:

• On the Review tab, in the Language group, click the Language button, then choose Set Proofing Language…:

  

• On the status bar, click the Language icon:

  

In the Language dialog box, choose the language you want to use for the selected text and click OK:

Notes:

1. You can set different languages to different words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, or sections in the document.
2. You can
   skip some words or sentences from spelling and grammar checking or add them to the custom dictionary for some language.

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Word includes many tools to make your writing better. A few of the tools make use of specialized dictionaries; for instance, the grammar and spelling checker. You can pick a language to be used on either a single paragraph, or on all instances of a particular paragraph style. To change which language is used for a particular paragraph, follow these steps:

1. Select the paragraphs or defined style for which you want to change the language.
2. Display the Review tab of the ribbon.
3. If you are using Word 2007 click the Set Language tool in the Proofing group. If you are using Word 2010 or a later version, click the Language tool in the Language group and then click Set Proofing Language. Word displays the Language dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Language dialog box.

4. Select a language from those in the language list.
5. Click on OK.

If you want to specify that all paragraphs formatted with a particular style use a certain language, then follow these steps:

1. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
2. Click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Styles group. Word displays the Styles pane at the right side of the desktop.
3. In the list of styles, make sure the style you want to change is visible.
4. Hover the mouse pointer over the name of the style you want to change. Notice that a downward-pointing arrow appears at the right side of the style name.
5. Click on the downward-pointing arrow and choose the Modify option from the resulting menu. Word displays the Modify Style dialog box.
6. Click on the Format button, then choose the Language option. Word displays the Language dialog box.
7. Select a language from those in the language list.
8. Click on OK, then on OK again.
9. Close the Styles pane.

Any paragraphs currently using the style you specified in step 4 (or any paragraphs to which you apply that style in the future) will be formatted for the language you picked in step 7.

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Click the Display Language tab. Select the language that you want to use for the Ribbon, menus, and dialog boxes from the Display Microsoft Office menus and dialog boxes in list. Select the language that you want to use for Help from the Display Help in list.

How do I change the Language on Microsoft Word 2007?

Click File > Options > Language. In the Set the Office Language Preferences dialog box, under Choose Display and Help Languages, choose the language that you want to use, and then select Set as Default.

How do I change the Language of my Word document?

Changing the Language Settings in Microsoft Word

1. Go to the “Review” tab and find the “Language” section.
2. Click on “Language” and select “Set Proofing Language…”
3. Choose the language required in your document from the new window and click “OK”

How do I get the Language bar in Word 2007?

Go to the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the arrow on right and choose More Commands. That will open the QAT customize dialog. Change ‘Choose commands from …’ to All Commands then scroll down to the Language options. There are three called ‘Language’, we want the top one with the cursor/down arrow icon on the right.

How do I change my Microsoft Office 2007 from French to English?

Click the Display Language tab. Select the language that you want to use for the Ribbon, menus, and dialog boxes from the Display Microsoft Office menus and dialog boxes in list. Select the language that you want to use for Help from the Display Help in list.

How can I use Hindi in MS Word?

Step 1: Go to ‘time & language’ in settings. Step 2: Then, select the ‘language’ from the navigation menu. Step 3: Now, click on the ‘+ icon’. Step 4: Type the language name ‘Hindi’ in the search bar and add the preferred Indic language (by selecting into the search box and select it).

How do you change the language back to English?

Change the language on your Android device

1. On your Android device, tap Settings .
2. Tap System Languages & input. Languages. If you can’t find “System,” then under “Personal,” tap Languages & input Languages.​
3. Tap Add a language. and choose the language that you want to use.
4. Drag your language to the top of the list.

How do I permanently change the language in Word?

If you’re wanting to change your proofing language permanently, here’s how you can change your default proofing language in word.

1. Select ‘Review’ on the ribbon.
2. Click ‘Language’
3. Click ‘Set Proofing Language…’ and then choose the correct proofing language.
4. Select ‘Set As Default’ and confirm.

Why is my Microsoft Word in French?

The AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box displays the language as defined at the insertion point. Select the whole document and then click Review tab | Language | Set Proofing Language. In the Language dialog box, clear the “Detect language automatically” option.

What is the shortcut to change language on Microsoft Word 2007?

Keyboard shortcut: To switch between keyboard layouts, press Alt+Shift. icon is just an example; it shows that English is the language of the active keyboard layout. The actual icon shown on your computer depends on the language of the active keyboard layout and version of Windows.

How do I show the language bar in Word?

Open the Control Panel and go to the Region and Language applet. From the Keyboards and Languages tab click Change keyboards. In this new Text Services and Input Languages dialog, on the Language Bar tab, in the Language Bar section select Docked in taskbar or Floating On Desktop and click Apply.

Where is the language icon in Word?

From the Start menu, select Control Panel or Control. In the Control Panel, double-click the Regional and Language Options icon. Select the Keyboards and Languages tab. Select the desired language from the drop-down menu in the Display language section.

How do I change the language in Outlook 2007?

Step 1: Click the File > Options. Step 2: In the Outlook Options dialog box, click the Language in the left bar, and go to the Choose Display and Help Languages section, click to select a language from the Display Language box, and then click the Set as Default button below the box. Step 4: Click the OK button.

How do I change word to UK English?

Changing to UK English

1. Choose Language from the Tools menu, then choose Set Language from the submenu. Word displays the Language dialog box.
2. In the list of languages, select the one you want to use by default.
3. Click on the Default button. You are asked to confirm you action.
4. Close the Language dialog box.

Where is settings in MS Word?

When you open up Microsoft Word, you can find each one of its settings somewhere in the menu above the ribbon. Click on the File menu, then choose Options to bring up the many options necessary to alter Word’s features.

How can I convert English to Hindi in MS Word?

Translate a whole file in Word

1. Select Review > Translate > Translate Document.
2. Select your language to see the translation.
3. Select Translate. A copy of the translated document will be opened in a separate window.
4. Select OK in the original window to close translator.

How can I type in Hindi in Windows 7?

Go to Control Panel • Choose Region and Language • Click Keyboards & Languages tab > • For changing keyboards, click Change Keyboards >General>Add>Hindi Page 4 • Click on Add button and from the list, select Hindi(India) • Changing the keyboard back to English press Alt+Shift again.

How do I change my laptop language from Chinese to English Windows 7?

How to change the Windows 7 Display Language:

1. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region / Change the display language.
2. Switch the display language in the Choose a display language drop down menu.
3. Click OK.

What is the Portuguese for language?

Portuguese

How can I change the language of Windows 10?

Change language settings

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Time & Language.
3. Click on Language.
4. Under the “Preferred languages” section, click the Add a language button. Source: Windows Central.
5. Search for the new language.
6. Select the language package from the result.
7. Click the Next button.
8. Check the Install language pack option.

Why Does Word keep reverting to US English?

The language setting of text is defined separately from whatever version of Word you are running, or the language of the OS X. It’s just another attribute, like Bold, Size or Color. Choose your version of English. Make sure the bottom checkmark is absent.

If you’ve been working in Word for a while, you may have noticed that sometimes a document set to your language reports spelling errors that it shouldn’t (e.g. I set my documents to English (Australia), but parts of the document may be set to English (US), and so the correct Australian spelling of words like ‘organisation’ may be flagged as errors).

Or perhaps when you do a spell check, you get a message saying that areas of your document were set to not check spelling.

What’s going on here?

Well, I don’t know the definitive answer. But I can tell you that there are NUMEROUS places where you can set language settings, both in Word, in Office, and in Windows. If Word finds a conflict in these settings, it does the best it can (no, I don’t know how it makes the decision about which setting to apply).

I’ll try to list as many as I know about — hopefully, these will help you troubleshoot language conflicts or strange spell check reports. (Note: Some of this information is repeated for the various versions of Windows, Office, and Word — I suspect those using Word 2010 and later won’t look at the Word 2003 information, so that’s why I’ve repeated it.)

Windows

• Start > Control Panel > Region and Language Options: Check the settings on all tabs and under all buttons in the dialog box. Make sure the selected location and language match. NOTE: Windows 10 has separate settings for Region and Language — check both.
• Start > Control Panel > Date and Time: Set your time zone. While not directly related to language, your time zone should match your location set in the Regional and Language Options (above), unless, of course, you use this computer when traveling.

Office 2003

• See: Set the default language: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/office-2003-set-the-default-language/

Office 2007

• Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings: Set the Enabled editing languages AND your Primary editing language. (This dialog box can also be accessed from within Word Options.)

Office 2010

• Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences: Choose the editing languages, set one as the default, and tell Windows which language to use for the interface elements such as buttons, tabs, Help, and tooltip text. (This dialog box can also be accessed from within Word’s Options, and from the Review tab — see below.)

Office 2016

• Start > Office 2016 Language Preferences: Choose the editing languages, set one as the default, and tell Windows which language to use for the interface elements such as buttons, tabs, Help, and tooltip text. (This dialog box can also be accessed from within Word’s Options, and from the Review tab — see below.)

Word 2003

• Tools > Language > Set Language: This supposedly sets the language for the entire document, but it can be overridden by settings at a more granular level, such as Styles. You can set the Default language here.
• Tools > Spelling and Grammar: Set the dictionary language here. Also, click Options on this dialog box, then click Settings to see what the grammar checker will check. If you think you’ve added something to the dictionary by mistake, click Options on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, then Custom Dictionaries, then select the Dictionary Language you’re using and click Modify to edit the words stored in your custom dictionary.
• Tools > AutoCorrect Options: While not strictly related to language, if you see weird things happening like ‘ACN’ changing to ‘can’ (when you REALLY want ‘ACN’), it’s likely that there’s an AutoCorrect set up to make that change automatically. Check the list at the bottom of the AutoCorrect tab and delete any you don’t want.
• Styles: There’s an option to set the language for EVERY style! By default, no language is set. But if you think a setting on a style may be the issue, check the style (Format > Styles and Formatting). Right-click on the style and select Modify. On the Modify Style dialog box, click Format > Language to see what language — if any — is set for that particular style. Don’t forget that some styles inherit properties from other styles, so the language may not be set on the style you’re looking at. Also, if Do not check spelling or grammar is set for a particular style, that explains why some sections of your document may be skipped when you run the spell checker.

Word 2007

• Review tab > Proofing group > Set Language: This supposedly sets the language for the entire document, but it can be overridden by settings at a more granular level, such as Styles. You can set the Default language here.
• Office button > Word Options > Popular > Language Settings: Set the Enabled editing languages AND your Primary editing language. (Same dialog box as mentioned under Office 2007 above)
• Office button > Word Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options: While not strictly related to language, if you see weird things happening like ‘ACN’ changing to ‘can’ (when you REALLY want ‘ACN’), it’s likely that there’s an AutoCorrect set up to make that change automatically. Check the list at the bottom of the AutoCorrect tab and delete any you don’t want.
• Office button > Word Options > Proofing > Custom Dictionaries: If you think you’ve added something to the dictionary by mistake, click this button, then select the Dictionary Language you’re using and click Edit word list to edit the words stored in your custom dictionary. You set the Dictionary Language here too.
• Styles: There’s an option to set the language for EVERY style! By default, no language is set. But if you think a setting on a style may be the issue, check the style. Display the Styles pane, right-click on the style and select Modify. On the Modify Style dialog box, click Format > Language to see what language — if any — is set for that particular style. Don’t forget that some styles inherit properties from other styles, so the language may not be set on the style you’re looking at. Also, if Do not check spelling or grammar is set for a particular style, that explains why some sections of your document may be skipped when you run the spell checker.

Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016

• Review tab > Language group > Language > Set Proofing Language: This supposedly sets the language for the entire document, but it can be overridden by settings at a more granular level, such as Styles. You can set the Default language here.
• File > Options > Language: (Same dialog box as mentioned under Office 2010 above; also accessible via Review tab > Language group > Language > Language Preferences. )
• File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options: While not strictly related to language, if you see weird things happening like ‘ACN’ changing to ‘can’ (when you REALLY want ‘ACN’), it’s likely that there’s an AutoCorrect set up to make that change automatically. Check the list at the bottom of the AutoCorrect tab and delete any you don’t want.
• File > Options > Proofing > Custom Dictionaries: If you think you’ve added something to the dictionary by mistake, click this button, then select the Dictionary Language you’re using and click Edit word list to edit the words stored in your custom dictionary. You set the Dictionary Language here too.
• Styles: There’s an option to set the language for EVERY style! By default, no language is set. But if you think a setting on a style may be the issue, check the style. Display the Styles pane, right-click on the style and select Modify. On the Modify Style dialog box, click Format > Language to see what language — if any — is set for that particular style. Don’t forget that some styles inherit properties from other styles, so the language may not be set on the style you’re looking at. Also, if Do not check spelling or grammar is set for a particular style, that explains why some sections of your document may be skipped when you run the spell checker. (Update September 2018: I now have a macro to set the language for ALL styles at once: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/word-macro-to-set-the-language-for-all-styles/)

See also:

• PowerPoint 2007: Set the language for all text: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/powerpoint-2007-set-language-for-all-text/
• http://wordribbon.tips.net/Pages/T008715_Foreign_Language_Changes_while_Typing.html
• http://wordribbon.tips.net/Pages/T005938_Specifying_a_Language_for_Text.html
• http://wordribbon.tips.net/Pages/T008135_Ensuring_that_Spell_Checking_is_Enabled_in_All_Styles.html
• http://wordribbon.tips.net/Pages/T006278_Getting_SpellCheck_to_Work.html
• http://wordribbon.tips.net/Pages/T006026_What_to_Do_if_Spell_Check_Doesnt_Catch_Misspelled_Words.html

[Links last checked October 2017; updated to include information for Word 2010-2016, Windows 7 and Windows 10 (October 2017)]

Yes, obviously. Just select the text and press the language button in the status bar

If your document has been written in multiple languages then things are trickier.

• If different keyboard layouts were used for typing them, but the layout doesn’t match the language name then you may use VBA to fix that.
• If you’ve typed them with the same layout (like English and French with the French layout) then sometimes Word is able to guess the language. It does have a language detection feature as you can see in the Language dialog above, but it can only detect languages in the list you specify. Notice the part highlighted by me:

Detect language automatically

In 2010, 2013, and 2016 versions of Word and Outlook

• Open a new document or email message.
• On the Review tab, in the Language group, click Language.
• Click Set Proofing Language.
• In the Language dialog box, select the Detect language automatically check box.
• Review the languages shown above the double line in the Mark selected text as list. Office can detect only those languages listed above the double line. If the languages that you use are not shown above the double line, you must enable the editing language (turn on the language-specific options) so that Office can automatically detect them.

Turn on automatic language detection

However the «Detect language automatically» feature often fails to work when you switch language during typing, or when you paste text in another language. So unfortunately you’ll still have to use some VBA to change the language. You can call some external service or use the built-in language detection feature, but with finer tuning to make the result more desireable

See also

• Specifying a Language for Text
• Check spelling and grammar in a different language
• Change spelling check language for a Document in Microsoft Word 2010